CPI Symposium to offer cutting edge process improvement applications

  • Published
  • By Mary Lou Gorny
  • Hilltop Times editor
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  The Continuous Process Improvement Symposium will be held at Weber State University May 3-5. The fifth annual event ties in closely with the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century program and can be useful to engineers in many of the programs on base as well as other production and maintenance applications.

Said Ken Noorlander, senior engineer Plans and Programs currently working for 309th Maintenance Wing in the 309th Maintenance Support Squadron, "Out of all the organizations I've worked with, and I've been here at Hill Air Force Base for nine years and 15 years in private industry, there is greater opportunity here in the government and especially in the Department of Defense to use these tools for improvement than anywhere -- greater than anywhere else I have ever been."

Scott Jensen, CPI Symposium chairman, invited the base engineer to help out on the committee, after Noorlander's initial exposure to the symposium four years ago. He's been involved ever since.

"This year there's a heavy offering on project management and how it applies to Continuous Process Improvement. The third day will mostly be about how project management tools could be used and how that improves the process. I've never seen such a good lineup of speakers," Noorlander said.

New schedule format

He explained that the normally two-day event has been broken up into a half-day session the first day beginning at noon, a second full day, and then a partial half-day the third day concluding at noon. This was done to make it more accessible for those who have heavy schedules and perhaps couldn't work out two full days.

Included among the speakers this year is Russ Pirasteh, who conducted scientific studies in the efficacy of CPI approaches, and who co-authored "Profitability With No Boundaries: Optimizing Lean, TOC, and Six Sigma."

Another speaker which Noorlander specifically highlighted as possibly of greater interest to Team Hill was Robert E. Fox who studied production methods in Japan and returned to the U.S. He co-authored "The Race," "Blue Light!," "The Theory of Constraints Journals," and "Profitability With No Boundaries: Optimizing Lean, TOC, and Six Sigma. "

Noorlander also suggested Larry Leach as another speaker not to be missed. Leach is widely recognized as one of the country's foremost experts on critical chain project management and has authored such books as "Lean Project Management," "Critical Chain Project Management," and now "Lean Project Leadership."

Applicable tools

Noorlander said that he has always found something at the sessions to apply directly on the job -- tools to add to your tool bag. "Every time I've attended I've brought something back and I've been able to implement it in the projects that I've been running," he said. The break out sessions also look particularly strong this year, he added.

"When we have shrinking budgets we need to do more with less," Noorlander said. "This whole symposium is focusing on the same tools AFSO21 teaches. It's a benefit because it gives a comparison of what is the leading edge -- current implementations that are going on in private industry," he added.

Including cultural aspects

This year's theme, "Culture Change and Continuous Process Improvement, is particularly applicable when examining constraints within a system. Noorlander explained that in using many of the aforementioned tools, such as the Lean approach, many organizations will not make an initial assessment to identify the constraints or bottlenecks within their processes.

"They have more of a shotgun approach and you usually don't get the bang for your buck (from the application of the tools)," he said.

If you make an initial assessment of those constraints and apply these tools specifically in those areas -- then you get tremendous results, Noorlander said.

The symposium will focus on using the idea of the Theory of Constraints in helping to focus these process improvement tools.

He also reports the symposium will be heavy with examples of applications and not just focus on theory.

"AFSO21 is incredibly well-written, but it's 10 years old," he said.

Noorlander said the symposium is a great way to get the latest on applications and also get the latest on theory.

"All the professionals I've talked with over the last few years as I've studied Constraint Theory have repeatedly reported they've never found a physical constraint like a piece of machinery or a building or a material," he said. "All the constraints are usually organizational, systemic constraints or some constraint that's built into their bureaucracy - so if they learn how to remove those internal (or cultural) constraints then product flows."

Military personnel are given a 10 percent discount. Anyone interested can register at http://cpi-symposiums.com/index.html.