Day I - TUESDAY, June 2, 2009

7:00 am Register and pick up your conference materials at the Hotel Novotel Toronto Mississauga Center

8:00 am
Welcome to the Conference
Conference Chairperson: Laurie Haughey, Conference Organizer and Director
Clemson University, Professional Advancement and Continuing Education

8:10 am “Faces and Places”
Join your colleagues for an opportunity to get to know each other and improve the quality of your networking during the conference.

8:30 am
RoLl-Up Your SleEves Workshop:
The New Era of Lean—How to Reduce Costs and Variation, Collapse Lead Times
and Gain Market Share By Increasing Your On-Time Delivery Using Lean in Transactional Areas
NEXT LEVEL Partners®, LLC, Mike Holland, Vice President, Consulting Services and Ronica Bowen, Vice President, Consulting Services

Bring real-life problems from your company to this roll-up-your sleeves workshop and walk away with solutions you can put to work right away. I think we can all agree that your business has a greater chance of survival despite the economy if your focus is on your customer, taking active measures to reduce your lead times, poke-yoking your processes and conserving resources.

During this unique workshop, gain a new perspective by looking at cost reduction as an opportunity to build a better more flexible infrastructure for your business of the future. Like no other time, organizations this year are being challenged to reduce costs in all areas, not just manufacturing. Mike, an expert in Manufacturing and Health Care applications, will share proven techniques and examples in Health Care, Food Service, Hotel Operations, Financial Services, Information Technology, Legal Services, Security and other Transactional areas—the philosophy being that all organizations can learn from each others’ best practices. Add to your solutions manual when Mike takes a strong, detailed study into examples of:

■ Value Stream Mapping
■ Transactional Process Improvement
■ Variation Reduction
■ Standard Work
■ Changeover Reduction
■ Variation Reduction

Discover tried-and-true methodologies for collapsing your lead times, drastically reducing and controlling your costs—all while maintaining zero defect quality and 100% on-time delivery. Mike will also focus on using these tools together in a Lean Business System Transformation using the Toyota Production System. Points made during this hands-on work shop will be made more relevant through simulations, question and answer sessions, and real life examples.

9:45 am    Refreshment/Stretch Break

10:00 am Roll-Up Your Sleeves Workshop:
The New Era of Lean—How to Reduce Costs and Variation, Collapse Lead Times and Gain Market Share By Increasing Your On-Time Delivery Using Lean in Transactional Areas (Continued)

11:10 am Board Buses to Travel to Honda/Acura Plant Tour
Enjoy a boxed lunch while traveling to Honda of Canada Manufacturing plants in Alliston, Ontario.

12:30 pm Tour of Champions #1: Honda/Acura Plant Tour

Experience a walking tour through Honda of Canada Manufacturing’s (HCM’s) state-of- the-art facility. Here, approximately 4600 associates manufacture 390,000 vehicles per year. Proud winner of J.D.Power and Associates IQS Award for two years running as well as ISO 14001 Certified and ISO 9002 certified, the facility is one of Honda’s premier manufacturing facilities in the world. The tour offers you an insider’s look into HCM’s $2 billion plant including the quality processes and controls which have earned the company upwards of 10% of the Canadian market share. Learn how the company uses the latest trends in lean manufacturing to produce the Acura MDX and CSX Sedan, Honda Civic Sedan, Si and Coupe. As you tour this facility, you’ll discover the methodologies used by the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to establish a production facility in Canada. Your tour will cover all aspects of automotive manufacturing including stamping, welding, painting, final assembly and vehicle quality.

1:30 pm    Question and Answer Period
Hosted by Honda’s Quality Team

2:00 pm Board Bus to return to Novotel Hotel

3:15 pm How to Engage Your Suppliers Toward Partnered Sustainability
How Integrated Product Teams Create Value Stream Ownership
GE Energy, Sven Verbroekken, LEAN Team Leader - GSCM

Explore the process and methodologies used by GE Energy’s team to engage suppliers in lean activities. During this session, Sven will share how GE’s suppliers vastly improved their efficiency and increased the benefits GE Energy realized assisting their supplies. Sven will cover the strategy side, including how:

■ GE Energy identifies suppliers to engage in a lean partnership.
■ GE Energy balances lean supplier demand vs. supply.
■ GE Energy utilizes the DMAIC process to drive sustained lean improvement at their suppliers.

In addition, Sven will fully illustrate GE’s processes from initiation of a lean partnership with the supplier through the completion of the project and the transition phase of the lean ownership to the supplier.

5:15 pm Networking Social

Unwind after your first day of learning and network with your industry peers and speakers during a social hosted by Clemson University.

DAY II – Wednesday, June 3, 2009

7:00 am Continental Breakfast
Join other conference participants and speakers for a continental breakfast hosted by Clemson University.

