Bio:
23 years in the building supplies industry in various roles including sales, purchasing, management & internal audit. Completed a M.Sc. in 2011 focussing on the application of the Lean principles to a central distribution centre. Currently applying these principles to the internal audit function.
Talk Title:
Lean principles : From supply chain to audit.
Synopsis:
The Lean philosophy and concept was developed in Japan in the years following the Second World War. Japan had few natural resources and therefore had to import vast quantities of goods, including food. This led them to rigourously examine their methods of production and general business practices to ensure they were as efficient as possible. The most famous outcome of this was Toyota production system which focussed on the elimination of waste and making the fullest possible use of the capabilities of all employees. Waste is anything other than the minimum amount of parts, equipment, material and time which are absolutely essential to production. In maximising the contribution of each employee it was intended that any possible defects would be identified as early as possible and otherwise wasted production avoided.
This was developed into the Lean principles applicable across the whole enterprise and the enunciation of 5 underlying principles :
- Specify value from the point of view of the customer, which of course requires an accurate identification of the customer.
- Identify the value stream.
- Make the value flow, ensuring each operation is visible and defined.
- Let the customer pull, ie only produce goods/provide services as they are required by a customer.
- Pursue perfection, an unrelenting pursuit of zero defects.
I first intend to apply these principles to supply chain management, the integration of the activities taking place among a network of facilities that produce raw materials, transfer them into intermediate goods, then final products and delivering these to the end customer. An important focus will be on the integration of the processes and systems that transfer the product from materials to satisfied customers. Again the focus is on the elimination of waste, be it of material, movement or time.
In the second part I intend to apply these same principles to the task of internal audit, the task of providing independent assurance that an organisation’s governance, risk management and control processes are operating effectively. Internal audit looks beyond financial risks and statements to consider wider issues such as the organisation’s reputation, growth, it’s impact on the environment and the way it treats it’s employees.
