ASQ Philadelphia Section Third Annual Member Appreciation - Six Sigma Panel

For the last three years, the Philadelphia Section of ASQ has tried to provide its members with a special program every year.  It’s our way of thanking you for joining and remaining a member.  This year is no exception.  We have assembled an expert panel of Six Sigma practitioners and theoreticians who will be sharing their experiences with you!

“Using Six Sigma to Reduce Costs and Improve Performance” – Dr. Ronald Snee

In these difficult financial times organizations need to be looking for every opportunity to reduce costs and become more competitive.  Fortunately a methodology, known as Lean Six Sigma, exists that can help us achieve this end.  Lean Six Sigma has been shown to significantly reduce costs by speeding up the flow of materials and information through processes as well as improving the quality of the products produced by the process.  Organizations have successfully used Lean Six Sigma around the world to significantly improve a wide variety of processes in many different cultures.

Dr. Ronald Snee is a Principal and Lean Six Sigma Initiative Leader at Tunnell Consulting where he provides guidance to senior executives in their pursuit of improved business performance.  Ron received his BA from Washington & Jefferson College, and his MS and PhD degrees from Rutgers University.  ASQ has awarded him both the Shewhart Medal and Grant Medal.  He has recently co-authored 2 books on Six Sigma with Roger Hoerl of General Electric and has published more than 190 papers in the fields of performance improvement, quality, management, and statistics.

“Field of Dreams” – Mr. J.R. McGee

Explorex the experiences of a small team, starting with a VSM Event intended to manage production during the shutdown of the local plant for relocation to China.  In particular, we will look at the “what if” Ideal State exercise that lead to the construction of a new manufacturing factory facility constructed in the US instead of China.  Why did they CLOSE a plant in china and move that operation back into the new plant?  We will discuss how they implemented LEAN and FLOW concepts and the impact this will have on their organization and their business plan over the next 10 years.

Mr. J.R. McGee brings a wealth of knowledge from over 30 years of industrial experience.  He is a Certified Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Technology from TSU and a degree in Business Management from the University of Maryland.  As a Program Manager at “Top Gun” ranges worldwide, J.R. specialized in the development of High Performance Work Teams with specific focus on training fighter pilots and training Special Forces.  J.R. is currently the President and CEO of his own company, XStreamLean.

"Best Practices for Process Transformation" - Mr. Richard Smith 

This presentation provides the Best Practices for Process Transformation that was presented at the Conference Board's 2008 annual Six Sigma Conference in Chicago.  This overview of is based on recent data from APQC case studies, Hammer Group information and the Conference Board research on Change Management.  The data synthesized from the above case studies and research outlines seven Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for driving Business Results through Process Transformation.  Those CSFs include; Committed Leadership, Alignment with Strategy, Project Selection, Process Technology, Change Management, Measurements and Structure & Environment.  Within each CSF we have identified the best practice behaviours or elements that successful organizations have demonstrated.

Richard Smith is currently an executive consultant and strategic advisor to executives who are involved with Strategy Deployment, Process Transformation, Business Process Management, Lean Six Sigma and other significant change initiatives.  Since April 2004, Mr. Smith has been a strategic advisor to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Senior Partners.  Mr. Smith has over 15 years of strategy, change management and process improvement consulting experience.  In his roles at IBM and PwC Consulting, Mr. Smith consulted to firms on strategy, customer satisfaction, quality deployment, change management, leadership coaching, Business Process Reengineering, Six Sigma Process Transformation and Baldrige assessments.

Program Timeline:

5:30 – 6:15 pm         Registration & Networking

6:15 – 6:50 pm         Dinner & Program Introduction

6:50 – 7:20 pm         “Six Sigma and an Introduction to Lean”

7:20 – 7:50 pm         “Field of Dreams”

7:50 – 8:20 pm         “Best Practices for Process Transformation”

8:20 – 8:45 pm         “Panel Discussion”

8:45 pm                    Presentation of Certificates & Honorariums