2019 LEAN 2019 LEAN

SYSTEMS SYSTEMS

SUMMITSUMMIT

AUGUST 8 AUGUST 8 -- 99

20192019

Holiday Inn by the Bay

88 Spring Street

Portland, Maine

Where Government, Services, and

Manufacturing Meet

Learning

Together

Together

Exploring

Learning

Together

2

CILCCILC

The Continuous Improvement Lean Col-laborative (CILC) is a not-for-profit, multi-state network of public and private individ-uals, organizations, and companies who to-gether promote continuous improvement in the public and private sectors.

Its goal is to provide opportunities for business, government, and service leaders to share enhanced approaches and meth-ods for attaining greater operational excel-lence, efficiency, and value to customers, employees, and stakeholders. It pursues this goal through providing a forum for practitioner and organizational learning -- with active collaboration and sharing of knowledge, experience, and resources across all sectors.

In its evolution, the Collaborative’s Lead-ership Board and Planning Team have in-cluded representatives of Maine Manufac-turing Extension Partnership; Jotul North

America; governments of Maine, Con-necticut, New Hampshire, and New Bruns-wick CA; Lonza Rockland; the Town of Durham, New Hampshire; IDEXX Laborato-ries, Inc.; Infinite Services, Inc.; Lean Capi-tol LLC,; Lean Enterprise Institute; AME; and New Futures – New Hampshire.

In 2008, a small informal group of individ-uals came together to discuss their wish to share their continuous improvement know-ledge and experience and to learn from and collaborate with others.

So the idea of the Summit was born. Recognizing the relationships and interde-pendencies, it is important to the CILC group that the Summit bring together the public and private sectors and all types of organizations and roles.

This August marks the Collaborative’s tenth annual Lean Systems Summit.

C o n t i n u o u s I m p r o v e m e n t L e a n C o l l a b o r a t i v e ( C I L C )

PROGRAM

CI Lean Collaborative 2 Sponsors 3 Workshops 11 Hosts 4 Learning Sessions 17 Speakers 5 Presenters 25 Agendas 9 Planning Team 42

Pre-Summit

Workshops

Thursday August 8

Networking

Gathering

Thursday 5PM August 8

Summit

Keynotes &

Learning Sessions

Friday August 9

3

SponsorsSponsors

Thank you to all the organizations

that have given their resources and time

to make this annual meeting of continuous

improvement Lean leaders and innovators possible.

IDEXX Laboratories https://www.idexx.com/corporate/home.html

Geiger Group https://www.geiger.com/

Maine State Library www.maine.gov/msl/

Lonza Rockland http://www.lonza.com/

Greater Boston

Manufacturing Partnership

http://www.gbmp.org/

Lean East

https://www.leaneast.com/

4

HostsHosts

Continuous Improvement

Lean Collaborative

Maine Department of Labor

IDEXX Laboratories

Connecticut Department of Labor

Value Innovation Partners

Lean Capitol

A Better Culture LLC

Texas Instruments

Moderator

Stephen Dombrowski

Director, Employee and Organizational Development

Department of Labor, State of Connecticut

Steve has been employed at the State of Connecticut, De-partment of Labor for the past twenty-seven years with a career path starting as a research analyst for the Labor Mar-ket, followed by Marketing & Client Services Manager, Lean Government Services and, most recently, Director, Employ-ee and Organizational Development.

His responsibilities include inter-agency data dissemination for service delivery and CT Learns and Works Education and Workforce Readiness consortium leadership management, lean management training programs, and public infor-

mation forums for agency services.

Steve is a long standing member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), CT State Counsel, and the Continuous Improvement Lean Collaborative (CILC) Board of Directors.

Prior to working in the public sector, Steve held sales and research positions in the fi-nancial services industry with the Hartford Insurance Group and Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith.

Steve is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, holding a bachelor's degree (BA) in Statistical Sociology and a master's degree (MA) in Human Resource Development from American International College; Spring-field, Mass.

Steve is also active in volunteering for the Employer Support for the Air National Guard & Reserve (ESGR).

5

Summit MODERATORSummit MODERATOR

Opening Keynote Speaker

Michael Bremer

Principal & Past President, The Cumberland Group

Michael Bremer started his business career in public ac-

counting, migrating to operations & information systems.

He worked for a number of highly effective leaders and a

few not so effective senior executives -- and learned much

from both groups. These experiences sparked his interest

in understanding why leaders do what they do and a curi-

osity about why some organizations work very hard to im-

prove but fail to improve their competitive position.

Michael is an executive with broad domestic and international industry experi-

ence in business process redesign, Six-Sigma, Kaizen/Lean methods, post-ERP

business process performance improvement (financial and operational), project

team development, lean accounting, and continuous improvement at high- and

low-tech manufacturing, electric utilities, USAF, USN, software, newspaper pub-

lishing, and non-profits. His clients have included: Motorola, RWJ Foundation,

Hallmark Cards, 3COM, Am. Electric Power, The Houston Chronicle, Hamilton

Sundstrand, Verizon, AT&T, Flextronics, Elkay Manufacturing, Department of Fi-

nancial Services (DFAS), and Veterans Administration.

He initially learned about the world of business performance improvement as a

young man in the 1980s when he was given responsibility for creating a

company-wide improvement effort for a Fortune 30 company. The Beatrice

Foods improvement initiative (Strive for Excellence) was an improvement model

used when the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Criteria was developed. He learned with

Dr. W. Edwards Deming (process thinking), Dr. Joseph M. Juran (employee en-

gagement-- focus on the vital few,) and Phil Crosby (quality is free, cost of

quality). He was also mentored by sr. executives from other Fortune 100 compa-

nies who had significant experience in business performance improvement.

Michael is a Principal and past President of the Cumberland Group – Chicago;

V.P. of Manufacturing Excellence Awards for the Association for Manufacturing

Excellence (AME - volunteer); Co-Managing Director of the Chicagoland Lean En-

terprise Consortium Group; and Instructor for the University of Chicago’s Gra-

ham School on process innova-

tion. He is co-author of three

books: Six Sigma Black Belt

Handbook, Six Sigma Financial

Tracking and Reporting, and

Escape the Improvement Trap.

6

SPEAKERSSPEAKERS

Mid-Day Keynote Speaker

Henry Darwin

Acting Deputy Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

In his capacity as EPA's Acting Deputy Administrator, Henry Darwin is the key advisor to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on day-to-day operations and the leader of the agency’s trans-formation to an organization of continuous improvement. By deploying the EPA Lean Management System (ELMS) to reduce waste and maximize value- added work, Darwin is creating more effective ways to better serve EPA’s customers while in-creasing the capacity of EPA employees to do more environ-mental good.

Prior to joining EPA, Darwin served as the State of Arizona’s Chief of Operations, where he worked to start up the first state government inten-tional management system based upon lean principles. Among the improvements achieved by Arizona state agencies as a result of the management system are elimi-nation of a backlog of 16,000 uninvestigated child abuse allegations, reduction of customer wait times at Motor Vehicle Division offices by over 50 percent, and reduc-tion of aquifer water quality compliance data review times from up to three months to 24 hours.

An experienced environmental engineer and attorney and a longtime Arizona De-partment of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) employee, Darwin was named ADEQ di-rector in 2011. As ADEQ Director, Darwin led deployment of the state’s first lean ini-tiatives.

Darwin holds a Juris Doctorate from Lewis & Clark College and a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering hydrology from the University of Arizona.

7

SpeakersSpeakers

Closing Keynote Speaker

Dustin Kaehr

Director, Lippert Academy for Leadership, Lippert Components, Inc.

After serving as one of LCI’s Directors of Leadership Development, Dustin Kaehr was appointed to the role of Director of the Lippert Academy for Leadership.

The Lippert Academy for Leadership is a separate divi-sion within Lippert Components, Inc.. The academy serves external businesses, nonprofits, and individuals with a variety of programs and offerings, including on-site training and leadership development programs, executive coaching, speaking engagements, and a two-day in-house leadership development experience.

As a start-up minded off-shoot, the Academy builds on and transfers what LCI has learned on its journey to other organizations. With over 11,000 co-workers and 65 facilities in 17 states, Canada, and Europe, they have learned a lot, (and still have a lot to learn), but are excited to share with others.

As a leadership and business coach, Kaehr has over 20 years of experience helping large and small organizations with leadership challenges, operational management, and employee/customer engagement.

In addition to work with companies and individuals helping them grow as leaders and understand themselves better, he is a speaker and author covering topics includ-ing customer experience, leadership, team development, and personal develop-ment.

His goal is to help people think differently, lead courageously, and live passionately.

Dustin holds a Master in Business Ad-ministration from Indiana Wesleyan University and a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Grace College.

8

SpeakersSpeakers

Thursday, August 8, 2019

9

PrePre--Summit AgendaSummit Agenda

Thursday 5PM Networking Get-Together Holiday Inn by the Bay, Portland, Maine

The Thursday early evening get-together is a casual, small gathering at the Inn by the Bay and is open to any Summit or Pre-Summit registrant. It starts around 5pm, though any time you can get there is fine. Since some Speakers/Presenters arrive early for the Summit, it is also a good opportunity to chat with them, as well as other participants. It is a cash bar, but plentiful and filling appetizers/hors-d’oeuvres will be provided.

Last year’s was great fun, meeting and talking with the other participants. Afterward, you might de-cide to break off into small groups and stay at the Inn by the Bay or go off for a late stroll or dinner at any of Portland’s many other renowned restaurants.

7:00am

–

8:00am

Registration & Continental Breakfast.

(There will also be a mid-morning break with refreshed drinks and a mid-afternoon break with

drinks and ―nibbles‖ to boost your energy!) Room #1 Room #2 Room #3 Room #4 Room #5 Room #6

8:00am

-

Noon

PS-AD 1 Building an

Internal Lean or

Operational

Excellence De-

partment

M. Saleh (Continued below)

PS-AD 2 Lean into Lead-

ership: How to Inte-

grate Leader-

ship with the

Best of Lean

Converset & R.

Maxwell (Continued be-

low)

PS-HD 3 A3 Problem

Solving –

Learn By Doing

Wallner &

Murphy

PS-HD 4 Lean in the

Office – From

Cubicles to the

C-Suite

Critchley

PS-HD 5 Using Perfor-

mance Manage-

ment to Develop

Lean Leaders

Jekiel

PS-HD 6 A. Gov't Process

Improvement Inno-

vations NH -Barto & Lencki

B. Performance

Mgt. & Data Visual-

ization VT Guilford &

Sainz

C. Traveling on the

Public Sector Jour-

ney to Lean McGovern

Noon –

1:00pm Lunch (is provided and includes a variety of choices for entrees, salads, desserts, etc.)

