The 2011 International Shingo Prize Conference & Workshops are ready, set, and going this week in Covington, Kentucky, at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Convention Center. The main conference is Wednesday and Thursday, March 30–31, featuring dynamic learning sessions with expanded networking opportunities for more one-on-one time with the speakers and Shingo Prize recipients. But the learning begins Monday and Tuesday with the preconference workshops in addition to the Shingo training program, and continues outside the normal conference hours with optional seminars, optional half-day plant tours, and an exclusive fireside chat with industry leaders.

Organizations that have proven performance at the increasingly higher standard of The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence will be awarded the Shingo Prize on Thursday evening, March 31. Tickets for the awards ceremony and gala are available for $199 each (or $125 each with conference registration).

Schedule at a glance

For a schedule of the main conference and also a listing of options, click here.

Pre-conference workshops: Monday and Tuesday, March 28–29, full-day and half-day workshops in addition to the cornerstone Shingo training program, Principles of Operational Excellence and Assessment, include:
• Visual workplace—visual thinking
• Strategy deployment
• One-page project manager
• TSP mapping
• Designing systems to align guiding principles with world-class behaviors
• Lean leadership
• Value-stream mapping
• Using visuality to become a leader of improvement
• A-3 problem solving
• Toyota kata
• Beyond poka-yoke
• Leading the lean enterprise—standard work for leaders

Opening social: Tuesday, March 29, 5 p.m.–8 p.m., featuring entertainment, hors d’oeuvres, book signings, and networking/exhibit areas

Main conference: Wednesday and Thursday, March 30–31, 8:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m., keynote speakers, knowledge sessions, best practice sessions, panel discussions, best practice poster sessions, book signings, exhibits, networking

Fireside chat with Zenji Kosaka: Wednesday, March 30, 7 p.m.–9 p.m., chat with Zenji Kosaka, a former manager at Toyota Motor Corp., in a small group setting. Registration is limited.

23rd Annual Shingo Prize Awards Ceremony: Thursday, March 31, 6 p.m.–9:30 p.m., reception, awards ceremony, dinner, photographs

Plant tours: Friday, April 1, morning half day, at LeanCor, the only third-party logistics provider wholly dedicated to lean logistics.

Award recipients

The Shingo Prize
• Goodyear do Brasil Produtos de Borracha Ltda, Americana, Sao Paulo, Brazil
• John Deere, Power Products, Greeneville, Tennessee
• Lycoming Engines, Willliamsport, Pennsylvania (Enterprise Level)

Shingo Silver Medallion
• Autoliv Steering Wheels Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., El Marques, Queretaro, Mexico

Shingo Bronze Medallion
• Denver Health, Community Health Services, Denver, Colorado
• Tobyhanna Army Depot, AIM-9M Sidewinder Missile, Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania

Research and Professional Publication Award
• Follow the Learner: The Role of a Leader in Creating a Lean Culture, by Sami Bahri, D.D.S. (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2009)
• “Lean Enablers for Systems Engineering,” by Bohdan “Bo” W. Oppenheim, Earll M. Murman, Deborah A. Secor (Wiley Periodicals, 2010)
• Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation, by Steven C. Bell and Michael A. Orzen (Productivity Press, 2010)
• Stories From My Sensei, by Steven E. Hoeft (Productivity Press, 2009)
• The Lean Manager, by Michael Ballé and Freddy Ballé (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2009)
• Toast Value Stream Mapping, by Bruce Hamilton and Patricia Wardwell
• Toyota Kata, by Mike Rother (McGraw-Hill, 2010)
• Toyota Under Fire: Lessons for Turning Crisis into Opportunity, by Jeffrey K. Liker and Timothy N. Ogden (McGraw-Hill, 2011)

Invited keynote speakers

Rich Kramer, Goodyear
Dr. Patricia A. Gabow, Denver Health
Mark Baker, Steelcase
Kenji Kosaka, former Toyota manager
S. Max Brown
Gary Peterson, OC Tanner
George Koenigsaecker, Simpler
Karl Wadensten, Lean Nation
Mike Rother, Toyota Kata author
Steven J. Spear, Chasing the Rabbit
Dr. Sami Bahri, Follow the Learner
Clark Campbell, One Page Project Mgr.
Mark Graban, LEI
Gwendolyn Galsworth, QMI, Visual Workplace
Michael Kraft, Lycoming Engines
with Jack Callahan, UAW
Michael Tamasi, Accu Rounds
Bobby D. Jones, John Deere
Billy Taylor, Goodyear
Dave Rowlands with Larry Hamilton
Dan Matthews, Bruce Thompson, and Drew Locher
Mike Martyn, SISU
Mark DeLuzio with Jorge Barron

For more information, visit http://shingoprize.org/htm/conferences/2011-international-conference/registration2011 or contact Mickey Hunt at (435) 797-2279 or mickey.hunt@usu.edu.