(WCBF: Chicago) -- WCBF's fourth Global Lean, Six Sigma and Business Improvement Summit & Industry Awards will take place at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, in Orlando, on October 13–16.

The event represents the largest gathering of leading experts and senior executives across various industries who are passionate about achieving process and business excellence. Attendees will be able to learn first-hand from exceptional vision, leadership, cutting-edge innovation, and dedication to quality for phenomenal organizational results. The agenda will offer more than 25 case studies, eight dedicated tracks, five roundtable discussions, two master classes, numerous networking and information-sharing opportunities, and 11 pre- and post-summit interactive workshops to focus in detail on the key challenges for quality executives of all levels across all industries.

Featured headliners

• Al Switzler, bestselling author and award-winning instructor—In the past 25 years, Al Switzler has helped hundreds of organizations achieve measurable change with his broad knowledge of leadership, teamwork, quality, and communication. Switzler is coauthor of three New York Times bestsellers, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High, and Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior. He has served on the faculty of several universities including the University of Michigan, Brigham Young University, Auburn University, and the University of Kentucky. These institutions have recognized Switzler with awards for innovation and outstanding teaching.
• Norman Bodek, president of PCS Inc. - Norman Bodek discovered and published the works of the truly great Japanese manufacturing geniuses: Dr. Shigeo Shingo and Taiichi Ohno, the inventors of the Toyota Production System now called JIT, and lean manufacturing and many others. From his numerous trips to Japan he introduced to the western world the kaizen blitz, total productive manufacturing, quality function deployment, hoshin kanri, poka-yoke, visual factory, and other new manufacturing methodologies that have helped companies improve their quality, and productivity. In 1988 he initiated the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence with Professor Vern Buehler at Utah State University. Most recently, he co-authored a book with Bunji Tozawa titled The Idea Generator - Quick and Easy Kaizen.

Featured plenaries

• Robert Weiner, president and CEO of PAS Technologies Inc., will examine how lean and Six Sigma are key to surviving a downturn.
• Lee Campbell, lean Six Sigma deployment director and strategic planning officer of the US Army Military District of Washington, will discuss how lean Six Sigma is the toolbox for accomplishing strategic and operational objectives.

Other speaker panel includes executives from E-Z-GO, which received this year's Enterprise Level Shingo Prize; Intel Corp.; Agilent Technologies Inc.; JP Morgan Chase; The Joint Commision; Aetna; and many more. Click here to view the full speaker panel.

Summit highlights

• Leadership benchmarking forum
• Deployment champion and vice president Six Sigma benchmarking forum
• Master Black Belt forum
• Global Six Sigma and business improvement awards ceremony
• Technology test drives
• Universal Studios' Six Sigma challenge  

Track topics

• Interactive forums
• Challenges and best practices for continuous improvement
• New to Six Sigma
• Optimizing operational performance
• Sustainability in business transformation
• Optimizing lean processes
• Quality in health care
• Performing in a slow economy  

Special master classes

• Lean Six Sigma deployment: are you achieving return on investment?
• Designing and implementing Lean Six Sigma blended learning curricula  

Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards ceremony

The Global Six Sigma and Business Improvement Awards are given to the most outstanding organizational achievements through the deployment of business improvement programs. The Global Six Sigma Awards ceremony will be held on Oct. 14 in conjunction with The Global Lean, Six Sigma & Business Improvement Summit, Oct. 13–16th.

The Awards present a great opportunity for organizations to win recognition for the great work that their Six Sigma and business excellence people are delivering to customers, shareholders, and other key stakeholders.

For more information on this awards program, the judging panel, and how to enter, please visit www.tgssa.com.