Program

Learn how leader standard work can help leaders move from firefighting to intentional, value-driven leadership that strengthens alignment, accountability and continuous improvement.

Discover how creating a culture of psychological safety and open communication can unlock honesty, engagement and continuous improvement across an organization.

What if the issue isn’t the tools—but the model behind how we lead people? In today’s manufacturing environment, leaders face a persistent challenge: despite investments in Lean systems, automation, and process improvement, employee disengagement, burnout, and cultural breakdowns continue to limit performance. In this keynote, Glenn Bostock explores a different approach—one built from over 25 years of real-world manufacturing experience at SnapCab. The Human Business model reimagines the organization not as a machine,but as a living system—where people are not interchangeable parts, but co-essential contributors working toward a shared purpose. 

In this keynote, Audrey McGuckin will explore how organizations can embrace innovation without losing the human element that drives trust, alignment, and execution. With a practical and grounded approach, she will challenge leaders to think beyond AI as a technical trend and instead see it as a leadership moment: an opportunity to improve communication, clarify decision-making, strengthen teams, and create healthier ways of working.

Learn how Amerequip is advancing operational excellence through structured communication, strategic alignment and a renewed focus on problem-solving. See tiered daily management and the company's practical approach to hoshin kanri in action while exploring how leaders build capability and drive continuous improvement across the organization.

Discover how aligning daily management systems across multiple business units can create consistent behaviors, improve information flow and strengthen organizational alignment.

This session explores how treating a career like a continuous improvement project can help professionals grow their influence, lead cultural transformation and advance within a single organization.

Discover how Bruno strengthens manufacturing excellence through design for manufacturing, mistake proofing and flexible production systems. This tour highlights how integrating quality, efficiency and adaptability into operations reduces waste, improves reliability and supports customer responsiveness. Learn how these core programs empower teams and drive continuous improvement across the organization.

Build confidence in experimentation and drive better outcomes with proven methods that strengthen resilience and reduce project risk.

Join this interactive workshop to discover how deliberately designed management systems enable teams to out-learn and out-innovate the competition — and gain hands-on experience applying high-velocity learning capabilities to build sustainable competitive advantage.

Join Ashton Burrell with Danner as she shares Danner’s approach to justify continuous improvement through automation.

For many organizations, the administrative office remains a "black box" of manual processes, paper trails and delayed data. At TEAM TAS, we spent a decade shattering that mold. This session will showcase our 10 year evolution from a paper driven manual system to a fully automated, digitized powerhouse.

Learn how to launch, sustain and scale operational excellence through real-world insights, peer learning and practical strategies.

Leadership expert Heléne Smuts shares practical strategies for overcoming team dysfunction and building a culture of trust, engagement and accountability. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to strengthen team performance and create a more productive work environment.

Join Jess Kent-Johnson for this interactive workshop to discover how people-first leadership transforms continuous improvement from a collection of tools into a culture of lasting results. Through practical exercises and real-world discussions, you'll learn how coaching, psychological safety and clear accountability create the trust needed for continuous improvement initiatives to thrive. Walk away with actionable strategies to strengthen leadership behaviors, build resilient teams and lead change that empowers people, accelerates learning and delivers sustainable operational excellence.

Explore how Charter Steel has embedded operational excellence into the rhythm of daily work through a disciplined, plant-wide management system. Learn how structured problem-solving, visual management, and leader coaching are helping teams identify issues, build capability, and strengthen a culture of continuous improvement.

Join Krystal Nelligan to learn how through coaching we can connect with our direct reports. This will help you to engage and direct your team members to achieve their goal and realize their protentional while aligning with the company strategy.

Learn how Story’s Construction Production 2.0 system combines lean principles, scientific thinking and facilitative leadership to create more consistent “good days” for craft teams while improving project performance.

Join David Coyle and Jacqueline Richard to discover how Re:Build Manufacturing is revolutionizing product development by integrating Manufacturability for Design™ (MFD), Production Preparation Process (3P) and Process Preparation (2P).

Join Joel Hugghins for this highly interactive workshop and discover how to design engaging games and simulations that turn training into lasting capability. Learn a practical framework for creating hands-on exercises that reinforce critical skills, increase engagement and make complex concepts easier to understand and apply. You'll leave with ready-to-use ideas and the confidence to build impactful learning experiences for your own organization.

Discover how embedding lean from day one in a greenfield environment can build trust, align teams and accelerate performance.

In this session, we will share the leading-edge highlights of our Lean journey and the development of the Cambridge Operating System (COS)—a practical, people-centered operating system built to create safe, high-performing manufacturing environments. Participants will learn what an effective operating system truly is: a consistent set of routines, tools, and behaviors that align teams around shared goals. We will share the key ingredients that made the difference—and how you can implement a similar approach in your organization.

Learn how layered process audits (LPAs) can strengthen accountability, improve quality and drive lasting culture change.

See how shifting from “start more” to “start less” unlocked major performance gains using Theory of Constraints principles.

Discover how A-dec’s CI Champion program develops employees to lead change, apply lean tools and strengthen engagement across the organization.

Learn how leader standard work can help leaders move from firefighting to intentional, value-driven leadership that strengthens alignment, accountability and continuous improvement.

This session shares how a cross-functional team used accessible, visual analytical tools to quickly identify root causes and reduce scrap. By combining exploratory data visualization, resampling techniques and simulation, GE Healthcare shares how their team developed a practical screening strategy that improved outcomes – while saving $36,000 per week.

Take a firsthand look at how GE HealthCare’s Electric Avenue Plant combines advanced manufacturing technologies with lean principles to deliver consistent, high-quality performance. See digital dashboards, MES-enabled workflows and visual management in action while learning how the facility has built a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at how advanced medical imaging equipment is manufactured as you tour the production of PET systems, CT systems and collimators. Along the way, see visual management, daily management and other lean practices in action that help drive quality, performance and continuous improvement throughout the facility.

This session explores how manufacturers can align hiring with operational excellence by replacing outdated selection methods with a clear framework that identifies talent capable of stabilizing operations, driving continuous improvement and adapting to future technological and sustainability challenges.

How do organizational values show up in daily operations across a complex manufacturing environment? Operating large-scale facilities around the clock creates challenges in keeping teams aligned to priorities while maintaining engagement and performance. This session shares how Rockline Industries strengthened alignment, communication and accountability by embedding practical management systems into everyday work and how your organization can do the same.

Experience how a structured reliability excellence approach helps teams improve equipment performance and drive sustainable results. Explore operator-driven reliability, planned maintenance and focused improvement to see how technical expertise, data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement work together to create a zero-loss mindset.

See how Kerry uses an integrated management system to align people, processes and leadership in support of operational excellence. Observe tiered daily management, gemba walks and employee engagement practices that help teams solve problems, strengthen accountability and drive continuous improvement.

Empower your people. Elevate your leadership. Join Heléne Smuts for this highly interactive workshop to discover how a coaching-centered leadership approach builds confident, accountable teams that solve problems, drive improvement and deliver results. Through practical tools, guided practice and real-world applications, you'll learn how to shift from providing answers to asking powerful questions that unlock your team's potential. Leave with proven coaching techniques you can apply immediately to strengthen engagement, accelerate continuous improvement and create a culture where people take ownership and thrive.

This presentation explores how leaders can intentionally develop and sustain these qualities to create a culture of trust, accountability, and ethical excellence. Drawing on the simple yet profound principles captured in Tim McGraw’s song “Humble and Kind,” this presentation examines humility and common courtesy as foundational elements of ethical leadership. Leaders who lead humbly and treat every member of the organization with dignity embed these traits into the organization’s DNA.

This session explores how Medtronic’s quality function is deploying Leader Standard Work (LSW) to make daily management real. Attendees will gain practical insights on adoption, measurement and sustaining habits globally in a complex organization.

Lead with intention, not reaction. Join Mary Akella for this interactive workshop to learn how Leader Standard Work can become a practical leadership system that creates focus, builds capacity and strengthens team performance. Through real-world examples and hands-on exercises, you'll design a Leader Standard Work plan tailored to your role, helping you reduce firefighting, reinforce priorities and lead with greater consistency. Leave with a practical framework you can immediately test, refine and sustain to support continuous improvement and people-first leadership.

This interactive keynote brings the principles of improvisation into real-world communication and leadership challenges. Participants experience how agreement builds connection, how presence improves listening, and how intentional responses create greater adaptability, trust, and collaboration.

Tour Leonardo DRS’s 300,000-square-foot facility to see how lean principles are transforming high-complexity, low-volume manufacturing. Explore flow-based production cells, lean daily management, 6S practices and employee training programs that are helping create greater visibility, accountability and continuous improvement across the organization.

Join a select group of AME VIP members for an interactive workshop led by Menlo Innovations that introduces the High-Tech Anthropology® process. Learn user-centered observation and interviewing techniques while helping shape the future AME member experience and gaining practical tools to drive innovation and continuous improvement in your own organization.

Go behind the scenes at Molson Coors' Milwaukee brewery to see how its World Class Supply Chain (WCSC) system drives daily performance and continuous improvement. Observe direction setting, equipment ownership and daily management in action, then conclude the tour with a visit to the historic brewhouse and Miller Inn.

This session will guide participants through the collaborative efforts of contractors supporting the National Nuclear Security Administration, including Sandia National Laboratories and the Kansas City National Security Campus, as they addressed this challenge.

