SIOM Six Sigma Fourth Intl Conference

Fourth International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

Objectives of the Conference

Lean Six Sigma is an integrated approach of two powerful and complimentary business strategies; Lean Production and Six Sigma.  The purpose of this integrated approach is to achieve a dramatic impact on an organisation’s ability to do the things right first time - leading to higher quality and reliability, higher productivity, faster delivery and lower costs.

The specific objectives of the conference are as follows:

• Create an awareness of the prowess of Lean Six Sigma in problem-solving and enhancing competitiveness of an organisation.
• Build a network of individuals, corporations and institutions willing to take a pioneering role in promoting Six Sigma and Lean strategies.
• Build a quality and cost reduction mindset for Business Executives and Senior Managers through Six Sigma and Lean Principles.
• Share well proven results of Six Sigma, Lean Production System and Lean Six Sigma through presentation of case studies, workshops and tutorials.
• Build a network of industry and academic institutions which are committed to developing Lean Six Sigma research and training programmes.
• Bring in the Best Practice Management of Lean Six Sigma by sharing experiences with internationally renowned practitioners and academics.  
  

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Topics covered by the conference

• Do you need to improve business process efficiency?
• What is the status of Six Sigma and Lean strategies in organisations today?
• What factors are essential for the successful deployment of Lean and Six Sigma?
• What challenges are to be encountered during the development of these two strategies and how to overcome them?
• How to get started on the Six Sigma and/or Lean journey?
• How to optimise the bottom-line impact using these two strategies?
• How to ensure the successful selection of projects?
• What is my role as an Executive Leader in Six Sigma/Lean programmes?
• What is the role of academicians within Six Sigma and Lean curricula?
• What does the future hold for Lean Six Sigma?
• Lean Six Sigma and its role in Supply Chain

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Welcome Speech

Information will follow shortly.

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Keynote Speakers

Dr Roger Hoerl, GE Global Research

Title: What is the End Game for Lean Six Sigma?

Synopsis: There has been much discussion in the literature about Six Sigma and how it should be applied.  There has been less discussion of the long-term future of Six Sigma, especially the “end game”.  That is, how to have a “soft landing” from Six Sigma as an initiative to Six Sigma as "the way we work".  It is generally agreed that it is impossible to maintain a vigorous initiative forever but certainly some initiatives can be ingrained into the corporate culture creating a "soft landing".  For example, safety has become a culture value at DuPont, “WorkOut” has been ingrained into the culture at GE, and innovation is clearly part of who Apple and Google are.  How should Lean Six Sigma be ingrained into corporate cultures, so that it is not dependent on being an initiative indefinitely, but does in fact become part of “how we work?”

Biography: Roger W. Hoerl leads the Applied Statistics Lab at GE Global Research, which supports new product and service development across the GE businesses.  He is a Certified Master Black Belt and previously served as Quality Leader for the GE Corporate Audit Staff.  Dr. Hoerl has been named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Society for Quality and has been elected to the International Statistical Institute and the International Academy for Quality.  He has received the Brumbaugh and Hunter Awards, as well as the Shewhart Medal from the American Society for Quality, and the Founders Award from the American Statistical Association.  In 2006 he received the Coolidge Fellowship from GE Global Research, honoring one scientist a year from among the four global GE Research and Development sites for lifetime technical achievement.  He used his six-month Coolidge sabbatical to study the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, spending a month traveling through Africa in 2007.

Jd Marhevko, ASQ Fellow, MBB, JQLC Inc.

Title: Autism & Lean Six Sigma; Successfully Utilizing A Sample Size of One

Synopsis: This is an engaging and light-hearted journey of how one set of parents utilized Lean Six Sigma tools in their home environment to improve the quality of life for them and their son who was diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum at the age of 2 years old. Through both discussion and interactive participation, the discussion takes the participants through how the parents successfully used DMAIC to make these differences:

Define: A review of how the parents used define techniques to isolate and understand the type of illness that was impacting their family. This takes participants through the journey of being creative when identifying root cause as well as the necessity of being a proactive advocate on behalf of yourself, family or loved ones.

