Online conference session information

Vermeer Corporation: Leveraging Lean for Growth & Connecting Improvements to Business Performance
Session sponsored by TBM Consulting Group
11am EDT

In a recent study, nearly 50 percent of executives said that their continuous improvement initiatives failed to meet corporate objectives. Today, approximately 70 percent of manufacturing companies have some sort of continuous improvement initiative in place. As operations management professionals and continuous improvement leaders, we have a collective responsibility to ensure that we clearly align improvements to measurable, sustainable business results.

Learn about the concept of lean progression and understand what types of business results you should expect as you embed operational excellence throughout the enterprise. Hear directly from construction and farm equipment manufacturer Vermeer Corporation, an 11-year lean organization that has a strong lean culture with impressive results. Understand what they believe to be the critical elements of success, some key challenges they faced on their journey, and how they've overcome plateaus along the way.

Presenter:

Jayson Henry, Director of Continuous Improvement and Quality, Vermeer Corporation

The Visual Workplace: You Can't Get to Lean Without It
12pm EDT

Visual and lean are natural allies -- if for no other reason than both are waste reduction strategies. But visual delivers much more than that, including a spirited, aligned, and engaged workforce on every level of the organization. Lean practitioners often mistakenly believe that workplace visuality is a mere handmaiden to lean, instead of an equal and powerful partner. When that happens, they inadvertently commit errors in implementation that make lean less sustainable -- even as they weaken visual’s full contribution to operational excellence.

In this webinar, Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth, leading visual expert and author, defines visual’s unique paradigm, demonstrates its bottom line impact, and reveals why, in the language of the Shingo Prize, “workplace visuality doesn’t just create a consistent lean enterprise culture -- it drives it.”

See dozens of actual visual solutions. Get informed! Get inspired! Get visual!

Presenters:

Gwendolyn Galsworth, President, Quality Methods International/Visual-Lean Institute
Gwendolyn Galsworth, Ph.D., is an implementer, coach, and researcher who has codified the visual workplace field and identified its distinct and powerful contribution to enterprise excellence. Author of many books, including the Shingo award-winning Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking and Work That Makes Sense, Galsworth helps companies around the globe accelerate their rate of transformation, strengthen cultural alignment, and achieve long-term sustainable results through workplace visuality. Visit www.visualworkplace.com for more. And tune into her radio show, The Visual Workplace, every Tuesday (4:00pm/Pacific) on www.voiceamerica.com (the business channel).

Optimizing the Product Introduction and Change Process
Session sponsored by SAP
1pm EDT

Your team faces numerous barriers to successfully manage your products throughout their lifecycles:

Critical product information is locked in standalone systems or stored all over the company with different versions of the truth.
There's no easy way to search for product information you need
Legacy paper-based processes still exist
New regulations are strangling your processes and company

To solve these problems, your users need the right information, at the right time in the formats that drive good decisions. You need to find the information quickly and easily with simple workflows that can support your business processes. Attend this session to learn key best practices for product lifecycle management. You'll hear how a leading medical manufacturer configured and implemented a state-of-the-art product introduction and change process that meets strict FDA regulations. The company will share its challenges, successes, and the overall business impact of the program. Learn how you can eliminate paper based processes, simplify and automate your engineering change processes, and implement workflows that meet compliance standards.

Presenters:

Snehashish Sarkar, Senior Manager-IT, Varian Medical Systems
Ashish Sarkar is a Senior Manager leading large scale business transformation and system implementation programs at Varian Medical Systems. He has expertise in the area of supply chain, business transformation, process integration and solution design. He has 16 year of experience, led multiple IT projects involving big bang global implementation, multi country and multi language rollouts. Prior to Varian, he worked as Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting in Technology Integration group and as a Practice Manger in Enterprise Application Services at Wipro Technologies.
Graham Conlon, Global Vice President SAP PLM Solution Management
Graham Conlon leads the SAP PLM Solution Management organization and is responsible for product and go to market strategy for the SAP PLM Portfolio. Conlon holds a Degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering and later studied Business at Henley Management College. He held various Senior Engineering and Operations Management roles before joining SAP in 2000.

Effective Lean Strategies to Make Your Small or Midsize Company More Competitive
Session sponsored by Epicor
2pm EDT

This presentation will share stories, case studies and examples from companies that have adopted world class techniques (including lean manufacturing and Six Sigma) to help them thrive in the face of a struggling economy and foreign competition. Lean manufacturing author, consultant and trainer Gary Conner will share his experiences working with over 150 companies in dozens of industries. He will answer your questions related to how small to medium "job shop" companies have been able to initiate the same kinds of changes implemented at larger companies like Toyota, despite their high mix and low volume sales patterns. Christine Hansen, Product Marketing Manager at Epicor Software will present some of the latest technologies these companies have used to implement lean and streamline their business operations.

Presenters:

Gary Conner, Principal, Lean Enterprise Training
Connor is a Shingo Prize Recipient for the book "Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop.” His latest book is titled "Catapult the Cow," and it’s a collection of 40 short stories from the 500+ kaizen events he has facilitated over the past 20 years. Connor has authored four textbooks related to world class manufacturing, and is an ISO 9000 certified lead auditor. His areas of expertise include value stream mapping, setup reduction, 5S, team development, and facilities layout planning.
Christine Hansen, Product Marketing Manager, Epicor
Hansen joined Epicor Software Corporation as part of the DataWorks Corporation merger in 1995, bringing a wealth of experience in the product management and marketing of manufacturing solutions to the company. In her current position as product marketing manager with Epicor’s Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Group, she is responsible for the product marketing and direction of various Epicor product suites.

China Labor Cost Increase = Profit Erosion: Now What?
3pm EDT

Rising wages are leading to higher costs and lower margins for organizations importing goods from Asia. Mark Hehl, a leading authority on outsourcing cost reduction, will provide you with time-tested methods for reducing costs at Asian facilities. He will give you real life examples of cost reduction projects, including one where the organization realized a $14 million yearly savings. You'll also learn how to tailor cost reduction efforts such as Lean and Six Sigma so that they work in low-cost factories, plus you'll find out how to remove cultural barriers and select the right support personnel.

Presenter:

Mark Hehl, President, Hehl & Associates
Mark Hehl's career spans more than 30 years and includes leadership roles in international operations, technology transfer, quality, reliability, cost reduction, supply chain improvement, and lead time reduction in many industries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. As a past executive for the Timex Corporation, Hehl implemented Six Sigma at major suppliers in China, Latin America, and at other worldwide corporate facilities. He has also authored more than 15 technical papers on various business process improvement and international business development subjects.