8:00 Creating a BPM Program That Works… and Sticks

Canada Post has embarked on a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment in the organization to renew national infrastructure and revamp core business processes. Key to the renewal project was the implementation of a BPM (Business Process Management) program that took a holistic view of the institution, with the aim of fully integrating the corporate direction and goals with the smaller steps that needed to be taken to achieve those goals.

In this workshop, Director of Process Excellence Daniel Koepke will detail how Canada Post made significant improvements to its program and processes by following steps such as:

• Leveraging small-scale projects and tools and translating them to fullscale initiatives across the organization
• Facilitating business process harmonization and, where appropriate, standardization across the network
• Enabling the adoption of new technologies and business paradigms
• Supporting the development of detailed analyses of specific business areas that had been prioritized for near-term improvement

Daniel Koepke
Director of Process Excellence
Canada Post

9:55 Chairperson’s Recap Of Main Conference Day One

10:00 Driving Continuous Improvement Using Kata

At DTE Energy, Jason Schulist and his team are steadily working on driving Continuous Improvement in a brownfield company; using an assortment of methodologies and techniques (including kata), they’re piloting a program focused on process design and problem solving at the point of activity. In this session, Jason Schulist will discuss his team’s past successes and the lessons they’ve learned, share suggestions for others’ Continuous Improvement programs, and elaborate on DTE Energy’s current efforts, which include:

• Focusing on deliberate practice
• Evaluating available methodologies and selecting appropriate options
• Becoming proficient and adaptable at the individual and corporate level

Jason Schulist
Director of Continuous Improvement
DTE Energy Company

11:00 A New Prescription: Using Lean Principles In Healthcare

Having seen positive results of the application of Lean to manufacturing processes, many institutions within the healthcare industry have begun to employ Lean practices such as standardizing tasks, enabling physician value-added time, reevaluating their overall management strategies, and even rearranging clinics to facilitate a smoother, faster flow of staff. Because the healthcare industry, at heart, focuses on treating individual patients and their unique illnesses, many institutions have found that turning Lean principles into practice can present certain challenges. This session will provide a look at one hospital’s successful experience in applying Lean using an enterprise-wide approach, and will consider concerns such as:

• Adapting the tools, enterprise-wide, to a highly variable, patientcentered environment
• Streamlining your processes and eliminating waste without sacrificing the human touch that is so necessary in healthcare
• Improving both customer (patient) satisfaction and the bottom line

11:40 Transforming Your Six Sigma Approach In Uncommon Ways…Using The New “SPC”

Many Six Sigma implementations fall by the wayside because they fail to secure the support of and adoption by both employees and management. One unique approach that has worked for Direct Energy involves using the SPC (Systems thinking, Psychology, and Clout) process. In this session, Direct Energy Six Sigma Program Manager David During will demonstrate how to transform your Six Sigma approach by using the alternative SPC to:

• Discover how to embrace complexity by employing a systems thinking approach
• Utilize mental processes and human behavior patterns as potential factors that affect your outcome
• Leverage social relations and authority to guarantee success

David During
Six Sigma Program Manager
Direct Energy

1:20 Implementing Process Improvement & LSS in a Government Context

Approximately two years ago, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) began to institute LSS and process improvement techniques so as to create a more efficient, responsive organization. Responding to employee suggestions, CIPO has successfully implemented 30 Process Improvement projects dealing with both internal processes and resulting product, aiming to achieve consistency in the highly subjective field of trademarks. This session will discuss CIPO’s implementation tactics, such as:

• Government culture and desire for quality
• Soliciting employee feedback…and subsequently securing middle- and upper-management support
• Applying value stream mapping to processes and products

Etienne Lalonde
Project Director
Canadian Intellectual Property Office

2:00 Using Social Media For Process Improvement

It seems as though social media has made inroads into every discipline and industry—and Process Improvement is no exception. Companies are finding the real-time knowledge transfer that social media encourages falls neatly in line with LSS and Process Improvement principles. Hear how early-adopter companies are beginning to experiment with social media:

• See the possibilities provided by instant transfer of information and communication of ideas across geographical distance
• Explore social media’s potential of allowing you to receive feedback from customers and employees
• Consider the limitations and benefits of social media as a tool

Eric Michrowski
Director, Process Improvement Centre of Excellence
TELUS

3:00 Implementing A Provincial Quality Improvement Initiative In Long-Term Care Homes

The Ontario Health Quality Council (OHQC) embarked upon their Lean journey not quite two years ago when they implemented a pilot program in two long-term care homes. After seeing the results of their successful first foray into extending Lean practices into long-term care homes, OHQC expanded their program into a five-year initiative called Residents First; this has been implemented in sixteen long-term care homes thus far and will be extended to more than twenty additional facilities by the second year of the project. In this session, OHQC Quality Improvement Consultant Matthew Ramenaden will discuss the program goals, which include:

• Reducing the burden of documentation via Lean techniques
• Building capacity and extending Lean use across the board
• Improving the effectiveness of multiple long-term care processes

Matthew Ramenaden
Quality Improvement Consultant
Ontario Health Quality Council

3:40 Aligning Your Business As A First Step Toward A Strong Continuous Improvement Program

Over the last two years, Air Canada Maintenance has invested in a set of tools that align its business and provide the necessary input to integrate Continuous Improvement into the operational environment. This session will consider such factors as:

• Breaking business unit silos and emphasizing communication and transparency across the board
• Focusing on trends as opposed to goals
• Prioritizing the deployment of Continuous Improvement initiatives

4:20 Chairperson’s Closing Remarks & End Of Conference