Wednesday, March 8th, 2006
APO Conducts Seminar on Toyota Production System
Training via Videoconference Gains Recognition and Funding for Region-wide Dissemination
The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) conducted a 3-day seminar on the Toyota Production System (TPS) from March 6-8, 2006. This program is a culmination of cooperative efforts between the APO and the TDLC since 2004 to incorporate GDLN videoconferencing services into its training programs, and is fully funded by the APO.
The first of 3 phases, national productivity organizations in Mongolia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam connected via the GDLN. The APO will conduct the same course in May and August with different members participating, resulting in an Asia-wide program spanning 13 countries. There is great interest in the Toyota Production System within the region, where competition in manufacturing is particularly intense. The seminar aims to enable participants to implement this knowledge to suit their own production processes.
At the seminar, two speakers, Mr.Hisazumi Matsuzaki, Management Consultant, as well as Meijo Process Management Institute President and Meijo University Professor, Dr.Makoto Kawada, gave a total of 9 lectures over 3 days at the TDLC.
The seminar provided for group discussions within each connecting site at the conclusion of each day's session. Participants talked about questions such as what working in a factory means to you, or whether to increase or decrease inventory, and presented their views via videoconference to take questions. The TDLC is also providing video editing services of the lectures for use as future training programs.
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand will take part in the second phase of the seminar which runs in May. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will participate in the third phase to be given in August.
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