1:00pm –

5:00pm

PS-AD1 (Cont’d) Building an

Internal Lean or

Operational

Excellence De-

partment

M. Saleh

PS-AD2 (Cont’d) Lean into Lead-

ership: How to

Integrate Lead-

ership with the

Best of Lean

Converset &

Maxwell

PS-HD7 Mixed Model

Production –

Achieving One

Piece Flow

Armstrong &

Boyd

PS-HD8 Creating Lean

Culture in In-

formation

Technology

Scott

PS-HD 9 A. Kaizen

Events: the Art,

the Tools, and

the Science G. Saleh

B. Using the WI-

IFM (What’s In It

for Me?)

UNH Vlahos

5:00pm See you at the Networking Gathering immediately after these sessions --

and tomorrow at the Summit !

Friday, August 9, 2019

10

Summit AgendaSummit Agenda

Lean = Respect for People + Continuous ImprovementLean = Respect for People + Continuous Improvement

7-8 AM Registration, Networking, Continental Breakfast

8:00AM-8:15AM

Welcome: Stephen Dombrowski, Director, EOD, CT Dept. of Labor

8:15AM-9:00AM

Opening Keynote: Michael Bremer, Principal, The Cumberland Group

9:00AM-9:15AM

Transition to Learning Sessions

9:15AM-10:30AM

A1: Lean Startup

Thinking – How

Today’s Entre-

preneurs Use

Cont. Innova-

tion

Musica

A2: Building

Your House of

Lean

Maine

Johnson & Dyer

A3: Hoshin

Kanri (Policy

Deployment)

Converset

A4: 10 Mistakes

to Avoid during

a Lean Transfor-

mation

M. Saleh

A5: Balancing

to Takt Time in

a Non-

Manufacturing

Setting

Frewin

10:30AM-10:45AM

Break - Change Learning Sessions

10:45AM-Noon

B1: Lean &

Workplace DNA:

Creating a

Healthy Work

Environment

Where LEAN Ide-

as Thrive

Downey Maxwell

B2: Gearing Up

for Success ...

the BIG Why

New Brunswick

Gunter

B3: Closing the

Gap: Aligning

your Lean

transformation

& your finan-

cial results

Ohaus & Luckman

B4: Lean & Safe-

ty Integration

Perrotti

B5: Kata:

Problem Solv-

ing & Coaching

for Improve-

ment

Elliott

Noon-

1 PM Lunch (provided)

1:00PM-1:45PM

Mid-Day Keynote: Henry Darwin, Acting Deputy Administrator, U.S. EPA

1:45PM-2:00PM

Break - Transition to Learning Sessions

2:00PM-3:15PM

C1: Lean Lead-

ership: Are You

Prepared to

Lead?

Burke

C2: Collabora-

tion Tools for

Higher Per-

forming Teams

– Beyond Mgt.

and Control

Suomela &

Mahoney

C3: Game Day!

Dix

C4: Rapid Im-

provement Pro-

cess – The IDEXX

Approach

Kennie & Bradbury

C5: Do No Fur-

ther Harm: - Tips for Taking

Pain out of A3

Reviews

Verble

3:15PM-3:30PM

Break - Refreshments

3:30PM-4:15PM

Closing Keynote: Dustin Kaehr, Director, Lippert Academy for Leadership

4:15PM-4:30PM

Wrap-Up -- Next Steps

Catherine Converset, Senior Partner of Productivity Inc., Lean Master, and Lean Lecturer. Bill Maxwell, President, Bill Maxwell and Associates

Leaders at all levels must understand the power of a Lean transformation – a transformation of short and long-term organization growth - to uncover the huge benefits that a well-led program can bring to their organization and to themselves. Lean is a deep change, which engages all the organization’s levels in new ways of working:

Focus everyone on better and better service for customers. Remove the waste which prevents professionals from greater productivity. Generate employee satisfaction. Innovate through better use of team members’ time. Take better advantage of available resources.

Leaders are not just C suite level professionals -- everyone can lead in their own positions, regardless of title, modeling Lean behavior and inspiring a shared vision by everyone.

Inspiring you to see how the path will greatly benefit you and your organization, you will --

--be able to discuss how the path to Lean transformation will tremendously benefit your organization. --understand how this same path will greatly benefit your own personal development/career/legacy. --be able to immediately transfer the knowledge about leading continuous change to your workplace.

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WORKSHOPSWORKSHOPS

Mohamed Saleh, Principal, Vizibility. LLC

In architecting a design that follows the need of an organization, many organizations struggle with how best to organize the Lean or Operational Excellence Department as they embark on the Lean journey. This workshop outlines the considerations and approaches that could be taken and the variety of mod-els that exist that come with many benefits.

As organizations embark or evolve on the Lean journey, it is critical that they assure that their journey and Lean “office” fit the strategy of the organization. Possible designs to consider will emphasis the need and link to both immediate and long-term strategies, including unraveling many topics such as where Lean, Project Management, Change Management, Organizational Development, Strategy, Quali-ty departments would sit and the benefits that both generalization and specialization brings.

You will formulate opportunities with key takeaways that can be immediately applied, such as -- • Understanding the need of the organization and not the want. • Insights into staffing and deployment of Lean resources in a diverse and inclusive way. • Different consultative models and structures. • Identifying different training to advance capability that focus on current organizational gaps. • Identify leverage points within your structure that can expand beyond the Lean Office. • Defining communication and promotional marketing needs to secure internal talent. • Tools and techniques to use when you go back to your respective organizations.

PS-AD2: Lean into Leading: How to Integrate Leadership with the

Best of Lean

PS-AD1: Building an Internal Lean or Operational Excellence

Department

12

WORKSHOPSWORKSHOPS

PS-HD3 A3 Problem Solving – Learn By Doing

Bob Wallner, Operational Excellence Leader, Hitchiner Manufacturing Brian Murphy, Operational Excellence Leader, Hitchiner Manufacturing

All organizations face problems, but a learning organization will use a scientific approach to solving and learning from their problems. The A3 can be used as an important piece of this learning process. A3 is both a versatile learning and problem-solving method and tool. You will walk away with a practical grasp of how to apply A3 thinking in problem-solving of your own.

A3 can be an effective learning method and tool when working through the PDCA strategy of problem-solving. In this hands-on workshop, you will walk through a case study where you collaborate with a team applying the PDCA strategies by developing an A3. Your goal will be to eliminate the problem to improve customer satisfaction.

A3 thinking is a structured method for solving, learning, and communicating across an organization. Yes, it’s an 11x17 illustrated sheet of paper, but when used appropriately, it is a highly powerful tool.

The benefit of the A3 process lies in its ability to provide a structured scientific improvement method for walking through each step of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. It can serve as a coaching tool allowing the learner to systematically document their thoughts while allowing the coach to understand the learners thought process as they work through the problem together. Due to its compressed nature, the A3 makes an excellent storyboard to explain your improvement goals and progress thus eliminating the need for lengthy reports or “Death by PowerPoint.”

In this workshop, you will take on a problem in a fictional company. You will leave with a practical under-standing of the PDCA / A3 problem-solving methodology.

Paul Critchley, President, New England Lean Consulting

One of the most beautiful things about Lean concepts and methods are that they are universal. Although born in manufacturing and thought of by many as a “manufacturing thing” or even a “high volume envi-ronment” thing, Lean can help any process become more efficient, less wasteful and help us deliver more value to our customers and clients.

So, why don’t more companies focus their efforts in the office environment?

As Lean has evolved and become more accepted, organizations are looking to do just that. However, many still struggle to adapt the concepts to an environment where work is often less visual and more virtual.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to apply Lean thinking to the office, including VA vs. NVA, 5S, 7 Wastes, etc., as well as take part in a hands-on simulation that emphasizes the ideas and methods presented.

PS-HD4 Lean in the Office – From Cubicles to the C-Suite

13

workshopsworkshops

Cheryl Jekiel, CEO, Lean Leadership Center

An often overlooked development tool for creating Lean Leaders is the Performance Management Pro-cess. During this interactive workshop, you will learn how each step of the performance management process can be used to engage leaders to develop more lean ways of managing their teams. You will learn techniques that can be applied to your own environment using the takeaway tools from the ses-sion.

From this session you will:

• Be able to use a coaching based model to build your performance management skills.

• Develop a working model for performance management that includes: Setting up for Success, Training for Results, Coaching for Independence, Feedback for Improvement and Recognition for Motivation.

• Utilize a positive-based approach to leading teams that delivers better results and reduces time spent managing performance problems.

PS-HD5 Using Performance Management to Develop Lean Leaders

Heather Barto, Senior Process Improvement Specialist, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Thomas Lencki Jr., Sergeant, New Hampshire Department of Safety, NH State Police

Times are changing in state government-now more than ever. As with most businesses, budgets are slim-mer with less resources being allocated, and yet we are charged with keeping the government afloat. One method for addressing wasteful and inefficient systems and practices has been the introduction and uptake of Lean in New Hampshire. Being able to build and sustain a Lean program through governmental changes is pivotal for success, with programmatic objectives pivotal for Lean sustainment in state govern-ment.

This workshop will provide an overview of the innovations at both NH Departments of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Safety (DOS) with their varying approaches and strategic innovations for Lean appli-cation in state government, as well as how each has weathered the uphill challenges in state government. DHHS and DOS have led the way for Lean program development state-wide with employee/stakeholder engagement, advancement with program change outcomes, and integrating process improvement into everyday work application. Engaging with people at all levels in the organization is pivotal for change management (“meeting them where they’re at”).

You will learn recommendations & considerations when building a Lean program; learn at least one new Lean method/approach for consideration in building and sustaining a Lean program; learn the main “channels” for Lean application and program advancement in state government; be able to transfer the human connection side of process improvement work and apply that in future Lean work.

PSP-HD6 A/B/C Series: Lean in the Public Sector

PS-HD 6A Process Improvement Innovations in Government

14

workshopsworkshops

PS-HD 6B: Process Improvement Innovations in Government

Jayna Guilford, Chief of Performance, Vermont Agency of Transportation Manuel Sainz, Process & Performance Analyst, Vermont Agency of Transportation

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) plans, develops, implements, and manages a state-wide transportation network - including roads, bridges, railroads, airports, park-and-rides, bicycle and pedes-trian facilities, and public transportation facilities and services.

This session will illustrate –

How we are positioning our Performance Section to promote and support performance manage-ment throughout the agency. The process we have developed to achieve this goal will be show-cased. We will share lessons learned and how we will continue to improve our process moving for-ward.

