Distinguished Guests

Joel Barker - Infinity Limited

Joel Barker was the first person to popularize the concept of paradigm shifts for the corporate world. He began his work in 1975 after spending a year on fellowship meeting and working with visionary thinkers in both North America and Europe. He discovered that the concept of paradigms, which at that time was sequestered within the scientific discussion, could explain revolutionary change in all areas of human endeavor.

In 1986, he released his first videotape, Discovering the Future: The Business of Paradigms. By 1988, it was the best selling business video in history. It has been translated into 16 languages and continues to influence people all over the world.

Robert E. Fox, Viable Visions, LLC.

Co-Author of The Race, Blue Light!, The Theory of Constraints Journals, and Profitability With No Boundaries: Optimizing Lean, TOC, and Six Sigma, Robert Fox is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on Continuous Improvement practices.

After spending years in the East, studying Japanese Management methods, with the likes of Dr. Taiichi Ohno, and others, Mr. Fox returned to the U.S. and soon met Dr. Eli Goldratt. Combining the best of all methodologies, including Dr. Goldratt's breakthrough thinking, they developed the Theory of Constraints.

Keynote Speakers

Russ M. Pirasteh, PhD, iTLS-ISO Group
Co-Author of Profitability With No Boundaries: Optimizing Lean, TOC, and Six Sigma, Dr. Russ Pirasteh is currently the CEO of the iTLS Group. As a former director of Operations Excellence & Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) for Sanmina-SCI Corporation-LRS Division, Russ conducted scientific studies on the efficacy of CPI approaches, which was later published in a groundbreaking article, The Continuous Improvement Trio.

Larry Leach, Advanced projects Inc.
Author of Lean Project Management, Critical Chain Project Management, and now Lean Project Leadership, Larry Leach is widely recognized as one of the country’s foremost experts on Critical Chain Project Management. Receiving Masters’ Degrees in both Business Management from the University of Idaho, and in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, Larry also teaches MBA courses.

James Holt, PhD, Washington State University
A former department head at the Air Force IT, Dr. James R. Holt is currently a Professor of Engineering Management at Washington State University. He teaches Organizational Behavior, Operations Research, Statistics, Engineering Economics, Simulation, Information Systems, Constraints Management and other special topics.

Dee Jacob, AGI
Ms. Jacob is the Co-author of Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance, and many articles on continuous improvement techniques. As a manager at Procter & Gamble for 18 years, she further developed the Production TOC applications in the areas of chemical processing and high speed packaging for P&G all over the world there.

 

Featured Speakers

Kevin Fox, Viable Vision, LLC.
Co-Author of Blue-Light!, Kevin Fox is also managing partner of Viable Vision LLC. He first began working with TOC and Eli Goldratt in 1985. He has particular expertise in complex multi-project environments, having directed more than 20 successful implementations using Critical Chain.

Kevin Naya, Boeing Engineering Competiveness & Integration
Kevin leads the Engineering Competitiveness & Integration organization for Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS).  His responsibilities include Strategy; Operations; Lean+ Continuous Improvements; Engineering Engagements; and Environmental, Health, and Safety.  Kevin has 23 years of experience in various leadership roles including continuous improvement, general management, management consulting, managing program IPTs, research & development, and systems engineering. 

Bill Webb, Autoliv Automotive Safety Products
Working as a continuous improvement expert, Mr. Webb had the privilege of spending three years under the tutelage of a high-level implementation expert from Toyota Motors. During this time he had an opportunity, not many in the Continuous improvement community get, to convert a facility to the Toyota Production System (TPS) while working with the people that created TPS (Lean).

Robert Richards, PhD, Stottler Henke
Rob Richards, Ph.D. is a Principal Investigator and Project Manager at Stottler Henke. Dr. Richard's main projects have dealt with training system development, decision support and critical chain project management, including much of the design work for the short duration task capabilities that are key to improving and managing medical and military situations.

David L. Belson, PhD, University of Southern California
Dr. Belson is a senior researcher and adjunct professor at the USC School of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial Engineering. A specialist in improving productivity in health care with over 20 years experience in Industrial Engineering and productivity improvement projects and research. He has managed and conducted a wide variety of projects regarding process improvement, new technology, financial analysis, organization structures, facilities planning and information systems.

Justin Roff-Marsh, Ballistix
Justin Roff-Marsh is the founder and managing director of Ballistix — a management consultancy with operations in both Australia and the USA. He's the author of Reengineering the Sales Process, the editor of AdVerb — a periodical that is read by 9,500 managers and academics the world over — and a popular speaker.

Case Studies

Gary Wadhwa, MD, DDS, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
Case History of Adirondack Surgery Center. Process Improvement in Health Care, using TOC/Lean/Six Sigma. Adirondack Surgery Center was able to properly identify and effectively exploit three of the most common struggles in the Health Care industry; collections, patient recruitment and proper use of the doctors’ time.

Kenneth Hays, Eli Lilly & Company
Ken Hays is a veteran PMP with 20 years of experience. He was a Senior Project management Consultant with SBC/Ameritech/ATT before joining Eli Lilly in 2000. Ken has an MBA from Butler University with a concentration in Leadership. As an adjunct faculty member, Ken has taught Project Management and Leadership courses at IUPUI and Indiana Tech. Ken has played a key role in the Global Implementation of Critical Chain at Lilly for 6 years.

Eric Smith, ProModel
As Director of Manufacturing and Logistics Solutions - West, Eric is charged with exploring clients needs and matching them to the appropriate ProModel solution.  He provides simulation-based solutions to various industry sectors including: aerospace and defense, semiconductor, logistics, CPG and natural resources.  His two favorite solution topics are portfolio analysis and strategic capacity planning.

 

Terry Weiner, CMTC
Terry Weiner is the Practice Lead of CMTC’s Lean Enterprise and Quality Systems practices and works directly with key clients and partners in developing solutions and approaches to assist organizations implement and sustain transformations.
Terry is an ASQ Certified Quality Manager, Certified Quality Auditor, and Certified Quality Engineer. He is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, was trained by Toyota on the Toyota Production System and certified in Change Management by Prosci.

Herzi Korn, Inherent Simplicity
Hezi Korn has been an IT expert for many years. He is extremely well-versed in numerous operating systems and platforms, and is committed to providing the best possible performance in any given task. Hezi is the founder and acting CEO of “Walk the TOC”, and a partner of “Inherent Simplicity”.

Case Studies Included                     Video

Naval Aviation

Eli Lilly and Company

Adirondack Medical Center

Autoliv Automotive Safety Products

Boeing

Siemens

and more . . .