June 15, 2009

Champion’s Meeting Notice “Culture-Culture”

Montréal, QC Aug. 5-7, 2009

Dear AME Champion: The agenda is set and the presentation information is noted below. We will be treated to some very though provoking presentations. I expect that the café discussions will provide some great take-aways. If you haven’t quite made up your mind about attending read the presents bio’s and abstracts that should convince you that this is shaping up to be a great event. Canlyte Our host is Canlyte is Canada’s leading manufacturer and supplier of quality lighting fixtures and services. They are committed to empowering the success of their customers through local trusted lighting specialists, resources and solutions. Canlyte produces some great innovative products. They are in the middle of their lean journey and want to share some success and some learning opportunities. They are anxious to hear your feedback as they continue down the lean path.

Presenters: Gregg Miner President & COO SCORE Business Systems Gregg has over 24 years in manufacturing in positions ranging from R&D Engineer to division President with stops in quality, marketing, production, operations and engineering on the way. His in-depth background in the manufacturing arena helped shape his philosophy and inspire his drive to establish his own lean consulting practice. Gregg’s clients quickly recognize his passion for people and his innate ability to move seamlessly between the corner office and the shop floor, tapping the wisdom of employees at all levels. It is not uncommon to hear them to say “Gregg’s ability to engage and communicate at all levels is incredible. His facilitation skills bring out the best in everyone.” His philosophy is an empowered accountable workforce is the best competitive weapon. In his lean consulting practice there is significant focus on the leadership side and soft skills required for successful lean transformation. He has developed HELP™ (Human Engagement Lean Process) to define and drive the human side of lean. This process, combined with implementation of lean tools, leads to the culture and behavioral changes needed for lasting success. Gregg has executed three lean transformations and one greenfield lean start up. He has also taken two failing companies and executed turnarounds by focusing on people, product and strategy. In 1999 Gregg was part of a leadership team pursuing the Oklahoma Quality Award (equivalent to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award). With Gregg as the General Manager, the goal was achieved in 2002 when Gov. Frank Keating presented him with the trophy for the Oklahoma Quality Award for Excellence. Gregg received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University. He is on the board of directors for the southeast region of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and is a former member of the AME Lean Champions Club. His community service efforts include support for various United Way Foundation organizations and serving on the board of the Gateway Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Developing a Culture for Lean

In recent years lean has made a significant breakthrough in dissociating itself from manufacturing. The term lean manufacturing is slowly fading off into the sunset being replaced by lean enterprise. This change is no more evident than in the healthcare industry where lean transformation tool are enjoying their largest growth

in application. Even with the expansion of lean out of manufacturing into the service sector, the success rate of implementations is not improving. One would have hoped the term “enterprise” would have helped practitioners and would be practitioners understand that true lean is more than just removing waste in the obvious processes where “product” or “service” is delivered to customers, but unfortunately the “enterprise” in lean enterprise only helped to get lean out of the manufacturing sector not deployed to the “enterprise”. The next breakthrough in lean MUST take the form of the literal meaning of enterprise (Webster’s enterprise: a unit of economic organization or activity ; especially : a business organization). Serious lean practitioners must look beyond the tools of 5S, TPM, value stream mapping and kaizen to the behaviors that are needed to develop and sustain the culture needed for lean to succeed. As renowned lean author Jeffery Liker put it.

“A true culture of continuous improvement” is what is required. Jeffery Liker has identified the primary problem most organizations face in implementing large scale change, weather it is Lean, Six Sigma or some other company wide initiative. What is called for is a new culture, a culture of c ontinuous improvement, a culture that embraces change. The primary reason most companies fail in their Lean implementation is because they fail to successfully change the culture.

Practitioners must begin to go beyond the processes that deliver lean and review the processes that manage and support lean. How many lean implementations consider compensation as part of the effort, how about communication, leadership, customer contact and goal setting? These processes, although somewhat removed from the value adding processes either support or get in the way of the culture and requisite behaviors needed for lean to be sustained. The figure below shows the cultural aspects that need to be addressed.

