Perspectives on making a difference

Charlie Smith owned and operated Combine World Inc. for 35 years, a leader in the reconditioning and sale of combines, tractors, headers, and light construction equipment. His focus for the last 15 years of running the business was on leadership development. From a crazy 7th of 7 children, Saskatchewan farm kid to hard rock miner, farmer, commercial pilot and guitar/banjo picker, Charlie’s life has been interesting. Join Charlie for a conversation around life and lessons learned building a successful business based on customer commitment, people development, and continuous improvement.

Rating: Beginner

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Culture is key for CI Success

Brunswick Steel is a second-generation family run business and the largest independent steel service centre in Manitoba, serving customers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northwestern Ontario. Hear how Brunswick has used leadership and coaching to engage employees and create a positive shift in culture. Learn how Brunswick determines if issues stem from the employee or if it is the process that needs to be fixed. Hear how standard tools have been used to help execute plans with a collaborative team of stakeholders and how Lean systems have been improved without extensive time training.

Rating: Intermediate

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Office Lean journey through the stakeholder eyes

Loewen started their Lean journey like most other manufacturing businesses, in Operations. In 2019, however, Loewen started the Lean transformation of the Office. Learn about Loewen’s Lean transformation of the Office through the eyes and experience of stakeholders at various levels of the organization. Hear about the impact on roles, responsibilities and training, the strategy to meld continuous improvement into the culture and the "mile wide inch deep" vs "deep dive" approach.

Rating: Intermediate

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Standard Machine

Standard Machine provides machining and manufacturing services to customers in a wide range of industries around the world. In 2013 the company went from being a successful Saskatoon based family run business to a small acquisition of a multi-billion-dollar American corporation. The company had a reputation for quality but was experiencing high employee turnover and poor safety. A new culture needed to be built from the ground up. Hear how empowerment and engagement of the employees was the foundation of this new culture, how holding people accountable was instrumental in motivating teams and how creating a clear vision that trickled down to each department was also key in moving the company forward.

Rating: Intermediate

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If you can dream it, we can build it

Lafarge Precast Winnipeg is a member of LafargeHolcim, a world leader in the construction materials industry. Hear about the turnaround of the Lafarge Winnipeg operation and the success of the top improvement programs. Learn about the Idea of the Month program, providing a way to get management support and help make positive change, the Six S systematic approach to improving work areas across the facility, and the L.I.O.N - Lafarge Improvement Opportunity Notification program, focused on reducing cost of poor quality at all levels.

Rating: Intermediate

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How Genoa keeps a Lean focus through high growth

Since 2012, when Genoa became a successful supplier under Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, the company has grown exponentially to over 250 employees, spanning NL, NS, BC and the US. Hear how Genoa responded the skills gap by establishing an in-house training Academy and how they created an Innovation department in a constant pursuit to solve industry problems faster and better. Growth has brought challenges, but Genoa continues to strive for operational excellence. Learn how through living the company values, team members are engaged in sharing opportunities for improvement, no matter how big or small, and what staying Lean during high growth looks like!

Rating: Intermediate

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Russel Metals

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Russel Metals is one of the largest metals distribution and processing companies in North America. Hear how people engagement is changing the culture at Russel Metals in Winnipeg, from an absence of trust and inattention to results, to working every day to become a more functional team. Learn how Russel Metals is breaking down barriers within the organization and hear about some of the countermeasures being used at the shop floor level to tackle each of the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team.

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Honing the Art of Leadership

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65 years ago, Polaris created a snowmobile to better travel through northern Minnesota winters. Ever since then, that same ingenuity and ability to Think Outside has driven Polaris forward. In this session hear about the key ingredients to successful implementation of Leader Standard Work. Understand the key responsibilities of a leader, DILO (day in the life of), how to be a coach and not a boss, the importance of transparency of responsibility, the cadence of accountability and driving actions to the compelling scorecard. “Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible” – Colin Powell.

Rating: Intermediate

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Find out how Manitoba doubled vaccine supersite clinic throughput in under 8 weeks!

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Learn how Manitoba became a national leader in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout. Using Lean principles, Manitoba doubled vaccine supersite clinic throughput in under 8 weeks, and improved operational performance by implementing over 20 Kaizens. Hear how revamping the traditional clinic delivery model to an assembly line approach, inspired by the ‘Hockey Hub’ model piloted in Ontario, allowed the Vaccine Implementation Task Force team to divide the work into a number of small, repeatable tasks and how balancing the work throughout the entire process to the ‘pace of the Immunizer’ and creating flow was the key to success.

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