Pete Selleck, Chairman & President - Michelin North America Inc.

Pete Selleck is a 30-year veteran of Michelin. During his career, he has held numerous high-level management positions, including manger of quality control and tire assembly operations, plant manager, VP of Michelin Tire Manufacturing in the U.S. and Canada, COO of Michelin Americas Small Tire operations, and  President of worldwide Truck Tires. Today, as chairman and president of Michelin North America, Mr. Selleck is responsible for the coordination of all operations of the Michelin Group in North America that consists of 18 major manufacturing facilities and about 22,000 employees.

Dan Ariens, CEO - Ariens Company

Ariens Company has experienced significant employee growth and added new manufacturing locations since the company originally started its lean journey in 1998. Its lean culture has enabled the manufacturer to achieve enviable levels of success. President Dan Ariens will discuss the role of a lean leader in ensuring that Arien's lean culture remains viable and dynamic for new employees who have not learned by shared experience. He will discuss the many tools that have allowed lean to thrive at Ariens, including a lean internship program, hands-on culture, lean development hours and an employee Lean Implement program.

Rich Morris, VP Assembly - BMW Manufacturing Co.

Leading Sustainable Improvement
What is your leadership legacy? Vice President of Assembly Richard Morris' keynote address will provide a thought-provoking presentation of how great leaders effectively guide organizations through process change improvement. He will review BMW's commitment to profit before growth, lean manufacturing and continuous improvement as he shares examples of how BMW's plant in South Carolina has achieved remarkable success in the last 20 years.

Poul Jeppesen, CEO & President - SKF USA

SKF: Beyond Our Factory Walls -- How building closer business partnerships with our suppliers and customers, and closer participation with our local communities, creates a more productive and inclusive climate for change.

SKF manufacturing and quality control programs have evolved over the years to include people far beyond the company's own shop floors in reaching new levels of quality and performance.

Poul Jeppesen, president of SKF Americas, will describe SKF's approach of integrating its long-term sustainable development with its lean manufacturing processes and growth initiatives.

SKF's concept embraces the health and well-being of not only its employees, but also customers, communities and the shared global environment. By working to reduce its own environmental footprint, SKF has successfully reduced CO2 emissions while increasing output. Now under a concept called BeyondZero, SKF helps customers achieve similar reductions in their own plants by sharing best practices, and by creating new products and services that can reduce energy and resource use.

Underpinning this development is a “OneSKF” culture that encourages employees to think and work beyond their own situation or their business unit, and consider the impact on the total company including supplier partners. Then by applying lean methods, SKF Business Excellence systematically improves processes, products and services to deliver customer value in a meaningful, efficient and sustainable way.

The Death of the 8-Hour Shift
Speaker:  John Frehse, Chief Strategic Officer and Managing Partner, Core Practice

In a world of global competition, tightening margins and advanced technology, corporations have been slow to make aggressive adjustments to their labor strategy.  The overwhelming use of eight-hour shifts is a key sign of this lack of transformation.  As “just in time” becomes more widely adopted, the eight-hour shift will become a relic of “how we used to do it” and no longer part of the “this is how we have always done it” excuse.

Key takeaways: 

• Learn new ways to deploy labor, including real examples of shift schedules that have been implemented successfully.
• Learn why the current eight-hour shift may be costing your business millions of dollars.
• Learn the pros and cons of the most common shift schedules
• Learn what employees think about a variety of options through real benchmarking data

Imagine a snack food plant where constant jams, breakdowns and mistakes resulted in excessive scrap, missed deliveries, loss of customers and a history of financial losses. One where the workforce had become so conditioned to the constant failures that workers approached each day with the expectation of the same frustration. Poor performance had become the accepted cultural norm. This is the situation that the new leadership faced when they assumed responsibility for the Columbus, Ga., Snyder's-Lance bakery. The challenge seemed insurmountable, but this new team, bolstered by their background in Lean Six Sigma and TPM, harnessed the resilience and ingenuity of their workforce to make historical performance improvements. For example, production lines that had run in the 55% to 65% of Tmax (theoretical maximum) range have now reliably sustained in the high 75% to 85% range without any significant capital investment. Customer service and fulfillment rates have gone from the 70% to 75% range to a stable 99%. Recordable incidents have been reduced more than 40%.This presentation will demonstrate how the team systematically transformed not simply a production plant, but also a culture.

Key takeaways:

• Discover the power of employee engagement. The native knowledge of the workforce was leveraged to develop effective standard work for line setup and operations. The use of visual control boards and transparent performance metrics connected the employees to the resultant performance of the line.
• Gain an understanding of the change-management methodology implemented throughout the organization.
• Learn how the application of reliability engineering and cross-functional team problem-solving identified and resolved inherent design deficiencies.

Need Skilled Workers? Industry and Education Initiatives that Work
Panelists: Bryan Dods, Executive Manufacturing Technology Leader - Global Supply Chain Management, GE Energy
Werner Eikenbusch, Manager Apprenticeship & Associate Training, BMW Manufacturing Co.
Anand K. Gramopadhye, Ph.D, Assoc. Vice President for Workforce Development,  Professor & Chair - Department of Industrial Engineering, Clemson University
Susan Pretulak, Executive Director, readySC
Moderator:  Hal Johnson, President & CEO, Upstate SC Alliance

A skilled employee is a company's greatest asset. Learn how industry leaders and educators are working together to develop unique training and education initiatives to ensure companies have access to a skilled and ready workforce to meet both their current and future needs.

Key takeaways:

• Hear examples of successful collaborations among manufacturers, educators and local organizations to develop winning models of workforce training.
• Understand both the benefits and costs (commitment) required of industry and educators to make collaborative training initiatives succeed.
• Learn how to get the conversation started in your community
  

Achieving Excellence using High Performance Work Teams
Speakers: Brett Petrie, Senior, Director of Manufacturing, Life Technologies
Tim Dorsey, President, The Dorsey Group

Four years ago, Life Technologies' Austin, Texas, site set out to improve its performance. Realizing this is a journey and not an event, Life Technologies utilized High Performance Work Teams (HPWT) concepts launched by The Dorsey Group to transform the organizational culture. It has proven to be a journey filled with obstacles to overcome and processes to improve.

Life Technologies wanted to create a culture that would allow it to remain competitive in a very challenging and changing business environment. HPWTs is about engaging the entire workforce in challenging the way the company does business, and developing the tools, processes and structure that allow the employees to drive and sustain the results.

Life Technologies has made great progress in its journey. The Austin site has been recognized at the corporate level, receiving the Life Technologies Productivity Award. It also was named an IndustryWeek's Best Plants winner in 2011.

In this presentation, the speakers will share the roadmap, strategies and lessons learned the team experienced along the journey, as well as its continued quest for excellence. The presenters also will explore the challenges encountered at the team, department, site and corporate levels.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn what High Performance Work Teams are and how they can help transform a culture.
• Discover how Life Technologies implemented HPWTs at site and corporate levels.
• Gain knowledge of tools that help actively engage employees.
  

"Lean" thinking transformation, daily execution and the ability to sustain improvements are achieved through establishing a cross-functional lean champion team and a learning structure that engages the “why factor” and behavioral elements involving change.

Federal Heath Sign has adapted an approach that engages, connects and influences team members across all functions and levels through book studies, gemba waste engagements, learning by doing, embracing PDCA and a consistent coaching/mentoring system. This has led to a deeper, shared level of ownership and accountability, where team members consistently reflect upon what went well or did not go well today, and how to improve it tomorrow. This presentation will share a key tracking mechanism that has contributed to the ability to sustain a culture of continuous improvement while correlating directly with Federal Heath's corporate, strategic objectives. Attendees also will learn how Federal Heath identified the specific lean methodologies that best fit its organizational environments, across multiple locations.

Key Takeaways:

• Discover how to develop a cross-functional lean champion group, within the existing leadership/management structure, that models the way for change.
• Learn how to engage, connect and influence team members, with lean thinking and problem solving, across all functions, through lean coaching and mentoring at the gemba.
• Learn how to gain and sustain buy-in for change at the individual, team, organization, customer and enterprise level.
• Gain a deeper understanding about how to execute a lean transformation, across multiple facilities, while overcoming past management philosophies, geographical influences and past improvement failures.
  

Strategic Training at Siemens Energy
Speaker: Pamela B. Howze, SPHR, Training and Development Manager, Siemens Energy

Attend this session and learn how Siemens Energy Inc. takes a strategic and holistic approach to workforce development through its employees, collaborative community partnerships with educational institutions and other businesses. In addition, Siemens has created an operational Train the Trainer program using subject matter experts from across the campus. Learn how Siemens started a formal European-type apprenticeship training program for young adults while they are still attending high school and a maintenance apprenticeship program for veterans exiting the military. Siemens also has deployed ToolingU across the site, giving all operators equal access to training regardless of what shift they work, via strategically placed eLearning stations on the manufacturing floor. This session will address:

• Technical Training Development for New Gas Turbine Plant
• Safety Training Program
• Train the Trainer Program
• Apprenticeship Program
• eLearning Through ToolingU
• STEMersion

What happens when you combine leadership development secrets of the world's greatest manufacturer with the world's most elite military unit?