Joseph C. Barto, III President & Chief Executive Officer Training Modernization Group Since the inception of the Training Modernization Group in July 2002, company president and CEO, Joe Barto, has led a core team of learning and performance experts in the creation of successful People Based solutions for companies requiring a positive first year return on investment. Prior to joining TMG, Mr. Barto was the Senior Program Manager of the Training Modernization Program at Northrop Grumman Newport News and Director of Government Programs for Global Learning Systems. A retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, Mr. Barto served in peace and war both in the United States and abroad. Mr. Barto served as an original member of the Joint War fighting Center and was one of the key developers of the Joint Training System and the primary author of the June, 1996 Joint Training Manual. He earned a Bachelor of Science (Systems Engineering) degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY in 1978 where he was an Army Basketball Player and a Masters Degree in Public Administration (Organizational Theory and Leadership) degree from James Madison University. He is a

Charter member of the United States Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative and the author of Task Force 2-4 CAV: First In -- Last Out. A study of leadership in the most challenging, stressful, and demanding leadership environment—combat Ready to Change? Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement. (Killing Alligators or Draining the

Swamp!) As the President and CEO of a company whose business depends on a culture of continuous improvement and who lives the challenges of continuous improvement with our partners we have discovered one of the root causes and greatest cultural challenges associated with the Lean Journey is failure to create Team Stability prior to investing in a Continuous Improvement System. In essence when you seek Operational Stability prior to Team Stability as the pre-condition for a Lean Program you have doomed your program to fail. My experience is manufacturers today (if they ever did) will never reach Operational Stability defined as stable customer (Customers will continuously be improving/changing their needs), suppliers (if your requirements are changing that has a exponential affect on your suppliers), and shareholder (they want to see a ever increasing return on their investment). Customers, Suppliers, and Shareholders have demands and the successful organization recognizes this reality and create an organization able to deal with these uncertainties so as not to create chaos among their own team. The one aspect of Stability that is totally in the control of the leader is Team Stability. The more stable the team the better they are able to deal with the day to day uncertainties of running any business. A common refrain is we are too busy to create Team stability. I believe the U.S. Army has a valid claim to be the busiest organization in the world yet has gained and maintained a reputation for consistent, near perfect performance. There is a lot to be learned from them in how to create Team Stability in a world where not only is the enemy inducing change but trying to do them positive harm. As a TMG benchmarking project we researched and how the Army addresses "too busy" to better understand how (from a policy perspective) they take on the issue of Mission First--People Always, in an all-volunteer Army. When you think you are really busy-- just think about those who are really busy and getting shot at simultaneously...and if they don't change and respond to their environment the cost is unacceptable. Giles LeBlanc Vice President Operations Canlyte Jane C. Bernier-Tran Senior Director Planning and Operational Excellence Continental Airlines Chelsea Food Services Division Jane Bernier-Tran has 28 years of experience working in the airline industry in many areas of the business. She is the Senior Director of Planning and Operational Excellence for Continental Airlines Food Services Division. Her areas of responsibility are in Supply Chain Optimization, quality and compliance of 145 catering stations system-wide and including the Pacific Food Services group in Guam, Planning and Financial Controls, Scheduling, Product Support and Customer Advocate areas for her division. Jane has a degree in Business with executive training at Jesse Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University in Lean Manufacturing and at Eaton Corporation's Lean Executive Training in Wales. She has spoke about Lean to the University of Houston and the AME-CME conference in 2007 and 2008. Jane is also on the Board for Continental Airlines Management Association. About the Company Continental Airlines is the world’s fifth largest airline. Continental, together with Continental Express and Continental Connection carries approximately 67 million passengers per year. With 265 destinations worldwide, Continental serves more international destinations than any other United States carrier. Continental has a flexible fleet plan of all Boeing aircraft that provides the ability to adjust the fleet to meet market demands. Continental has 2,750 daily departures throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia and owns 368 jets and 274 regional jets. Chelsea Food Services, is the catering division of Continental and is the third largest catering organization in the U.S. Continental is the only major U.S. airline that operates its own in-house catering facilities, resulting in significant financial and operational benefits to the company.

Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, Continental consistently earns awards and critical acclaim for both its operation and its corporate culture. For the sixth consecutive year, FORTUNE magazine named Continental the No 1 World’s Most Admired Airline on its 2009 list of World’s Most Admired Companies.

