The Performance Excellence Network is pleased to announce our fall conference November 12 in Bloomington, focused on tools to achieve process/operational excellence. 

Hear tips, best practices on how and when to use a variety of improvement tools to improve process performance in any type of organization (businesses, healthcare, education, government, nonprofit).

Program of Events

Conference Speakers

• Sathish Selvaraju, Business Operations, IBM.  At the completion of this session, participants will be able to identify and apply the steps of the 8-Step Structured Problem Solving process and demonstrate the skills described in the Analyze Technical Problems & Solutions Skill Set.
• Cristine Leavitt, State of Minnesota. Minnesota has earned a national reputation as a leader in applying Lean and Six Sigma principles and approaches to enhance the efficiency and quality of public services. At this session, participants will learn about the state’s history in advancing performance excellence, where we are today, where we plan to go, and what it will take to get there.
• Pat O’Boyle, founder, Fire-Formed Consulting | Mary Larweck, president, Emerald Quality. The first half of this workshop will focus on PDCA.  The “Plan, Do, Check (Study), Act” concept is the fundamental basis for the deployment of all quality tools, and needs to be an integral part of management decisions.  So whether you are using ISO, Baldrige, Lean, Six Sigma, or any number of other improvement tools and framework, knowing PDCA will give you the foundation for systematic improvement.  The second half of this workshop will focus on setting the stage – the importance of cross-functional teams and on moving an organizational culture from fear to trust – regardless if you are using PDCA or any number of improvement tools.

• Charles A. Liedtke, Ph.D., Owner, Strategic Improvement Systems. Japanese-style Hoshin Kanri is a proven method for developing, deploying, and accomplishing strategic objectives.  Participants in this session will learn (1) the fundamentals of Hoshin Kanri, (2) current global best practices, and (3) how to get started implementing a Hoshin Kanri system.
• Karen Copp, Organizational Change Manager, Taxpayer Services Department, Hennepin County. Does your team have limited resources and need to focus its efforts on one or two priorities?  Do you need a way of surfacing the values and priorities of team members?  The Interrelationship Digraph looks for drivers and outcomes.  This tool allows a team to systematically identify, analyze, and classify the cause and effect relationships that exist among all critical issues so that key drivers or outcomes can become the heart of an effective solution.
• Mary Larweck, president, Emerald Quality | Jim Nelson, Quality Assurance Mgr, Loram.  A refresher on the 7 “indispensable” Quality tools, this session will offer new thoughts on how and when to use them and some expanded analysis.  Simple templates available for all attendees.  The tools include Cause and Effect (Fishbone) Diagram, Check Sheet, Control Chart, Histogram, Pareto Chart, Scatter Diagram, and Stratification.
• Bob Mitchell, Division Quality Manager, 3M. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a method to transform customer requirements into design quality, to deploy the functions forming quality, and to deploy methods for achieving the design quality.  Simply, QFD helps transform and prioritize customer needs into products and services.
• Jim Nelson, Quality Assurance Mgr, Loram  | Dave Brucks, Exec Director, Functional Excellence, Seagate Technology. How many of your projects experience scope creep and duration issues?  A couple small exercises (SIPOC and SWOT) up front can mitigate risk of awareness clarity and gain stakeholder buy-in.  Learn how these powerful tools can open team member’s eyes to the impact and influence around them.  Simple templates available for all attendees.
• Andrew Kirsch, Director, Enterprise Excellence, Master Black Belt, Ecolab. Root Cause Analysis is one of those naturally appealing concepts for improving outcomes.  If you pluck dandelions from your lawn without getting at the roots, you’re wasting your time!  On the other hand, if love of money is the root of all evil, why do we bother with a criminal justice system?  Let’s have a look at RCA in a thoughtful way: how to do … and how not to do it.
• Dan Hart, Manager of Clinical Operations-RN, Paramedic, BSBM, Mankato Clinic. This presentation will apply a bit of a spin on the A3 process improvement tool  — a tool often associated with Lean and problem solving.  From a department manager/user perspective, this discussion will show you great examples of the tool in use and what to expect from implementation both as a manager and as user.  From an organizational perspective, this session will provide examples of outcomes – both financial and processes improvement gains across an organization.  This session is highly recommended for those that are looking to understand a simple way to adopt process improvement and show results.
• Dave Brucks, Exec Director, Functional Excellence, Seagate Technology, Pat O’Boyle, founder, Fire-Formed Consulting.
• Lisa Snyder, Superintendent; Jason Molesky, Director of Program Evaluation, Lakeville Public Schools. Dr. Snyder and Mr. Molesky will share their use of TQM Tools in Lakeville’s continuous improvement journey – tools that apply not only to K-12 (yes, quality works in education!), but also businesses and other types of nonprofits.  Participants will learn about Lakeville’s PDSA process work and engage in some of the activities used with district leaders.
• Lee Kuntz, President and Consultant, Innovation Process Design. The simplest tool to quickly achieving improved process results is building Visual Controls.  In this workshop, learn how to lock in the results you need as the work process is done.
• Dr. Kevin Anderson, Senior Consultant, Accelare.  By this point of the day you have dozens of process tools in your toolkit. The question is now “how” to approach your work beyond the tools.  We will discuss the role that assessment plays in figuring out the “how”, the things about culture that you cannot change which will significantly impact your work and the importance of getting to the heart of the organization – Gemba!  Warning: Lights will be dimmed and stories will be told that you can leverage!

 Pricing and Registration

Costs start at $250 for members. Early bird pricing/registration (October 18) by emailing [email protected].  Same-day registration from 7:30am to 8:30.

Don’t miss this extraordinary learning and networking event!