2022 PRECONFERENCE Workshops

Kick off your #Lean6Data2022 experience with pre-conference education! Learn the latest from our expert instructors. This year’s workshops offer a unique professional development opportunity to learn from experts in the field while networking with peers, all at a very reasonable price.

Our preconference workshops offer in-depth, skill-building tools and focus on the topic that you will require for career advancement and professional development. Enhance your learning experience and maximize your networking opportunities by attending this post-conference workshop are intended to help you enhance specific skill sets or train to acquire specific competencies appropriate to practice in your discipline. Continuing education/contact hours will be assigned as appropriate.

Here's what you need to know:

Additional registration is required. Pre-conference workshops are available as an add-on item to the main conference or can be registered for individually.
Space is limited! All workshops will have limited seating to ensure an optimal learning experience.
Continuing education units (CEUs) and professional development hours (PDHs) are available.

Explainable AI (XAI) for Data Science and Performance Improvement

Sept. 19
8 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Azalea Ballroom A

Dr. Beju Rao

Dr. Beju Rao is an experienced enterprise analytic executive and entrepreneur with an ability to influence the organizational executive and senior management to identify and implement data and information change management and transformation. His consultative approach involving situation assessment, precise needs identification, organizational readiness preparation, and information based strategies has enabled numerous enterprises and organizations to reap the innovative business benefits over the last 33 years of his career.

His experience includes program implementations across Financial Services, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Telecommunications, Travel, Transportation, Retail, Ecommerce, Media and Entertainment, Energy, and Healthcare industries. He blends data sources, analytic theory, and software customization to identify profitable and sustainable analytical strategies, and he implements these strategies in a transparent manner to ensure that the projected benefits are realized.

Beju is currently using emerging technologies such as explainable AI, cloud computing, big data, mobile and IoT devices, and social media networks along with traditional software and hardware methodologies to implement innovative transformations of business processes and operations that involve analytical solutions with expert reviews. Beju has a Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering and operations research from Texas A&M University at College Station. He is recipient of numerous industry awards, including the Best Publication Award in Quality and Reliability Category from the IIE Transactions in 2002.

Overview
In Lean Six Sigma, finding a better way is a daily habit. Data Science provides tools to measure and improve performance daily, enabling better ways. Machine learning and artificial intelligence models accurately predict the outcomes in the DS practice. These accurate predictions are used for effective monitoring of anomalies and timely diagnosis of root causes. Knowing the root causes, interventions can be designed and executed using design thinking and change management.

While the accuracy of ML and AI predictions mean low measurement errors, the AI/ML methods are opaque. XAI provides transparency enabling the root cause identification for defective outcomes.

What you will learn
The attendees will be presented with multiple enterprise use cases across industries. They will have an opportunity to work on a use case of their choice to define the outcome to measure and identify the data needed to monitor for defects or outliers. They will then prepare a plan to use the right AI/ML method along with a suitable XAI technique to diagnose the root cause for defects.

The attendees will be able to use the learnings from this workshop for their career advancement and professional development.

Toyota Kata: People and Processes

Sept. 19
8 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Azalea Ballroom C

Leigh Ann Schildmeier

Founder and president, Park Avenue Solutions

Leigh Ann is a Kata geek specializing in implementing continuous improvement and risk mitigation strategies that help clients increase efficiency, improve quality and service, and increase profits. A frequent speaker and coach on process improvement topics, she is a certified Lean Practitioner Toyota Kata Coach, and Six Sigma Black Belt with more than 20 years of experience across a range of industries, including healthcare, finance and manufacturing. Leigh Ann is founder and president of Park Avenue Solutions, a process improvement consulting firm that works to empower excellence in businesses and teams.

Overview
Toyota Kata addresses the question, “How do we engage everyone in problem solving?” Since the future lies beyond what we can see, the solutions that we employ today may not continue to be effective. So, it is not the solutions themselves – whether Lean techniques, today’s profitable product, or any other – that provide sustained competitive advantage, but rather the ability to understand conditions and create fitting, smart solutions. Toyota Kata addresses this challenge providing the framework for a sustainable problem-solving culture that incorporates targeted experimentation and personal learning.

In this hands-on workshop, you will learn and practice behavior routines, or Kata. First, improvement Kata — a repeating routine of establishing challenging target conditions, working step-by-step through obstacles, and learning from problems encountered along the way. Second, coaching — a pattern of teaching improvement Kata to employees at every level, ensuring that it permeates their thinking and actions. Kata delivers better way to lead, manage and develop people to produce continuous improvements with superior results. You will learn to utilize the capabilities of all team members better than with traditional management methods, allowing you to achieve non-traditional, outstanding results.

What You Will Learn

How to engage everyone in your organization in problem-solving via the Toyota Kata methodology
How to integrate and deploy Kata with current improvement methods or project management
How Kata uses Lean to tie into strategic goals
How to sustain results by building skills and habits for daily continuous improvement
How to utilize the capabilities of all team members better than with traditional management methods

Course Content

Toyota Kata overview and methodology
4 steps of the improvement Kata
Properly establish challenge by tying into organization’s vision and strategy
Understand and record the actual current condition
Set up and clearly state target condition
Identify obstacles preventing from reaching target condition
Conducting daily PDCA improvement cycles
5 questions of coaching Kata
Use CK to teach and mentor Kata learners through the IK process
Sustaining results by building skills and habits for daily continuous improvement
Improvement Kata interactive simulation to practice the 4 IK steps

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