Manufacturing conference unites knowledge, resources

To succeed in manufacturing today, it’s not only what you know, but who you know.

Noria Corporation incorporated both of these elements in “Lubed, Reliable and Lean: Drive Your Plant to Greater Profits,” a conference and exhibition taking place May 15-19 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.

This event – which features the co-located Lubrication Excellence, Reliability World and Lean Manufacturing conferences on May 16-18 (workshops occur on May 15 and May 19) – was recently named one of the 50 fastest-growing trade shows in the United States and Canada by Tradeshow Week magazine. Noria anticipates a record crowd of 1,500 attendees from all 50 states and more than 25 countries. More than 1,200 industry leaders from the United States and 27 other countries attended Noria’s 2005 event in San Antonio.

By marrying the mission-critical fields of machinery lubrication, maintenance and reliability, and lean performance into one event, Noria offers manufacturers a comprehensive game plan for optimizing plant health, performance and profitability.

“The buzz in many boardrooms today is driven by some well-documented challenges, including finding new ways to leverage ideas, information and relationships to innovate and stay competitive,” says Noria Corporation president Jim Fitch. “Noria’s Lubrication Excellence, Reliability World and Lean Manufacturing conferences and exhibitions are designed to help lubrication, maintenance and plant management professionals meet these challenges in a dependable, focused and enjoyable forum.”

The Lubrication Excellence track will outline effective lubrication practices to help attendees get the most out of their plant’s physical equipment assets. The Reliability World track explores how a well-planned and implemented reliability program can improve uptime, save money and give companies a performance advantage. The Lean Manufacturing track will detail how lean strategies can be applied to improve production efficiencies, reduce operating costs and increase bottom-line results.

Each of these education tracks consist of keynote addresses, panel discussions, case studies, technical papers and how-to sessions. All of these will be presented by a veritable “who’s who” of industry experts.

Industry keynote addresses will be provided by John Stollenwerk, the president and chief executive officer of Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corporation; Mark Birmingham, chief operating officer of Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corporation; and Robert “Rusty” Patterson, the vice president of Six Sigma and customer & supply chain programs at the Raytheon Company. An opening session keynote will be provided by Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, entertainer and author Roy Firestone.

Panel discussions include corporate and plant floor leaders from cutting-edge companies such as Worthington Industries, Georgia-Pacific, Cargill, the Antioch Company, Minster Machine Company, Energizer Manufacturing, Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corporation and Kennedy Manufacturing.

The Lean Manufacturing track features Ross Robson, the executive director of the Shingo Prize. This North American award program is regarded as the highest honor of manufacturing excellence. The track also includes plant and corporate lean leaders from Kennametal, Rockwell Automation, Owens Corning, Timken, Emerson, Supurna, Webster Plastics and other companies.

The Reliability World track includes maintenance and reliability leaders from companies such as Cargill, Coors Brewing Company, Ford Motor Company, Quaker Oats, SMI Steel, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Dofasco, Oracle, Baker Instrument Company and the University of Tennessee Maintenance & Reliability Center.

The Lubrication Excellence track is highlighted by experts from General Electric, Eli Lilly, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Energizer, EMD Chemicals, Lubrizol, Valero Energy and Herguth Laboratories.

The exhibit portion of the event will feature products and services from more than 150 companies, with suppliers available to answer questions and demonstrate solutions to address attendees’ plant problems.

“Attending Noria conferences is all about finding and applying knowledge,” says Fitch. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a vice president, plant manager, technician or consultant, our attendees benefit from the collective expertise of nearly 1,500 like-minded professionals.”

Information on this conference is available at www.driveyourplant.com.