2020 has seen major disruption for nations, organisations and individuals - the result of global pandemic and the acceleration of digital channels and processes. Before 2021 dawns, it is time to RETHINK, REFOCUS and REBUILD. It is time for a LEAN DIGITAL WORLD!
Next year will mark 50 years since the Japanese management methods we know as the Toyota Production System (TPS) were first documented as a radical new way of running organisations that could easily compete with the best manufacturers in the Western world.
It will be nearly 40 years since William Edwards Deming published his manifesto of The 14 Key Principles of Management, introducing concepts of organisational purpose, leadership, psychological safety for workers, and organisational transformation decades before these became imperatives in the West.
In 2021 it will also be 30 years since the revelations about those new industrial approaches were christened 'Lean' by Jim Womack, Dan Jones and Dan Roos in their ground-breaking book 'The Machine That Changed the World'.
Lean thinking has since gone on to be applied to improving healthcare, Western manufacturing, mining and government. But has it retained relevance in a 21st century economy where, as Marc Andreesson put it - 'software ate the world'; and a software developer's movement called 'agile' inhaled all the online oxygen?
This conference examines that issue - bringing speakers from all walks of lean, but featuring authors, leaders and executives who are the front line of digital work that has adopted the best elements of lean management to grow world-beating organisations.
We have developed 4 themes which we believe fit with the speakers and which will also guide the presentations and discussions.