While working in the DMAIC format, participants will learn how key measures were identified to monitor and manage the symptoms. Multiple metrics and dramatic graphics (both before and after) are shared. Metric formats utilize DOE, the normal distribution, check sheets, color plots, etc. Physical input metrics are compared to output symptoms. The definitions of input and output metrics will be provided and discussed. Input metrics impact the performance of an output metric. Examples of output metrics are: Behavioral Mannerisms, Quantity of Speech, and Language Comprehension. Examples of input metrics for these outputs might be: Blood Levels (across a suite of test types), Brain Wave Levels, Test Performances, etc.

Measure: This portion will enable participants to learn about transparency. There will be a discussion on the pros and cons of trend review: Sharing graphed data tends to minimize over-reactiveness and temper under-reactiveness. There will also be a discussion on the key characteristics that are considered helpful in metric review. These are the inclusion of: Performance Data, Historical Data, Comparison Data and Target Setting. Discussions will also be held regarding the logic of collecting too much data.

Analyse: Several Analyze processes will be included. There is a high level review of a few common quality and lean tools that were applied during this process. Specifically, live samples of a Cause and Effect Diagram, Fractional Factorial Design Of Experiments (DOE), Pugh Diagram and Value Stream Map (VSM) are reviewed. Results are shared as the effects of the implementation of diet and homeopathic protocols are applied.

Improve: The Improve phase of DMAIC are clearly observed via objective and measureable results. Based upon the analysis portion, the lessons learned are applied and substantial physical results are observed. This concurrent session provides the participants with ideas and concepts of how to validate the effectiveness of actions that have occurred and to ensure that those results are sustained.

Control: A review of the concept of Control is shared as current and live actions are assessed. Live samples of how to follow-up to ensure that the executed improvements continue to achieve and/or hold the gains that were made are discussed with participants. This includes environments both inside and outside the home. Discussion will also include the criticality of an effective and transparent scorecard system.

Biography: Jd Marhevko is a global business and operational excellence executive with over 25 years of operations, QA and lean experience in a variety of industries including Automotive, Aerospace, Plastics and Machining. Currently she both runs her own consulting firm, JQLC and works with GPS, an L6S consulting house. Previously, she's worked as the VP of QA and Performance Excellence for SPX and as a Continuous Improvement Manager for Eaton. She was a Director of Operations for both Cincinnati Milacron and Bosch. Jd has a proven track record of success in building a Quality culture to drive process improvement and productivity using limited resources. Jd was most recently awarded ASQ Fellow status. She is a Certified Manager of Quality (CMQ/OE), a Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) and a Master Black Belt (MBB). She is a senior Baldrige System assessor for the state of Michigan and held the IRCA ISO Quality Systems Auditor (QSA) from IRCA for over 10 years. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Engineering (BSE) from Oakland University in Michigan and a Masters of Science Administration (MSA) from Central Michigan University and is currently the Chair of the ASQ QMD.

Dr Douglas Montgomery, Regents’ Professor of Industrial Engineering & Statistics and ASU Foundation Professor of Engineering

Title: Innovation, Six Sigma and Quality Technology

Synopsis: Does Six Sigma stifle innovation? Is Six Sigma on the decline? These are important themes in this presentation.  Six Sigma is viewed as part of a process for enabling both breakthrough innovation and incremental innovation, without which western society will fail to be competitive. Six sigma and quality technology in general is part of a broader approach to innovation and business improvement called statistical engineering.  Perhaps the most powerful statistical technique in statistical engineering is design of experiments.  Several important developments in this field are reviewed and applications of the methods illustrated.

Biography: Dr. Douglas C. Montgomery is Regents’ Professor of industrial engineering and statistics and Foundation Professor of Engineering at Arizona State University.  He holds BSIE, MS and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Tech. His research and teaching interests are in industrial statistics.  He is an author of 12 books and over 225 archival publications. Professor Montgomery is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, a Fellow of the American Society for Quality, a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a Fellow of Institute of Industrial Engineers, a Member of the International Statistical Institute, and an Academician of the International Academy for Quality. He received the Deming Lecture Award from the ASA, the Greenfield Medal from the RSS, the Shewhart Medal, the William G. Hunter Award, the Brumbaugh Award, the Lloyd S. Nelson Award, and the Shewell Award (twice) from the ASQ, the George Box Medal from the European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics, and the Ellis Ott Award. Professor Montgomery has won several teaching awards and is an ASU Outstanding Doctoral Mentor.  He is a Chief Editor of Quality and Reliability Engineering International, past Editor of the Journal of Quality Technology and a member of several other editorial boards.

