Robert Chapman
Chief Executive Officer— Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc.

Robert H. Chapman serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc. and has been president since 1975. With a company history spanning more than 125 years, Barry-Wehmiller represents a combination of the rich legacies of more than 50 businesses. These strategic acquisitions, along with its organic growth initiatives and unique leadership practices, have enabled Barry-Wehmiller to become a diversified $1-billion provider of manufacturing technology and consulting solutions with dedicated associates serving customers worldwide.

Mr. Chapman also serves as the chief executive officer of Accraply, Inc., a subsidiary of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc. From 1968 to 1970, he served as an accountant of Price Waterhouse & Co., CPA's, St. Louis, Missouri. He serves as director on the board of Midwest Bank Centre, Inc. and Network Technologies Group, LLC. He served as director of LaBarge Inc. from 1998 to December 2006. Mr. Chapman graduated from Indiana University in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in accounting and received his MBA in 1968 from The University of Michigan.

Abstract: Barry-Wehmiller Chairman and CEO Bob Chapman believes that lean is the most powerful tool we have to help people in business know that they matter. Mr. Chapman will discuss the leadership challenges in his own career that have led him to organize Barry-Wehmiller around the commitment to “measure success by the way we touch the lives of people.” For this 1.2 billion dollar capital goods manufacturer, lean has become the vehicle to create a future for more than 6,000 associates worldwide built on yearly double-digit growth.

Mr. Chapman will detail how the organization became committed to their L3 (Living Legacy of Leadership) Journey as a unification of a people-centric culture and lean thinking through key leadership lessons. At Barry-Wehmiller, waste elimination, fewer defects, better quality and output are all great consequences of lean but not the driving force. Rather, Barry-Wehmiller has found that a lean journey built on sending people home with a sense of fulfillment simultaneously changes lives and achieves business results.

In a truly people-centric lean journey, reporting out the accomplishments of improvement activities creates the opportunity to celebrate outstanding leaders, share real improvements in the business, and discuss what the improvement process meant to each participant. By sharing the stories and experiences of Barry-Wehmiller, Mr. Chapman will challenge and inspire all lean practitioners to listen deeply to the improvement ideas in their own organizations and respond with a bias for action.

Ronald M. De Feo
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer— Terex Corporation

Ronald M. De Feo is chairman and chief executive officer of Terex Corporation. Terex is a global manufacturer of a broad range of equipment for use in a variety of industries, including construction, infrastructure, quarrying, shipping, transportation, energy, refining, and utilities. Terex also offers financial products and services to assist in the acquisition of Terex equipment through Terex Financial Services. Under Mr. De Feo’s leadership, Terex Corporation has grown to become a diversified global manufacturer with operations in five business segments: Terex Aerial Work Platforms, Terex Construction, Terex Cranes, Terex Materials Processing, and Terex Material Handling and Port Solutions.

Mr. De Feo joined Terex in 1992 as president of the company’s then Heavy Equipment Group. He was appointed president and chief operating officer in 1993, became chief executive officer in 1995, and chairman of the board in 1998.

Before joining Terex, Mr. De Feo began his career in brand management with Procter & Gamble, where he spent 10 years. Upon leaving P&G, Mr. De Feo served as the senior vice president of J.I. Case Company, the former farm and construction equipment division of Tenneco Inc. During his tenure there, he served in a number of other leadership roles, including managing director of Case Construction Equipment for Europe, vice president of North American Construction Equipment Sales, and general manager of Retail Operations.

Mr. De Feo earned a bachelor's degree in economics and philosophy from Iona College. He currently serves as a director of Kennametal Inc. (a Terex supplier) and is a member of the Iona College Board of Trustees. He is also on the executive committee and is a former chairman of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.
 
Mr. De Feo is an advocate for long-term infrastructure planning and investment and speaks frequently on the subject before various interest groups and in the media.

Abstract: Terex Chairman and CEO Ron De Feo shares with attendees the Terex journey from holding company to operating company, building a lean culture along the way.

Richard Hemsley
Chief Operating Officer, Global Transaction Banking— Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group

Richard Hemsley joined the RBS Group in 1983 to work for NatWest where he held a wide variety of roles in retail banking, corporate banking and head office functions. In 2000 he became head of lending operations in Group Manufacturing and was appointed to director, Group Security and Fraud four years later. In 2005 Mr. Hemsley was appointed managing director in Manufacturing Operations with key responsibilities for customer service improvement. In 2008 he became chief operating officer of Business Services and his current role is chief operating officer of Global Transaction Banking in RBS Group.

Mr. Hemsley is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland and has also completed the advanced management program at Harvard Business School.

RBS Group is a British banking and insurance holding company offering a wide variety of banking brands, including personal and business banking, private banking, insurance and corporate finance throughout its operations located in Europe, North America and Asia.

Abstract: The lean journey at RBS. Richard Hemsley, in his previous role as COO of Business Services in RBS, oversaw one of the largest and fastest Lean transformations in Financial Services. In his presentation, Mr. Hemsley will start by providing a brief introduction to the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and its history and to the Business Services division - the operations, technology, property and procurement provider for the Group. Then, he will describe the origins, history, and success factors of Lean in Group Operations: a three-year transformation of a unit with 30,000 FTEs worldwide, aiming to produce sustainable productivity improvements while transforming the culture and capabilities of the organization. Finally, he will discuss the lessons learned during the last three years and share his thoughts on the next steps of the RBS lean transformation.

