Getting FIT With Lean
I noted in my previous lean post, there was a second session I wanted to cover here. Abram Walton, an assistant professor in the Industrial Technology College at Purdue University, presented on PLM Technology Roadmaps based on some of his research work at Purdue’s PLM Center of Excellence.
They interviewed 150 companies with a focus on the key performance indicators (KPIs) they use in their organizations. The metrics were organized in four functional areas: financial, customer, business processes and organizational capacity. He shared some of the discrepancies between how companies rated metrics that were important but not used in their companies.
They propose a “FIT” model where companies focus on three pillars:
- Fundamentals of lean systems
- Institution of change
- Teamwork
Abe noted that if companies don’t already have lean processes in place, PLM won’t work. See some of his slides in the embedded presentation below:
