In the global marketplace, no business is a self-contained island. No matter how effective your internal material movement, to be a future-thinking business, you must go to the next step and develop long-term supplier partnerships built on a dedication to continuous improvement and the basic concepts of Lean implementation.

Lean Supplier Development: Establishing Partnerships and True Costs Throughout the Supply Chain provides step-by-step instruction on how to build partnerships of mutual improvement and success through supplier development. Offering the same advice that they have successfully applied to corporations across the globe, award-winning consultants Chris Harris, Rick Harris, and Chuck Streeter -

• Provide criteria on how to choose suppliers that will make good long-term partnerships
• Demonstrate proven methods for employing Plan for Every Part (PFEP) to link your facility to the supply base
• Present a true cost model that eliminates guesswork when choosing suppliers to develop
• Show how to develop and maintain efficient information flow all along your supply chain
• Use real-world examples to cover likely contingencies
• Provide a sample quarterly supplier review that you can adapt for your own use

Lean is a journey, not a destination. It requires flexible leaders at the helm who can readily adjust to ever-changing conditions and it requires like-minded partners all along the supply chain. Finding and developing these partners is not about good fortune, it is all about an uncompromising approach to continuous improvement and the application of systematic methods that will build working partnerships that broaden your definition of what is possible

Dr. Chris Harris is a coauthor of the Shingo Prize-winning book Making Materials Flow, published by Jim Womack and the Lean Enterprise Institute. Chris has also coauthored two other books with Rick Harris, one on human resources' role in Lean manufacturing, entitled Developing a Lean Workforce, published by Productivity Press; and the other on the vital information flow in a production facility, entitled Lean Connections, also published by Productivity Press. Chris has also written many articles on Lean production systems. Chris began his Lean manufacturing training as a team member on the assembly line at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK). He continued his Lean training at Toyota Tsusho America in Georgetown, Kentucky and at Delphi Alternator Division in Anderson, Indiana. Chris has a doctorate in business administration from the Anderson University Falls School of Business in Indiana. He is vice president of operations for Harris Lean Systems (www.harrisleansystems.com).

Rick Harris is the president of Harris Lean Systems and has been helping companies to become Lean for the past 15 years. HLS, Inc. has been instrumental in assisting companies worldwide with major cost reductions. Rick helps with the actual implementation on the shop floor and the education of the workforce. He has pioneered the reverse flow process to achieve increases in efficiency. Rick has extensive experience in developing new manufacturing layouts that facilitate one-piece flow, operator flexibility, operator engagement, first time through quality, optimum uptime, and reduced capital investment. Rick has also coauthored the two Shingo Prize-winning books Creating Continuous Flow and Making Materials Flow, published by James Womack and the Lean Enterprise Institute. Rick has also coauthored two other books with his son, Dr. Chris Harris: Developing a Lean Workforce and Lean Connections. Rick received his Lean training while serving as a manager in assembly at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky and continued his Lean learning at the Toyota Tsutsumi Assembly Plant in Japan. He was a member of the start-up team at TMMK, where he gained extensive knowledge of the Toyota Production System. Prior to his Toyota experience, he spent 15 years with General Motors.

Chuck Streeter is the owner of Streeter Lean Principles, LLC located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Chuck has worked with Rick Harris for over ten years, helping companies navigate through their Lean business system transformation journeys. Chuck gained much of his Lean knowledge working for companies in the automotive and electrical industries, with a majority of that being under the guidance of Rick Harris. As a Lean practitioner he has helped guide facilities to best improved, plant of the year, and corporate excellence accolades while instilling the principles of Lean in both their manufacturing and business processes. Chuck gained his formal education with a bachelor of science in management from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master of science in systems management from the Air Force Institute of Technology. Chuck is a level III certified acquisition program manager, as well as a retired commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.