Finance and Accounting
H. Thomas Johnson, Professor of Business Administration, Portland State University and author of Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting
Human Resource Development
Steven Spear, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement and author of "Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System", Harvard Business Review (1999)
Engineering Operations
Dan Dimancescu, M.A.L.D, Founder and President, Technology and Strategy Group and author The Lean Enterprise: Designing & Managing Strategic Processes for Customer Winning Performance
Lean and the Environment
George Wyeth, Director, Policy and Program Change Division, Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Quality Assurance
Robert E. Cole, Professor Emeritus, School of Business Administration and Department of Sociology, University of California and author of several publications including Managing Quality Fads: How American Business Learned to Play the Quality Game
Supply Chain Management
David Freni, President, The Freni Group, Inc., and former Head of Strategic Planning - Operations, adidas - Salomon
Manufacturing Operations and Materials Management
David Rowland, Director of the Milliken Performance System, Milliken and Company
Maintenance Operations
Charles J. Robinson, Regional Director, Productivity Asia and author of Implementing TPM: The North American Experience
Marketing and Sales
Thomas L. Jackson, PhD, Principal, Rona Consulting Group and author of several publications including, Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise
Information Technology
Jean Cunningham, Founder and President, Jean Cunningham Consulting and author of several publications including, Easier, Simpler, Faster Systems Strategy for Lean IT
Management
Jack Hockema, CEO, Kaiser Aluminum Corporation
Finance and Accounting
H. Thomas Johnson, Professor of Business Administration, Portland State University and author of Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting
To Become Lean, Shed Accounting
W. Edwards Deming, one of the foremost systems thinkers of the past century and a creator of modern quality management, argued many decades ago that good management means focusing on the system, not on achieving targets. Yet this flies in the face of today's widely accepted practice of using accounting systems to set targets and motivate people's actions. In this presentation, Mr. Johnson draws on his years of experience to discuss why the use of accounting systems as a means to guide operations is a recipe for failure and looks at how organizations can build "living" control systems that will create a permanent state of Lean throughout their enterprise. Deming was right. Today's managers must divert their attention from their spreadsheets and focus on building self-sustaining, self-regulating systems that will allow their organizations to develop a secure future, regardless of the challenges they face.
Human Resource Development
Steven Spear, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement and author of "Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System", Harvard Business Review (1999)
Decoding the DNA of Toyota
It has been nearly twenty years since Toyota was identified as a force in the world auto industry, setting standards in initial product quality and manufacturing productivity. What ensued were widespread attempts by industry leaders to study and emulate the company's 'secrets of success.' Despite that effort, Toyota widened the gap on its rivals, maintaining a gap on the quality and productivity measures, but, more significantly, by increasing the dimensions of play. Once an exporter, it has localized design and production around the world. Once a supplier of small cars, its product portfolio now also includes trucks, minivans, and SUVs, not only with the Toyota nameplate, but also the top selling luxury Lexus and the Gen Y brand, the Scion. Prius, specifically, and hybrid drive, more generally, have changed the discussion around efficiency, emissions, and environmental impact. To accomplish all this, Toyota built a self-sustaining, self-regulating system that has less to do with production and everything to do with people. In his presentation, Dr. Spear will look at the methods and organizational structures that set Toyota apart, and what opportunities exist for leaders in other organizations to make their firms the Toyotas of their industry sectors.
Engineering Operations
Dan Dimancescu, M.A.L.D, Founder and President, Technology and Strategy Group and author The Lean Enterprise: Designing & Managing Strategic Processes for Customer Winning Performance
Holistic, Collaborative, Integrated - Product Development
Traditional product development methods are slow-paced and fraught with problems, because activities are structured to take place in a linear fashion rather than concurrently. To make matters worse, traditional, functionally structured organizations isolate decision makers from one another, making it very difficult to solve complex problems. While the linear/functional approach allows individuals to contribute to the overall project independently of other participants, activities are often carried out with only partial information and without regard to the impact on processes further down the line. This causes confusion and errors and leads to lengthy delays in the development process. Does any of this sound familiar? For many organizations, this is the reality called Product Development. But there is a better way. In this session, Mr. Dimancescu will discuss Integrated Product Development; a synchronized development method pioneered at Boeing during their Boeing 777 Development Program and used at Renault in the development of the ‘Dacia' car—an unexpected product development success! Integrated Product Development is a holistic, collaborative development process that focuses on speed to market, superior product performance, reduced development costs, low unit costs and greater flexibility. Based on his experiences working with Renault, Boeing Corporation, the Trane Company as well as others, Dan will discuss how to organize your people as well as your process to cut lead times, raise quality, hit your target costs and out perform your competition.
Lean and the Environment
George Wyeth, Director, Policy and Program Change Division, Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Saving the Planet on Company Time
Rising prices for everything from energy to materials are making resource efficiency a priority in almost every line of business. At the same time, more and more companies are finding that it pays to shrink their environmental footprint. Lean can be the tool for putting these together—cutting costs and saving the planet at the same time. This session will show how companies have applied the Lean principle of waste elimination to make them more competitive, profitable -- and "green."
Quality Assurance
Robert E. Cole, Professor Emeritus, School of Business Administration and Department of Sociology, University of California and author of several publications including Managing Quality Fads: How American Business Learned to Play the Quality Game
Close but no Cigar: Quality Competition
Quality in a Lean enterprise means quality at the source. It means that every single person throughout the supply chain is responsible to certify the quality of their work…and when a problem is discovered, processes stop until the problem is fixed. From quality circles in the 70's to total quality management in the 80's to Six Sigma in the 90's to Lean Sigma in the 21st century, we have been focusing on quality for well over three decades. In this presentation, Mr. Cole separates fact from fad and discusses why American Business hasn't really learned to play the quality game for the long term. He will look at the current state of quality in American Business and what else needs to be done to ensure we are on track to achieve a truly Lean enterprise.