How Vtrans is working to create a shift where performance management is the driving force behind continuous improvement. Work has started in 4 out of the 7 Bureaus to develop metrics and visual-ize the data through business intelligence Power BI dashboards.

From this session, attendees will gain knowledge about the development of performance metrics and the utilization of dashboards created through Power BI. This will be good exposure for any level of lean knowledge & experience in understanding the use of these tools and taking them back to their agency.

Kate McGovern, New Hampshire Bureau of Education & Training (Ret.)

While each public sector organization’s Lean program has different strengths and weaknesses, common-alities can be found. We all face the risk of changing priorities of elected officials and administrative ap-pointees. Inconsistent or absent resources for staff and train for a robust Lean program. This workshop will draw on your experience to identify common challenges and countermeasures, leading to a sustaina-ble culture of continuous improvement.

This workshop examines the non-linear path to Lean in the public sector using a problem-solving format. Beginning by collectively identifying the optional components for a Lean initiative, you will then assess the current state of the Lean program in your own organization. After defining next target conditions and doing root cause analysis, common root causes for the gap between the current state and an optimal Lean program will be considered. Common challenges will be identified to generate an opportunity to collectively brainstorm a list of countermeasures. You will develop a plan to move your Lean program forward and, most importantly, how it can be sustained.

You will -- •Learn about lessons from A Public Sector Journey to Lean: Fighting Muda in Times of Muri. •Individually and as a group, develop A3s to advance your public sector program, with the benefit of in-put from others on the same journey.

PS-HD 6C: Traveling on the Public Sector Journey to Lean

15

workshopsworkshops

PS-HD 7: Mixed Model Production – Achieving One Piece Flow

Stephanie Armstrong, Lean Operations Manager, IDEXX Laboratories Chelsea Boyd, Lean Leader, IDEXX Laboratories

A significant, difficult challenge for manufacturing teams is learning how to produce work in a mixed mod-el environment without the waste of waiting, transportation, and inventory. Lean is about achieving flow by eliminating waste and leveraging the people who do the work to help solve problems.

Using Lean thinking and applying small incremental changes to achieve one-piece flow not only helps im-prove the production process, it develops employees to be problem solvers. Come join the IDEXX team in a fun interactive session focused on eliminating waste, leveraging visual management, and building em-ployee engagement.

During this workshop, you will learn the benefits of one-piece flow, how to visualize work better through-out the production process, and how this visualization improves departmental communication. The group, broken into teams with specific roles in the production process (including the Customer), will go through a series of simulations making small changes along the way.

You will learn how --

1. Moving to one-piece flow increases customer satisfaction and keeps inventory moving. 2. Visual signals and better product identification make communications easier. 3. Moving to a PULL process makes fulfillment better and keeps inventory from growing.

PS-HD 8: Creating Lean Culture in Information Technology

Michael Scott, Manager, ITIL Processes and Continuous Improvement, Biogen (Former)

How can you introduce lean thinking to an Information Technology group that is rich in technical talent but is challenged by no free time for lean training? How do you build a lean training and support program without having any budget or funding?

In this workshop, you will follow a successful grass-roots lean awareness campaign that tackled these very problems. You will learn about the strategy and work that went into creating this campaign: building lead-ership support, delivering learning workshops, and maintaining momentum. You will also experience the actual first workshop that was created for this campaign. Topics include the 8 Wastes, 5 Whys, Standard Work, plus a hands-on standard work exercise.

Our group (IT Infrastructure & Operations for one of the largest independent Biotech companies in the US) wanted to build a lean awareness campaign to promote and foster a lean thinking culture to support our process strategy. Constraints included little exposure to lean thinking (3 people in org. of 200); target audience in “often overlooked area”: IT infrastructure and operations; Zero budget & zero travel; multiple locations: Massachusetts and North Carolina; Director level resistance: people are busy and don’t want to take time from “real” work.

You will also learn about the lessons learned and the thinking and artifacts used to gain Leadership buy-in, including the A3 report used to create a common understanding of the issues and tracking the project.

16

PS-HD 9A Kaizen Events: the Art, the Tools, and the Science — The

What, the Why and the How

Ghassan Saleh, Director of MaineHealth Operational Excellence, Center for Performance Improvement,

Kaizen is essential in process improvement. Healthcare’s busy environment prevents people from com-mitting enough time to problem solve a quality issue or a workflow problem in a kaizen event so, often, they resort to a project approach versus Kaizen/improvement approach. Projects make people feel that they are spending less time in 1-2 hr. meetings instead of a 2-5 day Kaizen event. The reality, of course, is that some of those projects run forever and people end up committing more time in meetings over a course of 6-9 months and yet not getting the fast results that a Kaizen event can produce—not to mention the risk of losing momentum in long-run projects.

It has become clear that there is wide variation in the perception, preference and even the knowledge of such organizations about the purpose of Kaizens. Some too busy to take 2-5 days for kaizen end up tolerating the same problem for months and even for years. Others are so bought into the idea of Kai-zen event that they turn every problem into a 5 day Kaizen, even if it is a simple rapid cycle improve-ment problem or a quick fix. This can cause people to think that Kaizen is just a waste of people time.

You will 1)-Learn Kaizen methodology (PDCA) & what needs to happen in every phase of PDCA; 2-Know the difference between Kaizen event’s focused 2-5 days continuous improvement event and projects that may last way longer; 3)-Understand the activities needed to embark on for the full cycle of prob-lem solving; and learn 4)-Tips on successful Kaizen events; 5)-Tips on good facilitation of Kaizens.

Learning sessionsLearning sessions

PS-HD 9B: Using the WIIFM (What’s In It for Me)

The subconscious mantra guiding employees’/organizations’ everyday actions for Lean Engagement

Dagmar Vlahos, Senior Process Engineer, Project Management Office, Univer. of New Hampshire (UNH)

Struggling to build or maintain a Lean culture within your organization? Struggling with employees en-gaging in change? Difficulty creating an interest in Lean? Have you thought about incorporating the WI-IFM (What’s In It for Me) approach?

During this session, you will first learn of the struggles with Lean engagement before learning how UNH used the WIIFM to assist in building a Lean culture within a higher education environment.

With the challenges higher education is facing (decreased state funding, rising costs, declining high school demographics, and increased competition), UNH knew something needed to be done but wasn’t sure what the best approach would be. You will learn how UNH went from a non-Lean culture to embracing a Lean program/culture through employee empowerment and leadership support. UNH’s Lean journey will be realistic and touch upon challenges, obstacles and successes in developing a Lean culture all whilst highlighting the importance of understanding the employee’ as well as leadership’ WIIFM along the way.

Keep in mind that the lessons learned and experiences explored during this session can be used in any environment, not just higher education: How to incorporate the WIIFM approach when building or continuing Lean engagement in your or-

ganization/work environment and to share your ideas of approach with a broader audience. The importance of understanding your audience’s desire or non-desire to engage or change. The importance of knowing who your supporters are as well as your opposition so that you can tailor

your lean approach and how to leverage that powerful information.

17

Steve Musica, President, Lean East

Learn about the methodology that successful entrepreneurs are using to develop a product or service that customers will pay for – faster. Serial entrepreneur and certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Steve Musica will share the five principles of a Lean Startup and teach a simple process that entrepreneurs and innovators can use to launch a new product or service. Steve has founded several innovative companies and consulted with government offices, hospitals, and large and small manufacturing, construction, and insurance companies.

“Lean” processes have had the “fat” or “waste” removed from them and are fully focused on customer value. When applying Lean thinking to product/service development processes, a primary goal is learn-ing what customers do and do not care about for features. Innovation is quicker when waterfall methods of project management are stopped in favor of agile methods. By focusing on customer value and feed-back earlier in the process, innovators can learn when to push forward and when to pivot.

You will learn: • Entrepreneurs are everywhere. • The fallacy of the business plan. • The Build – Measure – Learn development cycle. • Innovation Accounting. • A proven Customer Development roadmap. • How and when to pivot. • Agile development of a Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). • The business model canvas for a new business idea.

You will learn new ways to think about project management and the goals of the innovation process.

Learning sessionsLearning sessions

A1: Lean Startup Thinking – How Today’s Entrepreneurs use

Continuous Innovation

A2: Building Your House of Lean

Jamie Johnson, HCV Administrative Manager, MaineHousing Alison Dyer, Asset Manager, MaineHousing

When Lean/Continuous Improvement was introduced at MaineHousing we didn’t know where to start or how it would fit within a non-profit/quasi-state agency. In this session you will learn the lessons we learned along the way and why Lean/Continuous Improvement isn’t just for producing widgets and manu-facturing companies. We are excited to share our journey with others who don’t know exactly where to start and provide the encouragement to “Just Do It”. With a “Just Do It” mentality any organization can begin to build their House of Lean.

Like many complex organizations, MaineHousing is comprised of 160+ staff among 14 departments with countless federal, state, and bond regulated programs. We didn’t produce “widgets” but we knew there was room to approve our policies and procedures. We didn’t want to just get buy-in from staff -- we wanted their investment to continuously improve.

We will share our challenging journey – what has worked and what has not worked. We have had to find creative ways to instill Lean/Continuous Improvement in our culture without a full-time position working solely on that initiative. In this session you will learn about creating a culture that instills the principles of Lean/Continuous Process Improvement throughout.

This session will help you to: • Increase employee engagement. Empower staff to assess, evaluate, & streamline to enhance internal & external customer experience.

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Learning sessionsLearning sessions

Catherine Converset, President, Productivity Innovation & Executive Partner, Productivity Inc.

Transforming an organization into one that is operationally excellent requires a long-term customer-focused, company-wide strategy. Management groups must define and continuously refine the strategic drivers of the organization and deploy them to ensure everyone is aligned and working toward the same goal. Doing so requires the establishment of a framework known as a Lean Management System.

Central to a Lean Management system is Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment). It is a method for ensuring that an organization’s strategic goals drive progress and action at every level of the organization.

The fundamental purpose of Hoshin Kanri in a Lean enterprise is to focus a company’s improvement efforts on well-defined initiatives to align & mobilize strategic business units, plants, departments, oper-ational teams and all supporting personnel in the transformation process.

Hoshin Kanri is not just the deployment of a few financial targets, but it is a leadership-driven strategic process which gives clarity to everyone on where the company is going and what is important on the Long term, creating the structure for regular review and renewal.

You will learn the different levels of deployment, starting from the Executive Committee level down to team level, and why Catchball is key to build a successful plan. This proven business renewal planning and deployment process will allow you to incorporate your strategic priorities into daily work at every level in your organization.