Alan Mayne

General Manager of Manufacturing— Daimler Trucks North America LLC

Alan Mayne is the general manager of Manufacturing for Daimler Trucks North America. He is responsible for top manufacturing management, including production, quality, cost control, capacity planning, investment, and environmental compliance. His areas of responsibility encompass all Freightliner LLC truck manufacturing plants and the company's parts manufacturing business.

Daimler Trucks North America LLC, a Daimler company, is the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America and a leading producer of medium-duty trucks and specialized commercial vehicles.

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Daimler Trucks North America LLC manufactures, sells, and services several renowned commercial vehicle brands. Through the company's affiliates, Daimler Trucks North America LLC is also a leading provider of heavy- and medium-duty diesel engines and other components. The company's strategic partners in the North American commercial vehicles market include Daimler Truck Financial and TravelCenters of America.

Mr. Mayne has more than 25 years experience in the commercial vehicle manufacturing business. Previously, he worked for a competing North American truck manufacturer for 17 years in plant management and business unit operations, after serving as vice president of manufacturing for Applied Power and stints at Dana Corp.and Rockwell International.

Mr. Mayne has a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Nebraska.

Abstract: Mr. Mayne will provide an overview of Daimler Trucks North America’s production system and some of the challenges the company has faced with lean. He will also share his own learning, related to implementing lean simultaneously across multiple locations while maintaining a consistent approach and standards. He will discuss the overall structure of DTNA’s lean organization and how they are attempting to develop lean leaders while building alignment across the company as well as the impact on the business results.

Paul McGinniss

Director of Training and Delivery— NeuroLeadership Group North America

Paul McGinniss enjoyed a successful 20-year career in corporate America; and currently, serves as director of training and delivery for the NeuroLeadership Group – North America.

During the course of his corporate career, Mr. McGinniss managed a 100+ rep service department for one of the nation’s top 10 newspapers and revamped a subsidiary’s service department; managed a multi-million dollar sales operation for the nation’s largest independent yellow pages publisher; created, from the ground up, a training department for Time Warner Book Group; and launched and managed the first employee "career" initiative as director of (people) development at Time Inc.

Mr. McGinniss currently works as an executive and workplace coach, trainer, and consultant and has an extensive management and people development background. As a human performance consultant, the focus of Mr. McGinniss’ work is on helping leaders create new thinking, reengage their employees, jumpstart performance, and maximize their results. In his work with corporate clients and business owners, Mr. McGinnis uses neuroscience-based models, relevant coaching structures, and appropriate strategic planning tools and assessments to help his clients identify, clarify, and move towards their mission-critical goals. Mr. McGinnis is known for his unique blend of integrity, intelligence, and humor and is able to quickly establish rapport and a trusting environment with clients. His experience, knowledge, and natural passion for connecting with people provide clients with a comfortably challenging yet powerful working relationship and experience.

Mr. McGinniss holds a master’s degree in human resources management and labor relations, served as president (2008, 2009) and past president (2010-2011) of the Long Island Coaching Alliance-an ICF Chapter; is an ICF professional certified coach (applying for his ICF master certified coach credential 2012); is a results professional certified coach; a NeuroLeadership Group master trainer, mentor coach, and coach assessor; is completing a certificate in the Neuroscience of Leadership (2012); is a TAB-certified Strategic Business Leadership® coach; a business blogger for the NY Enterprise Report; and sits on the Advisory Board for Long Island University’s Paralegal Studies program and the Farmingdale Citizen’s Advisory Committee.

Mr. McGinniss is a published writer, marathon runner, triathlete, proud uncle, and lives outside New York City on Long Island with his wife, Tricia, and their son, Christopher, (and Pedro the cat).

Abstract: In his sessions, Mr. McGinniss will present recent findings from the fields of neuroscience and NeuroLeadership that explain the brain's primary needs and how they impact transformation initiatives along with a new social needs model that you can leverage to maximize engagement, motivation, and innovation. His keynote will present the high level ideas and his breakout will allow you to begin applying those ideas to your current workplace situations.

Billy Ray Taylor
Plant Manager— Goodyear

Billy Ray Taylor is a highly respected, motivating, and visionary leader with over 20 years of diverse experience in all phases of manufacturing management, offering business focused solutions that are communicated passionately with an enhanced ability to construct and present business concepts and plans in a clear and persuasive manner. Often selected to pilot leading-edge and innovative processes, he has been repeatedly called upon to successfully implement improvement strategies in under-performing operations, improving production efficiency and employee engagement and has built a reputation negotiating complex contractual issues, with the highest level of integrity, fairness, and honesty, while dealing with a range of sensitive issues.

Currently as plant manager for a Goodyear 2.2 million sq. ft. consumer tire manufacturing plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he has been instrumental in achieving and sustaining significant productivity increases of over 18 percent in units in just six months. The plant has improved per-day tire production while reducing bottom-line spending, offsetting inflation cost year after year. The combination of robust people engagement and process improvement has resulted in unit manufacturing cost reductions representing multi-million dollar savings to the bottom line.

Previously, Mr. Taylor has led numerous manufacturing teams as a plant, production, and business center manager for Goodyear, consistently improving plant performance across all areas of production, labor costs, quality and safety, winning numerous internal and external awards and recognition such as the Shingo Silver Medallion Award. Mr. Taylor was also recognized as one of the Most Admired Executives in Oklahoma by The Journal Record, the Oklahoma City-based business newspaper affiliated with Dolan Media Company. He has been an invited guest of the Goodyear Board of Directors and participant at several senior Goodyear international and global conferences and state CEO roundtables as a “Transformation Leader”, to offer his own unique insights and strategies in lean manufacturing, leadership, and employee engagement. He is also a member of the Oklahoma Governors Business Roundtable and the Oklahoma Most Admired CEO Roundtable.

Earlier in his 20+ year career with Goodyear, Mr. Taylor held progressive levels of responsibility in the manufacturing, production, and maintenance engineering areas of the business. He holds a MBA from Baker University where he was rated a top student in his year and earlier completed a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Prairie View A&M University. Throughout his career Mr. Taylor has attended a range of leadership development and six sigma certification programs and has also been certified in Toyota Lean Manufacturing in Shirakawa, Japan.

An enthusiastic and natural communicator, Mr. Taylor has been invited to speak at numerous industry and local business events, including the 2011 Shingo International Conference, Association of Manufacturing Excellence, and the United States Army. He is also called upon by numerous universities, colleges, and schools to deliver his “Everyone is the CEO” motivational keynote to students and share his unique three-step system for success in life and business.

Abstract: Mr. Taylor will focus on why the shop floor is most effective classroom environment for learning and teaching. He will review how to holistically engage an entire workforce through innovative approaches such as “Each one, Teach One,” or “Everyone is a CEO.”

His techniques and teachings will highlight the results of a learning organization. His unique style will demonstrate how leaders can remove paradigms and open new pathways that inspire workers to identify and solve problems and move their organization towards true north.

Fayetteville’s systems for celebrating improvements and accomplishments have increased employee engagement exponentially without implementing bureaucratic suggestion systems that sometimes bog down or stagnate. The Fayetteville team has more than tripled its continuous improvement (CI) participation and engagement over the last 18 months, resulting in better quality, cost, and delivery performance. The financial impact from CI savings during this period is over $30 million cost out.

John Toussaint, MD

CEO— ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value

John Toussaint, MD, is the CEO emeritus of ThedaCare and the CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. The center's mission is to create a healthcare marketplace that rewards value. ThedaCare is accomplishing this by working with leaders in the provider, employer, insurer, and government communities to create transparency of healthcare performance, redesigned care, which is measurably less wasteful with fewer errors and payment systems that reward patient value creation.

Dr. Toussaint served as president and chief executive officer of ThedaCare Inc. from March 2000 until April 2008. During his tenure at ThedaCare, he introduced the ThedaCare Improvement System, which is the Toyota Production System applied to healthcare and is also known as lean. The continuous improvement journey at ThedaCare has led to such results as zero medication reconciliation errors for more than three years in a row (Health Affairs, Sept. 2009) in addition to dramatically improved staff productivity and satisfaction. Millions of dollars of waste reduction have resulted in ThedaCare consistently being one of the lowest priced healthcare organizations in Wisconsin at the same time more than doubling operating income over five years.

Presently Dr. Toussaint is the leader of the Healthcare Value Leaders Network, a partnership between the Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. This partnership is helping to facilitate collaborative learning between organizations committed to transforming themselves using the lean methodology. Presently there are 27 members in the network.

Dr. Toussaint received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cornell College and earned his medical degree from the University of Iowa. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Iowa, Iowa Methodist program. Dr. Toussaint is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He resides in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Keith E. Williams
President & Chief Executive Officer and Trustee
Underwriters Laboratories Inc.

Keith Williams is the 10th president, CEO, and trustee of Underwriters Laboratories Inc. UL is an independent standards development organization, testing lab, and certification body with a mission to enhance life safety and facilitate global commerce. Founded in 1894, UL is a Chicago-based company with worldwide operations.

Subsequent to earning a bachelor's degree in engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Mr. Williams joined General Electric Company. During a 23-year career at GE, he held assignments in global business management, global logistics, marketing, and sales. From 1993 to 1996, he resided in Beijing, China, and was president of GE Medical Systems China. In late 1996, he became the first global champion for using six sigma to address commercial transactions within GE Medical.

In 1997, Mr. Williams was named president of Asia-Pacific operations for Medtronic Inc. based in Tokyo, Japan. During an eight-year career with Medtronic, he also served as chief quality and regulatory officer and as president of the Spinal and Neurological Business Unit.

During his 11 years working in Asia, Mr. Williams served on various joint-venture boards, including businesses with Samsung, Yokogawa Electric, Wipro, and the Chinese Ministry of Health.

In addition to his work at UL, Mr. Williams serves as secretary-treasurer of the US-China Business Council, director of the National Fire Protection Association, and trustee of Opera Memphis.

Abstract: What do you do when a company’s 100+ year old culture threatens its future success? You change it. But as any business leader knows, this is a task easier said than done. In this session, Keith Williams, president and CEO of UL, will share with conference attendees how a conscious effort to transform UL's corporate culture helped dramatically improve its business performance. Mr. Williams's presentation, narrated against a chronological backdrop of his personal weekly messages to UL’s global team, details the value of applying basic lean concepts like constancy of purpose and creating value for the customer to leadership communications. Come and learn how conscious, incremental change over time led to big results at UL and how you can use these same principles to build trust, facilitate teamwork, and promote transparency in your organization.

Lars Bang
Senior Vice President of Supply Operations and Engineering — H. Lundbeck A/S

Lars Bang began his career at Lundbeck in 1988 as a trainee in research and development and was appointed head of the Department of R&D Planning and Economy later that year. He was subsequently appointed divisional director for corporate planning and strategy in 1991, managing director at Lundbeck España S.A. in 1994, senior vice president of supply operations and engineering in 1998, senior vice president for commercial operations in Europe and Overseas in 2000, and later senior vice president of sales and marketing. In 2003 Mr. Bang became a member of the Corporate Management Group.

Mr. Bang is chairman of the boards of Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals Italy SA and Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd, president of Elaiapharm SAS, member of the boards of Lundbeck España SA and Fertin Pharma A/S, member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Chemical Engineering and the Board of Representatives at the Technical University of Denmark, member of ATV - Danish Academy of Technical Sciences and the International Leadership Forum at ISPE - International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering.

Mr. Bang obtained a Master of Science degree in engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 1987 and a Bachelor of Commerce degree in marketing from the Copenhagen Business School in 1989.

Abstract: Lundbeck’s lean journey began in 2006. They thought that lean was just another buzzword, but a retired Volvo executive opened their eyes. He did a lean presentation at their annual managers meeting and discovered great potential. After several benchmarking visits and lots of advice, Lundbeck realized how much training was involved to change the culture and their leadership style. They faced the problem head on and started to build the architecture for continuous improvement.

Pascal Dennis
Author

Pascal Dennis is a professional engineer, author, and advisor to companies making the lean leap. He developed his lean skills at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada and by working with lean masters in North America and Japan. In leadership positions at TMMC, he supported the launching of several new models and the hiring and training of 2,000 new team members. He has supported lean implementation at leading international companies in sectors as diverse as automotive, process industries, heavy equipment, construction, and healthcare. The focus of his lean implementation work is strategic planning and execution (strategy deployment), quality, delivery and cost management, health and safety, and business process improvement.

Mr. Dennis is the author of Lean Production Simplified, Andy & Me: Crisis and Transformation on the Lean Journey, and Getting the Right Things Done – a Leader’s Guide to Planning and Execution, which have all received Shingo Research Awards. His latest book is The Remedy: Bringing Lean Thinking Out of the Factory to Transform the Entire Organization. Mr. Dennis will be sharing his research on his latest book.

Abstract: Big Company Disease afflicts even the greatest companies. What are the symptoms, stages and root causes of Big Company Disease? What is the Remedy to Big Company Disease? This session will help you understand the nature of this crippling malady and what countermeasures are most eective. You'll discover how the Four Rules and Four Capabilities can dispel the fog that accompanies Big Company Disease. You’ll also learn about the benecial role of core lean tools such as standard work, visual management, ow, and pull. A Q&A session at the end will allow you to dive into any specic application questions.

Darryl Greene
Executive Director of Continuous Improvement — Cleveland Clinic

Darryl Greene is the executive director of continuous improvement (CI) for the Cleveland Clinic. Mr. Greene is responsible for helping the Cleveland Clinic Health System achieve excellence in patient service and managing performance towards goals. He and his team partner with clinicians and non-clinical employees to identify and address opportunities to improve the delivery of care for both administrative and clinical processes. As well, he is working collaboratively with physician leadership to implement and consistently use an integrated business model to help manage the business side of healthcare.

Mr. Greene has over 23 years of experience in process improvement and performance management. He began his career at General Electric, where he held various leadership positions in manufacturing and engineering. During his time at GE Lighting, he helped structure its Six Sigma process improvement program and was appointed a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. At Hoover, Maytag he expanded his training to include Lean.

Mr. Greene has also provided process and performance management leadership in financial services. He was vice president of continuous improvement at Key Bank, and senior vice president of National Performance Consulting at JP Morgan Chase. During his four years at JP Morgan, he managed a team of 50 professionals and helped establish a national performance management system in operations.

Mr. Greene holds a BS in chemical engineering from New Mexico State University, and an MS in materials science engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Tim Pettry
Continuous Improvement Embed, Neurological Institute— Cleveland Clinic

Tim Pettry is the continuous improvement embed for the Neurological Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Mr. Pettry partners with clinicians and non-clinical employees to identify and address opportunities to improve patient access, patient experience, employee engagement and the overall quality, delivery, and cost of care for both administrative and clinical processes.

Mr. Pettry has nearly 30 years of experience in process improvement and performance management serving the retail, marketing, human resources, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic in 2008, Mr. Pettry spent 18 years at the Ford Motor Company, where he held various leadership positions in accounting, human resources, and manufacturing. During his time at Ford, he helped Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2 earn the 1996 Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence. He then used the knowledge gained to help save Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 from permanent closure - implementing the Ford Production System (FPS) and a high-performance work group organization structure. Mr. Pettry also served as an FPS coach for Ford’s Powertrain Division.

Mr. Pettry has been a member of the Shingo Prize Board of Examiners since 1996 and has served as a lead examiner since 2002. He is a Shingo Prize appointed member of the AME / ASQ / Shingo Prize / SME Lean Certification Oversight and Appeals committee and served as committee chairman in 2010. He has recently turned his attention to assisting the Healthcare Value Network’s Assessment team in their adaptation of the Shingo model for network’s member organizations and serves as a lead assessor on site visits.

Mr. Pettry holds an MBA in management and labor relations from Cleveland State University and a BS in marketing from Bowling Green State University. He is Lean Bronze Certified.

Abstract: "Building the Architecture for Operational Excellence at the Cleveland Clinic". This presentation will review the Cleveland Clinic's enterprise-wide process improvement platform. Attendees will learn how the program has evolved over the last five years and how today monthly business reviews help teams set goals, align activities, measure performance, make improvements, and recognize successes across clinical and functional areas. We will discuss the growth of continuous improvement both in breadth and depth and our plans for future growth.

