ICEES partners Toyota Engineering Corporation to bring true lean capability to Sri Lanka

ICEES Directors Asanka Henegedara and Lapitha Gunasinghe with TEC Chairman Sensei Toshio Horikiri (right), and TMS and TPS Institute Head Sensei Mori 

Innovation Centre for Enterprise Excellence Solutions (ICEES Global) recently partnered with Toyota Engineering Corporation (TEC) in Japan to bring world-renowned lean management knowledge and capabilities to Sri Lanka, enabling individuals and organisations to learn from the pioneers in the industry.

ICEES Global will be initiating the first-ever Toyota Production System (TPS) Training Program on Lean Management in Sri Lanka scheduled on 21 August. The program will be conducted by Sensei Tetsuo Arikawa, former head of production support at the Toyota Motomichi plant in Nagoya.

Toyota Motor Corporation was the birthplace of lean management, a concept and methodology which was initially known as Toyota Production System (TPS) and Toyota Management System (TMS). Founded in 2002, TEC consist of professionals that have years of hands-on exposure in implementing, improving, and sustaining these methodologies at Toyota. 

Today, TEC is dedicated to spreading their expertise across the globe, and ICEES Global is the Partner and Corporate Member of TEC for Sri Lanka and the South Asian region. With this partnership, ICEES hopes to bring first-hand lean management know-hows to the country and the region with globally recognised certifications and programmes for the lean communities. 

ICEES Global, a training and consulting outfit focused on providing solutions for process innovations, facilitates numerous manufacturing and service-based organisations and professionals to continuously improve productivity and profitability through Lean Management, Six Sigma, and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) methodologies. 

Headed by its directors Lapitha Gunasinghe and Asanka Henegedara, both of whom authored Sri Lanka’s first lean business novel titled ‘Lean Peraliya’ which garnered very high interest from the Sinhala speaking business community, ICEES Global consists of a dynamic, well-experienced team of lean transformation coaches, with over 10 decades of collective expertise locally and regionally.

ICEES actively engages in various industry sectors such as airlines, food and beverage, agriculture, porcelain, textile, and apparel among others with the objective of maximising profitability, productivity, and minimising operating costs whist activating internal teams for transforming organisational culture, and all of these are achieved through highly customised application of Lean concepts that fit each organisation’s culture and business practices.

Due to the lack of understanding of these concepts among business leaders, many fail to realise that lean management is a complete practical solution for their existing problems. Over the years, ICEES Global has contributed to various organisations in addressing their unique business problems through such concepts, and have trained over 500 business leaders on this as of today. 

ICEES Global has three strategic arms, all working towards pioneering transformation for the good of individuals and enterprises. ICEES Lean Academy provides globally recognised knowledge and skills on enterprise excellence and process innovation. ICEES Business Support assists businesses in their enterprise excellence journey, and ICEES R&D is dedicated to create new knowledge by actively keeping up with the fast-changing industry requirements such as Industry 4.0. Please visit www.iceesglobal.com for further information.