Notes from the 2019 International Study Tour and AME Chicago Conference
On Friday 25th October, a group of ten participants from a range of companies including; Crusader Hose, S&A Stairs, Fashion Garments (Vietnam), Note Printing Australia, Bega Cheese and Wilson Transformers, departed from Australia to their first leg of the journey, Toronto, to commence the Best Practice Network North America Study Tour.
After a weekend of networking and site-seeing (including Niagara Falls), the team were ready to start the first of eight exciting tours.
The tours covered a great range of companies including – Drone Manufacturing, Automotive Drives and Gears, Independent Living Services, Medical and Hospital Services, Transformers and Coils, Military High Quality Cameras, Tier 1 Automotive Stamping / Pressing and Aircraft Manufacturing.
All of the tours provided excellent insights for the participants, including:
- The critical role of Leadership
- Strategy deployment and alignment
- Visual Management and Communication via Huddles
- Workplace Organisation / 5S
- Use of Technology to add value
The group then travelled to the “windy city” of Chicago for the annual AME Conference, where we had the opportunity to join 1500+ delegates, to listen to outstanding keynotes, attend workshops and tours, participate in interactive sessions across a wide range of topics for Business Improvement and Lean / CI. All of our group agreed that the conference provided further insights into new thinking, created opportunities to challenge current thinking and develop new strategies to take back to their own organisations.
An additional value add of attending these International conferences, is the opportunity of catching up with friends and colleagues of the Best Practice Network. During the course of the AME Conference, we bumped into Michael Bremer, where we discussed some potential workshops on Assessing Excellence, building assessing skills and driving improvements.
Next we caught up with Dennis McCarthy as he delivered his Lean TPM – People Centric Leadership workshop. And finally another great friend and colleague to catch up with was Robert Hafey. Each have presented and delivered excellent workshops for the Best Practice Network in Australia in the last few years, as part of the Best Practice Network International Presenters series.
With the Study Tour and AME Conference coming to a close, we had all made great new friends and colleagues, and had been part of an exciting and incredible way to “Share and Find Better Ways.”
The next North America Study Tour and AME Conference will both be held in the Toronto area in October 2020.
If you would like to join us, contact me and let me know and we can provide further information.
Enjoy a selection of photos below!
Kevin Bennett
Network Facilitator – Queensland & New South Wales
Best Practice Network
m: +61 419 569 017
e: [email protected]
www.bestpracticenetwork.com.au
Kevin Bennett (left & Michael Bremer (right)