Thomas G. Hartman
President & Managing Director, Autoliv South America— Autoliv do Brasil Ltda

In October of 2010, Thomas Hartman was named president and managing director of Autoliv South America. Following the commitment of Brazil and Argentina to make frontal airbags standard in all vehicles by 2014, Autoliv is investing heavily in personnel and equipment to support this exciting growth market. Mr. Hartman’s main challenge is to transplant Autoliv’s Shingo-Prize winning culture into the hearts and minds of the Autoliv team in South America. To support this, he has relocated to Brazil. With all global automakers represented in this market, it is a unique combination of Asian, European, and North American technology and business practices. South America represents a tremendous challenge with equivalent opportunity for those few companies who can successfully compete.

In December of 2007, Thomas Hartman was named senior director of Autoliv Lean Consulting and in March of 2008 was also named as the leader of the New Business Development Product Family Team of Autoliv North America’s Airbag Division.

Mr. Hartman has served for the past seven years as a member of the Board of Governors of The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence and is a member of the Shingo Academy.

Prior to his current assignment, he served as president of the Autoliv Inflator Division (seven years with four plants in Utah, three in Europe and one in Japan), vice president of design engineering (one year), director of quality (two years) and senior director of the Queretaro Mexico Operations (two years).

Abstract: Mr. Hartman will guide you through a multi-national, multi-cultural journey of building a “Kaizen culture” through engaging the workforce using your own in-house management in a way that assures both success and sustained commitment to the lean transformation: As Teachers! Drawing upon his personal experience that now includes responsibility for organizations on four different continents, he will illustrate the method used by Autoliv to transform traditional leaders into “lean mentors”. These leaders achieve progressively more impressive results through the efforts of their “lean apprentices” who are in a continuous loop of train and execute using Autoliv’s APS University. The session will be conducted in an interactive fashion with provocative questions, scenarios and discussion matter based on his multi-cultural experience.

Vickie J. Lesnansky
MS, RN— Denver Health

Vickie Lesnansky has over 30 year’s experience in healthcare management, emphasizing quality management, outcome measurement, and customer satisfaction. She has worked in both profit and non-profit settings: Kaiser Permanente, McKesson Health Solutions, and Denver Health Community Health Services. Her role as a nurse, supervisor, quality manager, and director have provided her with a variety of opportunities. Managing clinical areas, planning, building and opening medical facilities, providing quality calibration training for nurses across the U.S. and leading lean events as a Master Black Belt are some of the many roles she has filled during her career. In 2009, she received the AAACN (American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing) Nursing Excellence Leadership award.

Since 2005, Denver Health, Denver’s primary safety net institution, has integrated the Toyota Production System’s lean philosophy into daily operations. Denver Health is the only healthcare organization in the world to receive a Shingo award, the Shingo Bronze Medallion. Denver Health's success is proof of this powerful methodology. They have been able to achieve great financial benefit while improving quality in patient care.

Abstract: “Teaching is the highest form of understanding” - Aristotle. Waste exists in every industry and health care has traditionally been very slow to adopt change. The days of committees and task forces taking six months or longer to evaluate a process and then test the change are over. Health care settings must utilize proven methodologies to identify workflow issues, redesign processes, and test and revise changes, all within a short period of time. The key to all of this is an educated, informed, and engaged staff, with leaders as the teachers. Over the past seven years, Denver Health has trained over 100 leaders in lean methodology, achieving remarkable results; No. 1 Trauma Survival Rate for an Academic Medical Center in the U.S., Joint Commission Codman Award for Ambulatory Care, NCQA recognition for PCMH (patient centered medical home), and recipient of the Bronze Shingo Prize Award for Health Care in 2011. Leadership is about people. When you teach people what is expected, how to do it, and why it is important, you provide them with the tools they need to be successful. “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another; it is the only means” - Albert Einstein.

Dale Lucht

Director SPPI— Lehigh Valley Health Network

Beulah Trey, Ph.D.
Interim Leader, Organizational Effectiveness — Lehigh Valley Health Network

Principle — Vector Group Consulting

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) is a network of hospitals, clinics, physician offices, pharmacies and health laboratories in eastern Pennsylvania. LVHN regularly receives national recognition for its clinical patient outcomes and has been consistently recognized by US News and World Report as one of “America’s Best Hospitals.” LVHN’s strategic approach to improving clinical quality, patient satisfaction and reducing the cost of care is to align its lean, organizational development and management engineering functions. LVHN’s lean approach, System for Partners in Performance Improvement (SPPI), coaches the network in lean process improvement and collaborates with organizational development consultants to address human factors and dynamics that especially impact lean transformations in health care settings. Management engineering provides the modeling capabilities to address systemic factors.

Dale Lucht is a senior executive with a track record of achieving business objectives through the application of lean practices at the tool, strategic, and cultural levels of an organization. He is the director SPPI at LVHN, leading the Lean and Management Engineering functions. Prior to joining LVHN, Mr. Lucht held senior lean and operations leadership roles with Pactiv Corporation and The HON Company, including VP operations improvement, director of continuous improvement, VP supply chain, VP distribution and plant general manager. Mr. Lucht is also a Shingo Prize examiner and serves as a team leader for site visits. He supports the continued development of lean transformation serving on the Shingo Prize Examiner Committee and the Healthcare Value Network Advisory Council.

Mr. Lucht received his BS in industrial engineering from Iowa State University and his MBA from Drake University. He has also taught in the Business College at Iowa State University.

Beulah Trey, PhD, a licensed psychologist, is LVHN’s interim leader of Organizational Effectiveness. Under the umbrella of LVHN’s Organizational Effectiveness Division, she has significantly increased the alignment and strategic performance of the network’s lean, organizational development and management engineering functions. In addition she is co-leading LVHN’s strategic planning and culture building process.

