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Recommended Webinars & Conferences

At NWHPEC, we believe continuous learning extends beyond our own offerings. On this page, you'll find a curated selection of webinars and conferences from trusted external sources that align with our mission to support your efforts to foster a culture of continuous improvement. These recommendations are chosen for their quality and relevance and to compliment our offerings.

The AME West Region is hosting its popular So Cal Lean Tour again. This event always sells out, so register quickly!

We return to San Diego in 2025 and have four great tour sites that are demonstrating how to deploy and sustain Lean. Spend time seeing lean practices in action on the shop floor. This is a hands-on tour of four sites, not a presentation seminar. 

What You Will See:

Argen Corporation in the technical center of San Diego near Qualcomm, Inc. will highlight their daily Gemba, their cellular one carrier flow, Ignition® scanning / mistake proofing transaction processes, and Kanban/Pull system.

Hologic, Inc., located in Sorrento Valley, will share their commitment to Lean principles and operational excellence. The implementation of 6S, their Kaizen Pipeline, Training System, and use of Innovation Boards will show a site culture that empowers people to innovate and continuously improve.

Radeus Labs, Inc. Located in Poway, Radeus is a small company but extremely Lean-focused. They will highlight their daily Gemba process, 2 second Lean process, and Lean teamwork from the CEO to the shop floor for a small company.

Watkins Manufacturing Corporation in Vista, will share their Continuous Improvement structure and their strategy for tool deployment and resource development. You’ll also see some of their key initiatives in Safety and Quality as well.

Info & Registration ($695)

  • Speaker: Scott Gauvin
  • Date/time: 11am-12pm PST on 02/19/2025
  • Registration link: please click here.
  • Target audience: Senior leaders, executives, HR professionals.
  • Key takeaways: The respect for people roadmap and its key components. How the roadmap would drive behaviors change.
  • Speaker: Allan Coletta
  • Date/time: 1pm-2am PST on 02/24/2025
  • Registration link: please click here.
  • Target audience: Anyone looking to increase stakeholder engagement early in the design process for new products, operations, or layouts in order to achieve breakthrough results.
  • Key takeaways:  Learn the essentials of the Lean 3P approach;  Discover how 3P drives innovation in new products, operations, and layout redesigns;  Explore how 3P fosters a psychologically safe environment, engaging all stakeholders to spark creativity and deliver breakthrough designs

This is the third of four sessions on Empowering Teams through Emotional Intelligence, presented by Amanda Guthrie.

Learn about the pivotal role that social awareness in EI and how leaders can either contribute to the success or the detriment of their teams based on their EI proficiency.

Leaders will learn to relate to others’ emotions by actively listening to others and participating in interpersonal communication to understand the nonverbal cues of behavior.

Info & Registration

  • Speaker: Tracy Defoe
  • Date/time: 09am-11am PST on 02/27/2025
  • Registration link: please click here.
  • Target audience:  Executives and senior leaders, team managers, and supervisors who lead or take part in developing people through continuous improvement efforts; Those who are frustrated with improvements that don’t stick, or with having to do everything themselves
  • Key takeaways:  The importance of a Challenge and how to craft one a meaningful one; The 5 steps of the Improvement Kata pattern;  The Experimenting or Learning Record, and how to use one;  Obstacles, why we love them and how to think about them;  Practice with reflecting on learning – the heart of developing yourself and others

Join us at the 2025 Lean Summit, March 5 to 6 in Atlanta, Georgia, for a high-energy event that will shape the future of leadership. Our theme this year is, “Leadership for Tomorrow: Fostering Collaboration and Innovation.” (Additional workshops available March 3-4.)

Engage in dynamic keynotes, hands-on sessions, and connect with peers passionate about lean thinking.

Discover strategies to tackle today’s challenges, drive innovation, and practice collaborative leadership. Leave with actionable insights and fresh perspectives to transform your leadership approach and inspire your team.

Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your leadership and set the course for the future.

Info & registration

Event Details:
Free for AME members; $150 for a membership

Refresh your lean knowledge or lay the foundation for your lean journey

Welcome to the Back to Basics Summit, a virtual event offered every Wednesday in March, designed to empower individuals at all levels of their lean journey. Over four sessions, we will explore essential Lean tools and methods that can be implemented in any organization, from the manufacturing floor to the executive suite. Thought leaders will provide practical knowledge and insights that participants can immediately apply in their work environments.

