For many years now, Dion has been an active member of AME (Association for Manufacturing Excellence). AME focuses on building lean manufacturing practices and sharing knowledge among its member companies. Lean manufacturing is a systematic method for waste minimization within a manufacturing system without sacrificing productivity. Each year AME hosts an annual conference in a different city. This year the conference was based in Boston, MA, and AME asked Dion to be a conference tour site.
So, on Wednesday, October 11th the tour bus arrived and Dion hosted 26 conference attendees with tours of all areas of the company. Presentations were made in Stamp, Cast, and Plating, as well as Accounting, Engineering, and Inventory just to name a few. Participants then came together in a round-up session to discuss what they found helpful, as well as suggestions that they had for Dion. Some of these participants are pretty big names in lean manufacturing, so Dion was quite proud to be chosen to highlight our “lean practices” for them.
In addition to hosting tours, Dion also sent six of our own employees to the conference to learn about “all things lean.” The conference hosted more than 1500 participants and included speakers such as Benjamin Zander, conductor of The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra; Wil James, President of Toyota Manufacturing Kentucky, Inc.; Raye Wentworth, Plant Manager for New Balance (one of the few shoe manufacturers still making Made in the USA footwear), and John Shook, Chairman & CEO of The Lean Enterprise Institute (and author of Toyota’s Secret: The A3 Report). Our Dion participants had an amazing time learning about improvements they could bring back to their own departments, as well as bonding with their fellow employees in a unique way.