On April 3, Litexpo Exhibition and Congress Center in Vilnius hosted already the sixth Baltic LEAN Forum – the largest conference dedicated to LEAN, which attracts more than 300 participants each year. The main topics of this year’s Baltic LEAN Forum – sustainable implementation of LEAN, the most important skills for LEAN managers, leader challenges and the transformation of change.
The LEAN Awards for Best Results are also traditionally held at the event to introduce companies who are implementing LEAN and achieving top results. This year Girteka Logistics won in the Best Result of the Year nomination.
“When selecting the winner in this category, we calculate the ratio between the generated financial gain and the number of employees. Since the beginning, properly selected projects, addressing key issues in the company and systematic implementation have generated benefits for over 2 million,” explained Vidas Petraitis, founder of lean.lt and one of the organizers of the forum.
The prize was awarded for the successful application of LEAN philosophy in 2018 – the solution of complex problems using the PDCA method, standardization of employee activities, as well as transferring LEAN to the digital space.
According to the company LEAN and quality manager Ramūnas Stanišausas, the implementation of LEAN in the organization as well as its continuous improvement is a never-ending process, so we are not going to rest on our laurels this year.
Girteka Logistics has been using LEAN methods in its activities since 2014. At present, the organization already has a Quality and Processes team, individual method managers, and effective performance managers in each department. Kaizen, Gemba, PDCA and other LEAN methods are becoming increasingly important every day and a way of thinking, contributing to a consistent growth and purposeful management of the organization.
The day at the Girteka Logistics office begins with the preparation for the discussion about daily work – at 8:45 am all employees gather by the results board. The ASAICHI meeting is announced, during which results are discussed and problems are identified and addressed. After the 15-minute-long meeting, at 9:00 am, the department heads discuss the results, and then the systematized information is forwarded to the CEO – in this manner all the employees of the organization are involved in the LEAN activity.