8:00 am Morning Kick-Off and Conference Overview
Laurie Haughey, Clemson University

10:10 am How to Drive Productivity in Your Organization Through the Use of Continuous Improvement Tools
Schneider Electric, Bertram Wells, Manager/ Organizational Development

In 2008 Schneider Electric determined that the training paths for Six Sigma and Lean should be aligned to increase the overall continuous improvement competencies in the organization. This resulted not only in the creation of a new learning path but in a more in-depth upskilling of employees. The overall project, completed in February 2009, has created a training curriculum that will be used by Schneider Electric worldwide. Tools in the new model include Lean, Six Sigma, consulting skills, change management, and Supply Chain Management. Explore these newly learned skills and how they can help your company to better apply both Lean and Six Sigma throughout the DMAIC process Through the application of the tools, consulting with the major stakeholders of the project, and managing the changes through communication and employee involvement, discover how you can create sponsorship and manage resistance to the changes you are implementing. Also, learn how you can use a kaizen approach led by your highly skilled coaches to identify and close projects in a timely manner.

9:10 am Refreshment/Stretch Break

9:30 am Sustainable Development At Teknion: A Change Initiative . . . “Small Moves, Big Shift”Toyota Panel Discussion
Teknion Corporation, Scott Deugo, Senior Vice President Design, Marketing and Sustainable Development

Explore how Teknion, a leading international designer, manufacturer and marketer of office systems and related office furniture products, developed a very unique strategy to engage the organization and move to pro-active environmental responsibility across all levels. Teknion has won over 50 design awards in the past four years, including the Design of the Decade Award from the Industrial Designers Society of America. And yet its most compelling design is arguably the design of the entire organization. Driven from the top down, discover how the organization utilized a charter of sustainable development and set yearly goals and objectives. Scott will detail how Teknion used an array of foundation programs to initiate the necessary behavioral changes and established the purpose of each with clear expectations including:

■ ISO 14001,
■ Greenguard,
■ Low Emissions testing,
■ Eco Logo,
■ LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), and
■ DfE (Design for the Environment).

Interestingly, you will determine that Teknion has not simply become a ‘greener’ company but a better, stronger company. Scott will illustrate that the company’s reduction of environmental impacts has reduced both scrap and non-value added processes. Growing a company with pro-active environmental responsibility has enhanced its relationships with both clients and suppliers. Teknion is ISO 9000 and ISO 14001, won the prestigious ‘Corporate Competitiveness Award’ at the 2007 GLOBE Awards and was named Recycling Counsel of Ontario’s 2008 Platinum Award Winner. Scott will share through a variety of metrics how the company earned its great results
including how Teknion:

■ Took the responsibility seriously.
■ Assembled a GreenWorks team of 40 employees, representing all facets of job types from the shop floor to senior executives, hand-picked for their personal commitment to recycling and other environmental projects.
■ Understands the ‘Butterfly Effect’ and that “small, seemingly modest acts can cause major shifts in behavior.”
■ Made sustainable development who they are in terms of an organizational culture with a vertical integration of operations from design through manufacturing and distribution.
■ Have become a prominent example of the philosophy that what is good for the environment is good for business.
■ Became more competitive and captured more market share.

10:30 am Stretch Break

10:45 am How Your Organization Can Eliminate 7 Forms of Waste (Muda) To Decrease Cost and Increase Customer Satisfaction
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. (TMMC), Kent Rice, Assistant General Manager of Manufacturing Lexus North America

Most everyone knows the Toyota Production System (TPS) has sustantially changed the way manufacturing is done and, as far as benchmarking the best practices, there are few better examples. TPS works to continually enhance the quality of the end product. It does this by optimizing resources, reducing waste and uncovering potential flaws - and thus moving both the product and the processes used to build it ever closer to perfection. During Kent’s session, explore the planning and creation of the first Lexus assembly plant to operate outside of Japan. To date, TMMC in Cambridge, Ontario continues to be the only plant outside of Japan to win the right to build Lexus. Kent will share background information on the successful launch of the new 2010 Lexus RX350 model, on customer satisfaction and how customer expectations change during an economic downturn. Most importantly, he focuses on the 7 Muda (a Japanese word for waste) which invariably keep companies from thriving, particularly in poor economic times. Join Kent as he explores processes you can put into place which reduce waste all through your manufacturing environment. These include:

■ Overproduction
■ Inventory
■ Motion
■Waiting/Delays
■ Transportation
■ Over-Processing
■ Scrap, Rework and Defects

11:45 am Networking Luncheon
Enjoy some more networking with fellow participants and speakers during this banquet-style luncheon sponsored by Clemson University.


