Looking Ahead: A summer/fall 2019 COE event preview

May 2, 2019

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Throughout the year, COE blends its line-up of big events with other sessions designed to get member companies connected on a smaller scale. The beginning of the summer has a few notable opportunities like this.

June 5: Lean Leader Benchmarking

On June 5, COE’s three-year-old Lean Leader Benchmarking series continues with a session focused on sustaining continuous improvement teams. These quarterly sessions, which usually accommodate 15-30 attendees, are designed for the leaders at member companies whose job responsibilities best align with the topic. At this event, Huntington is inviting attendees to its operations center, an innovatively revamped former Meijer store on Columbus’ north side, to share its continuous improvement journey and its plans for “phase 3.0.” Huntington’s leaders will touch specifically on how the company is growing and developing continuous improvement team members and leaders.

A dedicated continuous improvement team often is the heart and soul of companies’ efforts to sustain a culture of operational excellence, but approaches vary widely, whether it’s how much (or how little) they centralize teams, how many Black Belts they staff, or how much training they keep in-house. While Huntington will be sharing its own approach to these decisions, a follow-up panel of lean leaders from other COE member companies will take part in an interactive discussion, bringing in additional perspectives.

This session is recommended for leaders at member companies who are involved in the development, training, and/or retention of continuous improvement staff. Interested in attending? Talk to your company’s main contact for COE and, if your organization’s seat is unclaimed, e-mail Krista Barezinsky at barezinsky.2@osu.edu to register. Attendees may be added to a waitlist, as well.

June 25: I.T. Leadership Network

COE’s long-running series focused on applying operational excellence to the I.T. space is hosting its first-ever executive gemba later next month. Center member Nationwide will be hosting a small group of leaders at its downtown Columbus headquarters for a session titled “Beyond Agile: How Lean, Agile, and DevOps Combine.”

At this event, attendees will take a deep dive into one of Nationwide’s technology areas that has moved beyond agile software development and lean management to create an end-to-end model focused on business outcomes and customer value. Nationwide leaders will trace this system from the frontline through the c-suite and discover the value of direct business integration and the elimination of embedded project-team proxies.

This session is geared toward upper-level leaders and intended to be a small-group session. As such, we recommend companies send a representative from business or I.T. management, or another executive with relevant managerial responsibilities. Seats will open the week of May 13, but e-mail coe@fisher.osu.edu if you’d like to be notified.

A look further ahead

Interested in what COE has lined up for the fall? Here’s a sneak peek at two events:

The center’s fall kickoff event will be hosted on Friday, Sept. 13, and feature as a keynote Jim Morgan (pictured, right), a researcher and former Ford Motor Co. engineering leader who’s the author of the newly released book Designing the Future. Registration opens in late July.
COE’s semi-annual Supply Chain Symposium series continues on Friday, Oct. 18. Fisher College of Business’s graduate-student run Operations and Logistics Management Association has selected “The Sustainable Supply Chain” as this fall’s theme. Featured speakers at this morning-only event will come from Patagonia, Anheuser-Busch, and DHL. Registration opens in late August.