Contact:
Adam Stoehr
VP Education and Research
Excellence Canada
416–251-7600 or 800-263-9648 | adam@excellence.ca

Lean Advisors Inc., Intersol Group Ltd. and Excellence Canada develop alliance to help Canadian governments and corporations become world-class leaders.

OTTAWA – March 23, 2015 – Today Lean Advisors, Intersol Group and Excellence Canada announced a joint partnership to support public and private sector organizations to achieve excellence through a sustainable, integrated approach to running their operations.
Canada survived the economic downturn of 2008 and is now poised to compete with the world. But, in order to compete, Canadian industry and government must become ‘world-class’ organizations. And ‘world-class’ is not about being the biggest or having control of the major markets. It’s about being able to meet the ever-increasing demands placed on them by their clients, stakeholders and competitors. The goal is to be able to provide services and products better, faster and at less cost while improving staff engagement and involvement in the required changes. If they are successful they will become ‘world-class’ and will become global leaders and models for the future to the benefit of all.

The road to success will require a multi-faceted strategy. No one tool or area of focus will be enough. They will need three (3) things:

1) a Well-defined Standard which can be conveyed to all staff,
2) a Solid, Proven Process Transformation Methodology and,
3) a Change Management Approach that is effective across all leadership and staff.

To achieve this goal, Excellence Canada, Intersol Group Ltd. and Lean Advisors Inc. have formed an alliance that will be able to support any public or private sector organization in pursuing these key strategic elements. “Our clients now have the ability to tap into expertise for any of their needs as they progress on their journeys to Excellence, said Adam Stoehr, Vice President of Education and Research, Excellence Canada. Canada has been in need of this type of integration of expertise and credibility for a long time. Now it’s here!”

“Now organizations will be able to set a strategic vision and communicate that direction to support all staff and provide the knowledge and tools required to successfully create the change needed to become best-in-class”, said Larry Coté, President & CEO, Intersol Group and
Lean Advisors Inc.

Intersol Group with its 25 years of experience and professional staff assisting groups, large and small, on how to engage staff, align strategy and drive common, supported direction.

Lean Advisors Inc. with over 30 years of experience coaching, teaching and adapting Lean (process transformation) in all sectors.
Excellence Canada (formerly the National Quality Institute) with over 30 years of experience improving performance through coaching, teaching and recognizing Excellence with the prestigious Canada Awards for Excellence.

The future vision is attainable by those exceptional organizations that want to lead. This partnership is now capable of supporting, coaching, training and officially recognizing all phases of success through an entire journey to becoming ‘World-Class’.

About Lean Advisors, Inc.
Lean Advisors, Inc. is one of the most respected Lean consulting groups in North America. Lean Advisors, Inc., founded over 14 years ago and based in North America, has built a team of senior consultants with hands-on experience in a variety of sectors. In addition to their work with industry, the company has led the way to successful Lean practice in fields such as Healthcare, Education, Government and Manufacturing.
Our senior consultants’ mastery of Lean and Kaizen methods, combined with hands-on industry experience, has prepared them for tough ‘real world’ issues such as resistance, outside perceptions, conflicting agendas, and the need for senior management support. They help individuals become Lean leaders within their organizations as they overcome resistance to change and instill a Lean culture of continuous improvement. To learn more, please visitwww.leanadvisors.com

About Intersol Group Ltd.
Intersol Group Ltd. is a bilingual team of experienced consulting, facilitation and learning professionals whose expertise lies in harnessing and building lasting organizational capacity for its clients. Since 1989, the Intersol team has successfully delivered over 6,000 projects to hundreds of public sector, private sector and non-profit organizations across Canada.
Whether the focus is on shaping vision and strategy, on managing change, on stakeholder consultation, or on high performance teamwork, Intersol helps organizations leverage the knowledge, experience and expertise inherent in their own people.
Using processes, methods and tools that engage people to collaborate effectively and efficiently, we work with clients in the areas Stakeholder Engagement and Public Involvement; Direction Setting and Organizational Effectiveness; and Individual Effectiveness and Workplace Learning. To learn more, please visit www.intersol.ca

About Excellence Canada (formerly the National Quality Institute)
Excellence Canada is an independent, not-for-profit organization that is committed to advancing organizational excellence across Canada. Excellence Canada has helped thousands of organizations become cultures of continuous quality improvement and world-class role models, through its four-level Progressive Excellence Program.

As a national authority on Quality and Healthy Workplace®, Excellence Canada provides excellence frameworks, standards, and independent verification and certification to organizations of all sizes and in all sectors. It is also the custodian and adjudicator of the prestigious Canada Awards for Excellence program, of which the Patron is His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., Governor General of Canada. To learn more, please visit www.excellence.ca

Through a unique Value Stream Mapping Process, Lean Advisors help clients identify the Root Causes of delays, errors and bottlenecks – helping them to dramatically Reduce the Cost of their administrative processes, while Boosting Employee Engagement and Improving Customer Experience.  Join Us!

During this webinar, Mike Boucher will lead you through the keys to successful value-stream improvements in administrative/service environments such as:

1. The Structure of a VSM (CS/FS).
2. The Key Tasks / Roles for Senior Leaders in successful VSM Projects.
3. Why VSM is especially critical in an administrative/service value stream improvement process.
4. How the VSM helps to introduce and implement change.
5. How to ensure that VSM Projects generate results that are strategically important to the organization.

