Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 22, 2011 — Outsourcing of production and services is the new norm. But in the search for lowest-cost providers, companies often overlook sensible considerations such as total cost, quality, logistics, innovation, and collaborating with partners for mutual prosperity.
John Shook, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), will examine the downside of outsourcing in the opening keynote presentation, “Outsourcing: The Big Lie,” at the Northeast Shingo Prize Conference, Springfield, MA, Oct.5-6, 2011.
“While there are clearly times when outsourcing makes good business sense, academicians and theorists have inadvertently oversold its benefits without rigorously considering the full consequences,” said Shook.
Lean Management Expert
In 11 years as a manager at Toyota, Shook helped the automaker introduce its lean management system to North America. He is co-author of the groundbreaking workbook Learning to See that introduced value-stream mapping to a worldwide audience and author of Managing to Learn on the A3 management process.
Shook called for developing lean supply chains to end the “madness” in today’s supply Chain during a panel discussion in June at the Rebuilding Japan Conference hosted by business information giant Bloomberg, LP, at the Japan Society in New York City.
Writing in his April 2011 eletter to the Lean Community, titled “Any Color You Want Except Tuxedo Black,” Shook explained the hidden dangers in today’s single sourcing strategies.
Lean in America Theme
The Northeast Shingo conference, with a 2011 theme of “Made Lean in America,” provides education and networking for managers and executives in manufacturing, healthcare, and government.
To watch a conference preview video and get complete descriptions of content, topics, pricing, and discounts, visit: http://www.neshingoprize.org/conference/the-annual-northeast-shingo-prize-conference
Created in 1988 by Utah State University, the Shingo Prize recognizes the work of the late Shigeo Shingo, a key contributor to the dissemination of the Toyota Production System. The Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership administers the prize in an 11-state Northeast region.
Lean Community Resources
Join LEI’s community of Lean Thinkers at https://www.lean.org to receive newsletters with lean management resources. You also get access to case studies, lean leadership interviews, webinars, insights from John Shook and LEI Founder Jim Womack, who led the MIT research team that coined the term “lean production.”
About LEI
The Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc. was founded in 1997 by management expert James P. Womack, Ph.D., as a nonprofit research, education, publishing, and conference company with a mission to advance lean thinking around the world. We teach courses, hold management seminars, write and publish books and workbooks, and organize public and private conferences. We use the surplus revenues from these activities to conduct research projects and support other lean initiatives such as the Healthcare Value Network, the Lean Education Academic Network, and the Lean Global Network.