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Workshops

Workshop A - Leadership for Lean Six Sigma; knowledge, skills and behaviours required of Black Belts and Master Black Belts

Workshop Leader:  Stephen Anthony, Harvard Diploma, MBA, MENG, DIS, Six Sigma Sigma Master Blackbelt, Sfedi Business Advisor, Director of the Institute of Six Sigma Professionals

Sypnosis:  Delivering business competitiveness through Six Sigma is more than just delivering projects, it’s about changing organisational culture into one which focuses on the stakeholder, delivers value, empowers the individual, and takes calculated risks. In the world of Six Sigma it often falls onto the shoulders of the company’s most experienced Six Sigma professional, the master black belt, to deliver this cultural change – but many are ill equipped, coming up through the ranks of the quality or engineering department, into now a position of real organisational influence and expectation.  The knowledge, skills and behaviours required in this new position may not be what was expected. This workshop is designed to build on the discussions of the conference, the research of the centre and the practical experience of the Institute of Six Sigma Professionals.

• The role of leadership within Six Sigma
• Change the world not the person
• Work with the winners
• Push through the change curve

Biography:  Stephen Anthony, Director of the Institute of Six Sigma Professionals and practising Master Black Belt. Stephen has over 20 years’ industrial experience in problem solving and business improvement, the last 12 using Six Sigma and LEAN to deliver real change in a variety of business sectors, including health care, food, aerospace and defence. Stephen believes that although Six Sigma is a complete business improvement philosophy, for him it’s about going after not just the first 5% improvement - the low hanging fruit - but going after the last 5% improvement: going after perfection.

Workshop B - Deploying Lean Six Sigma in SME organisations

Workshop Leaders:  Dr Vince Grant and Dr Moore Allison, Catalyst Consulting

Sypnosis:  SMEs can be described as commercial organisations with less than 250 employees and then come in two types – those which are subsidiaries of a larger group and those which are stand alone. Implementing Change in a smaller organisation might at first sight appear to be easier than in a larger one. However diseconomies of scale, and factors such as financial constraints, and the difficulties in releasing key staff for training and to undertake improvement projects can lead to real challenges in effectively deploying a Lean Six Sigma programme in an SME. This workshop will explore those opportunities and challenges and stimulate thinking and best practice exchange in leading such programmes in these types of organisation.    

• Characteristics of SME organisations
• CSFs in implementing LSS – Catalyst’s model of effective LSS deployment
• Opportunities and Challenges in implementing LSS in an SME organisation
• Some best practice examples of LSS in SMEs.

Biography: 
Dr Vince Grant – Director, Catalyst Consulting
Vince is an expert in Lean Six Sigma methodologies, and regularly trains Black Belt and Master Black Belt programmes. He is a graduate from Cambridge University, and obtained his PhD in Physics from Manchester University. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Vince had international senior executive experience at Hewlett Packard before forming Catalyst in 1995.  Recent experience includes:

• Leading the deployment support for Saint-Gobain’s Lean Six Sigma programme across 3 Nordic Countries acting as their interim Master Black Belt
• Consulting and training support to a leading German multi-national Business Software organisation
• Training GE Capital’s Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Master Black Belt European courses.
• Training Sun Microsystems’ Lean Six Sigma Black Belt courses across Europe.
• Supporting the design and development of a Lean Six Sigma change management programmed for a leading Global telecommunications company and for a leading Automobile manufacturer.
• Facilitating the development of the Process Management System for a leading UK public sector organization.
• Facilitating the development of Business Scorecards for a US military organization based in Germany.
• Support for European Quality Award winner Volvo Cars Gent (Belgium) and European Quality Prize winner Sollac Groupe Usinor (France)  

Moore Allison - Senior Partner, Catalyst Consulting
Moore is an experienced consultant and trainer in all areas of Six Sigma, Lean and continuous improvement techniques. His background is in Engineering and he spent 13 years in industry before starting his consulting career in 2001. He has trained many hundreds of Green and Black Belts across Europe and coached many through to certification.

Moore certified as a Black Belt while working for Motorola in Scotland where he led many cross functional improvement projects and workshops and became a Motorola Certified Instructor. Projects included large (>£1M) internal quality improvements as well as European inter-site projects.  