Discover how Novonesis’ West Allis facility is transforming to support a 60 percent increase in production capacity while building a culture of operational excellence. See how leader standard work, training within industry (TWI) and people-focused leadership are helping the site scale successfully and prepare for continued growth.

This session explores how organizations can balance local autonomy with standardized processes to maintain operational excellence in flatter, more agile organizational structures.

Discover how play can become one of your most powerful continuous improvement tools. Join Alexandra (Alex) Suchmanin this highly interactive workshop, to see how thoughtfully designed activities build trust, strengthen psychological safety and uncover the team dynamics that drive—or hinder—performance. Experience practical, game-based techniques that spark curiosity, encourage honest reflection and turn insights into meaningful action. Leave with simple, research-backed activities you can immediately use to foster engagement, innovation and a culture of continuous improvement.

Learn how Greene Tweed uses structured rapid improvement events to eliminate waste, improve flow and achieve measurable gains in throughput, quality and operational performance.

Transform the way your organization solves problems. Join Sarah Tilkens and Leah Roe for this immersive, Kaizen-style workshop that combines structured problem solving with the leadership behaviors that make improvement stick. Through hands-on exercises, coaching practice and real-world application, you'll learn how to build trust, strengthen accountability and develop teams that own challenges instead of waiting for solutions. Leave with practical tools, a leadership experiment and a proven approach to creating a culture where people and processes improve together.

Visit RELY Contract Manufacturing helps manufacturers improve flow by taking on complex, labor-intensive work that often creates production bottlenecks. Learn how visual management, standardized work and innovative problem-solving support an inclusive workforce while delivering measurable improvements in quality, productivity and customer performance.

Turn cultural challenges into competitive advantage by applying proven strategies that drive engagement and continuous improvement.

Join Emily Swaney and Todd Schneider as they share how we embraced the challenge of empowering our small lean team of 11 individuals to support an organization in its journey to develop 35,000 problem solvers.

Reducing changeover time is a standard manufacturing goal, but lasting results require more than just time studies and quick fixes.

Discover how Gibson Guitars introduced standard work in a high‑skill, high‑autonomy environment without sacrificing craftsmanship or pride.

Rethink how lean is taught and learn practical ways to develop curious, adaptable problem-solvers for today’s complex workplaces.

Great organizations are built by great leaders. Join Lisa Weis for this engaging and interactive workshop to explore the leadership behaviors that create high-performing, people-centric cultures where individuals thrive and continuous improvement flourishes. Through practical exercises, reflection and discussion, you'll strengthen your ability to build trust, coach for growth, develop critical thinking and inspire accountability. Leave with actionable leadership practices that help attract and retain top talent, empower teams and drive sustainable operational excellence.

Learn how turning vision into aligned systems, data and problem-solving can drive real engagement, innovation and involvement on the shop floor.

Learn how The Gund Company fosters a culture where care, respect and continuous improvement empower team members to drive meaningful change. See how visual management, coaching and employee-driven ideas come together to strengthen communication, solve problems and improve performance across the organization.

This session explores how respect and collaboration can strengthen engagement, empower teams and drive performance in today’s rapidly evolving workplace.

Explore how lean thinking, behavioral science and frontline engagement helped double engine production and dramatically reduce grievances without capital investment.

Break through resistance and lead change with confidence. Join Kelly Mallery for this engaging, hands-on workshop to discover why resistance isn't the real obstacle to change—and how your response can make all the difference. Using the innovative Resistobots™ and transFORM™ framework, you'll learn to recognize the hidden fears behind pushback, strengthen your coaching approach and develop practical strategies to build trust, re-engage teams and accelerate meaningful, lasting change. Leave with a personalized action plan to help you lead with greater empathy, influence and impact.

Karen Martin challenges conventional thinking around one of lean’s core principles, showing how leadership and work systems can create the conditions for people to grow, contribute, and drive better business results.

Turn continuous improvement into daily practice using a simple framework that aligns people, processes and technology.

Explore how lean thinking, behavioral science and frontline engagement helped double engine production and dramatically reduce grievances without capital investment.

MIT senior lecturer Steve Spear explores how top-performing organizations create systems that make problems easier to see, solve and learn from. Drawing on lessons from Toyota and leading organizations worldwide, he shares how leaders can unlock collective ingenuity, accelerate improvement and build a lasting competitive advantage.

Ignite a culture of continuous improvement and eliminate waste at every level. Join Mark Preston for this engaging workshop to discover how lean principles, creative problem solving and employee involvement can transform your operations. Through real-world case studies and practical examples, you'll learn how to identify waste, strengthen accountability, engage your workforce and improve safety, quality, productivity and cost performance. Leave with proven lean tools and actionable ideas you can immediately apply to rejuvenate your operation and accelerate your journey toward operational excellence.