PCB MENU
PCB MENU

Lean Forum

Home / Business Support / Lean Forum

Lean Forum

KZN LEAN CONFERENCE – 28 – 30 OCTOBER 2020

The 2020 conference took place virtually which enabled an international speaker line up like never before. With businesses facing major disruption from the global pandemic, the conference focused on the need for a new strategy and the need to digitize.

Keynote speakers were Henrik von Scheel from Germany and Pascal Dennis from Canada.

Originator of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and European Digital Revolution Mastermind, Henrik shared practical advice about putting Industry 4.0 in practice, smart automation and making 4.0 a reality in your organisation.

Award-winning author and world-renowned Strategy Execution Leader, Pascal Dennis facilitated a full day, interactive case-study based workshop which focused on Digital Strategy – Developing your Digital Compass.

Ed Koch Senior Executive based in the UK with global expertise in supply chain transformation presented on managing disrupted supply chains. He shared examples of moving Daily Management Processes Online and using Digital Solutions as the new normal.

Maurice Kuhn – TLC Master Black Belt, facilitated a workshop on the importance of Lean thinking in a digital transformation. This practical online simulation and interactive session was designed to see if participants can hit the target and meet changing requirements.

Additional presentations included:
• Pieter du Plessis – CEO Atlantis Foundries – SA case study
• Mosidi Seretlo – Marketing strategist: Adjusting your marketing strategy in a post-covid world
• Vodacom – digital products for efficiency
• FNB – South Africa post-covid economic outlook
The first virtual KZN Lean conference was a great success with delegates able to learn and engage online safely from the comfort of their work desk or home.
Hosted by PMCB and Sponsored by Vodacom Business, Trade and Investment KZN, SLG and Training Leadership Consulting

PCB LEAN FORUM IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TRAINING LEADERSHIP CONSULTING

ABOUT TLC:
Training Leadership Consulting (TLC) is an International Training and Consulting company, focused on Operational Excellence, Leadership Development and Business Improvement. A recipient of the PMCB Nedbank small business of the year award 2017, TLC support their local business community and enterprises around South Africa to improve productivity and reduce the cost of doing business in this country. They assist their clients to define their company purpose, improve their performance, and increase their enterprise value.

PREVIOUS LEAN FORUM TOPICS INCLUDE:

Speaker: Philiswa Mnguni
Date:   2 March 2021
Topic: How Lean helps organisations to achieve a competitive advantage and improve productivity 

Co-ordinators of our Lean Forum Training Leadership Consulting (TLC) invited guest speaker, Philiswa Mnguni, a Lean expert and Branch Manager for Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), Witbank to speak at our virtual Lean forum this week. Philiswa shared insights with how Lean helps organisations to achieve a competitive advantage and improve productivity. He included practical examples of Lean implementations that he has managed in multiple industries and illustrated how these operational excellence tools help reduce costs and meet customer demand which are crucial to survive in a global market.

If you missed the forum click here for a link to the recording.

   

Speaker: Rex Van Schalkwyk
Date:   10 March 2020
Topic: Lean Agile

The Lean Forum on the 10 March 2020 went innovative, in more ways than one. For the first time, the Forum was run as a webinar, with guest speaker Rex van Schalkwyk presenting live to the Forum attendees from his home office in Gauteng. The topic was also one relatively new in South Africa – the concept of Lean-Agile. Having emerged from a revolutionary method to tackle software development, the concept is growing in popularity and is now equally common in non-IT industries. The approach, which shares many tenets with Lean as a philosophy and a methodology, challenges conventional approaches to implementing innovation and driving new product development in particular. It inspires teams to achieve unprecedented improvements in product development time and end-user satisfaction levels. Rex, a certified practitioner in the SAFe Agile methodology, is passionate about the topic. “You can’t just DO Agile”, says Rex, “you need to BE Agile!” Despite load shedding and another of PMB’s famous electrical storms, Rex was able to present and field questions from the group. Companies interested to know more and to attend a 2-day Agile workshop should contact info@tlcglobal.co.za.

Speaker: Sarah Giles
Date: 20 August 2019
Topic: Customer Experience Management

Today’s customer is changing. Is your business adapting in our highly competitive business world? Sarah Giles, TLC’s Business Development and Client Relationship Manager shared key insights at the recent Lean Forum on how Customer Experience Management will improve business results. Every business improvement journey starts with a deep understanding of your customer requirements. She shared a valuable tool to track every interaction with a customer called Customer Journey Mapping. “It’s about putting your customer shoes on and walking the journey they experience. This process will help you identify your customers’ emotions and discover moments of magic and moments of pain in your current business processes,” she said. Design a frictionless experience for your customers by looking at your business from their perspective. Today, profit=Customer Experience.

Speaker: Tanya Hulse, TLC
Date: 14 May 2019 
Topic: Do you apply Visual Management in your workplace?

Does it help your teams to solve problems and improve performance? Or are you battling to get traction? In yesterday’s packed Lean Forum at the PMCB, TLC’s MD Tanya Hulse facilitated an interactive discussion on Visual Management, including the purpose, principles and key hurdles to success. People shared their experiences, and left with new insights to take back to their teams.

Speaker: Grant Davis, Business Improvement Manager TLC
Date: 19 February 2019 
Topic: Process management in the future: redundant or essential?