In this session, you will hear some practical recommendations to start and implement this process and learn to -- Understand the cornerstones of a Lean Management System. Understand the need for enterprise-wide waste elimination and review & discuss the key perfor-

mance indicators, targets to improve, and countermeasures that will ensure you remain on course and that your improvement initiatives meet your strategic objectives.

The key concepts and principles of Hoshin Kanri (policy deployment). The 5 steps of policy deployment and how to use the X-Matrix at each level. The 4-level performance review system ensuring success.

A3: Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment): A Key Pillar of your Lean Manage-

ment System & critical to deploying a True Company-Wide Strategy of Excellence

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Learning sessionsLearning sessions

A4: 10 Mistakes to Avoid during a Lean Transformation

Mohamed Saleh, Principal, Vizibility. LLC

During every Lean Transformation there are many lesson learned both of what worked and what didn’t. In this Learning session we will discuss how to avoid the perils of Lean. This will span from initiation of the transformation to maturity and provide relatable perspectives and challenging insights to leaders and practitioners as they advance in their own Lean journey.

This session looks at strategic approaches that have both worked and failed as Lean Management and Production Systems start to get established as the engine and driver of an operating model in building a Lean Principle-based architecture for organizations and anchoring it into the values and fabric of their cul-tures.

You will learn of areas to avoid as you embark or advance in the Lean journey. These areas span across initial conversations with the Board and Senior Leadership teams, to how to get started, to strategies to deploy Lean Management both for Hoshin Kanri and Daily Management, to the Production System and selecting appropriate Kaizens, to training and building organizational problem solving muscle, to technolo-gy and establishing an internal Lean Office.

You will learn about: • Understanding the critical necessity for knowing the Why or Need. A guide on how to creating your own operating model. • How to lead with the Behaviors. How to be Lean and avoid artificial aesthetics. • Approach on how to Go Deep. Different Strategies in Deployment. • Designing different training venues for the transformation. Examples to creating a trajectory that keeps evolving over time. How to hire the right Lean Talent at different points in your journey. How to advance w/ tools/techniques to creating the vital few but nimble & agile to market indicators.

A5: Balancing to Takt Time in a Non-Manufacturing Setting

Anne Frewin, Senior Lean Operations Manager, IDEXX Laboratories

Toyota Production System is built on four guiding principles: standard work exists, ◊ methods for sending and receiving messages are unambiguous, pathways are simple, and direct, ◊ improvement work follows the scientific method of PDSA.

Takt time is the cadence by which the outputs come off the manufacturing line and is based on demand forecast and available work time. Each step must keep the line moving at a steady pace in order to meet their forecasted demand, built into their workflows to achieve a defined takt time.

But, is it possible to apply the concept to a non-manufacturing line where inputs are not constant, work-flows cannot be broken into parts with cycle times less than takt time, and all work has to be done by the end of the shift?

IDEXX reference labs has implemented the concept of balancing workflows to takt time in their Parasitol-ogy departments across North America. They have been able to reduce variation in cycle times by over 50%, labs are processing to the same standard workflow, and employees are engaged in the process working together to achieve their nightly goals.

This session will walk you through the process followed in the reference labs from data collection to im-plementation and coaching on managing in a takt time environment. Many lessons were learned. You will learn about these as we walk through the successes and failures along the way in how takt time was calculated and used to balance the line.

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B2 Gearing Up for Success ... The BIG Why

Caryn Gunter, Process Improvement Facilitator, New Brunswick Dept. of Transportation & Infrastructure

When change management is done well, people feel engaged in the change process and work collectively towards a common objective, realizing benefits, and delivering results. Unfortunately, very little time is devoted to the upfront change management required to ensure people understand the background ra-tionale for the change as well as how it may impact stakeholders or themselves personally.

Identifying “The BIG Why” lays the framework for all future work by systemically asking: Why is the change necessary? What are the problems and desired outcomes? What will the benefits be or impacts if we do nothing? Why is it required now, etc.? Completion of the “the Big Why” exercise alone will better prepare team leads and enhance buy-in / support.

The session will highlight (from New Brunswick’s DTI perspective) why this framework was developed, why all projects should begin with this (or similar) exercise, the therapeutic benefits, and the negative impacts of not completing “the Big Why” exercise.

Project Management focuses on “the plan” (i.e. events & activities, scope, content, cost, and resources) whereas change management focuses on “the people” (i.e. stakeholders, involvement / engagement, communication, skills and ability, seeing / feeling). This session will highlight how Kotter and ADKAR change management methodologies align with project management steps when using Lean Six Sigma DAMIC. You will be able to draw similar conclusions for almost any other change management method-ology, seeing how we took the traditional Lean Six Sigma tools and creatively adapted them to meet our customers desired outcomes, and understanding the integration of the differing concerns of change management, project management, and innova- tion with Lean practices.

Learning sessionsLearning sessions

B1: Lean & Workplace DNA: Creating a Passionate, Healthy Work Environment

Janie Downey Maxwell, Founder, Organizational Habits

LEAN ideas are like the DNA in our cells. They’re a map of what can potentially happen. But what drives action at a cellular level is the environment a cell lives in – not its DNA. With LEAN, it’s one thing to bring in smart new ideas (DNA) but it’s quite another to get your employees motivated and engaged enough to take action. Success awaits you in the environment you create!

Think about past successes and failures at work. Was your staff bored or full of enthusiasm and passion? When you have a healthy work environment, you can feel the energy in the room. In this session, you’ll learn tips and tools to help create an awesome work environment where LEAN initiatives thrive.

In this session, you will learn about ways to motivate employees, unleashing their greatest potential: •Ways to build a passionate, healthy work environment. •Leading by example with enthusiasm and passion. Passion is contagious! •Learning Aristotle’s key principals for motivating others:. •Recognizing passion in the workplace – Your employees’ passion may not be about their specific work but most people have a passion for success, growth, new learning, and being part of a successful team. •“Seeing” your employees as individuals and listening to them with an open heart and honest curiosity. •Bringing dignity to the workplace. • Ways to be authentic as a manager.

You will walk away feeling inspired to bring more passion to your workplace. You’ll leave energized. And you’ll have a mixed bag of tools you’ll want to try out on Monday morning when you return to work.

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B4: Lean & Safety Integration

John Perrotti, III, CMRP, Vice President, Fuss & ONeill Manufacturing Solutions

Our lean journey takes us down many roads to remove waste and make our processes work more effi-ciently. There are times that this process uncovers new hazards or hidden risks that are not always ap-parent. Safety concerns are universal in every organization but often are given inadequate attention.

Often, when companies integrate lean methodologies, they look to remove waste. Sometimes during this process they produce new hazards and risks. The concept of removing waste during a process or looking for ideas to reduce set up times often inadvertently expose hazards and dangerous conditions.

This session will use examples where, while employing lean, new hazards and safety issues were ex-posed and alternate methods that could have increased safety and reduced waste.

During this session, you will learn about lean approaches that unknowingly created greater safety risks or hidden risks not initially identified; solutions to examples where a lean approach was still main-tained; how a strong cross-functional team, implementing lean strategies, will have a positive effect on safety metrics; how you can use lean tools & use them to become more efficient while increasing safe-ty. You will come away from this session with tools & techniques to help you to perform improved and more consistent continuous improvement ac- tivities while maintaining safety.

Learning sessionsLearning sessions

B3: Closing the Gap: Aligning your Lean Transformation & your

Financial Results

Karl Ohaus, Partner, Lean Transformations Group Jim Luckman, Partner, Lean Transformations Group

The capability of an organization to survive is tied to its ability to understand and predict its financial health. As Toyota developed Lean in Japan’s post-World War II economy, the ability to monetize the Lean effort was key to its survival.

There are a few important steps that leadership can do as a part of their strategic planning and policy deployment to insure that the organization’s efforts to deploy Lean are having the desired impact.

This session will help you to work on linking the activities of your Lean deployment to the outcomes on your organization’s financials. The methodology presented will take a high-level view of the primary and support value streams in the organization and link their performance to purpose. Understanding the substance of this session is important for organizational leadership.

Many organizations struggle to justify the investment in creating a lean continuous improvement cul-ture. This session will help you to learn to target activities that have a positive impact on the financials, thereby justifying the effort.

The session will cover the basics of policy deployment, and you will begin to become better able to: identify a “Primary” value stream. understand the the value stream performance’s purpose,& id of problems or gaps in performance. identify and describe support value streams and understand how they support and impact the per-

formance of primary value stream. design an experiment on closing the gaps in performance and the overall expected impact by using

A-3 thinking and documentation. use the creation of this information to insure the Lean Transformation effort has the desired results.

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Learning sessionsLearning sessions

B5: Kata: Problem-Solving & Coaching for Improvement

Bob Elliott, Continuous Improvement Manager, Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership

Do you Kata or would you like to? This introductory Kata session is meant for anyone, experienced or not, looking to learn more about the IK/CK Kata cycles. It will give you the opportunity to practice the four steps of the Improvement Kata as well as the Coaching Kata cycles.

Kata, when applied correctly, help develop all levels in the organization to apply a scientific approach to problem-solving. By linking upper Managements Strategic objectives to Managers’ departmental pro-grams and finally linking them to Dept. Leaders daily problem-solving, businesses will achieve alignment through the Toyota Improvement Kata. This is truly a way to achieve a Culture of “Everybody Everyday.”

In this session, Bob Elliott, one of GBMP’s CI Managers and official Kata Geek, will share what he has learned from Mike Rother, author of the 2009 book Toyota Kata.

You will learn how the Improvement Kata and the Coaching Kata cycles (IK/CK) will help your organiza-tion develop a lasting process for problem-solving and coaching. This will be accomplished through a fun and interactive Kata 4 steps improvement exercise that everyone can participate in and will learn how to bring the exercise back to your facility and share it with others.

You will first be introduced to the definition of Kata “Routines that are Practiced,” and given real world examples outside of the business world. You will be introduced to the IK/CK cycles as Scientific Meth-ods, showing how Scientific thinking and Kata are equal to problem-solving. You will—

1. Learn what Kata are. 2. Learn the 4 steps of the Improvement Kata. 3. Apply the 4 steps of the Improvement Kata during a hands-on exercise. 4. Learn about the Learners Storyboard and the Coach’s 5 Question Card and how to go through Coach-ing cycles. 5. See how Kata can be used to develop a scientific mind set at each level of an organization.

C1: Lean Leadership: Are You Prepared to Lead?

Robert Burke, Executive Director, Value Innovation Partners

This session identifies and explores the concepts of Lean Leadership while providing a framework for as-sessing your Lean Leadership skills. Lean Leadership is an essential tool for those whose firms are em-barking on a Lean journey or who are already on their way. If we change the way we do business, then we must change the way we lead that business.

Through learning concepts such as What is Lean Leadership, Stakeholder Matrix, Molecule Map, Commu-nication Plan Self-Assessment tool, 20 keys of Leadership, you will acquire the basic tools to be successful Lean Leaders while using a method to assess yourself as a Lean Leader through the use of a self-assessment tool.

You will learn about–

Self-Assessment tool. 20 keys of Leadership Learning Objectives. What is Lean Leadership. The Difference between Managing and Leading. How to be successful Lean Leaders.

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C2: Collaboration Tools for Higher Performing Teams – Beyond

“Management and Control” Toward “Collaboration and Communication”

Raija Suomela, Project Consultant, Operations Lean East Priscilla Hansen Mahoney ,Owner, Blazing Trails Coaching

This learning session discusses where Collaboration and Task Management tools, and the culture that surrounds them, counter a one-sided top-down approach to project management. New Project Execu-tion culture enables team members to champion ideas and take ownership of their work. It provides a new level of execution excellence for teams who want to reduce the madness and have a clear vision of their work – planned work, tasks, requirements, work in progress, priority, due date, and assignments.

Work is typically organized, commented on, prioritized, and socialized among a professional team of ex-perts who want what’s best for the project outcome – whether they are working on a solution for their own business process / value stream or whether they are a special project team providing service to a customer business team. This session shows how fundamental concepts of Lean: waste reduction, and value stream, empowering individual contributors, and responding to change are enabled with the new approach -- project management using modern tool sets in both small, low complex projects with few participants and medium and larger sized projects with additional participants and required tasks and dependencies.

Raija and Priscilla will share their experience of using collaboration tools (Trello), communication tools (email and messaging) and file sharing (dropbox, Google Drive, etc).

You may have begun using these tools, but yet there are few professional society workshops on the top-ic of looking at the changing nature of project work from a task management / toolset perspective. This session will help reinforce and practice new habits and also introduce new awareness to how these tools support what teams hope to achieve.

Learning sessionsLearning sessions

C3: Game Day!

Jason Dix, Continuous Improvement Manager, Geiger Group

Lean is full of fun games that provide an excellent opportunity to get experiential learning. Join me in participating in three 2 minute games where you can get an “aha” moment and two 25 minute games that will inspire and engage your employees to use Lean tools and techniques, making their jobs better every day. These will provide experiential learning for both manufacturing and office environments which you can replicate in your own workplace.

The short exercises will solidify why Lean is effective. These exercises can be done in any environment with any number of people. They are short exercises that prove seeing is believing, a bad process will beat a good person, and the importance of identifying waste.

The Office exercise will show that the office is full of hidden variation, where multitasking is often seen as strength although multitasking can sabotage your ability to operate sustainably and result in inevitable variation.

The Manufacturing exercise will show what happens when your standards are improved but everyone around you is unaware, thus making the new process less effective than the old way even though it has been through a kaizen even. It will demonstrate when standard work goes awry in manufacturing and why communicating standards visually is successful.

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C4: Rapid Improvement Process – The IDEXX Approach

Kevin Kennie, Distribution Center Manager, IDEXX Jocelyn Bradbury, Operations Manager, IDEXX

Come see how IDEXX puts their own spin on Kaizen events. An RIP, or Rapid Improvement Process, is typically a 1-3 day event where a team tackles a process issue. We will take you through the entire pro-cess, using an example of a successful RIP event to help tell the story.

Watch us approach all aspects of process improvement – Scope, Current State mapping, Ideal and Fu-ture State formations, implementation, and finally celebration. Developed in-house by our own employ-ees, we are excited to share with & learn from fellow Lean enthusiasts as we continue to advance our Lean Culture.

Rapid Improvement projects are a method/tool similar to A3 development that helps teams drive change rapidly to results while integrating lean into their daily work.

You will walk through the Rapid Improvement Process starting with pre-work, the event itself, and the follow up structure to ensure sustainability based on the PDSA concept. This includes observations, scope, process mapping current, future, and ideal states, implementation and communication plans, uti-lization of Gemba boards for the Study/Act portion of PDSA, and finally the celebration with the team.

You will learn: Key success factors when involving employees in solving problems & Small changes go a long way.

Learning sessionsLearning sessions

C5: Do No Further Harm: - Tips for Taking Pain out of A3 Reviews

David Verble, Partner, Lean Transformations Group & Faculty, Lean Enterprise Institute

Leaders developing the capabilities of their team members and staff is one of the key success factors in building a lean/continuous improvement work environment.

As shown in John Shook’s Managing to Learn, the A3 report is a tool often used to develop both opera-tional performance and employee capability. Many well-meaning managers and leaders, however, approach A3 reviews focused more on improving the A3 than developing the thinking that goes into it.

This session will introduce an approach to responding to A3s that is focused more on Asking than Telling, Prompting Thinking rather than Correcting it, and that is intended to leave the A3 owner still feeling re-sponsible for improving effectiveness of the PDCA problem-solving story it tells.

If you have to do A3s you’ve been there – in the hot seat. Notice I said “have to.” I know few people who jump at the chance to do an A3, and a large part of it is the experience of an A3 review. You have the responsibility for addressing a problem or leading an improvement. You know there’s no perfect A3 but when you put yours forward for review it gets torn apart. And when you leave, you still have the re-sponsibility but little idea what to do with your A3 to get your thinking across.

This session introduces techniques to make your A3 comments less painful and more helpful: 1) Two questions you can ask yourself when you are about to jump in and offer your own ideas that will hopeful-ly help you hit PAUSE. 2) A way to distinguish between helpful and not-so-helpful comments, makimg a mid-course correction if needed. 3) A simple twist for turning a disrespectful question (closed, leading, corrective, suggestive) into a more helpful one. 4) A way listening with curiosity can lead you to ask questions that prompt the A3 creator’s awareness and thinking about the PDCA Problem Solv-ing story in her/his A3.

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PresentersPresenters

Lean Operations Manager, IDEXX Laboratories Stephanie-armstrong@idexx.com Workshop: PS-HD 7: Mixed Model Production – Achieving One Piece Flow

Stephanie joined the Operational Excellence department at IDEXX in March 2018 as a Lean Leader, bringing over 10 years of business experience in both corporate and small business operations.

Currently, as a Lean Operations Manager, she collaborates with her team to pro-vide training, coaching and mentoring, and support to IDEXX’s corporate depart-ments and worldwide Manufacturing Operations. Using Lean tools and tech-

niques, she and her team are building a strong Lean culture and facilitate many cross-functional rapid im-provement projects that improve operational efficiency.

Prior to joining IDEXX she was a Project Manager in the Results Management Office at Central Maine Healthcare where she collaborated with team members across the system, from senior leadership to front line staff, on strategic initiatives. In her tenure with Central Maine, she held process improvement roles where she was responsible for educating, coaching and mentoring leaders and front-line staff on continu-ous improvement.

Stephanie Armstrong

Senior Process Improvement Specialist, New Hampshire DHHS Heather.barto@dhhs.nh.us Workshop: PS-HD 6 Process Improvement Innovations in Government

Heather has been with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Ser-vices for 18 years. She is currently supporting the department in a senior Lean pro-cess improvement leadership role. She has held previous leadership and manage-ment positions in Medicaid Managed Care, public health, and mental health reha-bilitation services. She contributes to the advancement of Lean in New Hampshire with legislative work, training support, various mentoring and coaching roles, pro-

ject facilitation, and much more. She also serves as a guest faculty and course advisor for the NH Bureau of Education and Training Lean and is the co-chair of the NH Lean Executive Committee, leading efforts with strategy to provide faster and smoother services to the citizens of New Hampshire who interact with state government needs.

Heather brings creativity, a Can Do Attitude, and detailed organization to her work and project teams, enjoying good process challenges and using group dynamics to support each project. She believes that Lean facilitators connect people to process and process to good work solutions.

Heather has a Master’s degree in Management-Healthcare Administration, a Bachelor’s degree in Thera-peutic Recreation, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification through GoLeanSixSigma.com and Lean Black Belt, Lean Green Belt, Lean Yellow Belt, and Continuous Improvement Practioner trainings through the NH Bureau of Education and Training. She has also completed advanced trainings as a Certified Public Manager and a Certified Public Supervisor.

Heather Barto

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PresentersPresenters

Operations Manager, IDEXX Jocelyn-bradbury@idexx.com Learning Session: C4: Rapid Improvement Process – The IDEXX Approach

Jocelyn has been with IDEXX for 16 years in various roles including intern, scientist, and operations manager. Her Lean journey began 3 years ago at IDEXX, and what started as a spark developed into a career focus.

In this role, she leads and facilitates continuous improvement efforts in the Tech-nical Manufacturing and R&D teams, leveraging her experience at IDEXX to bring

together cross-functional teams.

As an Operations Manager with a Lean Leadership focus, Jocelyn coaches and mentors scientists in the Technical Manufacturing organization in Lean tools and concepts through projects and rapid improve-ment events.

Lean Leader, IDEXX Laboratories Chelsea-boyd@idexx.com Workshop: PS-HD 7: Mixed Model Production – Achieving One Piece Flow

After obtaining a B.S. Degree in Chemistry from the University of Maine, Chel-sea started her career as a Manufacturing Chemist at LGC Maine Standards. It was in this role that she quickly found her passion in optimizing processes, which also turned into a passion for mentoring and coaching other individuals on operational excellence.

Chelsea’s experience lies in the medical device industry. She joined IDEXX Laboratories as a Lean Leader in January 2019. Prior to IDEXX, she was the Production Supervisor / Lean Coordinator at LGC Maine Standards.

Currently, she serves as the Board Chair for the local chapter of SME, a non-profit organization that helps to spread industry knowledge and to grow the Maine community of industry profes-sionals through networking and learning events.

Jocelyn Bradbury

Chelsea Boyd

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PresentersPresenters

Executive Director, Value Innovation Partners, Ltd. rburke@vipgroup.us Learning Session: C1: Lean Leadership: Are You Prepared to Lead?

Robert Burke is an Executive Director of Value Innovation Partners, Ltd. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Sensei, CPIM from the Association of Opera-tions Excellence (APICS), and holds an ISO 9000 Assessor certificate.

Bob has held positions ranging from Materials Director, Production and Inventory Control Manager, Master Planner and Machinist. He has a broad background and

experience in many different industries such as: Pharmaceutics, Medical Device, Packaging, Heavy Equip-ment, Aerospace and Defense, Chemical, Printing, Services, Stamping, and Specialty/Engineered-To-Order Manufacturing.

