Enterprise Minnesota News
The Lean Team
Agribusiness giant Syngenta Seeds, Inc. and Enterprise Minnesota recently teamed up to create a Lean Product Design and Development training program for the Syngenta Research and Molecular Marker Laboratory in Stanton, Minn. The collaboration is made possible by a $43,000 grant from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) administered by Enterprise Minnesota.
Announced in August, the lean product design program launched in October and will continue to be implemented through June 2009, providing as many as 70 Syngenta employees with practical, easily applied techniques for reducing the company’s design and development costs. Training incorporates a mix of curriculum development and classroom training, as well as train-the-trainer sessions. Benefits of implementing similar lean techniques at other companies have included as much as a 50 percent reduction in launch schedules, improvements in gross margin and higher customer satisfaction.
Ray Riley, vice president of Corn and Soybean Research and Development at Syngenta, believes the training will prove beneficial for both the company and its employees. “Syngenta is continuously looking for ways to improve efficiencies, maximize performance and eliminate waste,” he says. “We’re proud to support the continued skill development of our research staff. Embracing Lean Product Design and Development techniques will allow us to streamline our processes and deliver better products faster.”
President and CEO of Enterprise Minnesota Bob Kill says the training is good for the state as well. “This is the type of program that is ideally suited to propel Minnesota’s bioscience and agribusiness prominence,” Kill says. Syngenta has already applied lean techniques at six of its supply-chain locations, and it may replicate the program at other locations in the future.