Hear how achieving operational excellence is the #1 catalyst for profit improvement. Grass-roots, bottom-up lean and six sigma projects provide benefits and alert the workforce of the possibilities of CI. Learn how to incorporate top-down strategic positioning to achieve strategic differentiation and long-term benefits that are sustainable.
Discover each step of strategic change and learn about a complete, proven methodology - why this is important, how to identify strategic core processes and how to gain senior management involvement. As the strategic roadmap for the journey to OpEx is developed, a new tool, the value-based strategic assessment tool (VSAT), will be given. Then from an industry perspective, an award-winning distributor from the San Diego–Tijuana area will demonstrate how this methodology and tool kit fundamentally changed their perspective on OpEx. Representatives of the company will discuss the internalization of this process, the approach they have taken and the results to date. Attendees will use the tools introduced in a case study mode.
Arizona State University (ASU) is the largest university in the U.S., with over 82,000 students. However, ASU has remarkably maintained the quality of its education while going through this explosive growth of students. As an example, ASU was awarded the #1 innovation university in the U.S. in 2015 ~ beating such prominent innovators as MIT and Stanford. All of these accomplishments come from the university vision of creating the "New American University" and achieving excellence - impact - access at the same time. www.asu.edu
Dan Shunk is a professor at Arizona State University. His accomplishments include 35 journal articles and the SME International Educator award. He graduated from Purdue, began his career in the USAF forming the ICAM Program, worked in industry elevating to VP-GM of a national consulting firm and joined ASU in 1984. While at ASU he led the Manufacturing Research Center to the SME LEAD Award. Shunk's publicly documented accomplishments in lean sigma include saving $4.2 million at an aerospace company with 25 lean green belts, achieving a transition from 76 percent initial quality to 99.5 percent initial quality at an electronics company and elevating a major truck manufacturer's production from 8 trucks per day to 42 trucks per day over a 3-year period. All of these followed a consistent, rigorous lean sigma methodology. Shunk is expanding his project portfolio to look at streamlining the transaction processes in the back office and the enterprise design process. 
Dr. Miguel Hernandez Suarez is the program coordinator for industrial engineering, CETYS Universidad – Tijuana campus.
Eric Ponce de Leon Trevino is vice president of operations at Corporacion Del Fuerte, Tijuana