Bob provides training and implementation methods in areas of Lean Manufacturing, Pharmacovigilance, Supply Chain Management, Kaizen, Vendor Managed Inventory, Logistics Planning, & Supplier Certifica-tion.

He has co-authored dozens of published articles on the subject of Lean operations. Bob served as the 2018 AME International Conference Chair, is a past President of NE AME, and is currently a member of NE AME’s Board of Directors. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration.

Robert Burke

President, Productivity Innovation & Executive Partner, Productivity Inc catherine.converset@productivityeu.com Workshop: PSAD-2: Lean into Leading: How to Integrate Leadership with the Best of Lean Learning Session: A3: Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment): A Key Pillar of your Lean Management System &critical to deploying a True Company-Wide Strategy of Excellence

After graduating from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ECSP), Ms. Converset held positions within the PECHINEY group in Italy & France, becoming worldwide Pechiney Rhenalu export manager of aluminum rolled products, then Pechiney Group director of packaging devel-opment. She followed this by 5 yrs. managing a plastic packaging activity in Italy.

Ms. Converset joined Productivity in 1994. Following extensive Lean and Six Sigma training in the USA, she became a partner of Productivity in France, then in Europe and the USA. She is now President of Productivity Innovation Europe and Executive Partner of Productivity Inc.

Ms. Converset has developed a deep understanding and practical experience in the execution of Lean transformation in all business environments to drive to tangible, measurable and proven results. She is experienced in guiding Executive Committees in defining their operational and strategic objectives and in building management and organizational systems. She has acquired extensive and varied experience im-plementing Lean.pharmaceutical, R&D and service environments. She teaches Lean Management in Ser-vice Industry at the Center for Operational Excellence at The Ohio State University.

Catherine Converset

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PresentersPresenters

President, New England Lean Consulting paul@newenglandlean.com Workshop: PS-HD4: Lean in the Office – From Cubicles to the C-Suite

Paul Critchley is a recognized thought leader on employee engagement and management interaction. He has helped businesses around the world achieve greater levels of success through the application of Lean techniques. He has been a featured guest on numerous shows, including Gemba Academy’s Lean podcast. Many of his written articles have appeared in the pages of Quality Magazine, Industry Week and at Leanblog.org.

He is passionate about Lean and creating organizational cultures that are sus-tainably engaged. He co-authored his first book - The Whole Professional, A Collection of Essays to Help You Achieve a Full and Satisfying Life to bring a fresh perspective on Work/Life Balance and how individu-als and organizations can work together to achieve greater levels of attainment

Paul is a former Board Member of the Northeast Region of AME. He holds M.S. degrees in both Manage-ment and Organizational Leadership and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

Paul Critchley

Continuous Improvement Manager, Geiger Group jadix@geiger.com Learning Session: C3: Game Day!

Jason Dix is the Continuous Improvement Manager for the Geiger Group. In this role Jason has continued the development of Geiger’s robust internal continuous improve-ment certification program.

He is responsible for Lean training and the continued education of Lean concepts for Geiger personnel. Jason serves as facilitator and project manager for Kaizen events

and is the chief administrator of Geiger’s Idea Generation program.

Jason has worked to build GeigerGroup’s reputation within the community by serving as a guest lecturer to the University of Southern Maine Lewiston/Auburn campus. Jason holds a Lean Six Sigma Yellow belt.

Jason Dix

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PresentersPresenters

Asset Manager, MaineHousing adyer@mainehousing.org Learning Session: A2: Building Your House of Lean

Alison has been with MaineHousing for thirteen-years representing the Finance, Housing Choice Voucher and currently the Asset Management Departments.

As a MaineHousing Lean Co-Coordinator, Alison works to organize the agen-cy’s Lean initiatives and assist departments in achieving their continuous pro-

cess improvement goals. Alison recently graduated from MaineHousing’s Inaugural Leadership Develop-ment Program. As part of the Leadership Development Program, Alison led a group initiative working with MaineHousing’s Energy and Housing Services Department to Lean the Weatherization Billing Process with Maine’s Community Action Agencies.

Alison earned a Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma and holds a Bachelor’s degree from Thomas College.

Alison Dyer

Continuous Improvement Manager, Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP) relliott@gbmp.org Learning Session: B5: Kata: Problem Solving & Coaching for Improvement

Bob Elliott is a Continuous Improvement Manager at GBMP and a Certified Shingo Institute Workshop Facilitator.

Bob has facilitated training and implementation of Lean Principles in many World-Class organizations including Raytheon, Drager Medical, Flexcon Industries, Mersen,

Norfolk Southern Railroad to name a few. The training and implementation in these organizations has resulted in reduced lead-times, quality and productivity improvements and cost reductions. Check out some of his case studies showing examples of these types of improvements at Dacon Construction, Accu-rounds and Innovent Technologies on the GBMP About Us page.

Bob’s training and coaching abilities are not limited to manufacturing. He has worked with many Healthcare organizations including Concord Hospital, Lowell General Hospital, Mass General, Emerson Hospital and Somerville Hospital, as we;; as with service industries such as Mass Mutual Insurance Compa-ny, Boston’s MBTA and Dacon, a design & construction architectural company.

Bob, working with Mike Rother, has developed GBMP’s Kata program, delivered at local businesses as well as local conferences. He has presented at SME’s Eastec. Wprcester c SME, GBMP’s annual Northeast Lean Conference and has been involved with the Shingo Prize as an examiner for Shingo applicants such as Raytheon and Snap-On Tools.

Bob, a former GBMP client & Board of Directors member, has been involved with GBMP since the early 1990’s. He has held top-level Operations Management positions at several local Massachusetts compa-nies. He holds a BS-Operations Management from Northeastern University in Boston.

Bob Elliott

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PresentersPresenters

Chief of Performance, Vermont Agency of Transportation Jayna.guilford@vermont.gov Workshop: PS-HD 6B: Performance Management and Data Visualization

Jayna Guilford recently became the Chief of Performance for the Vermont Agen-cy of Transportation (VTrans). She previously served as the Portfolio Manager for VTrans, Department of Public Safety and the Agency of Agriculture, where she focused on creating opportunities for collaboration, breaking down barriers, and driving change through technological efficiencies.

Jayna is a shameless advocate for the benefits of continuous improvement, da-ta-driven decision-making and agile project management. She was responsible for standing up the Pro-ject Management Office (PMO) for VTrans, creating a streamlined process for project intake, approval, and delivery. When the PMO was absorbed with the creation of a new agency, Jayna took that process and introduced it within the Department of Public Safety (DPS), as well as several other agencies and de-partments. She is also bringing this approach back to VTrans to build a framework for the Performance Unit’s intake process.

She is always working to identify where her team can provide the most value to our customers and cre-ate efficiencies for the State. Jayna strives to understand customer needs—you may find her, or one of her team members, sitting in the passenger seat of a plow truck or taking tours of laboratories, asking how state employees do their work and what challenges they experience. Jayna’s passion for helping people extends outside her work life, where she is a volunteer firefighter and EMS provider.

Jayna Guilford

Anne Frewin

Senior Lean Operations Manager, IDEXX Laboratories Anne-frewin@idexx.com Learning Session: A5: Balancing to Takt Time in a Non-Manufacturing Setting

As the Senior Lean Operations Manager at IDEXX, Anne oversees six Lean Leaders across the country, who work directly with front-line teams in IDEXX reference labs to instill a culture of continuous improvement and employee engagement.

She joined IDEXX in March 2017 as the Lean Six Sigma Leader supporting Manufac-turing Operations and Corporate before moving into her current role in January 2019. In her first year at IDEXX, the number of teams embracing Lean grew resulting

in increased flow, communication, and employee engagement.

Anne has a Master’s in Organizational Leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and a Mas-ter’s in Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining IDEXX she was the Director of Process Improvement at Central Maine Healthcare.

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PresentersPresenters

Caryn Gunter

Process Improvement Facilitator, New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (NBDTI) Caryn.Gunter@gnb.ca Learning Session: B2: Gearing Up for Success ... The BIG Why

In her current role as a Process Improvement Facilitator with the Performance Excellence Branch at NBDTI, Caryn leads teams through continuous improvement projects, of identifying, enhancing and sustaining improved business performance and services.

She is a member of the Performance Excellence Team at NBDTI of Lean Six Sigma practitioners. She has a diverse background of previous work experiences and formal education including business administration, sciences and engineering disciplines. This has enabled a collaborative environment, where they have facil-itated department wide initiatives and tackled complex business problems.

Over the course of 2 years, she and her team facilitated projects that achieved over $11 million in savings and executed a significant reorganization of the Department. Currently, they are focusing on improving operational efficiencies for field staff and head office operations through the installation of the formal management system. They are also concentrating on equipping staff to self-achieve improvement oppor-tunities by providing training and coaching to Waste Walkers and Green Belts.

Caryn graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (BScE) and Master of Science in Transpor-tation Engineering (MScE). She is a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) and practiced for a number of years un-der NBDTI before becoming a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt in 2015.

CEO, Lean Leadership Center cheryl@leanleadershipcenter.com Workshop: PS-HD5: Using Performance Management to Develop Lean Leaders

Cheryl M. Jekiel is the CEO of the Lean Leadership Center which helps CEOs of innova-tive companies and organizations to view their people as a competitive advantage through weaving Lean principles into the fabric of their company culture so they get sustainable, constantly improving results that exponentially change the business.

The Lean Leadership Center partners with companies to drive results by building the skills of their leaders, redesigning human resources practices and improving the culture of their organiza-tion. The Center’s resources include workshops, presentations, virtual learning communities, publications and various other on-site supports.

Ms. Jekiel served as Vice President of Human Resources at Flying Food Group, LLC, and Chief Operating Officer at Parco Foods, LLC. Prior to her recent senior leadership roles in Human Resources, Ms. Jekiel served for five years as Chief Operating Officer, after several other leadership roles, at a specialty bakery in the Chicagoland area. She has developed an expertise in Lean manufacturing with a particular focus on Lean cultures. Ms. Jekiel has made countless significant improvements in reducing operating costs and lev-eraging a Lean culture to obtain new business. She has over 30 years of manufacturing experience.

As author of Lean Human Resources: Redesigning HR Practices for a Culture of Continuous Improvement, Ms. Jekiel brings a passion for Continuous Improvement and is committed to building HR for Lean enter-prises as a recognized field of work.

Cheryl Jekiel

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PresentersPresenters

HCV Administrative Manager, MaineHousing jjohnson@mainehousing.org Learning Session: A2: Building Your House of Lean

Jamie has been with MaineHousing for twelve-years representing the Asset Manage-ment Housing Choice Voucher departments.

