“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” – Fred (Mr.) Rogers
Amidst the 24/7 COVID-19 news, my spirits were lifted after hearing how the AME St. Louis Consortium has banded together to share best practices and more in these uncertain times.
Like many of AME’s North American consortia, our St. Louis group includes both manufacturing and health care organizations. Recently, the St. Louis Consortium facilitator, Jonathan Jones, and Meg Brown, from member company Cambridge Air Solutions, conveyed how their manufacturing members have come together to support a local health care organization that is also part of the consortium. They have come up with creative ways to source and make needed PPE supplies to help the health care provider serve its patients in this time of need. The consortium members are also sharing disaster preparedness plans to help each other weather the storm and bolster their local communities. It has been an inspiring experience for all involved.
I have heard similar stories from our other consortia, our regional boards and our alliance partners. AME is proud to help businesses understand lean’s role in both their current processes and the supply chain remedies that companies are implementing – in North America and around the globe.
To that end, we have several free virtual learning opportunities to share with you – with more on the way!
On Tuesday, April 7, AME will host its first virtual lean coffee break. This will be an online Zoom conversation, during which you will be able to share and learn from other lean practitioners about the biggest challenges we are all facing during the coronavirus pandemic. Participation size is limited, so we encourage you to register now.
We will also be rolling out both new and archived webinars. These will be offered on-demand or in a facilitated format depending on the content. Details will be released soon about the first webinar, which will cover the Lean Sensei assessment tool and how it helps organizations identify and fix process issues. We’ve heard from several companies that the free Lean Sensei tool has been particularly beneficial with their current operational assessments.
Beyond this, AME has partnered with Lean Frontiers to offer Energize Your Lean Journey – a webinar series featuring speakers and presenters from AME Toronto 2020. The first of these free webinars will feature Beau Keyte discussing “Can I Coach You Out of Lean Coaching?” on April 23. The Lean Frontiers and AME webinar series will build to the 36th annual AME International Conference, which is still scheduled for October 26-30 in Toronto.
As always, we are here to help our members and the communities and industries they serve. If there is any information or learning that you would find particularly beneficial at this time, please do not hesitate to reach out. I am always available for our members and friends.
Stay safe and keep looking out for one another.
