By Justin Aufdermauer
Executive Director
Once again, the Chamber is partnering Tillamook Bay Community College to bring the community a Business Development Series that will focus on reducing costs, decreasing delays and improving the quality of your business.
This five-session series will begin in March and introduces the fundamentals of Lean processing. You may be wondering, ‘what is Lean? How do I know if it’s for me?’
Lean is about increasing your bottom line. If you own or manage a business that could benefit from a more efficient process then you will want a seat at this table. Lean evaluates your current process and finds ways to preserve value through less work.
Each session is two hours and concentrates on an aspect of the Lean process and how to apply it effectively to your own business. While each session builds on knowledge and skills learned at previous sessions, you can choose to attend all five or pick and choose which ones are most relevant to your situation:
Session 1 – Pillars. Principles, & Perspectives (March 3, 2017) This first session will provide an overview of tried and tested Lean methods. Your business will be encouraged to identify how, why and where it could benefit from an improved process and then connect those dots to the Lean methods.
Session 2 – Not all Treasures is Silver and Gold (March 10, 2017) The second session will focus on identifying immediate, easy changes you can be making right away that will help eliminate waste in your process, and developing an orderly and improved process.
Session 3 – Here’s Looking at you Kid (March 24, 2017) Session three will help your business measure future progress and create visual assets to remind your employees of these new, standard procedures.
Session 4 – If you Build it, They Will Come (April 7, 2017) In our fourth session, you will learn how to document processes to ensure that all your employees understand and consistently implement the improved process.
Session 5 – Houston, We have a Bigger Problem (April 21, 2017) Now that you have the basics under your belt, and have implemented Lean processes in some of your basic business practices, we can look at the much larger picture. In session five, we will map out an entire business process to identify future improvements. Remember, Lean is all about continuous improvement so the work is never completely over; there is always room for improvement.
Tom Atchison, the Business Administration Instructor at TBCC will be facilitating the series. Tom is also the Coordinator of Customized Training & Development at TBCC, and has his Doctor of Management.
Register by contacting the Chamber at info@tillamookchamber.org or calling 503-842-7525. The entire series is $200, or individual sessions are $50 each. Sessions are from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. at TBCC’s main campus, in room 214/215.