12:45 pm Driving Improvements at Canada Post
Canada Post, Jag Sharma, MBA, BScEE, BB, Director of Engineering and Continuous Improvement and Dustin Thesin, Value Stream Specialist

Jag offers you a high-level overview of Canada Post’s continuous improvement program and how the organization utilizes its Value Stream Map to thoroughly identify the greatest opportunities for improvement in terms of quality, safety and potential savings to the organization. Explore specific examples of chosen Lean Six Sigma projects and their results with Dustin who will offer you a preview of what you will see once you are on your practical, walk-through tour of the Toronto facility.

1:30 pm Board buses for Canada Post

Tour of Champions Part II—Canada Post
Tour a facility that began its Lean journey in 2003—a story of magnificent turnaround in a short span of time. A short while ago everything at Canada Post was incredibly crowded. Discover how Lean and Six Sigma tools were used to reduce waste and improve material flows in order to better utilize the facility to meet business needs. During the tour, you will witness the many efforts to improve mail flow at its Toronto facility while learning how Canada Post is working to unify its operations, standardize processes and best practices across the organization. You will have a behind-the- scenes opportunity to examine how trained “lean six sigma” leaders coordinate their many projects while acquiring a first-hand knowledge of how Canada Post:

■ Uses lean material-flow and Six Sigma statistical tools to identify the greatest opportunities for improvement and implement changes.
■ Changed the flow of material and created preliminary sorting hubs which required much less space
■ Kept the mail flow constant, which reduced the work-in-progress inventory. Empowered employees with much greater authority to react appropriately to blockages.
■ Reduced handling and rework with better incoming mail quality.
■ Communicated and required standard practices and best practices across the company.
■ Used Lean/Six Sigma to facilitate a 96.8% on-time delivery rate for letter mail against a stated target of 96%, whereby ensuring ten consecutive years of profitability for the corporation.
■ Gained Senior Management’s commitment of process management as the foundation for managing and improving Canada Post’s business processes.
■ Linked all Lean Six Sigma initiatives and improvements to the process management system and aligns them to the needs of the organization.
■ Trained process owners and managers to identify and break down business problems into manageable Lean Six Sigma projects based on process data.
■ Provides support for the roles of its Black Belts and Green Belts that enable them to continue using their skills for process improvement.

4:00 pm Board buses to return to Conference Hotel

Day III—Thursday, June 4, 2009

7:00 am Continental Breakfast
Join other conference participants and speakers for a continental breakfast hosted by Clemson University

8:00 am Morning Kick-Off and Conference Overview
Laurie Haughey, Clemson University

8:15 am Board Buses for McNeil Consumer Healthcare Plant Tour

9:30 am McNeil Consumer Healthcare: Sharing Metrics From Johnson & Johnson’s Lean Processes, Success Factors, Leadership and Deployment
McNeil Consumer Healthcare, A Johnson& Johnson Company, Mary K. Tranter, Manager Manufacturing Excellence

Focus on a Johnson & Johnson Company as Mary uncovers McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s 20 year history of Continuous Improvement and its nine year journey of Process Excellence and Lean. McNeil Consumer Healthcare utilizes many tools in the vast tool belt of J & J, and Mary will share metrics and real time examples from the company’s Lean processes, success factors, leadership and deployment. Learn many strategies from how McNeil operates under strict governmental controls. Mary will highlight what you will see while on your walk-through tour while she discusses:

■ Goal alignment.
■ Leadership roadmap.
■ The company’s Lean strategy.
■ Successes, failures and what drives the corporation’s culture.
■ Metrics of past cost savings, continuous improvement, waste elimination, kanbans, VME and 5S implementation plans.
■ Lean Transformational MAP.
■ How innovation is interwoven into culture.
■ Process Excellence, and
■ Future plans.

10:30 am Tour of McNeil Consumer Healthcare Manufacturing Plant in Guelph, Ont.
Your insider’s view into McNeil Consumer Healthcare—Johnson & Johnson’s Guelph manufacturing campus, spans more than 205,000 square feet. Here you will gain a behind-the-scenes look into the highly regulated batch production of TYLENOL®, MOTRIN® IB and BENYLIN®. The plant operates in a highly-regulated environment with 300 non-unionized employees to manufacture and package both liquids and solids that supply the Canadian marketplace. This site also manufactures a selection of products for Johnson & Johnson’s international markets—all in all 190 SKUs. Your tour will also take in the facility’s Quality Control Laboratory to see how this group is applying Lean principles. For McNeil, their potential for growth is contingent on driving change through continuous improvement. Clemson University’s tour could not be timed more perfectly as you will be able to view all the variety of metrics which drive the company’s Process Excellence. Weeks earlier the plant will have completed Johnson & Johnson’s Lean Maturity Model Assessment, a significant assessment provided by J&J’s corporate leadership which is based on J&J’s Eight Lean Fundamental Principles. During your tour you will see best practices in:

■ Process Excellence/Lean Manufacturing
■ Six Sigma – Black Belts, Green Belts, Red Belts
■ Johnson & Johnson Lean Maturity Model based on its Eight Lean Fundamental Principles
■ The proper use of tools, including Kaizens, 5S, Flow, Pull and Standard Work.