Moore joined Catalyst in 2006. His role includes managing our business in Scotland and the development and delivery of training programmes for Catalyst in-house clients as well as our open programme in Edinburgh. These are run in conjunction with Quality Scotland. Moore is a Quality Scotland Partner in Excellence.
Clients have included: Siemens, BAE Systems, Aegon, London Underground, NHS, Norwich Union, Johnson & Johnson, TRW, Alstom, Royal Bank of Scotland, JP Morgan Chase, AstraZeneca, Co-op Financial Services, Fife Council, Sky, Wood Group.
Moore has a BSc in Industrial Engineering and a PhD in Robotic Applications both from the Queen’s University of Belfast.  

Workshop C: Simulation-based Lean Six Sigma

Workshop Leader: Raid Al-Aomar, PhD, Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Abu Dhabi University, UAE

Synopsis:  It has become clear to quality professionals and managers that Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing are complementary in improving production and service systems. Six Sigma provides a data-driven approach for the attainment of quality products and services with a focus on improving a set of Critical-to-Quality (CTQs) and Critical-to-Service (CTSs) measures. It targets product/service attributes as well as the overall process improvement. It improves process performance by reducing products defects and process variability with an ultimate goal of meeting or exceeding customer expectations. Lean Manufacturing, on the other hand, is an emerging engineering paradigm that aims at helping companies deliver quality products and services in the most effective manner. It focuses on making structural changes to the production/service process to reduce waste and maximize value. This eventually increases operations effectiveness, reduces waste and costs, and increases profit and market share.

Lean Six Sigma approach combines the benefits of Sigma quality and accuracy with the Lean Manufacturing speed and effectiveness. Lean Six Sigma methods were initially applied in industry to increase products' quality including electronics, appliances, aerospace, and automotive. Nowadays, these methods are increasingly applied to service systems including finance, healthcare, insurance, logistics, and many others.

When applying Lean Six Sigma to system-level improvement, the focus is on measuring quality in terms of time-based process performance measures such as process throughput (yield), inventory levels, and lead time. These measures can be best estimated under the dynamic and stochastic real-world conditions using Discrete Event Simulation (DES). This qualifies simulation to be a flexible platform for the application of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methods. Simulation can be utilized by the various phases of the Six Sigma DMAIC process (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control). Simulation can be also a flexible platform for testing and verifying lean techniques for process improvement and problem-solving.

• Elements of Production and Service Systems
• The need for LSS in Production and Service Systems
• The Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma methods
• Lean Production principles and techniques
• Lean Six Sigma approach
• Simulation basics:
• Simulation Methodology
• Simulation Software
• Simulation-based LSS:
• Simulation for Lean Production
• Simulation for Six Sigma
• Case 1: Simulation-based LSS application to a Production System
• Case 2: Simulation-based LSS application to a Service System

Biography:  Dr. Raid Al-Aomar is the director of Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program at Abu Dhabi University. He holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from Wayne State University. He has over 15 years of experience at companies and universities in Jordan, USA, and UAE with about 30 publications in the field of Industrial Engineering and Management. He is a co-author of "Simulation-based Lean Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma" book from John Wiley. Dr. Al-Aomar’s research interests include Simulation-based Optimization, Operations Management, and Lean Six Sigma Systems.

Workshop D: Measurement System Analysis (MSA) in Service Industry: Examples and lessons learned

Workshop Leader: Zahoor (Stan) Ahmed, Director, Lion and Gazelle Ltd.

Synopsis:  Most training for Champions, Black Belts and Green Belts talks of Gage R&R (including for attributes) with a serious bias towards the manufacturing industry. The power of Six Sigma lies in measurements and data which in service processes are usually measured through instruments such as questionnaires. Most Service Organisations and projects miss this opportunity – in the main due to a lack of understanding on alternative ways to deal with their specific environment. Hence, projects usually give MSA a miss! The presentation from Lion and Gazelle Ltd. explores the service environment through a range of examples and offers solutions on how they could benefit from the tools and techniques available in this area and how specific projects and indeed the whole organisation could benefit from them.

