The Savvy Consortium

Product Development and Engineering Conference XXV

Agile and Innovative Design Engineering Productivity 

Essential Practices and Standard Tools for the Growing Markets

Thursday-Friday September 13-14, 2018

Minneapolis, MN

Savvy NPD&E Conference XXV presents product development engineering managers engaged in improving their people, processes, tools and methods for growing their businesses. The theme is “continuously improving science and technology for the betterment of customers.”

Technology includes technology of the internet, technology of safety/reliability, knowledge generation technology and much more.

Customer Betterment” includes product safety, reliability, functional value and fit in the environment

Benefit to the Employees: work satisfaction, multi-functional collaboration, interaction with talented people, and challenging, problem solving work. 

The Savvy motto: “Tasks seem less difficult when you see others successfully doing them.” The Savvy speakers demonstrate how they do things so that others can confidently learn and adapt improved processes and practices. 

Register Now Enable your engineers to ‘advance science and technology’ for your company’s growth, build their talents and strengths, and satisfy customers. Register for this Savvy Conference XXV now. 

REGISTER TODAY!

Thursday, September 13

9:00 a.m.
A3 Problem Solving Learning Builds Talented Engineers Collaboration
  • Mike Wilps, Sr. Manager
  • GIC*A Operations & Lean Processes
  • Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
A3 thinking leads to collaborative problem solving, enables timely decision making, and builds high performance engineers and innovators. Mike Wilps describes a cultural apathy toward A3 learning and use. He acknowledges the valuable, yet limited external source expertise. Mike describes how collaboration with Goodyear colleagues resulted in a re-designed A3 problem solving learning program. He describes the A3 elements, types, and how he engages engineers in the workshop. This is A3 learning from the inside. Mike will engage the Conference participants in an engineering problem using A3 process to solve the problem. This presentation will list A3 types/content: Critical Knowledge A3, Problem Solving A3, Proposal A3, Master A3, Status A3, Risk Assessment A3, Project Prioritization A3, et.al.
10:45 a.m.
Visual Processes Enable Teams to Meet Schedules
  • Wendell Short
  • Director of New Product Development
  • Sauder Woodworking Co.
Markets for Sauder’s consumer products are dynamic and changing. Customers require short times to market from concept to production. Wendell Short will demonstrate the Sauder’s approach to simplifying product design and development to fit shorter time to market schedules. He will show and demonstrate the essential elements needed to manage the people, tasks, stages and completion dates. Wendell demonstrates visual management boards: task types, people engineers, design completion dates, project milestones, project managers, et.al. that show the timelines.
1:00 p.m.
Product Safety/Reliability Risks Requires Engineering Talent
  • David Gregor
  • AGPV Functional Safety/Compliance Manager
  • Case New Holland
Increasing customer demands drive innovative products to increase function. Emerging technologies enable product function differentiation. So Complexity has increased beyond many of our expectations. Today’s product design engineer must develop autonomy and smart systems with a precision not required in the past. The last four years David has participated in Autonomous Vehicle design and focused on the inherent safety risks. He will show integrating Functional Safety, a relatively new concept to most engineers, into product design and development processes that result in products that are safer and more reliable. Functional Safety is a requirement of all electronically controlled systems. David will show the tradeoffs between design risk, machine performance and customer expectations. Safety must be designed into the system from the beginning. Mitigation of risk is paramount to financial success.
2:30 p.m.
Productivity: (f) of NPD Team Members’ Talents
  • Fred Hrdlicka
  • Director of Continuous Improvement
  • Pella Corporation
What are the driving components of team productivity? How is personal talent important? What about collaboration skills? Team Leadership? Fred Hrdlcka describes the beliefs, methods and practices that high performance teams use at Pella.
3:45 p.m.
Crisis Project Management
  • Rick Bauer
  • Director, Media Qualification
  • Corporate Technology | Technology Services
  • Donaldson Company, Inc. 
Maintaining a constant and reliable flow of raw materials to a production process is critical for business success. Concepts like Just-in-time Manufacturing and Lean Manufacturing sometimes leave little room for error. So, what happens when a raw material supply is threatened or is cut off unexpectedly? What about no back-up or buffer stock? A Crisis. Management must act. Managing crisis projects is a new, critical skill that companies must develop to survive. Having dual sourcing or dual supply for all raw materials is nearly impossible. Reacting to crises and responding effectively may be the next best alternative. Rick Bauer describes crisis project management at Donaldson Company. Rick presents the approach to project management that has been developed which differs somewhat from traditional projects. Rich engages the conference participants in their crisis management experiences. This enables comparisons of decision tools, skilled engaged people and their contributions to fully or not so fully resolve the crisis.