“From producer to passenger — people are our link” All airlines were significantly effected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. In a matter of minutes, the world had become a different place in which to run an airline. All airlines had to adapt if they were to stay in business. Continental Airlines was no different. For the Chelsea Food Services Division of Continental Airlines, it meant setting out on a Lean Journey. Chelsea Food Services had considered many options, including using outside consultants. In the end, they decided their best asset was their people and they began a Lean journey, using six super-stars from their current team and encouraging full company involvement from the top to the bottom of the division’s organization. The implementation of Lean Manufacturing and Supply Chain Optimization in the Food Services Division has meant a savings of $56 million for Continental Airlines. Find out how Chelsea Food Services has been able to achieve a 99.8% on-time record — among the highest in the industry. And learn how Chelsea Food Services has been able to sustain these changes and continued growth through developing a clear vision and the expectations of senior management at Continental Airlines. Chelsea Food Services has a lot to show those who are at the intermediate level of their journey in implementing Lean principals. Hear how Continental Airlines developed an on-line Training Library for all management and hourly employees. Learn how Continental’s Best Practice website is used to ensure on-time on-line accessibility to the right information for all new managers in the Chelsea kitchens and headquarters. Learn how Lean leadership was rewarded and the Lean team was promoted to work in other key areas of the division to help apply Lean knowledge. And hear how Lean has helped Continental Airlines win awards for service and product quality Ron Harper President Cogent Power Ron Harper is a professional engineer and business leader who has worked in manufacturing for his entire work life and has been the senior leader at Cogent for the past 14 years. Ron’s passion for lean thinking, specifically the need for senior leadership engagement and active participation, and the importance of changing the traditional manufacturing culture will clearly shine through. The link to shareholder value, and financial results needed to capture the interest of business leaders will also be discussed. Cogent Power Inc., a Tata Steel business, is the largest and most diversified supplier of steel magnetic core components for power and distribution transformers in North America. Cogent has been on it’s lean journey since 2004, and over the past few years has focused a significant amount of resource and time on the process of converting the organizational culture to what is being called a “self propelling” lean organization. “Self propelling” identifying the point in time where continuous improvement is a way of life of all people within Cogent, and that everyone in the organization is an active and creative contributor to continuous improvement process.

Engaged Leadership An organization on a lean journey cannot fulfill its “lean profit potential” unless it has highly engaged leaders capturing the hearts, minds and creative potential of the team following them. A passionate, engaged lean team can only be created and sustained if leaders own the team’s level of engagement, and do the hard work of maintaining it. One of the critical aspects of creating a lean thinking continuous improvement culture is to maximize the active engagement of all people in continuous improvement work; and to do this leaders in all parts of the organization must be “Engaged Leaders” to achieve this. This presentation will share the process that Cogent is going through to create engaged leaders and increasing the active engagement of everyone with continuous improvement work.

Mark A. Volcheff President, HomeLand Security Solutions, LLC Executive Director, Colorado Homeland Defense Alliance After completing over 32 years service in the US Air Force and retiring as a Major General, Mark has entered the civilian business community focusing his business on helping companies with product development and market strategies with a national security focus. Twenty-two different leadership positions in the military gave him lots of experience walking into often unfamiliar environments and organizational cultures with the direction to complete the mission and excel. Not unlike business executives who are given short term positions to test their breadth and depth of talent for potential higher positions in the future, Mark directed organizations as small as four and as large as 40,000 encountering different “business” climates with each opportunity. Changing the culture of an organization is often required when turning around an organization looking for success and Mark successfully achieved that three times being brought into organizations literally identified as last among their peers to being first in less than two years. Mark has the opportunity now in the commercial sector as Executive Director of a non-profit to not only bring many “cylinders” of excellence together to collaborate and solve national security problems, but to also “incubate” emerging technology companies to develop strong business plans, successful marketing strategies and sound business practices to develop a symbiotic business culture for success.

