This year, the two keynote speakers for the BestPractice Day 2017 are Daniel T. Jones, founder of the Lean Enterprise Academy and author of the lean classics “The Machine That Changed the World” and “Lean Thinking”, and Pierre Masai, Chief Information Office (CIO) and Vice President (VP) of Information Systems – Toyota Motor Europe. Jones feels that lean management is even more relevant than ever, and Toyota continues to be an inspiring point of reference. Jones will illustrate to congress attendees why the capacity for innovation, experimenting with new ideas and technologies and fostering a corporate culture that is centered around cooperation and learning continue to be some of the most important factors to ensuring success in a digital age. “Many companies may use lean tools and methods to establish lean production. However, if you remove the buffers and safety nets, companies need a management system that can always respond quickly to inevitable disruptions,” lean guru Jones says, with conviction. What is needed are managers that enable their employees to continuously improve their work and their processes. This is why the topic of management also plays a key role at the BestPractice Day 2017. A current survey of corporate and management culture, conducted by Staufen Consulting, the host of the congress, shows that many companies are behind in this area. According to this study, the “command and obey” principle still rules in approximately 40 percent of companies. When things get stressful, every third manager adopts the wrong tone when dealing with employees. “Behavior like this does not inspire employees to do their best; on the contrary, it causes employees to resign mentally. And this sentiment is even more detrimental to company success than ever before. Without employee innovation, the tide of digital transformation cannot be turned,” warns Wilhelm Goschy, Staufen COO. “From the outside, it appears as if the new working world relies solely on technology. In fact, the human factor plays a much more significant part in the success of a business. Especially with respect to management.” In accordance with the objectives of lean philosophy, top management should be closer to the value-added process – not as supervisors, but as colleagues in the role of leaders and enablers. Participants of this year’s congress will benefit from lots of ideas and information on how to make this happen. You can expect an impressive mix of presentations by specialists, information on lean implementations and BestPractice examples. Top executives from the manufacturing sector will include question and answer sessions in their presentations. First-rate companies will also be providing practical demonstrations to congress attendees planning to get their own improvement process rolling or needing to be inspired with fresh momentum. This year, full day workshops will be held together with Continental, Holder, Husqvarna, the Lean Enterprise Academy, Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services, Munsch Chemical Pumps, Recaro, the Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW) of the Technical University of Darmstadt, as well as best selling author, mental coach and extreme athlete Slatco Sterzenbach. There will also be a two-day BestPractice Tour on July 5 and 6 with Staufen’s Digital Neonex; you will visit the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Bosch Rexroth, SEW-Eurodrive and Festo. More Information about the event: www.best-practice-day.com You can download the program of the BestPractice Day 2017 here. Press release (.pdf) Press release (.rtf)
