May 3, 2019
There is no shortage of unique words and phrases related to Lean Six Sigma. Lean practitioners will be familiar with terms like Kaizen, DMAIC, value stream mapping, process improvement, and change management, just to name a few. Regardless of the tools or the names of tools used, increasing value while reducing waste remains at the core of Lean Six Sigma.
However, when the City the Fredericton noticed a lack of conferences and summits devoted to Lean professional development in Canada, they created one.
“Part of what I wanted to do was provide them with a professional development opportunity,” Chris Macpherson, Chief Administrative Officer with the City of Fredericton said. “There weren’t any we could find. So we decided to start our own.”
Four years after the first summit, the 2019 Canadian Lean Summit welcomed over 300 attendees to Fredericton, New Brunswick to share tools, strategies, and success stories about Lean Six Sigma. Measurand was a Gold Sponsor for the event.
“This conference is critically important for our belts, their professional development and for the network,” Macpherson said.
Lean Six Sigma’s practitioners, similar to Karate or Judo students, train and test for belts from the novice’s white belt to the master’s black belt.
“There is no association of lean professionals. So this is another way that people can find out about projects in other places and success stories,” Macpherson added.
Several presentations focused on the theme of culture acting as a cornerstone at the centre of creating sustainable change within organizations working to implement Lean Six Sigma practices.
Measurand’s Terry Patterson and Billy Carr were in attendance to present “Growing Lean: How a 25-year-old shape-sensing technology company needed to find Lean to deal with sales success” which details the start of the company’s journey to apply Lean principles to facility planning, production, and employee training.
Visit www.cdnleansummit.ca to find more about future summits.