Toyota is without question one of the most successful and studied companies in the world. Yet, despite the volumes of books, articles, case studies and countless benchmarking tours, few organizations have been able to match Toyota's performance, profitable growth and culture of engagement. 

Similarly, the U.S. Army Special Forces' (or Green Berets') elite training, team-based culture and legacy of excellence produce leaders capable of acting as the front line of American diplomacy in the most remote regions of the world -- winning hearts and minds, and reaching the highest levels of service to the United States. 

In this session, lean leadership experts Art Smalley (Toyota Motor Corp., Donnelly Corp., McKinsey and Co., Art of Lean) and Sam MacPherson (former chief of training, U.S. Army Special Forces Command, award- winning lean manufacturing senior executive) take you inside the Green Berets and inside Toyota. Smalley and MacPherson will share their solution to America's manufacturing and industrial leadership gap and their blueprint for developing a legacy of highly engaged, organizational lean leaders that will create bench-strength depth, critical mass and breakthrough performance.

Here is some of what you will learn:

• Lean's Greatest Need: The willingness and ability to lead
• Lean vs. TPS (Toyota Production System): organizational lean compliance vs. the True Aims of TPS
• U.S. Army Special Forces and Toyota: A comparative case study about how these two organizations develop a legacy of successful leaders
• How Toyota and the Green Berets are organized to succeed through small group leadership and the deployment of organizational problem-solving capability
• The Attributes of a Lean Leader
• 10 keys to creating a legacy of lean leaders dedicated to operational excellence and people engagement

Key takeaways:

• A3 of Lean Leadership Academy approach and model
• A blueprint for developing systematic current and future organizational lean leaders capable of leading in a Toyota Production System/Toyota Management System environment
• Example of lean leadership development training plan overview

Developing Lean Leaders at IBM's Advanced Microelectronics Solutions
Speaker: Patrick Varekamp, Senior Technical Staff Member – Microelectronics Division, IBM

It is often a challenge to transform leadership to truly understand, think and behave lean. In this session, you will learn about a structured and repeatable activity for improving the discipline of lean leaders—an approach that is flexible enough to be applied to any organization and at any management level. Patrick Varekamp, senior technical staff member in IBM's Microelectronics Division, will present results from the structured approach and discuss the critical success factors learned from applying the approach to the senior leadership team of IBM's Advanced Microelectronics Solutions organization.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn how to assess which lean behaviors exhibited by your leadership team are holding back your organization's lean transformation.
• Understand the details of a structured and repeatable method to transform your leadership team into disciplined lean leaders.
• Identify lessons learned from the application of this method to a team of executives in IBM's Advanced Microelectronics Solutions organization.

From Plant Managers to Profitability Engineers: Meeting the Needs of Today's Global Economy with Business-Savvy Plant Managers
Speaker: Susan Nutson, SVP Human Resources, Saint-Gobain North America

In today's fast-paced and global economy, the role of plant manager is evolving at breakneck speed. Plant managers who are technically savvy yet are also financially literate with a strong business sense are becoming the new standard. Identifying and building a talent pool of managers who are aware of the marketplace and how the plant manager can position the plant for an economic advantage while also ensuring smooth and efficient production brings a whole new level of complexity for those responsible for talent acquisition and growth.

Attend this session to learn about Saint-Gobain's global and North American-specific approach to growing and identifying Profitability Engineers.

Key takeaways:

• Learn how the role of plant manager has shifted over time and how your company can seek to meet the needs of this evolving field.
• Gain insight into the skill sets needed from this new generation of plant managers.
• Learn from Saint-Gobain's first-hand experience in growing and acquiring this new type of plant manager.

Adapting the Toyota Product Development System
Speaker: Bob Melvin, Vice President of Engineering, Teledyne Benthos, Inc.

Test first, then design': How to turn the traditional product development process on its head -- and

• learn what you don't know early on in a project,
• eliminate the dreaded “loop-back,” ensure that new products hit the sweet spot: the right technology at the right price at the right time, and
• achieve a steady -- and faster -- pace of new product development.

