The Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP, Inc.), a not-for-profit whose mission is to help US companies implement the philosophies and tools of Continuous Improvement to enable them to compete profitably in the global economy, will host its tenth annual Northeast L.E.A.N. Conference, October 1 and 2, 2014 at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, MA.

Billy Ray Taylor, Director of Commercial Manufacturing North America at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, will present the opening keynote address. Billy is a visionary leader with more than 20 years of experience in all phases of manufacturing management and leadership. He has been repeatedly called upon to implement improvement strategies in under-performing operations, to improve production efficiency and employee engagement. As plant manager for a 2.2 million sq-ft consumer tire manufacturing plant in Fayetteville, N.C., he was instrumental in improving performance across all areas of production efficiency, labor costs, quality and safety. In June 2012, Taylor was appointed Director, Commercial Manufacturing and now oversees operations at four commercial tire manufacturing plants in Buffalo, N.Y.; Danville, Va.; Social Circle, Ga.; and Topeka, Ka.

Jamie Bonini, Vice President of TSSC at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA), will present the conference's closing keynote.  TEMA & TSSC support Toyota's engineering and manufacturing operations to share Toyota Production System (TPS) know-how with North American organizations that have a true desire to learn and adopt TPS. Jamie began his career with Toyota in 2002, as assistant general manager for TSSC and later joined Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky's powertrain group as assistant general manager responsible for V6 and four cylinder engines as well as axle production, quality and safety.   

Other experts scheduled to keynote the conference include Kim Barnas, Senior Vice President of ThedaCare and President of Appleton Medical Center and Russ Scaffede, retired vice president of manufacturing for Toyota Motor Manufacturing and Toyoda Boshuku U.S.A, where he worked directly with Fujio Cho the former President and Chairman of Toyota worldwide. In addition Russ also spent 19 years in various leadership positions at General Motors and led the lean turnaround at Donnelly Corporation.  

The Northeast L.E.A.N. Conference is focused on providing today's process improvement and operational excellence professionals with interactive learning, not only from the outstanding roster of world class keynotes, but also from peers from an impressive list of American companies, including Whirlpool, IBM, MillerCoors, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and others, who will share their stories and provide valuable takeaways from their Lean journeys.

The Northeast L.E.A.N. conference is a sharing opportunity second to none in the region. The event provides attendees with the knowledge, resources and tools they need to make their organization exceptional. Attendees will learn not only the technical aspects of operational excellence, but also how to create leadership models and favorable work environments to enable floor employees to develop as change agents. The focus of the event is on the technical and cultural challenges every organization faces in its lean transformation and pursuit of perfection and shining a light on the relationship between guiding principles, management systems and improvement tools (the Human, Strategic and Tactical components of Lean) as the foundation for achieving operational excellence.

The innovative format features:

• Six tracks of world-class learning sessions divided between industry experts and leading lean practitioners, including 4 exceptional keynote presentations and more than 40 breakout talks and Open Space Sessions
• Interactive workshops (including hands-on Lean tool simulations), team panels, the always popular Virtual Plant tour and exceptional opportunities to network with other lean practitioners
• Our unique Community of Lean Lounge (a collection of practitioners sharing their real-world lean learning in a trade show atmosphere)
• A dedicated track for Lean implementers from Healthcare

 A networking cocktail reception at The Springfield Museum of History