About TCA About TCA  OverviewOverview  Purpose and MissionPurpose and Mission  Principals and ProfessionalsPrincipals and Professionals  Client ListClient List  News and ArticlesNews and Articles  Upcoming EventsUpcoming Events  ResourcesResources  Contact UsContact Us

 

Home > About Us > Upcoming Events > 2008 TCA Conference

14TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON LEAN AND SIX SIGMA STRATEGIES

Over 3 days, you will exchange ideas, successes, and challenges with an intimate group, who are in various stages of their own Lean/Six Sigma implementations. The conference will also highlight a tour of the LMI Vista facility and a presentation by their General Manager on how they have achieved success. This tour, combined with a carefully selected series of discussions and case histories presented by eight energizing and knowledgeable speakers, will provide motivation and skills you need to accelerate your own company's Lean and Six Sigma transformation and set a direction for the future!

Date and Times

  • April 2-4, 2008
  • • Wednesday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
    • Dinner, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
    • Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
    • Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Location and Accommodations
Hilton Garden Inn on Carlsbad Beach
6450 Carlsbad, CA 92011
Phone 760-476-0800
Fax 760-476-0801

Located across the street from the beach and the beautiful Pacific Ocean! Convenient to downtown San Diego and all area attractions including Legoland, San Diego Zoo, Carlsbad Flower Fields, Carlsbad Beach, Sea World, and the Wild Animal Park.

Registration
Enrollments are accepted on a first-come basis. You may register 1 of 4 easy ways:

Fees
Total registration fee for this event is $1200 per person,. Cost includes conference materials, breakfasts, and lunches, break refreshments, and dinner on Wednesday. The fee decreases to $1,000 for 3 attendees from the same company. Early registrants, (before January 1, 2008) receive a free gift.

Topics

Supply Chain Management and Relationships; How a Small Company Can Stay Ahead of the Pack -- Gib Kerr
Given the half-life of many Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products and components, supply chain management is an extraordinary challenge for any high-technology firm -- particularly for small companies that want to stay in the lead. Gib will share secrets and lessons learned from a successful business that provides cutting-edge computing and data storage systems to some of the DOD?s most demanding prime contractors. He?ll discuss how they have used Lean principles to:

• Achieve on-time delivery

• Enable unique warranty arrangements

• Improve speed of product delivery

• Help sustain support for products long after they reach the advertised "end of life”

All of this requires appropriate performance measures and strong relationships -- the lifeblood of small business. Gib will share the pitfalls they?ve encountered to help ensure that your company learns from someone else’s experience and mistakes.

High-Involvement Training -- Gary Conner
For many companies, external trainers fall short, yet who wants an entire staff dedicated to training? This session will demonstrate a simple approach that capitalizes on the expertise within your organization by:

• Documenting the competencies of each process, quickly and easily, as powerful training tools

• Exploring ways to assign, encourage, and reward in-house trainers

• Looking at companies that have seen the benefits of sharing vs. hiding knowledge among employees

Your main take-away will be a step-by-step roadmap to develop repeatable, reliable, and cost-effective in-house training.

Accounting Systems for Lean Environments -- Al Natella
Transitioning from a standard cost system to a Lean-friendly Activity-Based Costing (ABC) approach can be challenging but rewarding as it reveals the true costs of products and services. The change is strongly recommended, however; traditional systems can distort costs and misguide management in decision making.
Although ABC emerged in the mid '90s, it was largely misunderstood, sometimes misapplied. But Beckman Coulter:

• Sensed costing was distorted

• Seized the opportunity for more relevant, operations-oriented cost data

The journey to implement ABC and resulting impact will be discussed clearly and presented simply, with examples.

Conference Schedule

Wednesday, April 2nd  
8:00 - 9:00 am Introductions and Welcome - Conference Agenda and Objectives
9:00 - 10:30 am Darrel Keesling - Setting a Direction
10:30 - 10:45 am Break
10:45 am - 12:00 pm Ed Campbell - The Lean Journey at LMI Vista
12:00 - 1:00 pm Lunch
1:30 - 4:00 pm Tour of LMI Vista. (Transportation Provided)
4:30 - 5:30 pm Review and Discussion
6:00 pm Dinner provided by TCA
   
Thursday, April 3rd  
7:30 - 8:00 am Review/Q & A
8:00 - 9:45 am Gib Kerr - Supply Chain Management
9:45 - 10:00 am Break
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Martin Lodge & Rick Smith
- Continuous Improvement Journey at Goodrich Aerospace
12:00 - 1:00 pm Lunch
1:00 - 2:45 pm Jeff Hofstetter - Six Sigma Simplified
2:45 - 3:00 pm Break
3:00 - 4:30 pm Gary Conner - High Involvement Training
4:30 - 5:00 pm Review and Discussion
   
