Main Conference Day One: Thursday 29th April 2010

08:50 Chairman’s Welcome & Opening Remarks

STRATEGY AND PROCESS FOR PERFORMANCE

Keynote addresses and plenary sessions provide attendees with the latest strategic thinking on implementing Process Excellence, tools and techniques for success and new solutions to overcome deployment challenges. Sessions are entirely interactive and attendees are encouraged to take part in Q&A to discuss specific challenges, question strategic thinking and benchmark with peers and colleagues.

09:00 KEYNOTE: Designing The Future: Implementing A Process Excellence And Continuous Improvement Strategy

• The increasing importance of process excellence in delivering overall company objectives and increasing performance and efficiency
• Instilling the continuous improvement culture across the business: avoiding resistance to the ‘Sage on the stage’ approach
• Adopting a systems thinking approach to process excellence: start with the whole then break it into pieces
• Sustaining buy-in from the top and demonstrating continuous ROI to ensure ongoing support and investment
• Lessons learnt from the Astra Zeneca experience and translating them into a realistic roadmap for future development of process excellence

Keith Russell
Global Director, Lean Sigma & Master Black Belt
AstraZeneca

09:45 KEYNOTE Leveraging Lean As A Key Enabler To Achieve Value In A Constantly Changing World

• Developing a strategic plan to achieve a vision for a site
• Selection of lean as a key enabler to achieve this strategy
• How strategy deployment helps keep focus on working on the right initiatives
• How lean tools are adopted to a local site environment
• Keeping the strategic plan fresh and relevant

Pat O’Sullivan
Vice President and General Manager
Genzyme

11:00 Implementing Process Excellence Initiatives For Concrete Results And Business Benefit

• Setting the agenda for a new way of designing and refining process to deliver better results
• Implementing Lean improvement cycles to improve efficiency and reduce costs within the department
• Enhancing end-to-end process visibility and demonstrating the benefits to colleagues and management
• Using the clarity of process to involve and motivate people to achieve excellence
• Working in partnership with suppliers to support and increase the success of the excellence programme

Yolande Vanhove
Vice President, Business Excellence
Janssen Pharmaceutica

11:45 From Strategy To Enterprise-Wide Implementation: The Merck Sigma Roadmap To Process Excellence

• The Merck Sigma Journey: Vision and strategy for enterprise-wide value
• Lean Six Sigma and Enterprise Process Management: Translating strategies into operational reality (planning, performance measurement and continuous improvement)
• Championing the implementation across the business to spread benefit and ensure ongoing buy-in
• Examining the projects across the business that are delivering real value through the Merck Sigma approach
• Using BPM tools for quick wins to ensure ongoing momentum
• What does success look like on this journey? Thoughts on future roadmap and initiatives to embed the Merck Sigma way across the business

14:00 Case Study: ConMed – Becoming More Reliable Through LeanSigma

A Utica, New York-based manufacturer of medical devices uses Lean Sigma to improve customer-centricity and reliability of supply. With an eye to removing wastefulness and increasing productivity, ConMed chose to embark on its Lean Journey as a means to grow the business, enhance customer service, and expand profitability for their employees and shareholders.

Bill Schwartz
Executive Vice President
TBM Consulting ENGAGEMENT

COLLABORATION AND BUY-IN

Detailed plenary sessions explain how industry leaders have overcome the challenges of securing buy-in for process excellence initiatives, training and coaching staff and overcoming the barriers to change within the organisation. With the constant requirement to demonstrate progress and value-add, keeping momentum for process excellence programmes is key to successful delivery and to embedding the culture of excellence and continuous improvement into the organisation.

14:45 Designing For Operational Excellence: Integrating Efficiency Tools, Your Organisation, Business Drivers And Facility Layout

• Why do we spend so much time and money on efficiency projects? Did we do something wrong in the past?
• What are the business drivers behind investment in new facilities or movements of old ones?
• How do we incorporate these business drivers so we ensure that we are Designing for Operational Excellence - DOPEX.
• What are the barriers for doing DOPEX and how to overcome them

John Pedersen
Vice President & Managing Partner
NNE Pharmaplan

16:00 Yellow Belt – Bedrock Of Continuous Improvement

• The importance of simple, practical tools and concepts for embedding C.I.
• Strong Sponsorship is not just for Green and Black Belts
• The challenge of balancing a rigorous methodology with local freedom to adapt
• Yellow Belt as a C.I. practitioner development tool
• The importance of publicising Yellow Belt success

Derek Hill
Continuous Improvement Specialist
Pfizer

16:45 Effectively Managing Cultural Change As An Intrinsic Component Of Business Process Improvement

• Business process improvement can only be embedded and sustained if supported by (people) change management
• An organisation’s leadership, vision, goals and ways of working will determine the likelihood of success
• Change effectiveness is dependent on context: it must be realistic, achievable and take account of what’s gone before and what else is happening to the people affected
• Involve those affected by the change early on to shape and test ideas and to build consensus
• Use face-to-face communications, and involve your management team to handle sensitive aspects of organisational change

Elisabeth Goodman
former Business Operations Consultant
GlaxoSmithKline

17:30 Chairman’s Summary & Close Of Day One