Main Conference Day One: Tuesday, February 23, 2010

7:15 Registration & Coffee

8:00 Chairperson’s Welcome And Opening Remarks

8:15 Keynote: Identifying Low Cost Solutions To Maximize Benefits And Savings Of Process Improvement Projects For Top-Line Processes

In today’s economic climate, companies need affordable solutions. One approach taken by LLS and Process Improvement experts is to leverage expertise and technology that is already in place or can be developed in house and apply it to top-line processes. Attend this interactive session and learn how to:

  • Set appropriate data collection and data analysis targets
  • Develop Monte Carlo Simulation using Excel to achieve accurate results
  • Develop training programs for all involved parties to address areas that need improvement

David During/Shiraz Bajwa
Process Engineering Associates
Direct Energy

9:00 PANEL DISCUSSION: Sustaining Employee Engagement And Productivity Post Process Re-Engineering

At a time when every employee is concerned about potential occupational changes that might result from LSS implementation, it is imperative to clearly present, communicate and address the impact of LSS deployment on human capital. During this interactive session you will learn how to:

  • Empower employees in the design and evaluation of alternate solutions, in preparation for implementation, that can significantly impact their work environment
  • Identify the importance and impact of timely vertical and horizontal communication techniques to key stakeholders
  • Identify and realize anticipated benefits, including quality and productivity improvements as a result of re-engineering efforts
  • Identify the need to drive continuous improvement and bridge the gap between anticipated and actual benefits

Panelists:

Chris McCarthy
Director, Continuous Improvement Programs
Unum

Tom Kling
Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Deployment Leader
Dow Chemical

Jason Schulist
Director of Continuous Improvement
DTE Energy Company

10:00 Morning Networking Break

10:45 Engaging Your Customer/Client In Transactional Lean Six Sigma Projects To Improve Process And Service Efficiency

Today, many service oriented companies are leveraging LSS methodologies to improve efficiency of customer facing processes, while helping to boost customer/client service and retention. But in order to achieve these goals, projects and programs often require customer buy-in and involvement to be successful. During this session you will gain insight into the application of Lean Six Sigma in a major project execution environment and will learn how to:

  • Assess customer/client needs in building successful business case(s) which show the benefits of process improvement methodologies’ implementation
  • Engage customers/clients in training programs developed with their needs in mind
  • Identify and develop specific steps for integration, buy-in and improvement

Bantrel LSS At a Glance:

  • 10 certified Black Belts, 138 Certified Yellow Belts, 63 Certified Champions
  • 90 Process Improvement Projects (PIPs) in process or completed in 2009
  • Over 5M in savings attributed to Process Improvement Projects since 2007

Chris Sandink
Manager, Project Quality and Effectiveness
Bantrel

11:30 Mobilizing For A Sustainable Lean Transformation

Implementing a strategic shift to a lean foundation for most businesses is a daunting challenge, often in conflict with entrenched corporate culture. As a change leader, you must put countermeasures in place to address these obstacles as part of your change strategy. Whether you are already executing this transformation or just now beginning your lean journey, this presentation highlights basic elements critical to your change and sustainment strategy. Attend this interactive case-study presentation and learn how to:

  • identify necessary components to successfully execute and sustain the change by incorporating it into corporate agenda
  • identify and implement key fundamentals for change execution
  • deploy “learn by doing” approach to ensure maximum involvement from all the employees

Jeff Adams
General Manager, Continuous Improvement
Canadian Pacific Railway

12:15 Networking Luncheon

CONCURRENT TRACKS BEGIN

TRACK A:

TRACK B:

1:15 Interactive Interview: Leveraging Business Analytics Tools For Data Collection And Data Interpretation To Build Effective Baselines For PE Projects

It’s a well-known fact that effective data collection and interpretation is “a must” for greater results to be achieved. There are numbers of BA tools that can help you improve the quality of your data and transform it into value-add info. However, these methods differ both in cost and complexity. During this interactive interview you will familiarize yourself with, and compare capabilities of various BA tools based on what process you are targeting:

  • Excel capabilities
  • Business Objects and SAP software capabilities

Interviewee:

Luis Cuccatti
Master Black Belt
Motorola

1:15 LSS Leadership Forum – Moving Out Of “Reactionary Mode” And Into Long-Term Sustainable Growth!

The main goal of the Forum is to provide a unique and frank discussion between peers which will then be summarized and fed back at the conference providing key discussion points for the entire audience.