• Why measurements are critical
• Concept of Operational Definitions
• Types of measurements
• Importance of developing data collection plans
• Questionnaires – concepts of reliability and validity

Biography:  Stan has over twenty years of experience in delivering business improvement and change projects. Stan started his career in the Royal Air Force in 1988 as an Avionics Engineer. During his twelve years of service Stan received various commendations including Best recruit, BTEC national student of the year gold medal and also won the Sir Philip Sassoon flying award. Stan left the RAF in 2000.
Along with many engineering and management qualifications, Stan has an MSc in Project Management and is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and is also working towards his PhD.
Stan has held senior positions with various different global organisations. The industries he has worked with include: Security, Defence, IT, Procurement, Finance, HR and Airport.
He now the director of Lion and Gazelle Ltd who specialise in Programme Management and Lean Six Sigma. His key focus is on the implementation of change, continuous improvements and the associated training.

Workshop E: Strategic Planning and Execution using Lean Six Sigma

Workshop Leader:  Jd Marhevko, ASQ Fellow, MBB, JQLC Inc.

Synopsis: A hands-on walk through session of how to utilize Lean Six Sigma (LSS) at the organizational strategic planning level. This is a hands-on, high-level, walk through session of how to utilize Lean Six Sigma (LSS) tools at the organizational level.  The discussion takes the participants through a DMAIC process where they Define their key objectives via the simplified use of a strategic planning/goal setting matrix.  They then identify what their key Measures will be and will draft samples pertinent to their business settings.   During this session, participants will review LSS Analysis tools that have been successfully applied across a variety of industry and service sectors.  The course then discusses the act of Improvement to enable the achievement of their defined objectives.  Lastly, the concept of Control will be reviewed to show participants some methods of how to review and ensure that executed improvements achieve and/or hold the gains that were made. This process can and is successfully used by multiple types of organizations.  Managers will see how they can visualize, articulate and execute a plan to meet their organizational business goals.  They will be able to tailor their approach to meet their unique business needs. The objectives of the workshop include:

1. To help managers visualize, articulate and execute a plan to meet their organizational goals and objectives.
2. To provide managers and personnel with an approach that enables them to tailor their plan to meet their business needs. 
3.  To provide a Lessons Learned sharing of tools and techniques that have effectively served multiple organization types. 
4.  To share an LSS approach that enables cross-functional team alignment both horizontally and vertically.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Successful global execution approach of a global strategic plan
2. The power of both horizontal and vertical goal deployment
3. How to convey a strategic plan in a simplified 1 page format.
4. Process is applicable to any global organization/business type

Why will this benefit?  This session will help organisational leaders at any level to bring lean practices into their processes so that they, too, can benefit from the results.

Biography:  Jd Marhevko is a global business and operational excellence executive with over 25 years of operations, QA and lean experience in a variety of industries including Automotive, Aerospace, Plastics and Machining. Currently she both runs her own consulting firm, JQLC and works with GPS, an L6S consulting house.  Previously, she's worked as the VP of QA and Performance Excellence for SPX and as a Continuous Improvement Manager for Eaton.  She was a Director of Operations for both Cincinnati Milacron and Bosch.  Jd has a proven track record of success in building a Quality culture to drive process improvement and productivity using limited resources.  Jd was most recently awarded ASQ Fellow status.  She is a Certified Manager of Quality (CMQ/OE), a Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) and a Master Black Belt (MBB).  She is a senior Baldrige System assessor for the state of Michigan and held the IRCA ISO Quality Systems Auditor (QSA) from IRCA for over 10 years.  She holds a Bachelors of Science in Engineering (BSE) from Oakland University in Michigan and a Masters of Science Administration (MSA) from Central Michigan University and is currently the Chair of the ASQ QMD.

Workshop F: Six Sigma for the Little Guy

Workshop Leaders: Prof. Jiju Antony, University of Strathclyde and Dr. Maneesh Kumar, Cardiff Business School

Sypnosis: Six Sigma is a disciplined and rigorous approach to improve product, process and service quality using both statistical and non-statistical tools and techniques. It is an established and proven business process improvement methodology that can bring many measurable improvements to a business.