Dr. Trey is a co-founder of Vector Group Consulting, an international leadership and organizational development firm that focuses on assisting clients to become more flexible and resilient through strategy, change management, team development and executive coaching. Vector Group Consulting North America specializes in assisting health care systems to navigate the unpredictable, informal side of organizational life. Her consulting work yields more engaged employees with sophisticated relationship skills and more effective and innovative approaches to meeting safety, productivity, employee and patient satisfaction metrics, all while bringing costs down.

Dr. Trey’s special interest is trust between professionals and administrators. She frequently designs and facilitates retreats and off-sites for groups ranging from six to 500 people. In designing her unique approach to each organization and system, Dr. Trey draws on techniques from business practices, systems theory, psychology, and Mussar, the Jewish tradition of ethical and moral character development. She is a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer and has taught in Wharton’s MBA program, the Aresty Institute and the Medical College of South Carolina. In 2005, she co-founded Mussar Leadership Programs, a not-for-profit organization that promotes ethical character development. Dr. Trey holds a PhD in professional psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in psychology from Swarthmore College.

Abstract: Accelerating Transformation - Lessons Learned from Healthcare. Culture can either be a success factor or impediment to an organization’s lean transformation. This is especially true in health care where hierarchies are loosely coupled and revenue sources and customers are not necessarily aligned. The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence has recognized the primacy of culture through the model’s focus on behaviors in the guiding and supporting principles. In this session, Mr. Lucht and Dr. Trey will highlight the cultural variables crucial to accelerating transformation and introduce force field analysis, a tool for analyzing driving and restraining forces to the transformational process. Ensuring that the culture drives continuous improvement is vital in healthcare, and lessons from health care are applicable to other industries. Focusing on the story of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s experience, they will discuss the structural, process and behavioral strategies that are continuing to shift the culture. Specific tools and programs to address cultural change will also be explored, including an opportunity for participants to use one of the tools.

Robert Martichenko
Chief Executive Officer— LeanCor Supply Chain Group

Robert Martichenko is the Chief Executive Officer of LeanCor Supply Chain Group. LeanCor's purpose is to support their customers in preparing their people, perfecting their processes, and successfully implementing and operating the lean supply chain. To accomplish this purpose, LeanCor delivers lean third party logistics (3PL) services, warehousing and facility management, lean training and lean supply chain consulting services.

Mr. Martichenko has years of supply chain, logistics and lean implementation experience. This experience includes multiple lean supply chain implementations supporting successful organizations, including Polaris Industries, Mitsubishi Caterpillar, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing.

Mr. Martichenko authored the books Success in 60 Seconds and Everything I know about Lean I Learned in First Grade, both published by the Orloe Group. He co-authored the logistics management book Lean Six Sigma Logistics published by J. Ross Publishing and co-authored the workbook Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream published by the Lean Enterprise Institute.

In addition to leading LeanCor, Mr. Martichenko is a senior instructor for the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute.

Mr. Martichenko complements his professional experience with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, an MBA in finance, and a Six Sigma Black Belt. Born in Timmins, Ontario, Mr. Martichenko now resides in Charleston, South Carolina, and enjoys family time with his wife, Corinne, two wonderful daughters, and assorted pets.

Abstract: Rethinking logistics and supply-chain management to create maximum value at minimum total cost. The lean journey generally begins inside the four walls of the manufacturing facility, however eventually it extends to the supply base and our customers. As we begin focusing on waste elimination, inventory reduction, and flow of material, we quickly realize that engagement by the extended enterprise is required to complete the lean journey. Consequently, it is vital to educate ourselves on lean and the implications to logistics and supply chain management. Specifically, key principles of the Lean Fulfillment Stream are:

1. Make customer consumption visible to all members of the fulfillment stream
2. Reduce inbound and outbound logistics lead time
3. Create leveled flow
4. Use pull systems
5. Increase velocity and reduce variation
6. Collaborate and focus on process discipline
7. Focus on total cost of fulfillment

Join Mr. Martichenko, author of the Shingo Research Award winning workbook "Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream," as he discusses the key points of the Lean Fulfillment Stream, including the strategic and tactical relationships between lean, logistics and supply chain management.

Gary Peterson
Executive Vice President, Supply Chain and Manufacturing— O.C. Tanner

A veteran appreciateologist, Gary Peterson has helped O.C. Tanner run like a well-oiled machine for more than two decades. Now, as the executive vice president of supply chain, he engages and empowers O.C. Tanner's employees, leading manufacturing, buying, engineering, refining, and logistics teams. Mr. Peterson has also delivered great work for clients as a leader in market research, award strategy, and administration and research teams. His greatest joy on the job comes from interacting with and inspiring people. He holds an M.B.A. from Brigham Young University, and when he's not at work, Mr. Peterson plays basketball, snowboards, and spends time with his family.

Abstract: O.C. Tanner Company has been on the lean journey for more than 20 years. They have achieved great results, including a successful challenge for The Shingo Prize in 1999. Their first big results came from implementing such concepts as teams, kanban and 5S, but the bigger on-going gains occurred as they developed a culture of continuous improvement and respect for people.

In this session, Mr. Peterson will talk about the foundational principles that allow your organization to deeply embed lean at every level, accelerate your transformation, and provide perpetual improvement.