Friday, September 14

8:30 a.m.
Innovation-Technologies-Leadership
  • David Augustine
  • Vice President – Chief Technology Officer
  • Living Green Farms, Inc.
Corporations rely on R&D and new product development engineers. Their mission is innovation: to find the technologies and develop them into new products. New products with competitive advantage needed to grow the business. How is this done? David Augustine presents effective ways to find best in class technologies before competitors do. Dave’s experiences identifying and developing technologies are expansive and varied. He led R&D operations and advance engineering systems development processes at Tennant Corporation (autonomous sanitation technologies) and ThermoKing (refrigeration technologies). Currently Dave’s executive responsibilities as Chief Technology Officer include developing aeroponics technologies and designing the operations systems for Green Farms.
9:45 a.m.
Upcoming Impactful Technologies: Panel Discussion
  • Steven Heinecke, 3M (ret.)
  • David Gregor, CNH
  • David Augustine, Living Green Farms
  • David Huebner, Loram
Upcoming impactful technologies enable the innovation forces that nurture differentiated new products which create customer demand. Panelists discuss identifying impactful technologies, marshaling the dynamic forces, and engaging competent people for collaborative innovation.
11:15 a.m.
Savvy Practices: The Way to Improve NPD Execution in a Growth Economy
  • Todd Stute
  • Director of Corporate Process Improvement
  • Western Digital Corporation

“Tasks seem less difficult to adapt when you see how others do them” is the Savvy Consortium premise for benchmarking best practices. Todd Stute facilitates the interactive session on adopting Savvy Practices presented at the Savvy Conference XXV.
1:00 p.m.
Loram's 'Internet of Things' Journey
  • David L. Huebner, PE
    Director, Research & Development
    Loram
Loram designs, manufactures, and operates heavy mechanized equipment for the maintenance of railroad infrastructure worldwide. Through the course of their work, Loram collects a considerable amount of data on their own assets as well as their customers’ assets. Loram is on a decades long journey to convert that data into information to improve the performance of their machines and to drive business decisions. David will share Loram’s process of identifying the next generation platforms and devices for the continued evolution of their products and services. 
2:30 p.m.
Voice of the Customer: Face to Face that Defines Real Value
  • Tim Matuseski, PMP
  • SIS EPMO Lead
  • Sensors & Integrated Systems
  • UTC AEROSPACE SYSTEMS
VOC process focuses the design engineer and development team members. The focus is value that the customer needs and wants. Tim Matuseski demonstrates a mature use of a VOC process. Tim describes the essentials and visuals face to face session with the customer. Tim demonstrates the structured process in which the development team actively listens to the customer users. The knowledge is captured verbatim. Project success is measurable and knowledge is captured. Tim will lead an interactive method for reducing waste in the planning process.
3:45 p.m.
Patent Law: A Practical Approach
  • Bryan Flood
  • Director of Engineering
  • Hydra-Flex Corp.
What are the driving components your product system’s design? Your value proposition and how it captures market share? Your product design and how you protect the components with black art and patent aggressiveness? Bryan Flood will describe how he managers the robust growth of Hydra Flex systems and simultaneously defends their product design architecture that garners increasing numbers of customers and their loyalty.

SAVE THE DATE: SEPTEMBER 13-14, 2018

Savvy Conference XXV
Venue: HOLIDAY INN, BLOOMINGTON, MN

Plan for you / your colleagues to participate Savvy Conference XXV. 20% Discount offered to groups of three or more from the same company.

REGISTER TODAY!