Friday, April 4th  
8:00 - 8:30 am Review/Q & A
8:30 - 10:00 am Kyle Stavig - Road to Success
10:00 - 10:15 am Break
10:15 - 11:30 am Al Natella - Accounting Systems for Lean Environments
11:30 am - 1:00 pm Keynote Speaker - Andrea Edwards
1:00 - 1:30 pm Wrap - up

Speakers

Our speakers are inspiring, energizing, and knowledgeable...be prepared for a new perspective, a fresh approach, and valuable insight.

Keynote Speaker: Andrea Edwards -- As Senior Consultant and Director of Client Results for FranklinCovey?s Western Region, Andrea, is passionate about helping clients achieve their goals. Audiences enjoy her real world wisdom, patience, and insight as well as her enthusiasm and energy. Before joining FranklinCovey in 1996, Andrea was a Regional Sales Director and Manager. She earned a BA in linguistics from Rutgers, with a double major in Spanish and French, a double minor in Russian and English. Andrea has twice been president of the National Association of Women Business Owners.

Darrel Keesling -- Darrel joined LMI Aerospace in January 2007 as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for LMI?s North American sites as well as the leadership of the quality, materiel, and HR disciplines at the corporate level. He worked at GKN Aerospace as VP and General Manager of the Metal Structures business unit and began his career with McDonnell Douglas as a design engineer. In addition to 20 years of Aerospace experience, Darrel has a BS in civil engineering from the University of Missouri, as well as a Master?s in engineering management from Washington University in St. Louis.

Gib Kerr -- Currently the COO for Germane Systems in Chantilly, VA, Gib has over 25 years in developing, and supporting highly complex systems and their components. He is a trained facilitator, working with an extraordinary array of diverse organizations, and an accomplished public speaker. Gib holds MS degrees in both national resource strategy and engineering acoustics as well as a BS in mechanical engineering and a variety of government certifications. He is also a highly decorated, retired Navy Captain.

Martin Lodge -- Martin is Director of Continuous Improvement Programs at Goodrich Aerostructures (previously Rohr Industries), where he?s spent 10 years at the Riverside facility, the last 11 in Chula Vista. Martin has held leadership positions in industrial engineering, finance, operations, program (Value Stream) management, and continuous improvement. He has a BS in industrial engineering from the UK.

Jeff Hofstetter -- As a Senior Consultant with TCA, Jeff is a results-driven, decisive manager with a record of initiating time and cost-saving improvements while leading diverse teams to sustainable performance gains. He has over 10 years in implementing successful Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma programs, with proficiency in Kaizen Events. Jeff is a skilled mentor and coach with a positive approach to resource management, leadership development, and training. He is a Black Belt in Six Sigma and has a BS in business management.

Gary Conner -- Gary is the President of Lean Enterprise Training, with over 25 years in manufacturing and 15 years of Lean experience. The author of 5 books, he?s been a project manager on over 300 Kaizen events, implemented ISO 9000 certification at 12 companies, is a community college instructor, and has done extensive work in precision sheet metal, Value Stream Mapping, set-up reduction, 5-S, facilities layout planning, and leadership training. Gary is the 2002 Shingo Prize Recipient, and was 2004 Manufacturer of the Year (SME Portland chapter 63) for contributions to knowledge and technology advancements within the manufacturing community.

Kyle Stavig -- Kyle Stavig is the CEO of Myers Container Management Services. Upon graduating from Oregon State University, Kyle Stavig joined Myers Container as a Plant Manager. He has held the positions of Sales Representative, Marketing Manager, VP Sales and Marketing, and President at various locations throughout the company. Kyle and his brothers acquired 100% ownership of Myers Container/CMS in October, 2007.

Al Natella — As Director of World-wide Manufacturing Finance (Emeritus) for Beckman Coulter, Al is an operations oriented professional. In addition to his CPA and MBA designations, Al is Adjunct Professor for the Nova Southeastern University Graduate program. With 30 years in corporate finance for public and private corporations, he has implemented numerous Activity Based Costing Systems.

Registration
Enrollments are accepted on a first-come basis. You may register 1 of 4 easy ways:

Technical Change Associates, Inc.
606 Washington Bluvd., Suite 100
Ogden, UT 84404
Phone (801) 621-8980 Fax (801) 334-0877

For more information, to make your reservations, or if you have questions, please contact Amy Strebel at astrebel@technicalchange.com.