Learning and the Digital Age

The McKinsey Quarterly discusses what digital means for the next generation of corporate academies.

This article, Learning at the Speed of Business, provides insights into the corporate academy of the future and references its global research into capability building that aimed to gain a more in-depth understanding of their present state and probable trajectory.

Click here to read the article.

ELEC Conference Early Bird Rate

Early Bird rates are now available for this year’s European Lean Educator Conference in September hosted by the University of Buckingham.

Conference fees have been pitched at very competitive rates and include a special discount for delegates from LCS accredited organisations – amounting to around a sizeable 50% off. There is also an EARLY BIRD rate if registration is made by the end of May. This means you could enjoy two days of cutting edge thinking for just £175 or €220 a day – and that includes an evening BBQ! Visit the conference registration page to book your place.

Prof John Bicheno of BLEU and the lead event organiser, has announced that there are seven keynotes and 32 papers now accepted, so it promises to be an excellent forum to learn about the latest innovations and trends in lean thinking, education and training, as well as offering great networking opportunities. Several LCS accredited organisations will be delivering workshops and presentations and the LCS will also be contributing.

Visit the conference website for details, where specific information on the various sessions is being added.

Badge of Achievement

The LCS is introducing a set of enamel award pin badges for each of the several levels, plus a general purpose logo pin badge. These complement the digital versions recently introduced and provide a more tangible token of achievement.

The badges are being produced to a high quality specification by W O Lewis (Badges) Ltd., a leading producer in this field that has been manufacturing in Birmingham since 1832. There will be three colour versions for each of the three LCS level groups (1, 2 and 3) and the award badge is edged in silver, with the logo badge in gold.

Badges will initially be available via accredited organisations, that will be supplying them those they train and will be available to purchase directly from the LCS website in the near future.

Several studies have highlighted the psychological power of badges in areas such as progress/achievement, reputation, status/affirmation and group identification and it is believed that they can play a positive supporting role in recognising and rewarding those who engage in the CI process.

CI Training Research Infographic

An LCS infographic that presents some of the key findings of LCS research into managers’ attitudes to continuous improvement training in the workplace.

Further information of the research and its results can be found here.

Continuing Professional Development in CI

The LCS will be delivering a workshop on Continuing Professional Development in continuous improvement at the Lean Management Journal OpEx Conference (11th and 12th May, London).

This workshop will explore the challenges in sustaining transformations and in particular ensuring that practitioners have the right knowledge, that it is kept up to date, that they reflect that it is being used effectively and that they are sharing their learning and experience in order to continuously improve their organisation.

The workshop will propose how Continuing Professional Development (CPD) might help to address these challenges and will present a CPD framework suitable a continuous improvement environment.

The audience will be invited to critique the proposal, with discussion and feedback that will help inform the debate about CPD’s future design and role.

Facilitators: John Kiff and Simon Elias

The LMJ OpEx Conference 2016

Aimed at a range of industries and company sizes the 2016 conference will demonstrate how operational excellence can lead to business growth and return on investment.

Bringing together the most knowledgeable leaders in lean practice, from a variety of companies including McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Tata Steel, HSBC, Philips, Jaguar Land Rover, National Grid, Fujifilm, it is a great opportunity to take away insight into creating value streams that not only meet customer demand but allow all employees to see the flow in action.

Furthermore, the event will hold The LMJ’s award programme –  The Lean Top 25 – recognising practitioners who are demonstrating excellence in continuous improvement.

Report: From PEX to OpEx. The Next Generation

This report from the PEX Network team analysed the results of a state of the industry survey conducted in the summer of 2015, with 870 industry respondents across the globe taking part and giving insights and trends on the current state of their Operational Excellence programmes. This report focuses on the European respondents.

Key insights include:

• How EON are implementing OE as a way to identify and solve problems
• Key steps to moving from a manufacturing based Six-Sigma programme to a enterprise-wide Lean-Six Sigma programme
• How Euroports benchmark and govern each country operation depending on their specific strategic objection
• Why allowing for flexibility in idea creation has improved employee performance, accountability and commitment at Coca Cola

Click here to download a copy of the report.