Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) 
Advanced level
Theme: Nurturing thriving learning organizations

Mastering the art of improvement: Lessons from top performers

Learn from organizations recognized as highly effective at improving

Format

Deep Dive Session
Thursday, Oct. 31 Location Code
9:30am-10:30am Atlanta Marriott Marquis ThS/41

Topic(s)

Overview

Join us for an exclusive presentation featuring two industry-leading organizations that already rank in the top 20% for improvement effectiveness. These companies now seek to elevate their commitment to excellence to the next level by refining their improvement strategies and tackling critical challenges head-on. Discover how senior leadership plans to achieve remarkable progress and learn actionable insights to elevate your organization's performance. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge from the best in the business!

We will ask the panel several questions. For example, in your organization:

  1. How do you handle challenges that inhibit the organization’s ability to improve?
  2. What actions have been taken to get better at getting better?
  3. How do you engage mid-level leaders to be active participants in your improvement efforts?
  4. How do you engage senior leaders to be active participants in your improvement efforts?
  5. What will be done differently next year?
  6. What is a big challenge you personally faced trying to lead improvement?

Key learning objectives

  1. Learn about practical actions taken by people who have done it.
  2. Learn how others have addressed challenges in their improvement endeavors.
  3. Leave with a few ideas on how your organization might get better at getting better.

Company

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is the premier not-for-profit organization dedicated to the journey of continuous improvement and enterprise excellence. AME’s membership is composed of a trusted network of volunteers committed to leveraging the practitioner-to-practitioner and company-to-company shared learning experience. Through engaging workshops, plant tours, webinars, summits and industry-leading conferences, AME members are continually discovering and implementing new continuous improvement strategies and best practices. AME offers its members a multitude of valuable resources to help them stay abreast of current industry developments and improve the skills, competitiveness and overall success of their organizations. www.ame.org

Michael Bremer has had opportunities to travel around the world and work with companies in many different countries. One thing that overlaps in all the places he has traveled is that people want to feel they matter. It doesn’t matter if we are talking to home healthcare providers, an assembly line worker, a software developer, a machinist or a CEO; they all seek respect from their boss, their co-workers (peers), and a sense of dignity and meaning in their life, to live for something bigger than self-pride in what they do, and to have an impact. “I matter, I make a difference.”

People also typically want opportunities to discover their capabilities and self-development opportunities. Approximately 5%-10% of the companies in any given industry are highly effective at improving; most do an average job of getting better. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could turn 5%-10% into 10%-20%? That is Michael Bremer’s goal (in his semi-retirement mode): to play a role in making that shift happen. www.michaelbremer.net

Presenter

Michael Bremer is an author, semi-retired from business since 2018. He has collected a variety of experiences over the years, including holding the positions of director of productivity improvement and director of information systems for Beatrice Foods. He is a past chief financial officer and Board member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME). He was also president of the Cumberland Group, a global consulting company in Chicago, for 28 years. Bremer served as adjunct faculty for the University of Chicago’s Graham School for a 15-year period and as a senior mentor at a new business start-up incubator focused on manufacturing (mHub Chicago). Bremer currently leads AME’s Excellence Award activities.