Register Here

August 22, 2013

1:00 pm EST

Register Here

Presented By: Larry Cote, President Lean Advisors Inc.

Join us for an Objective Assessment 15 Years after the Concept was coined ‘Lean’.

Register Here

Universities and Colleges represent an immense opportunity for the application of Lean Concepts. Lean Advisors Inc, Senior Advisor Sav Pota P.Eng, will share his insights on how Lean principles and practices apply to educational processes.  He will also provide highlights from his own experiences in higher education, including success examples, lessons learned, and advice on how to best engage university/college staff in order to create a culture of continuous process improvement to achieve the most effective and efficient results.

Date: February 28,2013

Time: 1300 – 1345 EST

Space is limited. REGISTER TODAY

About the Presenter:

Saverio (Sav) Pota P.Eng

With over 25 years of practical experience in various industries, both manufacturing and non-manufacturing, (healthcare, government, justice, logistics/distribution) Saverio (Sav) Pota has a unique ability to “make complicated systems simple” using Lean. His passion has always been to pass on this ability to adapt and apply Lean to challenging situations and to others.

Sav’s Lean experience includes many sectors – manufacturing, healthcare, college/educational institutes, government, design/architecture and service. From his early days in the electrical industry where traditional production management (e.g. EOQ and the big batch) was prevalent, he saw firsthand how North American companies latched onto individual concepts, such as Just In Time (JIT), which led to disappointment because benefits could not be sustained. Sav then worked in the Auto Industry where he was first indoctrinated in the Deming management philosophy. This led to an understanding on how company culture is a fundamental requirement for sustaining continuous improvement.

Subsequently, Sav worked for a major Crown Service Corporation where Lean was introduced as a new direction (a direction that lives on 15 years later).The basic principles of Lean, (Define Value, Map the Value Stream, Make in Flow, Pull and Perfection) became the driving force for both cost and service improvements. Mapping the Value Stream clearly identifies the end-to-end flows of a product or service and is paramount for any sustainable improvements. Sav also led a major initiative (Kaikaku) in a product processing overhaul, but more importantly he led a team of his peers in the development of a Value Stream Management organization. Sav believes that it is imperative to have internal value stream owners to ensure that Lean becomes imbedded into the culture of any organization.

Sav’s work continued into the private courier industry, where he planned and managed the start up of new facilities based on Lean principles. As a director at a major North American transportation company, he applied the concepts of Lean in the creation of their long-term vision. This vision was the guiding principle of their business transformation initiative.

Recently, he was part of the design team for the new Children’s Hospital in Saskatchewan. He led teams comprising of Ministry reps, Hospital leaders /staff and designers to analyze existing processes and establish new, more efficient , flexible flows throughout the facility that would be incorporated into the design of the future hospital.

Presently, he is working with several Health Regions in Ontario, College Administrations and Municipality Administrations to transform them using Lean.

As an owner/partner in a manufacturing company, Ontario, he has also managed to benefit from Lean principles. Significantly growing his own company over the years. This company has survived and thrived even throughout the latest recession.

A graduate of Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto, Sav has furthered his professional development by keeping abreast of manufacturing management techniques by attending seminars and conferences. Sav even had the opportunity to attend a Deming seminar lectured by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. He led a presentation at the “Lean Summit” in Atlanta, Georgia, plus was asked to present at two other Lean Manufacturing Conferences hosted by the Institute for International Research. He was also a co-presenter, with his Lean Advisors colleague Mike Boucher, at the ASQ conference .

They are fighting fires while responding to pressures from both the organization above and staff below. Meanwhile, they are being told to cut costs, improve quality and improve service.

With so little hours in a day, where do they find the time?

Join us for our free webinar, “Management Capacity:  Creating Standard Leadership Roles for the Lean Supervisor.”

Mike Boucher, our Vice President of Client Services, will share his insights.

We will show you how to free up management time by understanding executive priorities and analyzing management activities, creating Standard Leadership Roles.

Date: Thursday, January 24th, 2013

Time: 1300 – 1345 EST

Space is limited.  Register Here!

About the Presenter: Mike Boucher, VP Client Services

Mike Boucher has had extensive experience with Lean in his role leading companies in their Continuous Improvement and Lean journey. Over 20 years, he held numerous operational positions with a major distribution and logistics corporation.  Mike has worked with various healthcare organizations and Government and College administrations including the Ministry of Health, Fleming College, Mayo Clinic, Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital, Marietta Memorial Hospital, Luther Midelfort Hospital and others. Lean applications within the healthcare setting include; Surgical Value Streams,Core Labs, Cytogenetics, Micro-Biology, Critical Care Units, Emergency Dept, Pre Surgical Center, Outpatient Clinics, Admissions & Discharge etc.  In the Government and College transformations, he worked on all administrative processes including policy, finance, human resources activities, quality etc.

Consistently, Lean applications in these settings focuses on optimizing service to the clients and improving turnaround times/lead times.  Through this endeavor, Mike has worked with teams to improve flow and truly identify the needs of the client. Unnecessary costs and wasteful activities are eliminated in order to better support staff in their efforts to provide service or value to their clients.

Mike’s greatest asset is his ability to simplify complex production and process issues through the application Lean principles and practice.  Mike is a strong promoter of Value Stream Mapping as one of the most important tools that companies can use to align their organization and promote a customer focused perspective. It is this approach that allows companies to best identify their waste and systematically remove it from their processes and value streams.