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Oracle launches Oracle Lean Leaders' Circle - a European network to share expertise and experience in lean enterprise management

Reading, UK, 13 November, 2006 - Oracle, in collaboration with Cardiff Business School’s Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC), announces the launch of Oracle Lean Leaders’ Circle, a European network formed to explore the opportunities, drivers and challenges of aligning IT and lean enterprise management methodologies.  Comprizing leading global corporations, IT and business organization experts, and ‘lean thinkers’, Oracle Lean Leaders’ Circle will share expertise and experience across Europe in supporting lean principles with IT to drive process and product innovation and eradicate ineffeciencies and waste.  In an increasingly challenging global economic environment, lean thinking presents Europe with a route to increased productivity and competitiveness.

IT is a fundamental element in the successful adoption of lean culture in any commercial sector, and Oracle has a long-term commitment to the lean approach,  having promoted it within organisations across Europe for a number of years.  Oracle Lean Leaders’ Circle extends this commitment by creating a forum for the exchange of experience and best practice in designing and implementing innovative IT solutions that facilitate lean enterprise management methodologies.

Oracle’s partner in the initiative is the prestigious Cardiff Business School’s Lean Enterprise Research Centre, directed by Prof. Peter Hines, a globally recognized lean thinking guru.Since 1994the Centre has studied the coordinated effort required from IT and management in raising business performance and efficiency through lean principles, and now has a team of 25 researchers.

Oracle Lean Leaders’ Circle was launched at the Italian headquarters of General Electric Oil & Gas, a company for which IT proved instrumental in the development and implementation of its Lean Six Sigma project – a project combining Six Sigma methodology with the principles of lean enterprise management.

Bernardo Nicoletti, Chief Information Officer of GE Oil and Gas, said: “Information systems are at the heart of every business process, and efficient and effective processes determine business performance.  Accordingly,  IT staff must be an integral part of any team formed to manage process change.  This is what lean is all about.  At GE Oil and Gas, an IT professional sits on every management board where possible and we have embedded mechanisms in the company that facilitate effective cooperation between business management and IT.” 

The members of the Oracle Lean Leaders’ Circle will define the agenda of research projects which, in three years’ time, will place the Lean Enterprise Research Centre and the leading companies of the network at the forefront of lean enterprise management enabled by IT.

Two projects will be undertaken during the first year: the first one is aimed at analyzing value creation in the lean enterprise and studying the flows that generate this value; the second will concentrate on the most appropriate methods and IT systems for collecting real-time data on the workflow processes essential for value creation.

Prof. Peter Hines said: “We believe that our collaboration with Oracle through the Oracle Lean Leaders’ Circle will bring an added dimension to our research activities, giving us access to the experience of companies that successfully exploit IT within a lean culture.  Long-term success in lean enterprise management is achieved through having in place a management structure to support lean activity, along with a business performance management system.  The research will look at these two key aspects and generate practical solutions for a wide range of businesses.”

“Lean thinking is all about adopting organisational processes that enable a business to make the most efficient and timely use of its resources.  Today, a competitive enterprise is essentially a lean enterprise,” said Andrew Spence, Business Development Director, Lean Enterprise, Oracle EMEA. “With the support of Oracle’s technology and applications, there are currently numerous companies applying lean management principles to derive increased value from their operations.  Oracle is keen to contine spreading this managerial culture within all organizations, and the Oracle Lean Leaders’ Circle will further support our endeavours.”

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Oracle (NASDAQ GS: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com

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