Attendees learn lean from GM, Harley, Campbell Soup and others

Manufacturing leaders from facilities in the United States, Canada and Indonesia attended Reliable Plant magazine's fourth annual "Lean Tools for Maintenance & Reliability" conference. The event was held October 6-8 at the Marriott Hotel in Chicago.

Among the companies that sent plant leaders and/or teams to the event were Abbott Laboratories, AstenJohnson, BAE Systems, Frito-Lay, Georgia-Pacific, Kimberly-Clark, Kolbe and Kolbe Millwork, Novartis Health, Novelis, Pratt & Whitney and Shell Oil.

Sponsors of the conference were Brady Corporation, Dow Corning Molykote, General Physics and W.W. Grainger.

The event featured three days of keynote addresses, case studies, panel discussions and white papers.

Keynote addresses were given by:

• Dr. Klaus M. Blache, cost reduction manager, General Motors Corporation ("Implementing lean tools for long-term success - Are you ready?")

• Samuel Bethea, director of North American reliability, Campbell Soup Company ("The impact of leadership on TPM - Creating an effective program")

• Wayne Vaughn, formerly director of maintenance at Harley-Davidson Motor Company ("Establishing a maintenance & reliability process for lean success")

• Dana Fluet, lead maintenance and reliability engineer, and members of the plant M&R team, Harley-Davidson ("Harley-Davidson and reliability: An interactive discussion")

• Pat Bartholomew, director of EHS management systems, Baxter Healthcare ("Lean, clean and green: Baxter Healthcare at work")

• Drew Troyer, chief executive officer, Noria Corporation ("You simply can't be lean without reliability")

• Highlight sessions were delivered by:

• Rick Fox, operations and maintenance manager, and members of the plant M&R team, Alcoa Power ("Lean reliability pays off big for Alcoa power plant")

• Mark Steward, Operational Excellence team leader, Eaton Corporation ("Eaton Lean System increases productivity, uptime")

• Dean Jones, training supervisor, Grede Foundries, and David Townsend, manufacturing specialist, WMEP ("Casting a mold for lean success")

• Bob Hafey, director of manufacturing, Flexible Steel Lacing Company ("Using lean tools to improve safety and reliability")

• Todd Bennett, president, United Southern Industries, and Sam McPherson, lean enterprise and public sector consultant, Shingo Prize ("Zone control: Laying the foundation for lean success")

• Rick Reed, director of Continuous Improvement, WIKA Instrument Corporation ("WIKA maintenance: A vision to the future")

• Townsend, WMEP ("When lean fails - Getting back on track")

• Mike Bresko, managing director and principal consultant, General Physics ("How lean streamlines maintenance planning")

• Troyer, Noria ("Reliability tools in the lean journey - A practicum")

• David Hicks, PE, outreach faculty member, Auburn University ("Leading the lean reliability initiative")

• Jay Lee, director, University of Cincinnati/ National Science Foundation Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems ("Tools to achieve zero-breakdown lean maintenance systems")

• Kevin A. Hartler, director, Grainger Consulting Services, W.W. Grainger ("Improve your productivity and reduce your total cost")