Although Six Sigma business management strategy has been exploited by many world class organisations such as GE, Motorola, Honeywell, Bombardier, ABB, Sony, to name a few from the long list, there is still less documented evidence of its implementation in their counter parts (mainly small and medium sized organizations) due to lack of understanding of the role of Six Sigma and other pertinent constraints. Six Sigma for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) has become an emerging topic among many academics and Six Sigma practitioners around the world over the last 8 years. However the success of Six Sigma applications in SMEs varies from country to country depending heavily on the awareness, business leadership and the culture of the organisation. This workshop addresses the following:

• Role of SMEs in current economic recession
• Six Sigma application in SMEs – Findings from UK SMEs
• Exercise and Games to introduce the concept of variation & basic tools of continuous improvement – Will help to get the basics right to prepare for Six Sigma implementation in SMEs
• Six Sigma implementation in SMEs: viewpoints from leading academics and practitioners
• Readiness Assessment for Six Sigma in SMEs
• Which tool to use and when? A 2 x 2 Matrix for SMEs
• Sharing the knowledge of best-in-class practice of Six Sigma in SMEs
• Do’s and Dont’s of Six Sigma

Biography:

Professor Jiju Antony, University of Strathclyde
Prof. Jiju Antony, Director of the Centre for Research in Six Sigma and Process Improvement (CRISSPE) and Director of Knowledge Exchange within Strathclyde Institute for Operations Management in his 10 years of research career, has published more than 200 refereed journal and conference papers (over 75 papers of this list are Six Sigma related) and 6 textbooks in the area of Reliability Engineering, Design of Experiments, Taguchi Methods, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management and Statistical Process Control. He has successfully launched the First International Journal of Lean Six Sigma in April 2010. Prof. Antony has been invited several times as a keynote speaker to national conferences on Six Sigma in China, South Africa, Netherlands, India, Greece, New Zealand, South Africa and Poland. Prof. Antony has also chaired the First, Second and Third International Conferences on Six Sigma and First and Second International Workshops on Design for Six Sigma. The recent work of the Prof. Antony includes collaborations with organisations such as Thales Optronics Ltd., Scottish Power, Rolls-Royce, Tata Motors, Bosch, Nokia, GE Domestic Appliances, Scottish Widow, 3M, Land Rover, GE Power Systems, NHS Ayr and Aaran, Kwit Fit Financial Services, Clydesdale Bank etc. in the development of Six Sigma, Lean and Continuous Improvement programmes within these organisations. He is on the Editorial Board of over 8 International Journals and a regular reviewer of 5 leading International Journals in Quality, Operations and Production Management. He has been recently elected to the International Academy of Quality, the first in Scotland and third in the UK to be elected to the Academy. He is a fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute, UK, a fellow of the Institute of Operations Management, UK, a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a fellow of the Institute of Six Sigma Professionals and a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Dr Maneesh Kumar, Cardiff Business School
Dr. Maneesh Kumar is a Lecturer of Service Operations & Lean Six Sigma Trainer at Cardiff Business School. Before joining Cardiff, he was a Lecture at Edinburgh Napier UniversityHe is an active member of ASQ, EUROMA, CMI, ISPQR, and BAM. Maneesh’s research and publications are in the area of Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Agility, and Sustainable Supply Chain Management for both public and private sectors. He has been involved in delivering LSS training up to Black Belt level and has facilitated organizations in UK, Belgium, Dubai and India to implement LSS. He was involved in providing consulting services to companies such as Kwik-Fit Insurance Services, Standard Life, Thales Optronics, Bakkavor Group, Norbert Dentressangle, NHS Grampian, NHS Sheltand, Edinburgh City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, and Tata Motors.  He is also a regular speaker at International Conferences and Seminars on LSS & Process Excellence. He is actively involved in LSS research within Public Sector organizations such as NHS and City Councils. His research outputs includes an edited book, five edited conference proceedings, two book chapters, twenty one peer reviewed journal publications, thirty conference papers, and six white papers.

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Conference Agenda

Click here to download a full day-by-day agenda

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Who should attend the conference?

• Senior Managers
• Managing Directors and CEOs
• Business Leaders
• Six Sigma Professionals
• Lean Production Professionals
• Quality Professionals
• Quality and Six Sigma Consultants
• Academics engaged in Quality Management, Six Sigma, Lean and Lean Sigma research
• Doctoral Students engaged in Six Sigma and Lean related topics

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Call for Papers

With an exciting theme for the upcoming conference we invite papers for the following sub-themes:

• Lean Six Sigma for Manufacturing Processes
• Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare
• Lean Six Sigma for Financial Services
• Lean Six Sigma for Transactional Processes
• Lean for Service and Transactional Processes
• Lean Six Sigma for SMEs
• Lean Six Sigma and its link to other Quality Initiatives (such as IS0 9001:2000, Kaizen)
• Role of Leadership for Lean Six Sigma
• Design for Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma
• Tools and Techniques of Lean/Six Sigma
• Lean and Six Sigma initiatives in Education

