Conference to foster "strong and competitive" organisations in Africa

The Lean Institute Africa (LIA) will host its biennial Lean Summit Africa this September focusing on ways to improve service delivery, cost-effectiveness and staff morale in the public and private sectors and highlighting techniques to eliminate waste in products and services in African organisations.

Under the theme, Relentless Leadership, the Summit has secured a line-up of top international speakers, including: Michael Ballé, associate researcher at Telecom ParisTech; Ian Glenday, senior fellow of the Lean Enterprise Academy in the UK; Denise Bennet, lean programme manager at the City of Melbourne; and Johan van Zyl, president and CEO of Toyota South Africa.

According to Norman Faull, founder of the Lean Institute Africa and Emeritus Professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business, the Summit is designed to promote lean leadership, which emphasises the need to maximise customer value by minimising waste. Lean fosters an environment that allows organisations to remain flexible and adaptive and able to respond fluidly and continuously to clients' changing needs, lifestyles and the way they choose to communicate.

"We can bring about huge transformation in the way an organisation functions by implementing sound operations management practices and lean principles," says Faull, who will also present at the Summit.

"While lean has its roots in the automotive industry (the Toyota Way), it can be applied to any company or system and has huge potential for improving government services such as hospitals, police stations and courts. Lean leadership is tried and tested stuff - it works! It keeps organisations strong and competitive by tapping into the fundamentals of human behaviour - cooperation and teamwork, creativity, validation and adaptability," says Faull.

The Lean Institute Africa is part of the Lean Global Network and the only organisation of its kind in Africa. It is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promulgate lean management practices across the continent.

This is its 7th Lean Summit Africa and it will take place on 17-19 September at the Vineyard Hotel Conference Centre in Cape Town. For more information on the Summit contact Cynthia Matubatuba on 021 406 1226 or email az.oc.novapu@aihtnyC or az.ca.tcu.bsg@ofninael.