Happy New Year! I hope your winter holiday, no matter how you chose to celebrate, was peaceful and afforded you rest, rejuvenation and time with those you love.
My heart goes out to those impacted by the severe winter weather that blew through the U.S. over the past several weeks. Our thoughts are with all those who experienced unexpected loss at what was supposed to be a joyful time. As always, we are here to support and uplift members of our AME community.
2022 was an action-packed year for AME. Through all the challenges, successes and celebrations, I am humbled you have allowed me to continue to lead such a forward-thinking innovative organization and work with such amazing members, volunteers, boards and home team. You all inspire me every day, and I am so grateful for this opportunity.
As we reflect on 2022, I wanted to share some of our highlights:
- AME hosted three world-class virtual summits around lean basics, technology and innovation and the workforce of the future. These summits yielded timely discussions and a host of beneficial takeaways.
- Two Flex organizations, Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas (PTP), Malaysia and Tczew, Poland, received AME’s highest honor—the AME Excellence Award. It is always a pleasure to recognize the many ways our industry is pioneering continuous improvement practices within its organizations. These organizations are two global examples of the best of the best.
- AME published a variety of articles and industry best practice posts on LinkedIn and Twitter and shared them via webinars and virtual tours.
- AME released a new study in partnership with LeanDNA, “The State of Supply Chain in the Shortage Economy,” which I encourage you to take a look at today.
- AME hosted several 2 Second Lean tours in partnership with Paul Akers. You can view these tours on our YouTube channel at your convenience.
- We ventured south to Texas in October to host our first in-person annual conference in three years with record attendance. A huge thank you to everyone who attended and worked hard to make this conference happen. A special shout-out to our Conference Chair, Dan McDonnell.
- We networked and grew as an organization and brought true shared learning to our organizations.
AME already has an exciting lineup of events for 2023. I hope to see you all at our FREE virtual webinar, “Cultural diversity, equity, and inclusion using the Baldridge framework,” on January 17, 2023.
We’ll also be hosting the virtual AME Back-to-Basics Lean Summit in March and are so excited that our world-class Southeast Region summit is returning in Charlotte, North Carolina, in May. Check back with our upcoming events page in the coming weeks to register.
Lean Frontiers, a longtime AME partner, is hosting several summits in 2023, and they are offering a special discount for our members looking to expand their learning at the TWI Summit or the KATACON9 Toyota Kata Summit. AME members can use the code "AME" during registration to save 20 percent!
And last but most importantly, mark your calendars for October 30 – November 2, 2023, as AME heads to Cleveland, Ohio, for our 2023 annual conference! This year’s theme is ReImagining Excellence. If 2022’s conference is any indication, I imagine Cleveland will have even more groundbreaking programming in store for us.
Want to stay updated with our 2023 activities? Follow us on social media and check out our blog for weekly news.
I wish you all the happiest new year. Thank you for making AME an organization that we are all proud of and truly enables us to share, learn and grow in our quest for excellence.
As always, please stay safe and keep looking out for one another.
