Cluster LAI Mexico / Sede UPAEP Launches in Puebla

Cluster Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) Mexico / Sede UPAEP, the newest member of the Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI), is a new collaborative network designed to foster cooperation, shared learning, and value creation with 25 industrial and government organizations in the Puebla City region of Mexico.

The Cluster LAI Mexico is headquartered at the Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP). Cluster members, representing automotive manufacturing, services, food, textiles, government, and communications sectors, will work together to apply LAI's lean tools and techniques to boost collective regional competitiveness.

"We are very excited about joining forces with LAI at MIT," said Dr. Pablo Nuño, Director for Postgraduate Education and Research at UPAEP. "LAI is an applied research program that has been working for almost 20 years on lean transformation with a variety of complex, global enterprises. We know that by collaborating with LAI and our new regional network we will move Mexico forward."

According to Director of the Lean Enterprise Center at UPAEP Luis Alfredo Miranda, "This project has generated a lot of interest and expectations from our regional business community. It will be challenging to work with such a variety of organizations, but the pursuit of a transformation based on lean philosophy will provide compelling common ground for our work."

The Cluster was inaugurated at a ceremony at UPAEP on February 16, 2012.

LAI Co-Director Prof. Deborah Nightingale, who presented her thoughts on how to start a lean transformation, is equally excited about the new partnership. "We have learned a lot during our many years of developing unique lean knowledge, products, and tools," she explained. "I think that many of our lessons learned and best practices will be very helpful to our new partners in Mexico and we look forward to supporting, sharing with, and learning from them."