Materials, Design and Technology Teachers go LEAN

In a major collaborative project for this year, TMEC partnered with local government, industry and educational institutions to deliver lean systems training for Materials, Design and Technology (MDT) teachers from across the region.

Training was delivered at the Simulated Work Environment (SWE) in Burnie and comprised of both hands-on and theoretical learning of the lean manufacturing principles and how they may be applied to a secondary school teaching environment.

A mixture of MDT teachers and industry representatives attended the full-day course which created a blend of implementation ideas and helped all participants either refresh existing skills or, in some cases, gain a detailed understanding of lean systems for the first time.

The training was made possible through the collaboration of TMEC with the Burnie City Council, Waratah Wynyard Council, Productivity Improvers, Elphinstone, Irrigation Tasmania, Alpha Electrics and the Beacon Foundation. During the 2017/18 year, Beacon joined TMEC as tenants in its South Burnie site.

Courses run in the SWE continue to attract positive feedback for the venue’s training facilities, equipment and the quality and enthusiasm of course leader presentations.

“Moving forward we are undertaking a LEAN audit of our MDT department with a view to improving our systems of work and making it very visual. We are embracing the whole concept and are keen to see how far we can develop this concept in a high school setting.

We have started a LEAN display to present the language of LEAN which we are already using in our classes.

One big takeaway from the day was to ask for feedback, which we have started to do. Safety is already a major priority which was an affirmation.”

MDT LEAN training participant, Burnie High School