Key Takeaways:

• how to develop a knowledge library to establish a reliable ‘corporate memory'
• how to change engineering's propensity to start designing immediately thus eliminating  the dreaded project loopbacks
• how to develop a new product development rhythm embraced by both engineering and sales

Warren Rupp Tackles Material Flow Optimization to Pump Up Productivity
Speaker: William Jones, Vice President of Operations, East Asia, IDEX Corporation
John Carter – President Diaphragm & Dosing Pump Technology, IDEX Corporation

Warren Rupp will take you through the process it employed to successfully implement a plantwide Material Flow Optimization (MFO) project in a manufacturing environment. During this session you will learn how Warren Rupp's Mansfield, Ohio, plant, a 2012 IW Best Plants winner, redesigned an entire plant in order to improve the flow of materials and effectively manufacture and ship product out at a faster pace. How successful has the project been? The plant hit its ROI target in three months, a full year ahead of expectations.

Key Takeaways:

• Find out why Warren Rupp took on this project. What issues was the company trying to solve?
• Learn about the methodology Warren Rupp used to ensure an on-time, successful project completion
• Understand how to effectively get buy in from all levels of the corporation.
• Hear about the challenges Warren Rupp faced along the way.

Natural Capitalism Through Innovation
Speaker: John Bradford, Chief Innovations Officer, Interface America's Inc.

This presentation examines past attempts to leverage nature in our economic systems and the vectors that are destined for failure. History shows that it is impossible to thwart the natural process, and while technology can sometimes delay consequences, it cannot eliminate them. An introduction to biomimicry drives the point home that our world evolved over the last 4 billion years and will continue to evolve, despite humankind's best efforts to destroy it. With Nature as the instructor, observe how humans can become a part of nature, rather than moving away from nature. Interface Chief Innovations Officer John Bradford will explore ideas on how to transform the economic system to one that is more sustainable, bring thoughts into action and set up the story of specific projects that have had meaning in the transformation of Interface, a carpet company aspiring to become a sustainable enterprise by the year 2020.

Key Takeaways:

• Not all good intentions have a positive effect on our economic system's balance and resilience.
• History shaped current assumptions surrounding our economic system
• Introduction to biomimicry, highlighting the contrast between an “evolved” planet over one that is “created”
• Role of Nature as a teacher
• Transforming our economic system to a more sustainable enterprise/world

Manufacturing Visibility & Productivity at Toyota
Speaker:  Trever White, Information Systems Manager - Manufacturing & Quality Business Systems,
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing, North America
 
Toyota has always believed in a “Go and See” philosophy in manufacturing to make informed decisions with the best information available. Their efforts to implement a multi-site strategy to integrate production, maintenance and quality systems with their enterprise is an ongoing, strategic initiative within Toyota, and one that has brought the Information Systems (IS) group much closer to the plants they support. Join Trever White, IS Leader – Manufacturing & Quality Business Systems, Toyota North America, for an open, interactive discussion on what they have learned on their journey toward enterprise-wide manufacturing visibility, why they're doing it, and how they're making it happen.

Key Takeaways:

• The value of manufacturing visibility to drive productivity
• The need for cross-functional business collaboration between plants and corporate groups
• The key challenges, lessons learned and best practices Toyota has uncovered on their journey

How Reynolds American Transformed its Business – An End-to-End Transformation Journey Linking People, Processes and Technology
Speakers:  Missy Moore, Senior Director Information Management, RAI Services Co.
John Southcott, Co CEO, Brock Solutions
 
Learn from Missy Moore as she shares the challenges R.J. Reynolds faced -- a shrinking market, increasing taxes, obsolete infrastructure, and an aging workforce with decades of knowledge walking out the door -- and the call to action to transform the business.  R.J. Reynolds' transformation began with the development of a five-year manufacturing strategy, coupled with leadership's commitment to build a high-performance culture and enabled by the appropriate technology boost. This session will detail how R.J. Reynolds tackled its challenges and emerged more efficient and profitable than before.

Key takeaways:

• Discover the lessons learned by R.J. Reynolds as it pursued its transformational program – learn what to do and what not to do.
• Gain a clear picture of the technology and implementation steps required to enable such a transformation.
• Hear specific quantitative and qualitative achievements the transformation delivered.

