Medtronic and their use of LEAN manufacturing

The Medtronic visit was nice because the presenter seemed like someone that could have been in our shoes 2-3 years ago.  He was easy to relate to and it was helpful to hear him talk about working abroad.  I wish I would have had time to ask him more about what it is like to have a family already when he moved overseas. 

As for the company, Medtronic has more difficulty marketing in Europe because each country is different, but the EU approves products faster than the US.  The manufacturing that takes place at the site uses LEAN manufacturing and a few years ago I thought I might go in that direction as a career, so it was great to see how it was implemented in making the medical devices.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures...this was an interesting point in fact.  Every visit we went to had different rules about whether or not we could take pictures.  It seemed like manufacturing places were the strictest on photo taking.