A Voice from the Real World, Implementing Lean at Hallmark Cards

This month's Agile KC meetup, next Thursday at Centriq, looks to be especially relevant as it's all about Lean. See details below.

Also, for anyone interested, KC Developers conference is coming up. Even if you don't care about code, there's lots of presentations on Agile. Registration is only $50. Last year's was well-attended and high quality. http://kcdc.info


The next meeting of AgileKC will take place on April 19, 2012 -- 6:30 PM at:
Centriq Training Center
8700 State Line
Suite 200
Leawood, KS 66206

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Martin Olson
Date: Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 8:54 AM
Subject: April Agile KC Meeting - 4/19/12 6:30 PM - A Voice from the Real World, Implementing Lean at Hallmark Cards

I'm admittedly biased, but I think this month's meeting should
generate some great conversation.

Meeting Topic: A Voice from the Real World, Implementing Lean at
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark is a household name throughout the nation and sells its
products in over 100 countries. In business for over 100 years and
privately held, Hallmark has always held itself to a high standard of
quality in both its team members and its products. It has withstood
the tests of time by adapting to the market when needed yet not
falling for the latest business trend. This is no easy feat. Some
of the dynamics associated with all that is Hallmark; distributed
manufacturing and distribution facilities, multi-national supply chain
management, corporate oversight and management, several wholly-owned
subsidiaries and thousands of retail outlets selling their products.
Even with Hallmark’s size and complexities, they are consistently
named "One of the Best Places to Work" as was the case as recently as
2010.
But it can't all be unicorns and rainbows can it? Alas no. As a 100-
year old organization, it takes a lot of hard work and diligence to
sustain such a track record. One such aspect is in its adoption of
Lean principles. At this month’s meeting Kathy Hallberg, Lean
Strategy and Implementation Manager at Hallmark, will share her
experiences and some lessons learned in the last five years. Kathy's
background includes24 years at Hallmark with positions in Finance,
Hallmark International, Global Procurement, and most currently, the
Business Process Management organization. She has a B.S. from the
University of Central Missouri and a Masters of International
Management from Thunderbird in Arizona. Kathy was one of four
individuals in 2007 asked to learn and implement Lean at Hallmark.
She has spent time teaching and coaching Lean thinking and approaches
in the Lawrence manufacturing facility, the Creative division, Global
Procurement, and Accounts Payable. She is currently working with the
Technology and Business Enablement and the Demand and Inventory
Planning divisions. She is an extended member of Hallmark’s Agile
proof of concept team and is excited about the possibilities resulting
from the combination of it and Lean.
We'll save some time for questions and answers at the end so bring
your questions and a friend.
Hope to see you there!