As a MaineHousing Lean Co-Coordinator, Jamie works to organize the agency’s Lean initiatives and assist departments in achieving their continuous process improvement goals.

She has been instrumental in the formation of Lean at MaineHousing, as one of its first adopters. Her en-ergy and dedication to its principles and how MaineHousing can benefit have been infectious. She re-cently graduated from MaineHousing’s Inaugural Leadership Development Program.

Jamie holds a Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma and received a Bachelor’s degree from Thomas College.

Jamie Johnson

Distribution Center Manager, IDEXX Kevin-kennie@idexx.com Learning Session: C4: Rapid Improvement Process – The IDEXX Approach

Kevin has been in Distribution and Logistics for 20 years. His experience ranges from a family-owned retail chain that grew into one of the top 12 sporting goods retailers in the country, to a global health care corporation at IDEXX.

His Lean journey started just over 3 years ago at IDEXX. With support from the company Lean Leaders and using Lean methodologies, he was able to become a

Lean Champion through IDEXX’s in-house certification program.

He believes strongly in Lean, Gemba and servant leadership; striving to make IDEXX’s distribution center an employee-led, continuous improvement environment.

Kevin Kennie

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PresentersPresenters

Jim Luckman

Sergeant, New Hampshire Department of Safety, NH State Police Thomas.Lenkci@dos.nh.gov Workshop: PS-HD 6: Process Improvement Innovations in Government

Thomas Lencki, Jr. has been employed with the NH State Police for over 19 years. He has been working on creating a positive Lean culture in the State Police and has developed a staff engagement plan for all State Police employees with the Lean White Belt Course.

Thomas is passionate about Lean and what it brings to the workplace. He believes building teams are critical for a successful project outcome. He believes Lean is a

way of life and it is not something you do once and forget. He enjoys facilitation of Lean events, team-building activities, thinking outside the box and learning new things as he meets and works with people throughout the state.

Thomas’s common sense approach and Lean methodology application are used on the NH roadways to help keep citizens and visitors in NH safe.

Thomas received his Lean Black Belt, Green Belt and Yellow Belt through the NH Bureau of Education and Training. He has also completed advanced trainings as both a Certified Public Manager and Certified Pub-lic Supervisor. Prior to the State Police, he was enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

Thomas Lencki Jr.

Partner, Lean Transformations Group Jluckman@Lean-transform.com Learning Session: B3: Closing the Gap: Aligning your Lean transformation & your Financial Results

Jim Luckman loves solving big problems. An engineer by training, he has expanded his interests in solving problems from technical to social including large complex business problems. He now works with diverse companies by coaching leaders on how to transform their organizations into a culture of energized problem solvers.

Jim has developed his skills through over 30 years of experience in business and 17 years coaching all or-ganizational levels on how to solve their complex business problems. During his business experience, as a leader, he has had the unique experience of leading three separate lean transformations, as a Plant Man-ager, as a Director of a Research and Development Center, and as a CEO of a small start-up company. In his coaching role, he has engaged with hundreds of companies and organizational functions in nearly every industry.

Since 2004, Jim has been a founding partner of The Lean Transformations Group, focused on building prob-lem-solving capabilities in companies. LTG has been dedicated to evolving and growing the effectiveness of an intervention methodology that can be used by all industries to more fully engage their organization and develop the people doing the work. These organizations achieve significantly improved business re-sults by adopting this intervention methodology.

Jim, a faculty member of LEI, is a co-author of two books, Mapping to See and Perfecting Patient Journeys (recipient Shingo Research & Professional Publi- cation Award). Jim has a B.S. in Electrical Engi-neering and an M.S. in Computer Engineering.

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PresentersPresenters

Janie Downey Maxwell

Founder, Organizational Habits janie@organizationalhabits.com Learning Session: B1: Lean & Workplace DNA: Creating a Passionate, Healthy Work Environment Where LEAN Ideas Thrive

Janie Downey Maxwell has always enjoyed organizing chaos - from years of work-ing as an account executive with advertising agencies, to running the business end of the creative departments at Appleseed’s and L.L. Bean catalogs, to directing chil-dren’s theater productions.

And she likes to get a lot of stuff done. While working 40 hours a week, Janie de-cided to write a historical novel, published a children’s play that runs weekly around the world, and last year wrote a musical. She is very involved with local theater - directing, acting, singing, and making props. And she volunteers with the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland and the Maine Historical Society.

She runs two web businesses in addition to her day job. And she writes, speaks, and presents regularly about Organizational Zen. She has a degree in history from the University of Virginia.

Priscilla Hansen Mahoney

Owner, Blazing Trails Coaching priscilla@blazingtrailscoaching.com Learning Session: C2: Collaboration Tools for Higher Performing Teams – Beyond “Management and Control” Toward “Collaboration and Communication”

Priscilla Hansen Mahoney is a business coach with a passion for helping business own-ers develop strategies, systems and leadership teams, so they can take their business to the next level! Her unique holistic approach to coaching alleviates the inherent problems successful businesses generate. She collaborates to define goals, map out

growth strategies, and activate a dynamic course of action that will lighten the every-day work load, elimi-nate time-management problems and sharpen leadership skills.

She has over 20 years of team leadership expertise and high-performance team building experience.

She is an ICF-accredited business coach, trained by iPEC coaching with over one thousand hours of hands-on coaching skills. She has helped hundreds of business owners create their business models, develop strategic plans, execute action plans, and build the business of their dreams that fully supports their life-styles.

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PresentersPresenters

Operational Excellence Leader, Hampshire Bureau of Education & Training (Ret.) Katemcgovern@cox.net Workshop: PS-HD 6C: Traveling on the Public Sector Journey to Lean

Kate McGovern is an MPA, Ph.D. Lean trainer and practitioner. She taught Lean at the White, Yellow, Green and Black Belt levels for the State of New Hampshire’s Bu-reau of Education & Training (2009-2018).

She has extensive experience facilitating kaizens for state, municipal and non-profit organizations and conducted Lean training at the local and regional levels.

In addition to her Lean work, Kate has taught in the Certified Public Supervisor and Public Manager pro-grams and at Springfield College, School of Human Services. She is the author of Challenges in Pension Governance: A Case Study of the New Hampshire Retirement System and A Public Sector Journey to Lean: Fighting Muda in Times of Muri.

Kate McGovern

President, Bill Maxwell and Associates wmax99@gmail.com Workshop: PS-AD 2: Lean into Leading: How to Integrate Leadership with the Best of Lean

Bill is President of Bill Maxwell and Associates, a leadership and change con-sulting firm, putting realistic optimism at the center of leadership and change. The firm has successfully served a wide variety of organizations and individuals.

Its services include coaching & organizational development projects–as well as performance lifting business presentations, workshops, and seminars. It believes

what some call “soft” skills are actually essential skills and focuses on practical experiences that ignite real and positive change.

As a coach, Bill is certified by the Management Research Group in Strategic Leadership Development. This allows him to build individualized coaching programs based on world-class assessment products. Using his experience as a mentor, teacher, and learner, he partners with clients in a spirit of realistic optimism.

His areas of practice include: - Organizational development - Leadership program design and implementation - Leadership and storytelling - “Community-ship” and inspiring a shared vision - Executive coaching - Building teams through building trust - Communicating with confidence - Conflict resolution

Bill is a part-time instructor in the University of Southern Maine’s Leadership and Organizational Studies Dept. As a leadership and change instructor, Bill has worked with The Learning Group, South America and with SCILs Management Training Center in Helsinki, Finland. He has also teamed on Lean projects at the Institute for Continuous Improvement (ICI), integrating the role of leadership in any Lean effort.

Bill holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education/English

Bill Maxwell

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PresentersPresenters

President, Lean East steve@leaneast.com Learning Session: A1: Lean Startup Thinking – How Today’s Entrepreneurs use Continuous Innovation

Steve Musica is President of Lean East and consults on improvement efforts that increase quality while reducing costs. He leads business and healthcare process improvement projects for Lean East and is highly regarded for his team leadership.

Steve is a certified Lean Six-Sigma Black Belt, from Dartmouth College, with exten-sive experience in Toyota Production System (TPS) methods and has previous management and operation-al experience as President, CEO, COO, and VP of Operations for medical and technology companies.

Steve learned Lean with some of the best organizations in the world and now uses his knowledge and ex-perience to help others transform their teams. He has facilitated performance improvement projects both large and small for healthcare, government, manufacturing, and service-based organizations.

Steve earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine with high distinction and high honors and a Master in Engineering Management (MEM) degree from Dartmouth College.

Steven A. Musica

Operational Excellence Leader, Hitchiner Manufacturing Brian_Murphy@hitchiner.com Workshop: PS-HD3: A3 Problem Solving – Learn By Doing

Brian Murphy is part of the team of Operational Excellence Leaders for Hitchiner Manufacturing in Milford, New Hampshire.

He has been practicing Lean Six Sigma since 2005. His experience is in automo-tive, medical, healthcare, and aerospace industries.

Brian holds a Master’s Degree in Six Sigma Quality Business Management from Southern New Hampshire University and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Brian Murphy

PresentersPresenters

Vice President, Fuss & O’Neill Manufacturing Solutions, LLC jperrotti@fando.com Learning Session: B4: Lean & Safety Integration

John is a Fuss & O’Neill Vice President and leads various disciplinary efforts for its Manufacturing Solutions group. He is an expert in reliability and has developed methods & approaches to evaluate systems for achieving maximum perfor-mance. He is an expert in reliability and has developed methods and approaches to evaluate systems for achieving maximum performance.

John believes in “hands – on” involvement and innovative team approaches to improve equipment effectiveness. He has led clients to improve the productivity

and reliability of their manufacturing equipment. John has unique problem solving abilities and trouble-shooting techniques. He has led the process of performing a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) as a tool to formulate a complete maintenance approach.

John has led many Total Productive Maintenance sessions. He has also performed training and support in Maintenance Manager 101, Troubleshooting Techniques, Set Up Reduction and Utilizing a Lean Approach to Safety. He is an expert in Overall Equipment Effectiveness and how to leverage it to prioritize the im-provement effort process. He teaches for many MEP’s throughout the Northeast as part of their Lean Certification programs. John is also a trainer for increasing production on clients’ factory floors.

John manages and oversees the onsite safety compliance services for various clients. John has a unique skill of creating a teamwork atmosphere with project progression with safety always a focus. He leads many of the high hazard services.

John Perrotti III, CMRP

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Partner, Lean Transformations Group KOhaus@lean-transform.com Learning Session: B3: Closing the Gap: Aligning your Lean transformation & your Financial Results

Karl Ohaus is a Partner at Lean Transformations Group and a faculty member for the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI).

