Continuous Improvement Series
The Rockford Area Economic Development Council leads a coalition of resource providers in the Rockford Area who have been working together to develop a program to help manufacturers with fewer than 75 employees to implement cost saving lean practices in their operations.
The Continuous Improvement Series is offered by the Rockford Area Economic Development Council and its partners: IMEC, Rock Valley College, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, NIU, and the Abilities Center.
The program - called the Continuous Improvement Series - draws upon IMEC’s Lean Certificate services as the principal training component. Other elements include the Lean Simulation (IMEC), Team Training/Lean Culture (Rock Valley College) and on-site lean mentoring (IMEC and/or team members).
Call Mark Podemski now, 815 987 8118 x124, for more information and upcoming sessions in the Continuous Improvement Series.
CI Series Brochure Executive Series Flier
What is the Continuous Improvement Series?
Meeting today’s manufacturing challenges demands a lean enterprise streamlining product design and manufacturing by applying lean manufacturing principles, concepts and techniques. The primary focus of this effort is the continuous elimination of waste in the company’s business processes. Implementing Lean practices involves changing a work area or a business process to maximize efficiency, improve quality and safety, eliminate unnecessary motion and inventory, and save time and resources.
The eight courses within the series include:
- Lean Manufacturing Overview with Simulation
- Value Stream Mapping
- 5S / Workplace Organization
- Quick Changeover
- Cellular / Flow Manufacturing
- Pull / Kanban Systems
- Total Productive Maintenance
- Lean Culture/Building and Sustaining
Completing the eight courses in the Continuous Improvement Series will provide participants the knowledge, practical examples, tools and applications they need to start transforming their company into a Lean enterprise.
What can Continuous Improvement do for my bottom line?
Implementing continuous improvement efforts can transform a company. Trained practitioners help their companies:
- reduce waste
- shorten lead time
- improve productivity
- improve quality
- reduce work-in-process
- raw material and finished goods inventory
- increase profits
- build employee consensus for improvement initiatives
But don’t take our word for it. Read more about how Continuous Improvement has helped one of the 42 Rockford area businesses that have completed the Continuous Improvement Series.
Who else has completed the Continuous Improvement Series?
View the list of companies that have completed the entire CI Series.
To date, 42 area companies have completed the Continuous Improvement Series. Below are the results of a survey measuring participant satisfaction.
 |
 |
New! Lean Executive Series. CLICK HERE for information.