Eric Pope
Vice President, Operations— US Synthetic

Eric Pope serves as vice president of operations at US Synthetic (USS), a leading provider of diamond solutions for the energy industry. Mr. Pope joined US Synthetic in 1990 as a machine operator, with a focus on processing diamond products. He has worked as a production manager, process engineer, and R&D engineer during his time at US Synthetic. In 2001, Mr. Pope worked as an on-site USS customer engineer at Halliburton. He later became the product manager over the USS diamond rock bit and percussion product lines in 2004.

Throughout his career, Mr. Pope has been a driving force behind US Synthetic’s move from a typical batch and queue manufacturing system to a world-class, lean manufacturing facility. As part the of senior leadership team since 2006, Mr. Pope has been instrumental in implementing lean training and techniques at every level of the organization. These efforts helped the company receive the world's most prestigious award in 2011 for enterprise excellence, The Shingo Prize. Under Mr. Pope's leadership, the company maintains a strong focus on empowering employees and encouraging continuous improvement. This focus helped the company implement more than 32,000 employee-sponsored improvements in 2011. As a result, product innovation has increased and USS customers have been better served with improved delivery times, decreased inventory, and superior quality and performance. Lean improvements have allowed US Synthetic to grow at 23 percent annually since beginning the journey in 2005.

Mr. Pope holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and a Master of Business Administration both from Brigham Young University.

Abstract: The Role of a Lean Leader. The shop floor is a reflection of leadership and your leadership is perfectly designed to produce exactly what you have. As organizations transform from traditional operational philosophies to lean philosophies, they often overlook the critical step of transforming their leadership system (philosophies, roles, work etc.) in order to engage the hearts and minds of the organization and establish a culture of continuous improvement. Lean leaders often recognize that it is relatively easy to make changes to a worksite by establishing defined work flows and processes to achieve expected outputs or results, however, in time, they inevitably come to the realization that lean transformations are less about tools and more about culture change.

What are the roles of a leader in creating and sustaining a continuous improvement culture?

The answer lies in the leadership Critical OutPuts Analysis (COPA)
- What are the expected outputs or purpose of the organization?
- What are the expected outputs of the lean leader to enable the organization to fulfill its purpose?
- What are the leader's activities or standardized work required to deliver the expected outputs?
- What skills are required to perform the work effectively?

These are all questions that every leader must clearly understand in order for them to be effective lean leaders.

Mike Stoecklein
Director of Network Operations— Healthcare Value Network

Mike Stoecklein is a healthcare executive and performance improvement consultant who has been learning, applying, and teaching performance excellence principles since he first met Dr. W. Edwards Deming in 1985. Over a nine-year period, he worked briefly with Dr. Deming, supporting him in four of his four-day seminars. Mr. Stoecklein began his healthcare career as a medical technologist in the U.S. Navy and then moved to management as a vice president in hospitals after receiving his master’s degree in health administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988. For eight years, Mr. Stoecklein served as an internal consultant in process improvement as a vice president at a corporate level with the Wheaton Franciscan System, Wheaton Illinois. He became the healthcare market development manager at the American Society for Quality, facilitating ASQ’s involvement in healthcare improvement. From 2003 - 2009, Mr. Stoecklein was a vice president of operations improvement at Catholic Health Initiatives, providing performance improvement support, service, and assistance throughout a region of Market-Based Organizations (MBOs) to improve systems and processes for achieving organizational performance across the value chain. Mr. Stoecklein also served as an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for six years, from 1999 – 2004.

Mr. Stoecklein is currently the director of network operations with the Thedacare Center for Healthcare Value overseeing the operations of the Healthcare Value Network as well as the Shingo-based assessment process.

Bruce Thompson
President— SLT Consulting, LLC

Bruce Thompson, president of SLT Consulting, LLC, is considered an industry leader in the application of lean principles to the demand generation parts of business. With a strong background in manufacturing, he has also developed the approach to applying lean principles to the demand generation to balance companies along the improvement journey. Mr. Thompson's methods allow the power of a lean enterprise transformation to be realized at the heart of a company's demand generation workforce. Mr. Thompson has over 25 years of diverse experience in manufacturing, service and product development, process analysis, quality, and operations. His primary expertise is the application of systems and principles that lead to effective, lean work processes from design, analysis, message creation and delivery, through product service and finance. These techniques have proven immensely successful in finding new levers of improvement in areas such as finance, sales, marketing, customer service, order entry, engineering, and supply chain.

Jim Thomas
President and Chief Operating Officer— Trussway

Jim Thomas has 30 plus years of experience in the wood component industry with over 25 of those years with Trussway. His experience has provided him with in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the component business. With his large store of industry knowledge, he has become an active participant and supporter of the Structural Building Component Association. Mr. Thomas began his career in 1979 as a design/draftsman at one of the most innovative, state-of-the-art truss companies of the time. Never one to tarry over long in one position, Mr. Thomas moved on to work as an outside sales representative, a general manager, vice-president of operations and now serves as Trussway’s president and chief operations officer. Due to these past experiences, Mr. Thomas brings a wealth of experience to his role as the president and COO, which enables him to strategically drive Trussway forward to meet the company’s goals and objectives. In addition, Mr. Thomas is a member of the Trussway Board of Directors and is the liaison between Trussway and its ownership. His roll with the board is to provide insight and direction in the planning and decision-making process for the company.

Mr. Thomas’ primary goal is working on Trussway’s culture of continuous improvement. This type of culture is about surfacing and prioritizing the many improvements they could and should make into short, doable lists. It’s about linking Trussway’s strategy to tactical plans and daily activities, which create balances between daily work and improvement. One of the most frequent statements he hears about project initiatives is, “What about my day job?” However, he believes that aligning Trussway’s scarce resources to achieve improvement faster, avoid project overload, and sustain the new culture is what will differentiate Trussway from their competitors in the future. It’s all about lean and it needs to be supported and driven at the top by challenging teams, removing road blocks and barriers to establish a continuous improvement mindset and culture across the organization.