Topics to be discussed will include:

  • Which strategic imperatives should be realized through LSS deployment and process improvement initiatives within the next 12 months? In order to outlast the recession, most businesses focused on cost cutting, customer retention and restructuring. What are the next steps?
  • How can companies turn recession-driven outcomes into business opportunities? How does this change the role of PE experts in a new business paradigm?
  • How to maximize deployment ROI particularly during this economic time? A new wave of entrepreneurship in entirely new markets with entirely new products, are among some of the expected outcomes of the recession. But how realistic is this expectation? Will these potential changes prompt companies to become more demand driven? If so, will companies benefit from lean concepts of pull manufacturing?
  • What processes within the organization will be a top priority for Process Improvement/Process Reengineering projects?

Given the expected changes in the economy and clear shift of strategic business imperatives, certain processes have become a top priority for all businesses. Will processes such as innovation and new product development be eminent for businesses tomorrow? How much effort will be put into back office and support processes? Will businesses continue to integrate various functions in an attempt to create new end-to-end processes or will this trend be reversed?

2:15 PANEL DISCUSSION: LSS In Action: Applying LSS Methodology To Transactional Processes To Increase Effectiveness Of Service Products

When transactional processes are at the forefront of many companies PE initiatives, there is tremendous opportunity to pick and choose from the extensive pool of best practices to ensure optimal results. Key purposes for using LSS methodologies in today’s business environment are:

  • Enhanced market penetration and establishment of new markets
  • Minimized risk of the executive changes required for breakthrough process improvement in transactional processes
  • Gained control over process complexity, and improved performance and response time on signature services

Attend this session and learn how to:

  • Identify which LSS methodologies are the best match for transactional processes
  • Retrieve and analyse necessary data for transactional processes
  • Include all stakeholders in process improvement projects to achieve better results
  • Measure the empirical impact of LSS operations

David Haigh
Process Excellence Manager
Johnson & Johnson

Sabrina Lemos
Continuous Improvement Consultant
United Air Lines Inc.

Chris McCarthy
Director, Continuous Improvement Programs
Unum

3:00 Afternoon Networking Break

3:00 Afternoon Networking Break

3:45 MOVING FORWARD: TRIZ And Its Application To Transactional Processes

TRIZ is a tool set for generating innovative ideas and solutions and it is becoming, increasingly useful in today’s highly volatile market environment. However, given the, competition among different programs for time and mindshare inside the company,, applying this methodology in the LSS organization is a challenge. Attend this, interactive session and learn how to:

  • Understand the origins of TRIZ and its specific application in a transactional, environment
  • Select tools to address transactional problems and technological problems
  • Ensure top management buy-in by developing an appealing business case for TRIZ

Dow Chemicals Six Sigma At a Glance:

  • Six Sigma journey underway for 10 years
  • Every business and function is active in Six Sigma application
  • Over 10,000 project leaders (Green and Black Belts) trained
  • SS is integrated into all major improvement and innovation processes

Tom Kling
Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Deployment Leader
Dow Chemical

3:45 LSS Leadership Forum Continued

  • What organizational structure has proven to be the most effective for Quality/Process improvement teams?

What is the most agile structure for your US operations or your divisions overseas? Which processes are a good fit for outsourcing? How can Quality/Process improvement teams become more effective by implementing shared service model?

Moderator:

Richard Lam
Lean Six Sigma Corporate Deployment Leader
BMO Bank of Montreal

Participants:

Audrey Maeren
VP, Strategy & Corporate Governance
Assiniboine Credit Unio

Steven F. Hodlin
VP, Business Excellence
DST Output

John Murphy
AVP of Operations Process Excellence
CSX Corporation

Rod Morgan
MBB, VP, Program Management, Founding Member
E-ZSigma

4:30 PANEL DISCUSSION: Leveraging Home-Grown PI Innovative Techniques And Methodologies That You Won’t Hear Anywhere Else

In order to effectively battle the negatives of economic downturn, many companies came up with variety of “home-grown” techniques that help them to improve internal processes and achieve significant savings. Many of them are used only internally but could be applied to various processes and across many industries. In this session, learn how these internal, customized strategies can be applied across different industries to improve performance by focusing on:

  • Cornerstone metrics and KPI’s
  • Measurements and data collection and data analytics solutions
  • Dashboards and division “Charters”

Gary Kucera
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
Kaplan Higher Education

Chris Sandink
Manager, Project Quality and Effectiveness
Bantrel

5:15 “Moving From “One-Size-Fits-All” To “Rightsizing”: Ensuring A Highly Flexible And Adaptable Process Improvement Culture”

As a result of recent economic challenges, many businesses are focused on projects designed to achieve short term successes. Today, however, it’s clear that this approach is no longer working – one size does not fit all! During this interactive session you will learn how to:

  • Create “toolbox” of various methodologies that will be suitable for variety of projects to properly address the needs of process owners and management
  • Ensure proper knowledge transfer within the organization through networking forums
  • Identify effective communication channels between multiple stakeholders to ensure accessibility of information and timely feedback

Jennifer Thompson
Master Black Belt Process Excellence
RBC

6:00 Close Of Day 1

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