A few years ago, I was asked to conduct a workshop, deliver a keynote, and chair a three-day conference on manufacturing process excellence in Europe, produced by the Process Excellence Network (PEX), a division of IQPC. Although that was a lot to ask of me, the lineup of speakers and content was pretty strong, and I was looking forward to gaining knowledge as much as I was to delivering what I had to offer.

During the conference, I had the opportunity to meet one of the speakers, who was the director of operational excellence in Europe for a publicly-traded company—which is not so unusual, as most of the speakers and attendees were in operational excellence (or continuous improvement) leadership roles. He was a bright and passionate individual for sure, and we promised to have a follow-on conversation in a month’s time.

When it came time for the follow-up call, the much learned and passionate individual told me that he had been released. Being rather shocked, I asked what had happened. He told me the company had killed the entire operational excellence program to “cut costs.” Hm... and so it goes.

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