Find a Lean Trainer

If you want to conduct lean manufacturing training to improve the effectiveness of your business then you need to find a lean trainer, this page will give you tips and advice as to how you can find the best trainer for your business.

This hub will look at the following areas;

Why do you need a lean trainer

Where can you find a lean trainer

Hiring a lean trainer

Before I describe how to find a lean trainer, I should remind you as to what lean is, lean is a far reaching business improvement philosophy as well as a set of well proven tools that go back many years. The following hubs will give you more background information should you need it;

What is lean manufacturing

History of lean manufacturing

Benefits of lean manufacturing

Just In Time Manufacturing

5S / 5C

Lean manufacturing is a very broad subject, few people in your organization will have a good understanding of what is required so they will need to be educated, and even those that have some knowledge will benefit from training to remind them if they have not been implementing lean on a regular basis. The hub lean manufacturing training will give you some ideas of training that is available for your company.

Without lean training your people will not be able to implement the ideas and tools of lean, you cannot do what you do not know! A good lean trainer will be able to guide your people in how to implement the lean tools whilst looking toward the overall philosophy of lean.

The benefits of lean manufacturing are significant and if you implement lean manufacturing in a sustainable manner it can make the difference between your company being able to survive and being able to flourish! Increasing profit through waste reduction is a very real achievement when you implement lean.

Finding a good lean trainer can be quite difficult, especially if you have budget restraints as many companies have. Firstly you need to understand the type of training you will be doing, overview type training can be adequately performed in a venue remote from your facility, however in my opinion if you are going to have people trained in specific tools such as SMED (single minute exchange of die) or 5S then the training should be performed in house where it can be implemented under the guidance of the trainer.

There are a number of places to source your trainers;

A general search for “lean training” or “trainers” will tend to return the larger national or even international training providers, adding your general location will help to return more local providers assuming that there location is included somewhere in their website.

Many businesses do not consider how the internet search engines work when they set up their business websites, how many websites for a company have you seen where the title of the website is the name of the business or business owner and they do not even mention the product or service that they provide! This makes it almost impossible to find then on line unless you know the business name! The solution for this is to search for online business directories, hopefully the company will have managed to register their link there, if not then they have a website that is virtually impossible to find for their potential customers!

Also search for phrases such as “lean training success story” and similar but add the region in which you add to the search query and you may find articles regarding lean training within your region giving more pointers towards potential trainers.

Look in business directories and other publications. Many industries have trade magazines that are often delivered free of charge (and uninvited) which have many advertisements for trainers and other services.

There are also often regional business magazines run by chambers of commerce and other bodies as well as independent magazines in which again you may find a rich source of contacts.

Many of these publications can also be found online as well as the versions that will be delivered to you, often you will be able to find relevant case studies and the like also.

Many governments offer free business support at a local level through agencies such as the business links and the manufacturing advisory service in the UK. These agencies can point you in the direction of many potential service providers, if not actually provide some of these services themselves, often at a lower rate than a commercial provider. Another point worth considering is that many of these agencies can also point you in the right direction for funding that may cover training.

Banks are also a good source of information, your local business banker may have a wealth of contacts that they can put you in touch with, after all it is in their best intrest that your business is successful.

Business support organizations and your local banks are often overlooked as a tool for business improvement, you should check regularly with theses bodies to find out what is available and to get an unbiased overview of your business.

Whilst local Universities, technical colleges and the like may not have someone that can provide training (but they may have), they will almost certainly be able to point you in the direction of someone if they have links with the local business community.

They are often also able to point you in the direction of funding and provide additional support as they often look for industrial settings for projects for their students, providing a student with a problem to solve that has been bugging you for some time, but you just don't have the time to deal with, is a very good way to have it solved inexpensively as the student will have the backup of the staff at the academic institution to help him.

Networking groups such as your local chamber of commerce and other paid networking groups are often the hunting grounds of the business consultants and training providers, normally in my experience at a ratio of about 10 to every 1 business man! So if you dare to venture into one of their breakfast meetings or evening events I am sure that you will be accosted from all angles with training providers eager to hand you their card.

In addition to the business support people that frequent these events you will also meet other business people who may be able to share their experiences and contacts.

Once you have your short list you will need to decide who will be best suited to providing the training in question, this is done in much the same manner as you employ anyone else to work within your company. Review their CVs or resumes, interview and check their refrences.

You need to check that they have the right qualifications to do the job, with a background from a relevant industry. They need to be able to convince you within the interview as to the correct type of training that you require as well as the right way to deliver the training.

The most important aspect however in my mind is past performance, ask them for a list of past clients that you may contact. If they have provided a good service to these clients then they will be happy to do this and the past clients will be happy to give you feedback about their performance.

If you hire a lean trainer through local government agencies or even academic routes it is often worthwhile asking about grants, more often than not there is “free” money to be had towards these types of service.

The following are useful links for business support and lean manufacturing resources.

http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/ Institute for Manufacturing

http://www.thecqi.org/ Chartered Quality Institute

http://asq.org/ American Society of Quality

http://www.nam.org/ American National Association of Manufacturers

http://www.bis.gov.uk/ UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills

http://trade.gov/ International Trade Administration USA

http://www.mas.bis.gov.uk/ UK Manufacturing Advisory Service

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home UK Business Link

http://www.business.gov/ US Business Link

http://www2.toyota.co.jp/en/vision/production_system/index.html Toyota

http://www.smmt.co.uk Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders

http://www.aiag.org/scriptcontent/index.cfm Automotive Industry Action Group

These Links will help you to find more information on how to find a lean trainer to help you improve your business.