A new Vice President has just been transferred from marketing to take over manufacturing, His undergraduate degree was in engineering in addition to an MBA.
He has not worked in engineering or operations for many years. Your three-person Lean transformation team now reports to him.
You and your team meet with him in the afternoon of his first day on the job. He asks you to explain this "Lean thing".
He asks you and your team to specifically help him understand the visual management system that is in place. In short, he does not understand what it all means.
In this assignment you are to design a PowerPoint presentation that will help him understand and answer the following questions:
1. Why is making everything visible so essential to the workplace?
2. Why is visual management so important to a Lean transformation?
3. What is a Gemba Walk? Why do we do this? What do we gain from it? Why should I participate?
4. If we are developing self-directed teams and utilizing them throughout the organization - What role(s) do our front line, middle, and senior leaders play?
Your PowerPoint presentation should be at least 5 pages (excluding the cover page). You are to provide clear and thoughtful answers to each question and offer a convincing rationale for each of your answers.