New at Superfactory - May 2008

Each month new articles, book reviews, and other content are added to the Superfactory website. The new content is featured in the free monthly e-newsletter which goes out to 50,000 subscribers worldwide, and we will also post a monthly heads-up on this blog.

New content in May includes:

The featured article is from Brian Maskell and the BMA team and is titled Lean Problem Solving and Continuous Improvement of Accounting Processes.  The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the entire article here.

One key motivation for making the transition away from traditional cost accounting is to enable the accountants to support the lean manufacturing culture by providing information that is relevant and actionable so that lean continuous improvement is empowered at every level of the organization.

      

Lean accounting seeks to apply lean to the company’s accounting processes; and to create accounting, control, and measurement systems that support lean. In this article, we will address the first of these themes and will tackle questions like: “How do we make our accounting processes truly flow?” Or, “How do we eliminate waste from the accounting processes?” And “How do we make our accounting processes self-improving?”

The Featured Blog Post is our recent piece titled Costco Versus the Lean Corner Store. The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the entire post here.

I believe there could still be hope for the lean pantry.  Instead of making once monstrous trip to the local Costco, how about looking for alternatives?  Not the overproduction of leftovers or multiple runs to the large big box store.  Although large stores are becoming more prevalent, much of the rest of the world enjoys a luxury we don't have in North America: the tiny local store on the corner of seemingly every block. Just the staples... a short distance away in just the quantities needed.  Go and get just what you need for the day.  For some reason those stores just never took off in modern America.  So much for the lean pantry.

The featured book this month is Value Acceleration by Mitchell Gooze.  The following is a brief summary, click here for more information.

Value Acceleration teaches top level executives how to leverage 20th century accomplishments into 21st century competitive advantage. The book reveals the ideas that now underline competitive advantage, and how to use them to your advantage. This book discusses three central ideas: The crucial need for process management in marketing; The first comprehensive, over-arching, and hierarchical process model of the entire marketing function; Specific and time-proven principles by which your marketing process is best managed for effectiveness and efficiency.

We continually update the other major sections of the website, including:

• Events Calendar: a listing of lean excellence seminars, workshops, training, and conferences worldwide
• Topic Information: Summaries and resources on over 40 enterprise excellence topics.
• History of Excellence: A growing timeline of notable events that helped shape current-day enterprise excellence
• Online E-Learning Center: Fourteen interactive online presentations on the core concepts of lean manufacturing.
• PowerPoint Presentations: Over 50 downloadable PowerPoint presentations on lean manufacturing, quality, enterprise, and safety concepts.
• Factory Toolbox: Almost 300 downloadable forms, procedure templates, assessments, and tools to help you not reinvent the wheel.
• Tools and Assessments: Downloadable assessment tools.
• Virtual Factory Tours: Web and streaming video tours of over 100 factories.

The Superfactory 20 list of companies with strong lean manufacturing programs was released, and the   stock performance of each of those companies is being tracked individually and as a group versus the S&P500.  Last year these companies outperformed the S&P500 by 20%... this year it isn't quite as hot.  Yet.  Check out the list and performance, updated hourly.

For all you LinkedIn junkies, we have created a LinkedIn group for Superfactory.  Join the group to  network with other Superfactory enthusiasts and to show our logo on your profile.  If you haven't explored LinkedIn, check it out to see why over 17 million professionals use it for networking.

We are always looking for new articles and other content.  Contact us via the Superfactory website if you would like to contribute to our knowledge base.