I’ve been invited to speak at WCBF’s 2008 Lean Six Sigma Summit.  It should be a fun event.  The confirmed speakers include heavyweights from Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Medtronic, etc.  In the grand scheme of things — okay, fine, outside my immediate family, I’m really a nobody, but I was invited anyway — I’m not sure why, how, or if somebody is playing a practical joke on me.  In any event, I’ll be speaking.  Here are some details.

The confirmed speakers include the following:

• Rob Bryant, Vice President Process Improvement (GIS) Computer Sciences Corporation
• Laurel LaBauve, Vice President, Merck Sigma, Merck & Co
• Martina Kuhlmeyer, Executive Vice President of Six Sigma, Textron Financial
• Jerry Bushnell, Global Vice President of Operations, Medtronic Xomed Surgical Products
• Craig Long, Vice President of Quality, MILLIKEN
• Debra Levantrosser, Executive Director, Lean/Supply Chain Johnson & Johnson

My counterpart in Europe and I will co-present and our topic will be "Synergizing Lean and Six Sigma".  We will share some history between both Lean and Six Sigma, argue forcefully against the marketing sub-culture that aims to carelessly combine both Lean and Six Sigma into "Lean Six Sigma", but in the end reconcile both and make a case for how Lean and Six Sigma might actually make sense to be in the same sandbox and play well together, and then a discussion on how that might practically be done with some relevant examples.   We will discuss a little on infrastructure, standards, and some lessons learned. 

You can learn more by downloading the draft Agenda for the April 29 - May 2, 2008 WCBF Lean Six Sigma Summit in Chicago, Illinois.

+++++

For articles on queueing theory, time-traps, operations, lean and six sigma, please visit the links below:

• The 5-Why’s

• The Gemba is the Dojo

• Root Cause Analysis

• Managing Constraints Under Peak Volumes

• Order Pipeline of Events

• Variation for Dummies

• On Game Theory

• Series on Queueing Theory

• Applied Regression Analysis

• 5S

• Click-to-Ship Processes

• Kanban Sizing and "Pull"

• Lean at Krispy Kreme

• Theory of Constraints and Camping

• Lean for Software Development

• Don’t Waste the Customer’s Time

• Featuritis and the Focus on the Customer