Driving Continuous Improvement through Workflow Automation
Speakers: Rusty Callier, Director of Operations, Uponor
Mike Stuedemann, Engagement Manager, Savigent Software

A pillar of manufacturer Uponor's strategy for operational excellence is its focus on continuous improvement to increase product quality, improve manufacturing efficiencies and reduce operating costs. This presentation provides an overview of the continuous improvement strategy of Uponor, an international provider of plumbing and indoor climate systems for the residential and commercial building markets. The overview will include a special focus on the company's lean manufacturing initiatives and Six Sigma efforts. In addition, two case studies will provide detailed insight into continuous improvement at Uponor's North American manufacturing facility. One case study documents Uponor's efforts to improve asset availability and utilization within its large installed base of plastics extruders – part of its effort to improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). A second case study focuses on the role workflow automation (business process management) plays in driving responses to actionable events and their ability to change behavior on the plant floor.

Key Takeaways:

• Discover actions you can take to improve equipment availability and utilization.
• Gain an appreciation of the role behavior change and data-driven decision-making play in the success of continuous-improvement initiatives.
• Learn how an increased focus on the incidents (exception events) that impact efficient, effective and economical manufacturing drives change in an operation.
• Increase your understanding of workflow automation and its application to drive continuous improvement in manufacturing operations.

Manufacturing Technology Evolution at Mondelēz International
Speaker: Erik Nistad, Director, Enterprise Business Services, Integrated Supply Chain, Mondelēz International

For many years, corporations have realized the value of standardized systems across the enterprise level for driving consistency, simplicity and efficiency. In recent years, companies have turned their eyes toward the plant floor attempting to extend those benefits all the way to production. Come hear how one large global manufacturer has begun that journey and the pitfalls it encountered along the way. Learn how you can leverage its experiences to extend those benefits to your organization.

Key Takeaways:

• Approach to aligning organizations across functions and the globe on manufacturing systems strategy
• Leveraging standardization to capture and drive information from manufacturing automation to ERP
• Developing and aligning an approach for integrating both the “old” and the “new”

Pre-Conference Workshops

I. The Basics of Lean Quick Review

• Definition
• Value Added vs Non Value Added
• 8 Wastes

II. The Value of Time

• Cash Flow
• $ Value of Cost

III. Tying in Lean Concepts with Flow of the Product

• Impact of Inventory to Flow of the Product
• Impact of Balance to Flow of the Product
• Basic Considerations in Cellular Flow
• Calculating Optimum Inventory in a Cell

IV. Managing Differently in a Lean Environment

• Process Lead Time
• A Realistic Measure of Productivity - Breaking a Paradigm
• Key Measures to Use in Managing a Workcell
  

TWI was developed in the United States during WWII to train replacements for an industrial workforce who left to fight a war.  It was very successful and is credited with helping the United States out-produce the enemy.  After the war, our experienced workforce returned home.  TWI was just a memory in the United States, but we taught it to other countries who have been using it ever since. Now it's back! Competition and has forced us to look for more help.  TWI has been called the missing link. It creates the culture to sustain our lean improvements.   It's a return to foundational tools and so much more!
 
Learn how to implement the three modules of TWI.

Job Relations:  Build a culture of cooperation and respect, where employees and supervisors have strong relationships enabling them to develop their own skills as well as continually improve processes.  Teach lead people and supervisors Foundations for Good Relations to help prevent problems along with a 4 step method to deal with people problems when they arise.

Job Instruction:  Build a culture where your most skilled employees know how to share their knowledge with other employees.  Teach them to efficiently bring others up-to-speed so more and more employees can execute work consistently. This creates a strong teamwork culture between employees at many levels. (Wouldn't you trust someone who taught you a valuable skill efficiently and effectively?).

Job Methods:  Teach lead people and supervisors to work with employees to review work processes and create continuous improvement. You don't have to wait for a team event. We want all employees looking for better ways to do the work every day. Job Methods teaches a method for coming up with improvement ideas and creating a concise proposal to present to management. 

Join the MESA International Business Forum to kick off the conference.  Meet the MESA International president, board of directors and fellow industry professionals.  You're invited to participate in MESA's International Board meeting from 9-10:30am.  Or join us at 10:30am to learn about recent MESA accomplishments and future objectives.  Dive into the MESA Global Education Program (GEP) and on-going strategic initiatives.  And, champion your own cause by telling MESA leaders what you need from the association to deliver on-going value in your organization. Limited seating available.

