With the on-going covid crisis, all companies regardless of size or sector of activity face new challenges and have had to find new ways of working, including updating their lean tools and strategies. Each month, the EU-Japan Centre Lean Café hosts Zoom discussions of lean thinking, with a different guest speaker giving a 30-minute presentation on a particular lean topic and then taking questions. Hosted by Richard Keegan – the EU-Japan Centre's Lean Advisor and Adjunct Professor of Lean Operational Excellence at Trinity Business School – the Café brings together lean practitioners from across the EU, Japan and beyond to share their ideas and expertise.

The recent 3 December session looked at how Tetra Pak is "driving lean activities through WCM with a customer-oriented focus, while adapting to the new normal". The guest speakers were Emma Årman, WCM Champion and Carlos Arturo Ortiz, Operational Excellence & WCM Director at Tetra Pak Processing Systems AB. Previous sessions have addressed the Toyota approach; "Lean Launch - Implementing Lean in a disruptive environment"; and a "Show and tell about how the Japanese set up the Gemba". Recordings of some past sessions are available via the Lean Café webpage.

We are currently planning the Lean Café sessions up to April 2021 and will post details and the registration form on the Lean Café webpage. If you would like to be sent details of each Café as it is announced – or would be willing to speak at a future session – please email us. We hope to see you at a future Lean Café session.

Published: November 2020