Upcoming Events Upcoming conferences, workshops, kaizen events and plant tours.  Visit the Change Management Associates website periodically as this information is often changed.   Conferences Lean Transformation Summit, March 5-8, 2012, Jacksonville FL at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. The summit is put on by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), the not-for-profit organization of James Womack, co-author of “Lean Thinking”. Pre-conference workshops will be scheduled for March 5-6. The main summit runs from March 7-8. Workshops will cover A3s, Macro Value Stream Mapping, and many other subjects. Plenary and breakout sessions will allow for attendees to hear about work of the Jacksonville Lean Consortium and the Healthcare Value Network. Medtronic will also be making a presentation. For more information go to the LEI website. Shingo Prize Conference, April 30 to May 4, 2012, Jacksonville FL. The main conference runs from May 1-3. Workshops will be offered on April 30. Speakers include: Gardner Denver, Autoliv, Dana Holdlings, Daimler Truck NA, Goodyear, Terex, Denver Health, and more. Drew Locher of CMA will be attending the awards ceremony on May 3 to receive a Shingo Prize for his latest book, “Lean Office & Service Simplified”. For more information go to the Shingo website. TWI Summit, May 14-18, 2012, Orlando FL at the Gaylord Palms Resort. The main conference runs May 15-16 with workshops offered May 14, 17 and 18. Described as a foundation concept of Lean, TWI is a must in everyone’s ‘toolbox’. Learn about the time tested and powerful ‘J’s’: Job Instruction (JI), Job Relations (JR), and Job Methods (JM). For more information go to the TWI Summit website. 7^th Annual Lean Accounting Summit, September 13 to 14, 2012, Orlando FL at the Gaylord Palms Resort. This event brings together members of the finance and accounting community to discuss subjects such as “Accounting in the Lean Enterprise”, “Lean Accounting practices”, “Performance Measurements”, and related subjects. For more information go to the Lean Accounting Summit website. 29^th AME Annual Conference: The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is holding its annual conference in Chicago IL from October 15 to 19, 2012 at the Chicago Sheraton.  The conference will offer 60 company presentations, 40+ workshops, and 20+ plant tours.  Change Management Associates will be delivering workshops on "Office Value Stream Mapping" and “Lean Office Overview with Simulation". Several companies with whom Change Management has worked with over the years will be presenting as well. While the program is still under development, you can get more information on the AME website. Australian Lean Conference: November 20-23, 2012, Melbourne Australia. The main conference runs November 20-21. On-site application based events will be conducted on November 22-23. Drew Locher of CMA will be keynoting on the subject of developing a Lean Culture, as well as facilitating an on-site Office VSM event. More information on this conference is forthcoming. Workshops Lean Enterprise Institute Regional Workshops: Change Management Associates is a faculty member of the Lean Enterprise Institute, the not-for-profit organization of the co-author of "Lean Thinking" Jim Womack. LEI has monthly offerings of workshops scheduled throughout 2012 in different regions. Some offerings will have specific themes. For more information go to the LEI website. Los Angeles CA, February 7-9, 2012. Workshops offered include, “Optimizing Flow for Office & Services”, “Management Standard Work”, “Lean IT”, “Value Stream Mapping for Office & Services”, and more. This workshop event will be held at the Marriott Marina del Ray. San Antonio TX, April 3-5, 2012. Workshops offered include, “Managing to Learn”, “TWI”, “5S” and many others. This workshop event will be held at the San Antonio Hyatt Regency. Chicago IL, May 1-3, 2012. Held at the Chicago Hyatt Regency – Schaumburg, workshops will include “Optimizing Flow in Office and Services”, “A3s”, “Lean Supply Chain”, “VSM for Office & Service”, and other topics. Maryland World Class Consortia: CMA delivers various workshops through this network affiliate. To be Announced. AME Regional Events: The A3 Improvement Process, hosted by Remcon Plastics, Reading PA February 24, 2012. The facility tour in the morning will demonstrate how this make-to-order, mainly short run “job shop” has successfully applied various lean concepts to provide impressive results over the past several years. These results include: reduced inventory by 42%, reduced scrap by 75%, increased efficiency by 48%, and improved bottom line by 200%. The A3 Improvement Process is another tour highlight. A workshop in the afternoon will dive deeper into the subject of A3s. Attendees are encouraged to bring with them a real world problem for which they can create a draft A3 and get the problem solving process rolling upon returning to their respective organizations. Associates from the host company will help the attendees with this exercise. Lean Office & Service, hosted by Benco Dental, Pittston PA, March 22 2012. At this event, you’ll learn about Benco’s Lean Journey and how they focus their improvement efforts on the external customer using Lean Tools in non-manufacturing applications. For example, they’ll show how they used these tools in constructing their new World-Class Headquarters. The facility tour in the morning will showcase Benco’s new, state of the art, 273,000 square foot world headquarters, distribution center and the largest dental equipment showroom in North America. The facility was recently awarded a LEED Silver Certification for Commercial Interiors. A presentation titled “Extending Lean to Office & Services” will be provided in the afternoon. Participants will have an opportunity to define their ‘next steps’ for applying lean to non-production areas after the presentation. Visual Management Systems, hosted by Engineered Arresting Systems, Logan Township NJ, April 12, 2012. During the facility tour in the morning of the first day you will have the opportunity to see how Engineered Arresting Systems is using Visual Management Systems in conjunction with Leader Standard Work to drive Continuous Improvement. Attendees will be able to participate in an actual “boardwalk”. Another tour highlight will be the company’s Communication Center that has replaced traditional management staff meetings. A workshop in the afternoon will be provided on the subject of Visual Management Systems. Learn a step-by-step approach to designing a VSM for any department or are. Training Within Industries (TWI), hosted by Albany International, Homer NY, April 25, 2012. A facility tour in the morning will include tour stops highlighting how Albany International has effectively applied TWI concepts throughout its operations. A workshop will be provided to attendees on the subject of Job Instruction (JI), one of the three key techniques under the TWI banner. For more information on all AME Regional Events, go to the AME website. Webinars, Podcasts, etc. From time to time, CMA will participate in podcasts on different subjects. Be sure to check the “Events” page periodically to see when a podcast has been scheduled. To Be Announced.