Articles

For more than two decades, Printing Industries of America has been helping the printing industry apply Lean Manufacturing concepts, total production maintenance, statistical process control, total quality management, and other quality approaches. Here are a few of the articles that we’ve published or have been associated with the Continuous Improvement Conference. 

Featured Article

Six Keys for Lean Managers by Bruce Hamilton. Company executives and managers dictate how fast their printing companies can improve.  According to Bruce Hamilton, president of GBMP and a former manufacturing executive whose company received the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, there are six specific steps that company executives and managers can take to speed the pace of their company’s improvement.

Other Articles

Why Improvement Efforts Fail by John Compton

Seeing the Hidden Plant: Hunting for Waste! by Ken Rizzo

Reduce Makeready Time with Kaizen by Jim Watson

How Lean Is Print? by David Dodd, Ken Rizzo, and Jim Workman

The Printer’s Hidden Factory of Waste by Ken Rizzo

5-S for Printers by Ken Rizzo

The Real Reasons Why Printers Should Consider Developing Management Systems by Kristine King and Chris Illa

The Value of Vision by Gwendolyn Galsworth

Read a Plant – Fast by R. Eugene Goodson. .

2010 Continuous Improvement Conference--Lessons Learned. Brief summaries of case studies presented at the 2010 CI Conference.

Jump Start Continuous Improvement in Your Printing Operation  by Printing Industries of America Staff. 

Lean Assessment Tool

Lean Manufacturing Assessment Tool. This tool allows a quick assessment of your company's progress in implementing Lean strategies and tools. It was developed by Printing Industries of America based on Iwao Kobayashi's 20 Keys to Workplace Improvement. At the 2012 conference, you'll also have the opportunity to gauge your progress against the many companies in attendance.