Seminar presenters for 2001

Ann has extensive experience in the aerospace and telecommunications industries in purchasing, contract negotiation, project management and materials management roles.

Her position at the Lean Enterprise Research Centre in Cardiff is financed by a Research Fellowship from the Welsh Development Agency or WDA (a regional development body). The key objective of her work is to investigate and pilot, break through research for organisations in Wales. The desired outcome is to improve GDP; the current target is 10% improvement in the next 10 years.

The WDA, over time, have shifted from an investment-led strategy to one which includes the development of indigenous organisations, and there is a strong emphasis on SME's. As a result of this Ann has had a reasonable amount of experience with SME organisations.

One of the themes in the work she has been doing both with the WDA and within the Lean Enterprise Research Centre is the use of networks as a form of learning and support. The most recent of these is the Learn 2 Programmes, which has 6 members - unrelated organisations, with the common desire to become "best in class".

Over the last three years she has worked with with colleagues on one particular SME, to understand the in-depth needs of this type of organisation. This work was in the context of an industrial network or club where common issues were discussed. This SME was an owner-managed firm and was positioned between larger organisations in the supply chain. Their desire was to be proactive in the relationship with both customer and supplier.

SME's often find it difficult to influence their supply base because they are dealing with firms which are much larger. There are techniques which can be used with a customer and its supply base working together to improve overall performance of key indicators. 

Ann's main areas of expertise include:

Mapping - where does a firm start in the journey to find opportunity for improvement?

Problem Solving - the tools to deal with the problem which occur in the work place.

Lean Manufacturing - An overview of Lean (depends on the time and audience regarding in what depth this is covered, and which parts of the tool box of Lean need to be covered in depth).

Six Sigma - often the most important area as the quality issues in these organisations have not fully been addressed.

Supply Chain Networks - supplier associations, performance measures etc.

Going Lean
The Lean Enterprise Research Centre has produced a booklet entitled Going Lean, an introductory guide to lean production. This 54-page publication can be downloaded (as an Acrobat PDF file) from the LERC's website.