Supply Chain Management
David Freni, President, The Freni Group, Inc., and former Head of Strategic Planning - Operations, adidas - Salomon
Strong Partnerships are Critical to the Lean Enterprise
The Lean enterprise must create a continual process of building long term, cooperative relationships with supplier partners. Gone are the set it and forget it relationships of the past. Today, establishing effective procedures to manage supplier relationships is instrumental to ensure consistently high quality and on-time delivery. Providing suppliers with first-hand process improvement support targeted to help them improve their capabilities in quality, cost and delivery, benefits everyone in the value chain. Plus, having supplier organizations involved up-front in the innovation and development of your new products can bring a distinct competitive advantage and move your organization ahead of the competition. Establishing strong supplier partnerships is critical to the Lean enterprise. Based upon his landmark supply chain development program for global sports equipment giant, adidas-Salomon, David Freni explains how to assess the organizational capability of your suppliers and how to engage them in the development of lean champions capable of leading independent lean transformations within their own organizations.
Manufacturing Operations and Materials Management
David Rowland, Director of the Milliken Performance System, Milliken and Company
Lean Manufacturing - Not the Tools, the People
Was Toyota just playing with us when they labeled their invention "The Toyota Production System"? Obviously, it isn't a production system at all, because it applies to anything that moves, including service processes such as product development, accounting, human resources, etc. Even in manufacturing, where of course the system originated, success is not assured by focusing on production processes alone. It is no secret that the Lean organization must become familiar with and adept at applying a variety of available Lean techniques. Team-based methods of flow production will remove non-value-adding wastes (e.g. waiting, inspection, transport, motion, overproduction, defects, and inventory) from their processes and allow the organization to provide customers what they want, when they want it, and at a competitive price. But to be successful, the Lean organization can't stop there. Attention must be paid to systems of management. In this session, Mr. Rowland will demonstrate how Lean tools will enhance building a culture of continuous improvement, position necessary standard work, and stabilize enterprise-wide processes. Learn Milliken's systemic approach to building a culture of continuous improvement - an approach essential to companies as they face global competition and rising energy and material costs that continue to squeeze margins.
Maintenance Operations
Charles J. Robinson, Regional Director, Productivity Asia and author of Implementing TPM: The North American Experience
Downtime is a Luxury No One Can Afford
It is critical for the Lean organization to understand the link between maintenance operations and Lean success. In a Lean enterprise, maintenance is never an after thought, it is not a repair shop, and it is never taken for granted. In a Lean enterprise, maintenance management is meticulously planned and implemented.
To be successful, the Lean organization must build a well-designed maintenance ‘program of improvement' that is linked to the company's overall strategy and policies. Empowered teams of operators, engineers and maintenance technicians must come together on equipment improvement teams to investigate facts and share improvement ideas that lead to the minimization of equipment related losses and the extension of equipment life. In other words, they must implement Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). In this session, Mr. Robinson discusses the current state of TPM implementations in the United States and abroad and what it takes to achieve—and hold on to—TPM's Holy Grail: 85% (and higher) rates of overall equipment effectiveness. Learn to recognize when you are ready to apply advanced sensing equipment in the discipline of predictive maintenance, and how to engage the maintenance department, operators and equipment suppliers in developing new equipment that helps you meet your target costs. Finally, Mr. Robinson will discuss the demanding organizational requirements of successful TPM.
Marketing and Sales
Thomas L. Jackson, PhD, Principal, Rona Consulting Group and author of several publications including, Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise
Translating the Voice of the Customer
Decoding the voice of the customer is essential when attempting to establish your company's competitive advantage. A Lean enterprise must understand how to continually align its strategic intent and organizational capabilities with the spoken, unspoken and latent desires of its customers. Theoretically, the role of Marketing and Sales in a Lean enterprise is to determine what customers value and then articulate these values internally for product development and externally for potential buyers. As a practical matter, however, even in organizations that have implemented Lean manufacturing, marketing and sales often focus on the top line, ignoring the organization's ability to translate customer requirements into designs and products. In this session, Dr. Jackson discusses how to turn Marketing and Sales into Lean thinkers.
Information Technology
Jean Cunningham, Founder and President, Jean Cunningham Consulting and author of several publications including, Easier, Simpler, Faster Systems Strategy for Lean IT
Good Information has a Very Short Shelf Life
To enhance and sustain its Lean journey, a company must implement information systems that fully support the Lean initiative. In a Lean enterprise, decisions need to be made as close to the process as possible. Thus, Lean information systems are designed to provide local decision makers at all levels of the organization with the information they need, in as close to real time as possible. This means the creation of information systems that bypass computers completely in addition to traditional IT systems. In this session, Ms. Cunningham will provide a vision of what a Lean information system could look like for your company.
Management
Jack Hockema, CEO, Kaiser Aluminum Corporation
Leading a Lean Enterprise
The Lean enterprise is continuously refining the control of time throughout all business functions by eliminating obstacles to the flow of resources, material and information. It does so by repetitive application of the plan/do/check/act (PDCA) cycle to its strategy, tactics, operations, and daily work. The Lean enterprise creates a continual process of realigning its organization and productive capacity with its strategic intent and does so through the involvement of customers, suppliers, and teams of associates in the planning and deployment process. To be successful, a Lean organization must be able to do all of this and more. In this presentation, Mr. Hockema shares details on Kaiser Aluminum's Lean journey. Learn what it takes to lead an organization to Lean success. From strategy and planning through the Kaiser deployment process, discover what they have done to position Lean throughout their organization, build a culture of continuous improvement, and how Lean has become part of daily work from the board room to the shop floor.
