Parting Shots: Riding the lean rollercoaster

To satisfy customer expectations regarding the product's true value, lean thinkers must carefully evaluate all of the activities they perform when moving a product from art to part. A lean enterprise is the mechanism that allows an organization to do so. A lean enterprise facilitates flow and pull in a value stream, while exposing and eliminating muda (waste). A value stream is all of the activities required to create a product. Muda is any activity that consumes resources but creates no value. Cascade Engineering of Grand Rapids, MI is one of a growing number of lean molders that has found that there is no end to the process of reducing waste in a value stream. When value flows faster, more muda is exposed. Safe in its lean-principle cars (plus one car representing Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which the company values highly) Cascade's product family teams ride their lean implementation roller coaster, as depicted in this orientation storyboard. When hidden muda is exposed, Cascade has a plan in place to identify it and deal with it. They can continue on their ride to the greater productivity, profits, and employment stability that come in the pursuit of lean perfection, all while creating ever greater value for their customers.

Team update: Racing for a medal 
Two Prime Alliance road racing teammates—Jame Carney and Colby Pearce—have earned a place in history, having won a Bronze Medal in the Madison event at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia. The pair finished a hard-fought and close third behind the teams of New Zealand and Australia. In other news, Jame Carney has been named the 2001 World Cup Overall Points Race Champion ahead of second place finisher Robert Sassone of France and third place finisher Franz Stocker of Austria. The team of Coby Pearce, Jame Carney, and stand-in rider Mike Tilman also tied for second with the team from Spain in the World Cup Overall for the Madison race. The Prime Alliance bike team is sponsored by IMM, among others.