Session Title

TWI in the Context of a Comprehensive Lean Enterprise Strategy (as a Primary Driver to Receipt of the 2009 AME Mid-Atlantic Manufacturing Excellence Award)

Session Abstract

Currier Plastics Inc., the recent Mid-Atlantic AME Manufacturing Excellence Award winner will be highlighting some key initiatives that drove their success, some lessons learned and further opportunities for improvement.   Topics that will be covered include their strategic planning methodologies, “People Practices”, and an outline of their lean journey (after nearly four years of experience).  Lean tools include Standard Work (and other TWI driven activity), 5 + 1 S’s, Lean Accounting, and Kaizen experiences.

Specific Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants will learn…

• A lean strategy/blue print applicable to any enterprise engaged in accelerated continuous improvement initiatives

• Order and priority of several socio-tech elements that works in practice

• TWI as a linchpin acting as both the foundation and as an accelerant of a lean initiative

• Lessons learned in application of the cultural transformation at Currier Plastics

• Challenges that any enterprise needs to address in order to sustain a dramatic rate of improvment

Target Audience

Presenter Biography

Al has spent upwards of 28 years in industry, most applying the elements of lean thinking to large scale change challenges in (mostly) manufacturing, but also R&D, Sales and Education.

He spent 17 years at Kodak, culminating with the most significant kaizen event successfully pulled off there, taking 20 machines, arranged in a batch and queue mode, off the floor and reorienting them for single piece flow in three days.  What ultimately made this successful was the people practices and behavior change necessary to change taking discipline problems to a self directed work team. (That took considerably longer)!

Al moved to lead Webster Plastics’ transformation to a multi-award winning organization with unprecedented profitability in the plastics industry.

Al is now almost four years into a similar experience at Currier Plastics Inc., as VP of Operations in a mid sized injection, blow molding and assembly company in Central New York.

Al graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelors of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University at Buffalo. He since dabbled in various graduate courses there, at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester.  He also taught in the Masters of Manufacturing Leadership program at RIT.