.     Best Practices in Manufacturing Cost Reduction Dear Manager, Global competition is requiring manufacturers to aggressively pursue cost reduction strategies. Oftentimes, the solution is outsourcing operations overseas to gain labor cost advantages. But there are hidden costs to consider that often tip the equation in favor of domestic production. In addition, there are a host of proven cost reduction strategies that have not been fully explored and properly implemented in American industry. Leading manufacturers have been able to compete globally by slashing unit costs by a third, quality defects by two-thirds and lead times by 90% in just three years. We’ve developed this three-day workshop to provide a comprehensive outline of Best Practices in Manufacturing Cost Reduction that have enabled U.S. manufacturers to compete at world-class levels, protect jobs and strengthen America’s manufacturing base. This powerful workshop will not only discuss a wide range of cost reduction tools and techniques, but how to implement them successfully. Whether your facility is large or small, batch or continuous process, unionized or not, you’ll come away with new insights and an Action Plan for creating a globally-competitive facility. To schedule this training session at your facility, call us at (916) 797-2263. Best wishes in your pursuit of World-Class Manufacturing! Don Penkala President/Seminar Leader   Seminar Outline   Day One 1. Building a Competitive Advantage The case for domestic production Performance results from world-class facilities KPI success measures Exercise: Self-Assessment of your plant operations 2. Best Practices in Seamless Flow Cut costs with seamless operations Reduce costs with seamlesss operations The key metric for measuring a plant’s competitiveness Focus factories and cellular manufacturing Value stream mapping Value-added analysis Exercise: Value Stream Mapping - Participants will map out a value stream in their own operations and identify opportunities to eliminate waste 3. Best Practices in Equipment reliability & Capacity Utilization Measure your plant’s true utilization OEE and the key manufacturing losses Best practices in Maintenance Management Benchmark your plant: World-class Maintenance metrics A practical, proven approach to TPM Exercise: Analyze equipment utilization and maintenance effectiveness at your facility Day Two 4. Best Practices in Quality Improvement Build-in quality at the operating level Best practices in 5S implementation Reduce costs through operational consistency Eliminate product defects through Error-proofing and quality problem-solving Implement Six Sigma principles at the plant level Exercise: Assess quality improvement methodologies and employee accountability for quality at your plant 5. Best Practices in Plant Leadership & Communications Drive performance with a world-class communication strategy Develop “Value-Added Leadership” on the shop floor Cut costs by improving indirect labor productivity Create a “visual factory” Exercise - Evaluate leadership effectiveness at your plant 6. Best Practices in Work Force Management Build employee commitment to business goals Increase labor productivity and flexibility Work force scheduling stragies that reduce cost Exercise - Participants will develop a detailed Action Plan for developing a capable, committed work force within 12 months while determining how to measure success Day Three 7. Best Practices in Supply Chain Management Procurement strategies that minimize operating costs Pros and cons of Reverse (online) Auctions How customer-supplier relationships foster cost reduction 8. Best Practices in Sustaining Continuous Improvement Why over 90% of CI efforts fail to deliver expected results Proven step-by step plan for deploying goals plant-wide Improve performance of suggestion systems Utilize kaizen events to drive performance and involve associates Successfully implement & sustain Incentive & Pay-for Performance plans Exercise - Evaluate the Continuous Improvement process in your plant and identify improvement opportunites 9. Making It Happen Case studies in successful Manufacturing Cost Reduction Group discussion Work force scheduling stragies that reduce cost Action Plan Development: Participants will create and present a step-by-step Action Plan to qchieve their specific businsess objectives based on learnings at the conference. All delegates will have the opportunity to learn where other companies are focusing their improvement efforts and how they will measure success. Who Should Attend? Executives, plant/operations managers, supervisors and professionals from HR, Quality, Maintenance, Engineering, Logistics and Purchasing will receive excellent value. Tuition Tuition includes the seminar manual (approx. 200 pages), reference materials, a free E-zine, a free Benchmarking Analysis and a free follow-up consultation following the event. The session can be scheduled in either two or three-day formats. Please call for in-house workshop rates. Have a Large Team to Train? Bring Best Practices in Manufacturing Cost Reduction directly to your facility, custom-tailored for your specific needs. For more info., click here or call us at (916) 797-2263. .