The healthcare sector plays an important role in everyone's life: birth and death, and everything we experience in between those two moments in terms of illness, accidents or wishes related to our physical or psyche. There are many positives to report in the sector, such as that we are seeing better and better survival rates for cancer, for example, but there are also quite a few challenges: staff shortages, pandemics, funding issues et cetera. Lean has been on the radar in healthcare since 2000, and many healthcare facilities have had good experiences, and patients and all of us benefit from that: we see shorter wait times and turnaround times and are less likely to get sick.

Financial and business services is a very diverse industry, with various types of work with very specific processes and solutions for customers. That also makes improvement often take very diverse forms. From digital solutions to robotization, from using scrum boards to methods for getting new people acquainted with an organization's services very quickly. So many branches of services there are, so many challenges organizations in this sector face. Especially in this industry we see many developments following each other in rapid succession, and the competition sometimes comes from unexpected quarters. An excellent industry to start working with Lean and related techniques!

In both transport and logistics, the effects of the pandemic, geopolitical tensions, staff shortages and disrupted supplychains are significant. Not surprisingly, there is plenty of focus on digitization, robotization, scaling and Lean. A tricky field that everyone has to deal with every day, as an individual customer at an online store, in the supermarket, going to work or moving. Plenty of opportunities to address and successfully solve various issues with Lean.

Municipalities are complex organizations where very different processes and services come together. And then there is the political agenda at play, with very different needs and requirements. In recent years, several fields of work have moved from central government to local municipal organizations. In short: an exciting work environment with plenty of challenges where you can get to work with Lean. Think of acceleration of processes and management of departments. Or improving the perceived customer value.

The central government consists of many organizations in a wide variety of fields of activity. From building and housing to climate, from work to law and security. But also from policy development to executive and controlling services. In the middle of society in a political playing field, ministries, implementing organizations and independent administrative organizations have challenges to face. From local challenges such as dealing with the earthquakes caused by gas extraction in Groningen, to geopolitical challenges such as the reception of refugees and rising energy prices. A complex but rewarding playing field where much can be realized with Lean.

For years, the retail industry has been experiencing significant market fluctuations due to increased Internet commerce, corona and price increases. At the same time, we see citizens yearning for entertainment and conviviality in city centers. We also work with organizations in this sector to address their challenges.

Education is our nursery of up-and-coming talent! It is logical that we are happy to make a contribution in this vital sector. There are plenty of challenges in education: workload, increased pupil numbers, shortage of teachers, increasing "loutishness" and threats, after-effects of the pandemic, et cetera. Reasons abound to help educational institutions meet their challenges.

Fortunately, industry still plays an important role in the Dutch and European markets. From automotive to technological machinery, from tiny parts to super-sized machines. There are also plenty of developments in industry that provide the necessary challenges. We have been helping countless companies, from small SMEs to multinationals, for 2 decades.

Utilities in the Netherlands often operate large networks that have been built up over long periods of time. Maintaining these networks in a predictable and consistent manner is often quite a challenge. In addition, there is often a need for accepted standard operating procedures that can be effectively transferred to new employees. The transition from task-oriented to process-oriented work and management is also often difficult within utility companies. This also makes it more difficult to actually realize the performance experienced by customers. LMI has extensive experience with utility companies such as water companies, Gasunie, energy suppliers and network operators.

The Netherlands is a major player in the Food and Agro sector, we are the number two exporter worldwide and lead the way in research and development. At the same time, the sector is facing major challenges such as climate change, the nitrogen crisis and economies of scale. Plenty of opportunities to make meaningful improvements with Lean. Over the past 20 years, the Lean Management Institute has helped many organizations in Food and Agro with a variety of issues.