Since setting sail on the consulting waters, he has had the privilege of working with the top thinkers and leaders in health care, financial services, manufacturing, and product development. His unique gift for being able to quickly understand processes

and how pieces fit together gives him many opportunities to do what he loves. Karl provides guidance in the transformation to Lean principles at the shop floor and at management levels with a strong under-standing of how to create the cultural changes required.

Karl received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, School of Engineering. He was then at American Standard as a Design & Development Engineer, responsible for overseeing new products from the marketing “wish list” to concept development to product design and full production. He was awarded 10 patents during this time. In 1991 Karl left American Standard and became CEO of a manufacturing company producing parts used in safety-sensitive automotive components. It was during this time that Karl developed his understand and passion for Lean and left in 2002 to begin teaching others Lean.

Karl Ohaus

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PresentersPresenters

Director of MaineHealth Operational Excellence, Center for Performance Improve-ment, MaineHealth gsaleh@mainehealth.org Workshop: PS-HD 9A: Kaizen Events: the Art, the Tools, and the Science The What, the Why and the How

Ghassan Saleh is the Director of MaineHealth Operational Excellence at the Center for Performance Improvement for MaineHealth, an integrated, extensive healthcare delivery network of providers and organizations.

He has been teaching and coaching various quality and process improvement tools and techniques for the past 11 years. He has graduated over 65 green belts in the MaineHealth system, having now taught the in-house MaineHealth green belt class for 4 years.

Ghassan is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with four other certifications in the field including: Black belt, green belt, Lean Management Certification and certified Continuous Improvement Practitioner (CIP) from the State of Maine Bend the Curve program.

He has being teaching Healthcare Lean Supply Chain Management to MBA students in Thomas College for 5 years. He has been part of the team teaching in the Maine Medical Center Certificate in Healthcare Im-provement program. He has just been awarded the 2019 MITE award of Inter-professional Teaching Excel-lence, and the program he manages has been awarded the 2017 MaineQuality Counts Leadership Innova-tion Award.

He has a Master of Arts in Health Management, Planning and Policy, a post-graduate Diploma in Hospital Administration. He practiced Dentistry as a general dental practitioner for 8+ years in the Middle East.

Ghassan Saleh

Process & Performance Analyst, Vermont Agency of Transportation Many.sainz@vermont.gov Workshop: PS-HD 6B: Process Improvement Innovations in Government

Manny is a Performance and Process Analyst for the State of Vermont Agency of Transportation.

In this position, he works within the Agency Divisions to develop Performance Measures and create business intelligent dashboards to analyze the performance so that the business teams can make data driven decisions.

Previously, he spent 35 years in the Telecom industry as an Engineer, Project Manager, and Business Op-erations Manager.

Manuel Sainz

PresentersPresenters

Manager, ITIL Processes and Continuous Improvement, Biogen (Former) MichaelE.Scott@outlook.com Workshop: PS-HD 8: Creating Lean Culture in Information Technology

Michael Scott is a Process Improvement Leader with the passion to make work easi-er and faster supported by an extensive background in IT, LEAN, business, and pro-gram management.

Michael has broad experience in biotechnology, healthcare, financial and legal in-dustries including Biogen, Fidelity Investments, and national law firms.

He is a Certified Process Validation Professional and a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Michael Scott

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Principal, Vizibility. LLC saleh@vizllc.com Workshop: PS-AD 1: Building an Internal Lean or Operational Excellence Department Learning Session: A4: 10 Mistakes to Avoid during a Lean Transformation

Mohamed Saleh has over 18+ years of experience, with the past 11 Years of Lean experience at Hartford Healthcare. Most recently he served as the Senior Sensei and Executive Director of the Lean Office, first as the Director of Continuous Im-provement for the Medical Group then Hartford Hospital, as well as before that with

Franklin Products, a division of Boeing Aerospace.

He is a Professor at Central Connecticut State University for the Graduate Department of Engineering and Technology Management with a focus on Lean Management, Operational Management and Project Management. He is currently the Principal at Vizibility, llc.

He holds a Masters in Engineering and Technology Management and Bachelors in Mechanical Engineer-ing from Central Connecticut State University and is currently working toward a PhD in Business Admin-istration from Northcentral University. He has several certifications, including a Six Sigma Master Black Belt (Kaplan University) and is a past Malcolm Baldrige Examiner (PIPEX).

Mohamed Saleh

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PresentersPresenters

Project Consultant, Operations Lean East Raija@leaneast.com Learning Session: C2: Collaboration Tools for Higher Performing Teams – Beyond “Management and Control” Toward “Collaboration and Communication”

Raija Suomela is a Project Consultant with Lean East who believes that process change that engages all levels of an organization empowers employees and develops future leaders.

She has 10 years of experience in a variety of roles as a Business Analyst and Scientist supporting research and development operations. Raija has championed lab operations improvements and IT systems changes in key roles for multiple project teams, and received Awards of Excellence from Merck & Co. She has a deep understanding of documenting work processes and project requirements and is committed to supporting improvement processes and leading project teams through change.

Raija earned a BS degree in Biochemistry with honors from Hartwick College. She was awarded a Nation-al Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) position and the Freedman Prize for Student-Faculty Collaborative Research. Raija received Six Sigma training and has employed Lean tools and techniques to improve outcomes.

Raija Suomela

Partner, Lean Transformations Group & Faculty, Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) drverble@gmail.com Learning Session: C5: Do No Further Harm-Tips for Taking Pain out of A3 Reviews

David Verble, M.S., has been a performance improvement consultant and leader-ship coach since 2000. Prior to that, he worked for North American Toyota for fourteen years, first as an internal change agent and later as a Manager of Human Resource Development at the plant and North American levels. He has been on the workshop faculty of the Lean Enterprise Institute in Boston for fifteen years.

David has worked with clients in manufacturing, healthcare service, finance, higher education and gov-ernment in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. His work experience has focused on process per-formance improvement, coaching, leadership development, and facilitation of strategic thinking and problem solving. He has a graduate degree in instructional systems and performance technology and training in consulting psychology.

David is a founding member of the Lean Transformations Group (LTG) which provides lean implementa-tion support to a number of manufacturing and non-manufacturing clients. LTG uses value stream map-ping to identify and help implement process improvements and transfers the technology to its clients to improve and sustain their business processes. The LTG partners are authors of the Mapping to See kit for facilitators of value steam improvement projects and Perfecting Patient Journeys for process perfor-mance improvement leaders in healthcare.

David Verble

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PresentersPresenters

Dagmar Vlahos

Senior Process Engineer, Project Management Office, University of New Hampshire Dagmar.vlahos@unh.edu Workshop: PS-HD 9B: Using the WIIFM (What’s In It for Me) The subconscious mantra guiding employees’/organizations’ everyday actions for Lean Engagement

Possessing the ideals that foster strong work relationships and operating under the notion that coaching and mentoring are the key factors of a successful team, Dagmar works with all levels of staff within industries to build a culture of em-

ployee empowerment and continuous improvement.

Prior to coming to the University of New Hampshire, Dagmar worked in the Human Resources/Payroll industry for companies such as Velcro, Fidelity Investments, and Workscape. Despite not having any higher education experience she was hired by UNH to bring continuous improvement methodology into higher education. During her 7 years at UNH she has worked with leadership to incorporate Lean into higher education while building staff awareness of continuous improvement.

Her position is diversified as she: facilitates Lean project teams; develops course content and is the lead instructor for Lean training for university staff; mentors staff who are Lean practitioners looking to advance their skills; and is the lead coordinator of the yearly UNH and State of NH Lean Summit.

Dagmar is a strategic leader who has demonstrated the ability to work at all levels of any organization to build Lean programs where none existed, to work within an organization that has an established Lean program and participates in building or expanding a Lean culture. She is on the State of NH Lean Execu-tive Committee representing Lean within higher education.

Bob Wallner

Operational Excellence Leader, Hitchiner Manufacturing Bob_wallner@hitchiner.com Workshop: A3: Problem Solving – Learn By Doing

Bob Wallner is part of the team of Operational Excellence Leaders for Hitchiner Manufacturing in Milford, New Hampshire.

He has been practicing lean since 2006 and Six Sigma since 2014. His experience is in both commercial and aerospace component manufacturing.

Bob holds a Master’s Degree in Lean Manufacturing from Kettering University, as well as a Six Sigma Black Belt and Shingo Bronze Certification.

HOSTS HOSTS -- The Planning teamThe Planning team

This tenth annual Summit continues a journey the Continuous Improvement Lean Collaborative (CILC) began in 2008. It reflects the understanding that any continuous improvement journey is, fundamen-tally, about learning and exchanging and valuing each others’ experiences, ideas, and knowledge.

The key to success, we all know, is having a passion for excellence. This Summit brings us together in an exceptional opportunity to share that passion—exploring, exchanging, & taking advantage of what we each have learned and increasing our knowledge of continuous improvement and its application.

Today, more than ever, we need commitment to continuous improvement throughout our entire or-ganizations. We need to be more effective and to provide outstanding value for our customers, staff, and stakeholders . We can no longer expect an acceptance of unpredictable quality, high cost of products and services, and long wait times.

Lean culture is the way to be consistently better in order to survive and thrive. This applies to manu-facturing, government, and services equally. We cannot continue to do it the same old way. When you strive for a high standard of excellence in all that you do, you can expect a high return on your investment in many ways. This Summit will provide you an opportunity to hear from leaders/practitioners who have successfully implemented this “better way” in their workplaces.

As members of the Collaborative’s Summit Planning Team, it is our profound hope that you will find the Summit joyful and meaningful; connect with colleagues; meet new people to learn from and net-work with; and increase your knowledge of Lean continuous improvement and its application to your workplace and your own work.

CILC 2019 Summit Planning teamCILC 2019 Summit Planning team

Robert Burke Darlene Dumont Walter E. Lowell Value Innovation Partners A Better Culture, LLC Lean Capitol, LLC rburke@vipgroup.us darlene@abculture.org walter.lowell@gmail.com

Tom Carbone Anne Frewin John L. Rioux Texas Instruments IDEXX Laboratories Maine Dept. of Labor tom.carbone@ti.com anne-frewin@idexx.com jrorty0@gmail.com

Stephen Dombrowski Julita Klavins Connecticut Dept. of Labor CILC—Bend the Curve stephen.dombrowski@ct.gov btc.imp207@gmail.com

CILC Website: https://cilcpath.org

2020 Lean Systems Summit: August 13-14, 2020

Lean Systems

Summit

Where Government,

Services, and

Manufacturing Meet

Collaboration and Innovation in Achieving Operational Excellence through Continuous Improvement.

Exploring

the

Future

Together