Title:Lean Thinking
Speaker: Prof. Owen Berkeley Hill
Venue: Seminar room, IEOR
Date and Time: 15th February, 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Abstract This is a vast body of knowledge with its origins in Industrial Engineering. It has, however, evolved over the last three decades into a unique form of leadership which very few organisations have been able to emulate. The key to Lean Thinking is the leadership philosophy. This is focused on delivering customers’ perceptions of value by harnessing the brain power of every person in the organisation using a culture of kaizen and Learning to continually eliminate Muda, Mura and Muri in order to keep up with those changing customer perceptions. Brief Bio: Owen was born in India a few weeks after independence, so not quite a “Midnight’s Child”. He went to school in Bombay and emigrated to England in 1963 to continue his education. After graduating with a degree in engineering, he went to work for the Ford Motor Company where he spent nearly 38 years in several divisions doing jobs for which he had no prior experience. In his later years, he was asked to join the Ford Production System, Ford’s Lean journey. Inspired by what he experienced on the shop floor, he went back to school and got his Masters in Lean Operations in 2003. Owen has been teaching Lean Management at SOM since 2011. This is his seventh batch. The subject is evolving rapidly and he is the first to admit he is no expert but a very keen student. When not thinking Lean, he sings in his local choir, plays a bad round of golf, goes on hikes (reluctantly sometimes) and thinks about Indian Railways. He is trying to resuscitate his dormant Hindi and Norwegian. He is married with two children and two grandsons.