September, 2007 - Tosoh America Employees Meeting focuses on LEAN

Tosoh introduced a shared-services platform in 2001 to better utilize resources while strengthening consolidated management of our Group.  As a result, Tosoh America (TSAM) is providing common Accounting  and Human Resource services to primarily Group companies in North America.  This essentially means that Tosoh companies are no longer self-contained entities and the employees for Tosoh America are spread across the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  In a world where your co-worker can be 3000 miles away, Tosoh felt that events to bring the entire TSAM team together to let everyone get to know each other better would be beneficial.  This year it also provided an opportunity to increase efficiency. Here we look at the Third Annual All Tosoh America Employees Meeting 2007.

LEAN principles of waste reduction, process improvement, continuous flow, and efficiency have been routinely practiced in some manufacturing operations within Tosoh Group America.  These principles also can apply to office related processes performed every day throughout Tosoh Group. 

Therefore, the focus for the 2007 All Tosoh America (TSAM) Employees Meeting was to learn and implement LEAN tools to make improvements to office processes.  Held on August 15-16, 2007 in Columbus, Ohio, about 40 TSAM employees learned about and experienced these LEAN tools.  The workshop was lead by Debra Hoffman, Logistics Manager for Tosoh SMD (TSMD), who has over six years experience in implementing LEAN throughout the TSMD manufacturing operation. 

Yutaka Nakamura, President of Tosoh America, kicked off the session by challenging the participants to not only learn the tools, but to truly reduce waste within TSAM operations.  The two-day workshop followed a logical progression of learning the LEAN tools, participating in a demonstration of continuous flow (operating a “pipe factory”), observing real improvements made in the TSMD factory, and then mapping five real process challenges confronting the TSAM organization every day.

It is anticipated that utilizing these tools will lead to significant savings in cost, time, and frustration by improving these five processes, as well as others in the future.  In addition to the educational experience, renewing relationships among all TSAM employees from throughout the US was both rewarding and enjoyable.