Process management in the future: redundant or essential? This was the topic of the Pietermaritzburg & Midlands Chamber of Business Lean Forum on 19th February. Grant from TLC left the Lean forum attendees thinking about the future and how important it is to get business processes in order before the disruption of new technology takes over. Through a series of questions and discussions Grant facilitated a debate between improving and documenting existing processes and the disruption of new technology. Grant concluded that process management will still be essential in the exponential age of technology as a process should only be automated once documented and standardized. Automating a process that is not streamlined or documented could create costly complications and inefficiencies for a business.

Speaker: Grant Davis, Business Improvement Manager TLC
Date: 13 November 2018
Topic: The Squares game – systems thinking

Training Leadership Consulting Lean expert, Grant Davis facilitated a fun simulation called The Squares Game at the November Lean forum. This game simulates an experience of being in a system and is designed to teach business challenges and highlights the impact of a broken system on productivity and the inability to meet customer requirements. A simple definition of a system is a grouping or integration of different functions or parts working together to achieve a common purpose. Each person is given odd shapes to make a square. There is no talking allowed and strict rules to follow which teaches themes of co-operation and the need for effective communication. Grant said this game asks the following questions “ Do we know what our customers really want? Are we all aligned to the same purpose? Do we have the right people with the right skills and how are we measuring performance? Are our processes simple and aligned to our customer needs and do we take accountability?”

Speaker: Brian Moores-Pitt (Owner of MegaMasters training and development) and Matthew Guilhermino (Lean Start-up mentor and facilitator at SocioNext)
Date: 12 June 2018
Topic: Introduction to the Lean start-up business model – Moving Entrepreneur Development from Analog to Digital

There is great uncertainty and risk when starting up a business and in the South African context, there is a severe shortage of skills needed to mitigate these risks. Many start-ups fall into a false sense of security through traditional business planning methodologies, which are suitable for businesses that have already found their product and market fit. This approach to fund and execute a plan, which is based on assumptions and has not been validated, leads to an incredibly high failure rate of early stage businesses.

Brian Pitt-Moore of MegaMasters Training and Development shared his insights with the business model canvas and Lean start-up approach. He and Matthew Guilhermino shared relevant examples to provide insight into this valuable approach for entrepreneurs and new business ventures.

Speaker: Tanya Hulse (Managing Director, TLC)
Date: 13 March 2018
Topic: Recognise how Lean Thinking can make your Business more resilient in volatile and uncertain times

Managing a business can be a roller-coaster ride in these uncertain times. You are dealing with the impact of political changes, economic uncertainties, exchange rate fluctuations and changes in legal requirements. It’s hard for you as a business leader to keep track and focus on delivering value to your customers. Not only can Lean thinking help you in more stable times, it is particularly valuable in times like these. It keeps you closely connected to your customers, empowers your people which builds individual and team resilience, and helps your business have higher margins as a buffer in these tough times. Ultimately this ensures your entire business is more responsive to the changes all around you.

Download presentation.

Speaker: Jayshree Naicker (Qualified Pharmacist and Lean Six Sigma Master Consultant)
Date: 7 November 2017
Topic: Understand how Lean Thinking can transform our Healthcare industry – Learning from Success Stories

Lean principles can successfully be applied in the Healthcare environment to improve both hospital management and the patient experience. A culture of problem solving needs to be embedded into our healthcare delivery approach.

Jayshree Naicker shared key learnings from success stories of how Lean thinking can transform our healthcare industry.

Speaker: Martin Ost (Lean Consultant and trainer at TLC)
Date: 22 August 2017
Topic: An introduction to Lean thinking

Lean is an operational excellence strategy, a way of thinking and a toolset. Many see Lean as applying only to the manufacturing industry, but this is certainly not the case as Lean is about the removal of waste from processes and every business is process-oriented. This way of thinking and toolset will help you lower the cost of doing business by reducing waste and defects in your processes. Learn how to transform your business, empower your team and create a culture of respect.

• Why Lean?
• History of Lean
• The evolution of Lean – Lean in different industries
• Lean Leadership – Balance of purpose and people
• Methodology decision tree

Speaker: Grant Davis (Business Improvement Manager at TLC)
Date: 16 May 2017
Topic: 5S a gateway to Lean

This forum incorporated an interactive activity followed by a practical example that includes tips on how to accelerate your Lean transformation using 5S.

View this video to learn more about 5S click here.

Download presentation.

Allan Conolly shares his experience with 5S at Somta tools.

Speaker: Martin Ost (Lean consultant at TLC)
Date: 7 March 2017
Topic: Learn how to create a process map

Process mapping is a workflow diagram that enables you to analyse ‘as-is’ business processes and procedures. It helps you to identify and document processes, recognise inefficiencies and performance gaps so you can create the ‘to-be’ streamlined future state. This is a Lean tool used to standardise and stabilise business processes which can be measured and managed for productivity improvement.

1. Identify process steps, decisions and documents required in your process
2. Determine process users and assign process steps in swim lanes
3. Conduct a value/non-value add analysis (what is your customer willing to pay for?)

Download presentation.

BOOKS

General

Workbooks

Business novels

ARTICLES

Information on books provided by Conroy Quick.