Mr. Thomas has participated in ongoing training throughout his career, which includes general business education and job-related training, as well as being a veteran of the United States Air Force.

Abstract: Like most companies, Trussway began its lean journey by implementing tools and being “results” driven. By applying Shingo principles, they defined ideal behavior for each of Trussway’s core values and identified key systems. Mr. Thomas will review the key systems that helped Trussway to select and/or validate the use of proper tools. He will also show how Trussway is accelerating their cultural transformation and sustaining targeted results using the Shingo philosophy.

Gwendolyn Galsworth, President — Visual Thinking Inc. & The Visual-Lean Institute
Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking

Across nearly 30 years of hands-on implementations, Gwendolyn Galsworth, PhD, has created the models, concepts, and methods of workplace visuality that define visual’s distinct and powerful contribution to enterprise excellence—and to sustainable cultural and bottom line results.

Author of many books, including Visual Systems, Smart Simple Design, and two Shingo award-winning books, Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking and Work That Makes Sense, Ms. Galsworth helps companies around the globe accelerate their rate of transformation, strengthen cultural alignment, and achieve long-term sustainable results through workplace visuality.

Go to www.visualworkplace.com to learn more about Ms. Galsworth, her company, Visual Thinking Inc. (formerly Quality Methods International), a training, research, and consulting firm—and The
Visual-Lean® Institute which offers licensing and train-the-trainer in nine core visual workplace courses and a full range of on-demand webinars for training large groups.

Hear her weekly radio show, The Visual Workplace, on www.VoiceAmerica.com.

Principles of Operational Excellence & Assessment

Please click on name for a complete bio and photo

Randy Cook, Expert — McKinsey & Company

Mike Orzen, President— Mike Orzen & Associates

Marte Pendley, Principle— Destra Consulting Group

Don Suhaka, Principle— HL Leadership

Gary Convis
COO— Bloom Energy Corporation

Gary L. Convis is chief operations officer of Bloom Energy Corporation. He is responsible for all operational and manufacturing aspects of the company. Bloom Energy is a provider of breakthrough solid oxide fuel cell technology that generates clean, highly-efficient power onsite from virtually any fuel source. Bloom Energy's mission is to make clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world.

Prior to joining Bloom Energy, Mr. Convis was a consultant to Dana Holding Corporation, a $6.1 billion supplier to the global automotive, commercial vehicle, and off-highway markets. Mr. Convis previously served as CEO of the company from April 2008 to January 2009, vice chairman in 2009 and senior advisor to the CEO in 2010 and 2011.

Mr. Convis came to Dana after more than four decades spent at Toyota, General Motors Corporation, and Ford Motor Company. He became the first American president of Toyota’s largest plant outside Japan, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky (TMMK), in 2001. He was named chairman of TMMK in 2006 and retired in 2007. Prior to this, in 2003, he was the first American manufacturing executive appointed by Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) to be a managing officer of TMC, as well as executive vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. Prior to serving in these roles, Mr. Convis spent 16 years at New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., a joint venture between GM and Toyota. Previously, he spent more than 20 years in various roles with GM and Ford Motor Company.

Becoming CEO and president as Dana came out of bankruptcy in 2008, Mr. Convis drew upon his extensive experience with the Toyota Production System to create a similar system in Dana. Implementing the Dana Operating System “DOS” globally, in over 110 manufacturing sites in 26 countries, including seven separate businesses was his challenge of a life time. Mr. Convic tapped his network of lean leaders to build an extraordinarily strong team to help execute the plans. In doing so, they further developed people in every plant and region to drive and support continuous improvements using the DOS tools.

Mr. Convis has teamed up with Jeffrey Liker on a new book “The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership – Why So Many Lean Programs Fail and The Need for Developing Lean Leaders” now available through Amazon.com books and tapes.

Mr. Convis earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in physics from Michigan State University. He is a board member of Achates Power, Inc., Compass Automotive Group, Inc. and a life time member of the Shingo Prize Academy helping organizations with their operational excellence journey.

Ritsuo Shingo
President— Institute of Management Improvement

Ritsuo Shingo is president of Institute of Management Improvement, a company started by his father and namesake of The Shingo Prize, Shigeo Shingo, and former president of Toyota China and GAC Hino Motors. Dr. Shigeo Shingo, distinguished himself as one of the world’s leading experts in improving manufacturing processes. Dr. Shingo has been described as an “engineering genius” who helped create and write about many aspects of the revolutionary manufacturing practices which comprise the renowned Toyota Production System.

Mr. Shingo has followed in his father’s footsteps and has been very successful in the automotive industry. Mr. Shingo started his career with Toyota Motor Company in 1970, after earning a law degree from Waseda University. He worked in Toyota’s legal, public relations, and purchasing departments for 13 years before transferring to its purchasing department in Detroit, Michigan.

Mr. Shingo spent two years at Toyota Motor Kentucky and then returned to the purchasing department in Japan. For three years, he worked for Toyota Motor UK and then returned to China, eventually becoming president of Toyota China in 1998.

After 34 years with Toyota, Mr. Shingo joined Hino Motors China in 2004, and was appointed president and board member in 2007. Mr. Shingo recently retired as president from Hino Motors China in March 2009, but continues to serve as executive officer.