Monday, April 22 – 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
The Value of Manufacturing Technologies in Continuous Improvement
OR
ROI & Justification for Manufacturing IT Solutions

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Improving Manufacturing Performance so Executives Notice
OR
Your Voice: What tools, technologies, education and capabilities you and your business need to thrive.

Forget the lectures, let's roll up our sleeves!  MESA International is bringing their “unConference” format to Greenville to offer you a safe, open environment to address your most pressing challenges.  These sessions offer a rich, interactive environment in which knowledge sharing works best.

No presentations or speakers here, in a MESA unConference, you set the agenda.  Choose which themed unConference you'd like to attend and bring all your burning challenges.  Experienced MESA professionals will moderate the discussions between you and your peers, encouraging all to contribute to the sharing of ideas and lessons learned.

Instructors: Chris Glover, Director - Milliken Performance System, Milliken & Co.
Phil McIntyre, Director Business Development and Marketing - Milliken Performance Solutions, Milliken & Co.

Through numerous real-world Milliken examples, you will be able to understand the fundamental beliefs and strategies behind a successful World-Class Safety operation. You'll learn how to:

• Create a ‘Bottom-Up Approach' that facilitates associate empowerment, ownership, and engagement
• Understand how Leadership and Team Development play an integral role in your safety journey and your Culture
• Obtain Leadership commitment and desire and how Safety should be the ‘Core Value' of your organization
• Create, train, and educate sub-committees based on your particular environment and needs
• Avoid reaching a safety plateau and how to keep driving continuous improvement

Workshop outline:

I. The 9 Immutable Keys to a Successful and Sustainable Safety Process

• The aspects of Leadership Commitment
• What role does ‘Culture' play?
• How to incorporate the right metrics at the right time.
• Training, Education, Audits, Code & Compliance all part of a ‘holistic' safety process. Tools are not Enough!

II. The Milliken Safety Process

• Safety as the ‘Trust' factor
• How to develop a culture of associate engagement and empowerment
• Selecting a Steering Committee
• Selecting the proper Sub-Committees
• How associate-led safety teams and committees create the culture whereby improvements are sustainable

III. Financial Benefits

• The financial benefits of being ‘Safe'

Milliken & Company is a 147 year old textile and chemical company based in South Carolina that has been internationally recognized for its achievements in safety and operational excellence. With safety as its #1 core value, Milliken has 29 OSHA certified Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) STAR sites and is one of the few organizations to have its headquarters—Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg, SC—that has become an OSHA certified Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) STAR site.

Milliken's Safety Process is a proven, 20-step process that engages the entire workforce. Driven by the desire to eliminate ALL safety incidents, this proprietary process has been developed over the past decade through benchmarking best practices around the world and actively engaging and empowering the entire workforce. While Milliken & Company has been recognized as a benchmark in safety, the goal still remains ZERO.

Milliken's Safety Process is a comprehensive system that leads to dramatic breakthroughs in employee safety, motivation and morale, and overall cost reduction. It is all about cultural and systems changes and not just about the application of tools. This process applies to all types of businesses from manufacturing to public and private industry. It is about changing the way employees go about doing their job, not bolting on safety initiatives that are not sustainable over the long term.

Milliken's Safety Process is an employee-centric approach to improving safety that is designed to build an organic, internal capability that is permanently infused into the organization. Milliken has been recognized repeatedly by organizations such as Occupational Hazards magazine as one of the safest companies in the U.S., regardless of industry. Milliken is the only American company that has won the top manufacturing award in both the United States and Japan — the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the U.S. and the TPM Excellence Award sponsored by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance. In addition, Milliken has been named five times as one of the Best Companies to Work For inFORTUNE Magazine's annual top 100 listing. The company has also been named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Magazine.

If your company is like most, the transition of new products from engineering to manufacturing is difficult and inefficient.
 
Help streamline the flow of new products from engineering through manufacturing. Reduce wasted time, energy and resources. Improve communication and teamwork. Companies that use Lean Product Development techniques reduce time to market by up to 70%, and reduce development costs by over 30%.
 
Topics include:

• Visual project boards
• Stand-up coordination meetings
• Lean Product Development Process Flow

The IndustryWeek Best Plants Awards program annually salutes North American manufacturing excellence. During this session, IW Best Plants awards coordinator Jill Jusko discusses the IW Best Plants competition process and walks you through the IW Best Plants application. She will highlight key questions and provide insights into performances achieved by past participants. Audience questions will be encouraged throughout the presentation.