Track 8 -Lean for ISO and IT Now What?

Track 8

Lean for ISO and IT Now What?
Jim Benz and Carol B. Wright
Enterprise Solutions Inc

Abstract: You've been to the training. You have the certificates. Your company has empowered you to make change. NOW WHAT?!

Join us for some real world war stories on how to implement Lean, ISO and IT projects so you can survive and prosper. Too often, good people are thrown into the breach and fail needlessly because they weren't aware of how to execute and how to manage around problems and unforeseen circumstances.

Remember, others have gone before and have valuable suggestions to help you succeed. These are the things they never taugh you in school!

The speakers have consulted in more than 300 businesses over the last several decades and know how to get things done. They will share meaningful insights with the attendees.

The case studies will cover a wide variety of companies both large and small. Cases are drawn from manufacturing, service, financial and higher education sectors.

Specifics will talk about how classical Lean, ISO and IT techniques and methodologies can be applied to any business and what types of results can be achieved. For example:

1. How material flow in a fortune 500 company was held hostage by poor planning and a bad marriage.
2. How a fortune 1000 manufacturer avoided bankruptcy by adopting configuration management and lean applications.
3. How a major university was saddled with an ineffective IT operation due to the "not invented here" mentality at the VP level.
4. How a privately owned company narrowly avoided bankruptcy by implementing lean and quality, while reorganizing its management structure and prioritizing customer needs.
5. How a small technology division implemented ISO 9001:2000 and became registered in 8 months, from start to finish.
6. How a growing manufacturing company selected and implemented an ERP system while implementing Lean concepts and improved shop floor operations and throughput.

Additional cases can be developed, but this is a sampling.
For more information about us, our website is, www.esiresults.com

Bio: Carol B. Wright is a Principal Consultant and co-owner of Enterprise Solutions, Inc., (an ISO 9001:2000 registered company) and has over thirty years of senior level corporate management, systems management and consulting experience in a wide variety of areas, including strategic business & systems planning, systems selection & implementation, systems development, budget development & cost management, operations & business process re-engineering and quality planning & deployment.

Her career focus has been on information technology and corporate operations, and her experience covers the spectrum from hands-on technical work through executive level management. Originally trained at IBM Corporation, she spent five years as a Systems Engineer, consulting with clients in the field. She was then recruited by Information Associates, Inc., a niche provider of administrative software solutions, where she was responsible for all of the information technology used worldwide to develop, maintain and deliver IA’s software. During her tenure with IA, she helped grow the company from 30 employees to over 300 and she participated in four complete ownership transitions while providing seamless systems delivery service to clients. At Frontier Corporation, Carol was responsible for the applications systems for all of the telephone and telecommunications companies within corporation as it transitioned from a regulated enterprise to a competitive commercial telecommunications services provider.

Carol holds a BA degree in Economics from Wellesley College and an MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester where she was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma, the national business school honor society. She has served as an advisor on systems issues for manufacturing, health care, higher education and telecommunications groups and has spoken at many seminars and conferences. She is a past board member of APICS, holds a Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) certification from the American Society for Quality (ASQ), RAB certified ISO 9001:2000 auditor and is a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

Bio: Jim Benz is a Principal Consultant and co-owner of Enterprise Solutions, Inc., an ISO 9001:2000 registered company. He has over thirty years of experience in corporate management, manufacturing and consulting in the areas of strategic business & sales planning, Quality and ISO 9000 implementation, manufacturing management, industrial engineering, Lean Manufacturing and business process re-engineering.

The majority of Jim’s career has been spent in professional management consulting with the Big 4. Prior to forming Enterprise Solutions, he spent 20 years as the Director-in-Charge of the Operations & Manufacturing Consulting Practice at KPMG and the Manufacturing & Systems Consulting Practice at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

His hands-on style of working with clients to identify opportunities and then to roll up his sleeves to assist in their implementation reflects not only his broad consulting background but also his “real world” business operations, technology and manufacturing experiences. At Gleason Works, a Fortune 1000 machine tool manufacturer, he worked in both the engineering and systems departments, providing support functions on and to the manufacturing floor. He then went on to be one of the founders of General Ionics Corporation, a high technology manufacturer of ion beam source & transport equipment for the linear accelerator industry, where he had engineering and sales responsibilities during the company’s initial phases. Most recently he served as president of a high technology aerospace design and manufacturing company in Phoenix , AZ

He is a Senior Member and Past President of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). His professional certifications include: QMS Auditor with the RAB, CPIM (Certified Production & Inventory Manager) from APICS, CQA (Certified Quality Auditor) from the American Society for Quality (ASQ), CDP (Certified Data Processor) from ICCP and CPA from New York State . He taught as an adjunct faculty member in the graduate business school programs at both the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology for over ten years.

Jim holds a BS degree in Accounting and Engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA in Finance and Operations Research from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester .

He is an FAA licensed Commercial Pilot, multi-engine, instrument flight and ground instructor. He is a pilot and member of the Arizona Wing of the CAF, a member of the AIAA, CAP, EAA and AOPA.