Improve

Thursday’s presentations wrap up SEPG for 2010. Thursday is also a day where people get their tickets early to return home and miss out on some well prepared and informative presentations. This year’s choices will make it worth your while to stick around and lend our final speakers your ear.

Here are my picks for wrapping up SEPG 2010:

• “Driver Tree” an Experience Simulation Model for process improvement projects – Stefan Ast, Winfried Russwurm and Thomas Birkhoelzer – As the authors stated, any process improvement project faces issues when trying to decide what process areas would benefit the business the most if investment were made in them.
  • This presentation shares the Siemens “Driver Tree” model and simulation tool used to evaluate alternative activities for process improvement projects. But more than just a report on one company’s way of doing things, this presentation makes the claim that their approach is customizable and that YOU can adapt the methodology for your OWN organization.
  • This promises a learning opportunity with a “take-away” that could benefit all of our organizations. I have had the privilege to work with Siemens process innovators since the early ‘90s so I plan to attend this session and learn again from them.
• The New “Innovative” Era of Business Appraisals  – Renato Vasques
  • Models and standards such as the CMMI, ISO 9001 and a host of military and government standards have been considered the cornerstone of process improvement efforts. And we all realize that one model or standard does not necessarily provide any organization with all that is necessary to drive the variety of projects and product lines that make up the organization’s business.
  • So how do managers and engineers react to CMMI, Six Sigma, ISO, Lean, Agile, SPICE, PMI, ITIL, aerospace standards, telecommunications standards etc…???? This ISD Brazil presentation promises to share some of innovative ideas they have developed and tried out to allow appraisals to be run in a multi-model fashion. The multi-model era is not going to go away no matter how many times model and standard consolidation is performed. Let’s learn from these innovations!
• Towards a Systems Thinking View of Process Improvement – James Hart
  • I received my Systems Engineering degree from the University of Arizona a number of years ago and at the time of graduation, most recruiters did not know what a Systems Engineer was. Some 30+ years later, at an SEPG conference, it was announced that the process improvement world would benefit from more Systems Engineers being involved with it.
  • Taking a system thinking view means looking at the big picture and understanding where each component, including the people component fits in. This is the approach Jim Hart has taken to get organizations to understand how to empower people so they can see how their individual actions and decisions affect the system they work within
  • Come join me and listen to Jim as he shares systems ideas that can help people understand why systems behave as they do, understand the interdependencies of performance, and use “what-if scenarios” to predict improvement results.
  • Jim’s presentations are never for the “faint of heart” but they are always power packed and informative. You won’t be disappointed!
• Demonstrating Best Value in Supplier Selection – David Quinn
  • We should choose suppliers because we can get a product or service at a cheaper cost and therefore our product offerings will give our customers greater value! Hmmmm, it seems like this has become a mantra for organizations who are trying to decide who to choose as a supplier.
  • David is going to challenge that thinking in his presentation and even illustrate when spending extra money is justified to gain greater capability. Want to learn about a proven formula that differentiates proposals to assign the proper value to the proposed cost? Come listen to David with me as SEPG 2010 wraps up.

I will also be providing my opinions of the sessions I get to attend during the conference through continuing blogs to let you know how I felt about them after I saw the author’s in action.

Catch up with me during the conference and let me hear your reactions to the presentations you have attended. You can easily find me at my partner’s booth 416, Method Park.

More information:  SEPG 2010 Agenda

See you in Savannah!

Tim Kasse
CEO & Principal Consultant
Kasse Initiatives LLC