12:00 Noon Return to Hotel in Toronto
Your lunch will be provided as you travel back to the host hotel and network with your fellow participants and speakers.

1:15 pm Understanding Hidden Complexities in Global Supply Chains: Lessons For Lean and DMAIC Approaches
Clemson University, Aleda Roth, PhD, Burlington Industries Distinguished Professor in Supply Chain Management

Companies that can better manage supply chain complexity are significantly more competitive and profitable. Join Aleda as she uncovers needling complexities in long supply chains and the challenges companies are facing. Explore the variety of quality risks and issues associated with global supply chains, especially those associated with imports from emerging markets. Learn how to qualify the trade-offs between outsourcing from low-cost regions versus more sustainable regional supply chains where suppliers are known and quality is offered with higher assurances. These trade- offs and inherent quality risks will be highlighted using information from trends of US food imports from China. Also, Aleda will share cutting-edge statistical data demonstrating the inherent difficulties and quality risks posed by global sourcing and nearshoring using the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) audit data of pharmaceutical manufacturers. She will lead a discussion on how these challenges might best be handled and offer you a different path to complexity management, namely the conceptual framework called the “6Ts” of supply chain quality management. Each of the “6Ts” –traceability, transparency, testability, time, trust, and training–are critical to managing your supply chai complexities. Your 6T blueprint for quality improvement can be interpreted in terms of the all familiar Define – Measure – Analyze – Improve – Control (DMAIC) approach of Six Sigma. Discover how you can improve the quality of your products you source and deliver through your global supply chain using the 6T blueprint to serve as both necessary inputs and desired outputs in each DMAIC phase. As Aleda concludes, you’ll discover that lessons learned point to lean supply chains resulting in higher levels of sustainability and a better understanding of going global.

2:15 pm Stretch Break

2:30 pm Leadership Tools, Systems and Principles Which Drive Change
Medtronic ENT, Jerry Bussell, Vice President, Global Operations, Medtronic Lean Manufacturing

Medtronic ENT/NT, a Medtronic business sector, is headquartered in Jacksonville and is a leading manufacturer of surgical products designed to treat people with eye, ear, nose, and throat diseases. Jerry was responsible for molding Medtronic ENT/NT into a Lean organization. During his session, Jerry will detail the leadership tools, systems and policies employed from the top down which earned the company IndustryWeek magazine’s Plant of the Year honors and the Shingo Prize. More importantly, after just 12 months under the new leadership system, Jerry will detail how this division used the Shingo model, policy deployment and 3P to gain the following return on their nvestment:

■ Productivity increased by 20% in manufacturing
■ Productivity increased by 34% in distribution
■ Lead time was reduced by 70%
■ Space reduced by 33%
■ Customer order fill rate increased from an average of 85% to 95%

3:30 pm Milliken’s Approach to World-Class Operational Excellence
Milliken & Company, Craig Long, Vice President, Milliken performance Solutions

Ranked within the top employers in America by Fortune magazine and ranked 17th safest company in the US, Milliken has won the Malcolm Baldrige Award, the European Quality Award and 57 TPM Excellence distinctions awarded by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance. The company is one of the largest privately held American companies with many diversified product lines in textiles and chemicals servicing the automotive, floor covering, specialty apparel, industrials, as well as many specialty chemical businesses. Most companies today find themselves in competitive environments to a level they have never experienced. Also, most organizations deploy single point initiatives only to find they get the low hanging fruit and then quickly plateau. During Craig’s closing keynote presentation he will share Milliken’s specific challenges in the very competitive textile market and the tools and methods, such as lean, six sigma and many others, used to compete. The best practices that will be discussed will be based on building a “Bottoms-Up” organization that has a strong foundation of associate engagement. You will learn from Milliken’s best practices and lessons learned, including the following:

■ A comprehensive overview of its 8 Pillars of the Milliken Performance System as the engine to drive its transformation.
■ Milliken’s challenge to successfully engage the hearts and minds of every associate in the company.
■ Access to the cornerstone strategies of Milliken’s success and an insider’s view into the Milliken Performance System—a system developed using the learnings and best practices developed throughout 25 years of successful manufacturing.
■ Milliken’s work in teams; How Milliken eliminated well over 90% of its front line supervision.
■ The challenges of “plateauing” on many single point initiatives, and how Milliken invested in sending 120+ managers to Japan to study so the company could create its own operating system.

4:30 pm Final Comments and Adjournment