Whether you’re taking your first steps, seeking new perspectives on foundational topics or looking to refresh your knowledge, the AME Back to Basics Lean Summit will lay the groundwork for your lean journey. You’ll hear directly from industry-leading voices on topics around the following themes:

March 5 – Foundation of lean principles and tools
March 12 – Enhancing Lean with visual management
March 19 – Building a lean culture
March 26 – Strategy deployment

Summit goals

The AME Back to Basics Summit aims to:

  • Provide a high-level overview of lean principles
  • Focus on key Lean tools that drive improvement
  • Foster discussions on Lean culture and strategy deployment
  • Equip participants with actionable strategies to implement Lean concepts effectively within their organization

Who should attend

The summit is open to everyone who is:

  • Just beginning their Lean journey
  • Using Lean tools and seeking more examples and applications
  • Looking for guidance on how to deploy strategies effectively

A virtual summit to fit your schedule

The AME Back to Basics Lean Summit will be presented virtually on four Wednesdays in March. Join us March 5, 12, 19, and 26 from wherever you access the internet via AME’s Zoom platform and hear foundational examples and information from lean leaders from around the globe. Each session is 1.5 hours, allowing you to balance your professional responsibilities and your professional development needs. You’ll hear basic lean concepts and come away with actionable takeaways every week. Check the Schedule for more details. 

  • Speaker: Tracy Defoe
  • Date/time: 09am-11am PST on 03/06/2025 and 03/13/2025
  • Registration link: please click here.
  • Target audience:  Executives and senior leaders, team managers, and supervisors who lead or take part in developing people through continuous improvement efforts; Those who are frustrated with improvements that don’t stick, or with having to do everything themselves; People curious about the Coaching Kata
  • Key takeaways: What is the Coaching Kata?  Readiness for coaching – are you ready?  Coaching in planning and in experimenting;  The Experimenting or Learning Record, and how to use one;  Obstacles, how to coach people to think about them;  Practice with reflecting on learning – the heart of developing yourself and others

The KATA Summit is an annual gathering of those seeking to grow personally and professionally by practicing, and coaching, scientific thinking.  Most recently the KATA community has become passionate about connection, collaboration and giving back.  Learning together rather than in isolation.

The Summit is full of learning opportunities!

  • 20 minute keynotes
  • breakout case studies 
  • the legendary Kata Geek Meet Up
  • and more…

The TWI Summit is an annual gathering of those seeking to learn, implement, and sustain successful TWI Programs (Training Within Industry) in order to address some of the most common challenges in lean organizations. The Summit highlights companies who are addressing these challenges through TWI’s Job Instruction, Job Methods, and Job Relations programs which impacted Toyota in its formative stages.

The events happen concurrently. 

Info & registration

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Join Dirk van Rossum from Helena Industries as Oscar Roche asks him to delve into why they chose to get started with ‘Kata’ and what that looked like and is looking like now (2 plus years in). They’ll then go further into key things that have been learned thus far and their interconnection. As both Dirk and Oscar will literally be between two ‘Getting Started With Work Standards’ mentoring sessions, Dirk will be able to discuss key learnings from participants practice of that routine.

Webinar key discussion items will include:

  • How ‘Work Standards’ came to the surface as being a critical piece of the CI equation.
  • Where Dirk can see/is seeing other TWI skills being pulled in.

Recording link

Do you or your organization struggle with how to leverage Artificial Intelligence? Has fear of the unknown become an obstacle to integration? With something this powerful, education is your best friend. Guest Host, and Lean enthusiast, Jessica Blake will showcase the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence with real-world examples of the successful impact of AI implementations.

Jessica’s got first-hand experience with how AI can streamline your operations, enhance decision-making, and drive innovation in your business. She’s ready to share practical tips and strategies with us on how to integrate AI into our daily work. Join us at the cafe December 19th for an opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and discover ways to supercharge your continuous improvement work using this breakthrough technology.

Agenda:

  • What is AI and how do natural language models work?
  • Tool availability and pricing: Copilot, Chat GPT
  • Prompt engineering
  • Case studies and real life examples
  • Best practice

Recording link