It was truly an honor to have so many of you join us at the AME Back to Basics Virtual Lean Summit 2025 this week — your presence and participation made it an inspiring and enriching experience.
Our keynote speakers this week, Bob Chapman and Cindy Hinds, truly inspired us. Chapman shared his philosophy, often referred to as "Truly Human Leadership," that emphasizes treating employees like family and prioritizing their well-being over profits. He advocates for creating a workplace where individuals feel valued, cared for and empowered. He believes that when employees feel genuinely appreciated, they are more engaged and motivated, which leads to both personal and organizational success.
Hinds shared how prioritizing problem-solving skills and developing robust support systems can drive long-term success in lean initiatives. By embedding problem-solving at the core of your culture, your organization will be better equipped to tackle any business challenge with confidence and agility.
This marks year four of our Back to Basics summit. Designed to empower individuals at every stage of their lean journey, the summit is held every Wednesday in March. It provides valuable tools, insights and practical strategies that can be implemented in any organization. You are welcome to attend one, two or all of the weekly sessions, whatever works best for you!
I encourage you to join us for the next three sessions as we continue to explore our core values, mission and the path forward. These gatherings are about sharing, learning and growing and are offered FREE for all AME members.
- Wednesday, March 12 – Enhancing lean with visual management
- Wednesday, March 19 – Building a lean culture
- Wednesday, March 26 – Strategic deployment (Special late session to support our international attendees)
Insights from Bob Chapman's keynote session
I also want to take a moment to recognize Katlyn Rice, our Back to the Basics team leader. Rice is a recent graduate of our AME Emerging Leaders Program, and now she is leading this mission-critical summit. Seeing her step into this leadership role fills me with pride—thank you, Kaitlyn!
Rice shares, “Chairing the 2025 Back to Basics Virtual Summit has been an incredibly rewarding experience. This opportunity came to me through the AME Emerging Leaders program, which provides early-career professionals with hands-on leadership opportunities. It has allowed me to bring together industry leaders, facilitate meaningful discussions and reinforce the core principles that drive operational excellence — all in a dynamic virtual setting. I’m incredibly grateful to the Summit Team and the AME Home Team, whose dedication and hard work made this event a success. Seeing the engagement, collaboration and impact of this summit firsthand has been truly inspiring, and I’m honored to have played a role in fostering this learning experience for the AME community.”
A heartfelt thank you also goes out to her amazing team of Tim Clark, Josh Buchanan, Tony Laraia, and of course, the AME Home Team — Barb Clayton, Desiree Dolecki, Sara O'Hara, Jessi Elder, Meghna Kamboj, and Regina D'Alesio — for their dedication in making this summit possible.
I look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday, March 12. The theme will be Enhancing lean with visual management. We will learn about mapping your processes to see waste from Mark Preston, and the real meaning of kaizen from Katie Anderson. It is not too late to sign up for the AME Back to Basics Virtual Lean Summit 2025.
And for those who like to learn in person, we have an exciting event, the AME Hampton Roads 2025 Lean Summit on May 6-8 in Virginia. You will have an opportunity to see the Port of Virginia, visit Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) or go behind-the-scenes at Canon Virginia’s Innovation Center, laboratories, and Service and Support Center.
At the summit, you will have an opportunity to learn about:
- Theory of Constraints flow solutions
- Innovative problem-solving
- Yellow Belt Lean Certification: Lean Boot Camp
- Let Go to Lead
- Strategy deployment: Transforming strategy into execution
- Bringing process maps to life: A hands-on journey from maps to models
- Leading with emotional intelligence
- Supporting people as your greatest resource with MEE™
We will also hear from two inspiring keynote speakers:
- Xavier Beale, vice president of Human Resources for Newport News Shipbuilding, will speak on "Foundation for the future: Inspiring the next generation of manufacturing talent"
- Robert Martichenko, board chair of TrailPath Workplace Solutions, will speak on "People as our greatest resource: Building Meaningful Employment Environments™"
I hope to see you in Hampton Roads! As always, please stay safe and keep looking out for one another.