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Paper Submission

The basis for acceptance of papers is that they are relevant and make a contribution to the current literature of Six Sigma, Lean Production strategy, Lean Six Sigma, Quality Engineering, Quality Management, etc.  Authors are invited to submit an abstract of 300 words or less to the scientific co-ordinators.  All conference abstracts will be double-blind reviewed by the members of a Scientific Committee to ensure their academic rigour, practical significance to industrial arena and value to existing literature.  Each abstract should have a separate title page that includes title of the paper, author name/s, affiliation/s, full contact details including address, fax, phone and e-mail.  Your abstract must include 5 to 8 key words that capture the contents of your paper.  For multiple authors, please indicate clearly to whom correspondence should be made.  Authors must register for and attend the conference if their submission is accepted.  We encourage electronic mail submission in Microsoft Word.  Once the abstract is accepted, the authors are encouraged to submit the full paper.  Please note that we strongly suggest all authors to follow structured abstract.  Please click here for guidance on preparing a structured abstract

Papers should be typed on standard A4 pages using 12 point Times New Roman typeface or equivalent in MS Word.  Final Manuscripts should be limited to 2500 words in length, single spaced with double space between paragraphs.  Authors’ names, affiliations and e-mail address should be provided after the title.  The title must be bold-faced and centred in upper/lower case.  Figures and Tables should be sized to scale and labelled with a caption centred under the Figure or Table.  It is preferable to have the figures and tables included in the text but if this is not possible, please place all Figures and Tables at the end of the text (after References) and ensure that a place-mark is inserted in the body of the text (e.g.: “ Insert Figure 1 here” or “Insert Table 1 here” ).  It is strongly advised to use Harvard style of referencing throughout the paper.

Here are some examples:

For books:
Phadke, M.S. (1989), Quality Engineering Using Robust Design, Prentice-Hall International, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

For book chapters:
Bessley, M. and Wilson, P. (1999), Marketing for the Production Manager, in Levicki (Ed.), Taking the Blinkers off Managers, Broom Reim, London, pp. 29-33.

For journal articles:
Montgomery, D.C. (1992), The Use of Statistical Process Control and Design of Experiments in product and process improvement, IIE Transactions, Vol.24, No.5, pp. 4-17.

All accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings. The organising and technical committee members will encourage selected authors to submit their papers for review to the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma.

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Important Dates

• Deadline for submission of abstract:  10th October 2011
• Notification of acceptance of abstract:  31st October 2011
• Deadline for submission of full paper:  12th December 2011
• Notification of acceptance of full paper:  16th January 2012
• Latest date for submission of conference paper (with final changes):  17th February 2012

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Sponsorship Opportunities

Information will follow shortly.

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Conference Fees

	INDUSTRY Rate	ACADEMIC Rate	STUDENT Rate
CONFERENCE ONLY (Mon 26 Mar)	£225(EB)£275	£175(EB)£225	£150(EB)£200
WORKSHOP ONLY (Tue 27 Mar)	£250(EB)£300	£200(EB)£250	£175(EB)£225
CONFERENCE & W/SHOP    (Mon 26 - Tue 27 Mar)	£400(EB)£450	£325(EB)£375	£300(EB)£350

Early Bird Rates
Early bird rates are the reduced prices marked (EB) within the costing table above.  Please note that the cut off date for early bird rates is FRIDAY, 27TH JANUARY , 2012.  Registrations received after this date will be charged at the full registration fee.

The conference fee includes:

• A CD-ROM version of the proceedings
• Refreshment breaks and lunch

Note: Entry to all sessions is subject to space and availability.  Sessions will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

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Registration

To register please visit the University of Strathclyde Online Shop

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Conference Committee

Conference Chair:
Professor Jiju Antony
Director, Centre for Research in Six Sigma and Process Excellence (CRISSPE),
Strathclyde Institute for Operations Management,
Dept. of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management (DMEM),
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Members of the Organising Committee:

• Prof. Min Xie, National University of Singapore, Singapore
• Prof. Kailash C. Kapur, University of Washington, USA
• Prof. Sung Hyun Park, Seoul National University, Korea
• Dr Mats Deleryd, Director of Quality Assurance and Performance Management, Bombardier Transportation, Sweden
• Dr Roger Hoerl, GE Global Research, NY, USA
• Prof. Bengt Klefsjo, Lulea University(retired), Sweden
• Prof. S.K.Neogy, Head of SQC and OR Unit, ISI, New Delhi, India
• Dr Phil Rowe, Consultant and Master Black Belt, Burton Group, Rugby, UK
• Dr Ricardo Banuelas, Black Belt, Rolls-Royce, Derby, UK
• Prof. Christian N. Madu, Lubin School of Business, Pace University, NY
• Dr Ken Black, University of Houston Clear Lake, Texas, USA
• Dr Ronald Snee, Snee Associates, Newark, USA
• Dr Shirley Coleman, ISRU, Newcastle University, UK
• Prof. Douglas Montgomery, Arizona State University, USA
• Prof. Amrik Sohal, Monash University, Australia
• Prof. Ronald Does, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Prof. T N Goh, National University of Singapore, Singapore
• Greg Watson, Oklahoma State University, USA
• Dr Alex Douglas, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
• Dr John Davies, University of Salford, UK
• Dr Maneesh Kumar, Napier University, UK

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Accommodation

Grand Central Hotel
99 Gordon Street
Glasgow
G1 3SF

Map & Directions

Rates: conference delegates will be offered a discount rates, as follows:

• a minimum of 20% discount from the best available rate
• rate includes full buffet breakfast and VAT

How to book:
Guests can book online via the following link  Input the arrival date, departure date, number of guests, followed by the code FUN20 in the promotional code box. This will then open the booking screen where guests can complete their reservation.

Alternatively guests can reserve their accommodation by contacting the Grand Central Hotel Reservations team on their dedicated telephone number 0141 240 3731 or emailing grandcentral.reservations@principal-hayley.com , quoting the promotion code FUN20 and the date of the function.

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Reviews

Our previous international conferences on Six Sigma were hailed a great success by delegates and the wider industry:

“The International Conference on Six Sigma gave me an opportunity to hear experienced Six Sigma practitioners from around the world talk about their successes, as well as lessons learned from grappling with problems. I learned a great deal about what works, what doesn’t work and why.” – Thomas Pyzdek, The Pyzdek Institute, USA.

“Having attended many Six Sigma seminars and conferences elsewhere in the world, this event in Glasgow was truly an international forum of both experienced practitioners and academics involved in Six Sigma. The conference organiser should be congratulated for contributing to the closing of the gap between Six Sigma academic researchers and practitioners.” – Roger Hilton, PPG Industries, Australia & Six Sigma Researcher, Monash University, Australia.

“I found the International Conference on Six Sigma interesting and informative, with some excellent speakers and experienced practitioners of Six Sigma from around the world.” – Mike Holman, Six Sigma Academy, UK.

“The International Conference on Six Sigma attracted world renowned speakers, providing an excellent opportunity to interact with academic and industrial leaders in Six Sigma and related areas.” – Gary Pickrell, Consultant (Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma), USA.

“The range of topics covered within Six Sigma, the industries represented, the size of enterprise catered for in the event, meant there was something for everyone. I found it both interesting and useful.” – Bob Holmes, Holmes and Mann Associates Ltd., UK.

“The International Conference on Six Sigma was an invaluable opportunity for professionals and academics from all over the world to come together and share important ideas, concepts and experiences in the implementation of Six Sigma.” – Ken Black, University of Houston Clear Lake, USA.

 “The conference was an excellent follow up to my Black Belt training, demonstrating practical deployment approaches, together with real and substantial improvement results …………well done!!! “ – Rob Jones, Rob Jones Associates, UK.

"The International Conference on Six Sigma successfully blended the warm holiday spirit of Glasgow with the latest strategies and information from the world's leading companies. The networking and sharing of ideas with thought leaders in Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma will shape my thinking for years to come." - Larry Smith, Detroit, USA.

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Contact Details

For further enquiries please contact:
Professor Jiju Antony
Strathclyde Institute for Operations Management,
Dept. of DMEM,
James Weir Building,
University of Strathclyde,
Glasgow
G1 1XJ
Scotland
UK
E-mail:  jiju.antony@strath.ac.uk
Tel:       0141 548 2065
Mobile:  07799 80 85 00

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