Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. 
Advanced level
Theme: Future Workforce Development

Employee engagement through lean-driven innovation

Tuesday, Oct. 20 Location Code
10:45am-11:45am Room 232/233, 2nd floor TP/09
Highlights

Creatively improve employee safety and morale

Implement a creative strategy for strengthening a culture of innovation; hear about effective change management to overcome the challenge of employee ergonomic injuries and also contribute to better overall quality and yield; leadership’s key role in supporting innovative solutions and building employee engagement.

Overview

Develop a novel approach to embedding an innovation culture throughout your company, in turn advancing employee safety and involvement. Learn how Ventana Medical Systems fosters a dynamic, forward-thinking culture throughout the organization, including manufacturing. Hear about Ventana’s collaboration with a Roche engineering team in Mannheim, Germany to overcome the challenge of employee ergonomic injuries in the building and testing of dispensers (precise fluid delivery systems). Get details on the company’s related improvement process: dividing the project into two parts (build and test), bringing automation to the test part and achieving a reduction in injuries as well as improved overall quality and yield. This approach, incorporating jidoka principles (part of the Toyota Production System), was recognized with the Roche Innovation Award. Understand leadership’s key attribute, change management: explaining why the solution was proposed and how it would not negatively impact business or compliance/deliverables from the project/ROI and also assuring that no jobs would be lost as a result of the improvements. Hear about change management, employee engagement and safety.

Company

Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., a member of the Roche Group, is one of the world’s leading cancer diagnostic companies and an innovator of tissue-based tests that enable the delivery of personalized health care to cancer patients. Ventana develops and manufactures medical diagnostic instruments and reagent systems that provide automation technology. It offers workflow solutions designed to improve laboratory efficiency. Ventana products and solutions are used globally in hospital-based histology laboratories, independent reference laboratories, medical research centers and pharmaceutical companies.

Speaker: Himanshu Parikh

Himanshu Parikh is the vice president of manufacturing operations at Roche Tissue Diagnostics in Tucson, AZ. He is responsible for overall manufacturing of instruments, reagents, service parts and supply chain. He manages a team of 350 people. He previously worked at Digene Corporation, PerkinElmer Life Sciences and Beckton & Dickinson. Parikh earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from M.S. University in India and an MBA degree from the University of Maryland. Parikh is a certified six sigma black belt.