TXM was an active participant in the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) conference in Melbourne. The key theme of the the conference was how to Adapt, Survive and Thrive to the business environment in 2013. This is an area where TXM has broad expertise from the dozens of large and small manufacturers we have assisted to increase competitiveness over the past 8 years.
Keynote Speakers at the conference included international lean author and speaker, Pascal Dennis, whose book, “Getting the Right Thing Done” is the TXM team’s favourite book on A3 planning and lean policy deployment (Hoshin Kanri). Dr Goran Roos also provided a fantastic talk about the actions that European companies have taken to maintain global competitiveness while operating in high cost economies such as Sweden and Switzerland.
TXM Managing Director, Tim McLean, provided a practical presentation on how to apply lean in a customized manufacturing environment. Over the past decade much mass production has relocated to low cost economies, however increasing customer demands has meant a flourishing of businesses providing products individually customized to client needs. The challenge is to provide a customized product at a lead time, price and quality that matches the mass produced alternatives. Tim provided practical tips and tools on how to achieve this.
Backing up the effectiveness of the TXM approach was a presentation from Jeff Lawrence, the Managing Director of Sykes Racing explaining their journey from uncompetitive “static build” production to a world class lean flow production facility that offering customized product in short lead times and successfully pushing back the tide of import competition.