Leadership: Driving Your Company’s Culture The tone a leader sets for the organization on the very first day is sometimes enough to shake up the status quo and head it down a path for success. What must be reshaped is the organization’s culture that has it operating in a less than supportive environment. Sharing the vision of success, identifying problem areas, knowing what motivates employees, holding people accountable will provide a stimulus for a culture change to put your organization on track and producing. This presentation will offer mini case studies to offer insight to know when organizational cultures are out of sync with leadership and preventing organizational success and provide recommendations to assess non-productive situations and the steps needed to create a business environment for excellence.

AGENDA Wed., Aug. 5 7:00 PM Cocktails and Dinner: SpringHill Suites Marriott

Le Saint Gabriel Room Thurs., Aug. 6 King Edward & Iberville Room 6:00 - 7:00 AM Breakfast in the Hotel Main Lounge 7:30 Introductions Pat Carguello 8:00 “Developing a Culture for Lean” Gregg Miner 9:15 Break 9:30 “Ready to Change” Joe Barto 10:45 Café discussion 11:30 Lunch in the Le Saint Gabriel Room 12:15 PM Board Bus to Canlyte 12:45 Overview of Canlyte Giles LeBlanc 1:30 Tour of Facility 2:30 Q/A 3:00 Bus to Hotel 3:30 “From Producer to Passenger--People are our Link” Jane Bernier-Tran 4:45 Café discussion 5:15 End 7:00 Cocktails & Dinner: TBD

Fri., Aug. 7 King Edward & Iberville Room 6:00 - 7:00 AM Breakfast in the Hotel Main Lounge 7:30 “Engaged Leadership” Ron Harper 8:45 Break 9:00 “Leadership: Driving Your Company’s Culture” Mark Volcheff 10:15 Café Discussion Pat 11:30 Revisit Hot Topics List Pat 12:00 PM Lunch in the Le Saint Gabriel Room 1:00 End

Montréal There are many events happening during out meeting dates. Just a few are Les Franco follies De Montréal and Italian Week. You will be able to experience:

Thousands of artists, musicians, renowned singers, rising stars and promising talent from a dozen countries meet up each summer to celebrate the diversity and rhythms of French music from around the world. Traffic comes to a halt for the occasion, and hundreds of thousands of festival goers invade Montréal's downtown streets to take in around 175 free shows over 10 days on seven specially-designed outdoor stages, with programming that delivers sensational creations and surprise collaborations.

Visit: www.tourisme-montreal.org Note: - Business Causal for meeting - Spouses welcome at all meal functions. Hotel Marriott Spring Hill Suites Vieux Montreal 445 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Montreal, Qc (H2Y 2Z7) *Discounted room rate of $185.00 (plus tax) Reservations can be made by contacting the Marriott SpringHill Suites-Old Montreal Reservation Department directly at (514) 875-4333 or by our toll-free number from Canada and the US at 1-877-875-4333. Callers must mention Association for Manufacturing Excellence AME, to ensure they receive the appropriate rate and are included in the guest room block. Airport: Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport Our hotel is located only minutes from the airport. Patrick Carguello Director, AME Champion’s Club

REGISTRATION FORM

AME Champion’s Club

“Culture-Culture” Montréal, QC

Aug. 5-7, 2009

TO: Del Crawford AME 3115G N. Wilke Road Arlington Heights, IL 60004-1451 Phone: 224/232-5980 x226 Fax: 224/232-5981 Email: dcrawford@ame.org

____ I plan to attend the August 5-7, 2009 meeting on Servant Leadership

____ I will attend the Wednesday Dinner on August 5th ____ I will attend the Thursday Dinner on August 6th

____ I am unable to attend.

I have the following special menu requirements: ______________________________

My spouse, ____________________________________, will accompany me at no charge.

I am bringing __________________________________________ as my guest Check Enclosed _____ AMEX _____ MC _____ VISA _____ DISCOVER _______ Account Number _____________________________ EXP Da te _____________ Signature _______________________________________ First Name: _____________ Middle Initial: ___ Last Name: _____________________ Job Position: _________________________________________________________ Company: ____________________________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________________________ Phone: _________________________ Fax: _________________________________ E-mail address: ________________________________________ Guest Information (if company name and address are different from Champion attending) Name: _______________________________________________________________ Job Position:__________________________________________________________ Company: ____________________________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________________________ Phone: _________________________ Fax: _________________________________ E-mail address: _______________________________________