PARTNERS

EMS Consulting Group
EMS Consulting Group is a management consulting firm designed to create value for manufacturers and product developers.  Our clients include organizations from the industrial and consumer products, defense/aerospace, and medical device sectors.  Providing training and hands-on consulting services in the areas of lean manufacturing, six sigma, and world class manufacturing and design; we can help you achieve lower costs, improved productivity, and improved time-to-market.

HPM Consortium
A non-profit organization that assists members in becoming world-class competitors.

Industry Canada
Industry Canada maintains an evergreen web site called, "Canadian Resource Guide to High Performance Manufacturing".  Here you will find the tools, people and resources to improve manufacturing performance.  The site currently provides links to over 40 Canadian companies offering consulting services in the lean and six sigma field, over 16 lean manufacturing consortiums with over 800 members sharing their lean experiences, eight free Canadian e-newsletters on these topics, three organizations in Canada coordinating plant tours in Canada to see lean, six sigma, continuous improvement, etc. and a wealth of international links on this subject.

Lean Manufacturing
Most training materials today are PowerPoint presentations... a simple slide show. Bill Gaw's e-tutorials on the other hand include powerful, PowerPoint graphics, "plus" annotated note pages with explanations, and "lessons learned" by a "been there, done that" professional. A value-added, e-learning experience on "how to" design, implement and deploy change initiatives for personal and company success.

Productivity Inc.
Behind our calm professionalism is a passion for our work. When it comes to Lean, we do more than preach its virtues, we live the concept, use the tools, and make it work every day in hundreds of organizations. Done correctly, Lean uses proven methods that integrate your strategy, structure and capabilities into an efficient and effective organizational whole. The results are dramatic… and lasting.

Productivity Press
Founded over twenty years ago, Productivity Press is the premier source of business books covering lean methodologies based on the Toyota Production System. Our books cover quality/six sigma, total productive maintenance (TPM), cellular manufacturing, product development, supply chain management, lean administration, and value stream management.

Strategos
For more than 20 years, Quarterman Lee has helped clients understand and improve their business and manufacturing operations. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, Strategos provides exceptional training, worldwide.

Superfactory 
Provides resources, communities, and services supporting global manufacturing excellence.

TBM Consulting Group
After more than a decade of serving clients, TBM today is proud to be a global business leader in manufacturing and business process improvement. Using time-based management, TBM help clients remove obstacles to their business potential – and achieve new competitive advantages and consistent sales and earnings growth. “How many consultants unconditionally guarantee their work”.

OTHER LINKS

Association for Manufacturing Excellence
A not-for-profit organization founded in 1985 whose members want to improve the competitiveness of their organizations. Publishers of Target magazine and organizers of a variety of conferences and educational events.

Baldridge National Quality Program
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was signed into law on August 20, 1987. The Award Program, responsive to the purposes of Public Law 100-107, led to the creation of a new public-private partnership. Principal support for the program comes from the Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, established in 1988. 
 The Award is named after Malcolm Baldrige, who served as Secretary of Commerce from 1981 until his tragic death in a rodeo accident in 1987. His managerial excellence contributed to long-term improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of government.

Business Industrial Network
Provides online solution database, engineering books, e-books and more.

Corporate Kinetics
Corporate Kinetics' unique approach called F.I.T., Focused-Integrated-Tactical, combines lean tools with a process that transforms culture and leadership practices to create an organization that supports responsive decision-making, flexibility and innovation. The F.I.T. program benchmarks, integrates and addresses the issue related to people, business practices and technology and facilitates the improvement process to be ingrained in the core business strategy.

Lean Learning Center
The Lean Learning Center, located in Novi, Michigan, is committed to developing leaders and learners for lean transformation and delivering the resources and curriculum to help you learn and gain valuable new skills. The Center provides the most advanced, comprehensive and effective lean curriculum available anywhere, combined with a highly-effective and unique learning environment to provide for you an experience that is as close to learning inside Toyota as you can find.

Lean Manufacturing Specialist
Lean Manufacturing Specialist.com is dedicated to promoting lean 
manufacturing concepts that achieve results. Contrary to popular belief, there is no “cookie cutter” approach to lean implementation. A large number of variables make selecting the right tool one of the most challenging parts in going lean. Knowing what tools to apply and when is half the battle.

Levinson Productivity Systems
Levinson Productivity Systems offers training and consulting services in lean manufacturing. Levinson Productivity also offers guidance in organizational behavior/change management or the “soft sciences”. William A. Levinson has authored several outstanding books on leadership and manufacturing.

Manufacturing & Technology News
Provides a quick update of today's most important manufacturing and business stories. The site is also updated twice per month with more in-depth analysis of the news that is available only to subscribers.

Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing
The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing was established in 1988 in honor of Shigeo Shingo. The Prize promotes world-class manufacturing and recognizes companies that achieve superior customer satisfaction and business results.

Society of Manufacturing Engineers
The SME is a non-profit organization of technical professionals involved in manufacturing. Through its programs, publications, expositions, and professional development resources, SME promotes an increased awareness of manufacturing engineering and helps keep manufacturing professionals up to date on leading trends and technologies

The Northwest Lean Manufacturing Network
The Northwest Lean Manufacturing Network is a professional organization that provides information and training to companies implementing lean and continuous improvement programs. Membership is FREE, and there is a wealth of information available to those that want to learn more about becoming lean.

The Visual Workplace
Working with companies to implement the technologies of a visual workplace.

ThroughPut Solutions (TPS)
Increasing throughput and profits by eliminating waste and managing constraints.

UK Center for Manufacturing 
The UK (University of Kentucky) Center for manufacturing offers a comprehensive program of assistance to companies in all phases of implementing lean manufacturing. Program elements include consultation, workshops, education and training courses, an in-plant workshops designed so that follow-up activities may be conducted by company facilitators.

Vital Enterprises
Vital Enterprises develops world-class performers - that is, people who create desired results with minimal resources and who empower others with their knowledge, skills, and character so that they may do the same. Teams of such dynamic people power high-performing companies, companies that elevate their customers' success, transform markets, and redefine their industries in ways that enhance all stakeholders. Building such teams is our goal. Our standard is to provide benefits that exceed their costs and to make sure that these benefits serve both our immediate clients and the people they serve.