This discussion dives into the value of Lean Certification and the strategic role that Blackbelts play in driving continuous improvement. We’ll explore how certified Lean practitioners can lead high-impact projects, embed a culture of problem-solving, and deliver measurable gains in efficiency and quality. If you're just starting your Lean journey or scaling up, learn how developing internal expertise can strengthen your organization’s ability to adapt, compete, and grow in an increasingly dynamic manufacturing environment.

Join us for an engaging panel discussion in the Sustainability Practitioner Room as we explore how the social dimension of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles drives sustainability. This session brings together Workforce Development Leaders from the Manufacturing, Film, and Construction industries to share their unique collaboration on a transformative workforce program.

How a Strong Culture Fuels Lean Practices

Explore how a company rooted in practical solutions for farmers grew by fostering a strong culture that naturally supports Lean practices. Without any single turning point, we’ve steadily expanded by focusing on core values like excellence, empowerment, innovation, and community. Our leaders create an environment where everyone—especially those on the front lines—is encouraged to share ideas that improve our work. This approach fosters a culture where trying new things is supported, and continuous learning is embraced.

This roundtable focuses on how to carry the momentum of Lean initiatives beyond the conference and into daily operations. We'll explore practical strategies for sustaining Lean as a long-term mindset beyond events, training sessions, or one-off projects. From team engagement practices like huddles and hansei’s to leadership alignment and cultural reinforcement, we’ll discuss what it really takes to embed continuous improvement, support sustainable practices, and leverage Lean as a driver of long-term growth and resilience.

Lessons Learned While Embedding Reconciliation Initiatives

In today's fast-paced and ever-evolving world, managing your business effectively requires an agile and adaptive approach to meet changing needs and competing priorities. Join us to learn how to identify opportunities to think outside the box can enhance your current processes and policies, to ensure a successful change management initiative.

Technology as a Lean Enabler

Join us for an insightful presentation on how technology is being used as an enabler to support innovation and deliver tangible value for customers. Hear how two public sector organizations have built on their strong Lean foundation to embrace innovation and leverage cutting-edge technology to take continuous improvement to the next level. With continuing pressure to ensure value for taxpayers' dollars, the City of Kawartha Lakes and the London District Catholic School Board have both invested in technology to support the standardization of business process mapping in a central repository, resulting in an increased focus on value to the customer and overall efficiency. Learn how they are meeting the growing expectations for enhanced services by easily quantifying process improvements while enhancing employee engagement

Rating: Intermediate

A winning recipe that was years in the making, from early deployment challenges to global sustainability under one system.

In this session, you will learn how McCain Foods Ltd has evolved its CI program over several years, from its early challenges to its current wins, through strategic deployment, to sustainment by engaging all levels of its workforce around the world, to focus on and delivering positive results for the business under one Global CI management system.

Navigating Lean Strategies for Growth Success 

In this engaging session, we will explore how Decor Cabinets has leveraged Lean principles to achieve remarkable growth and operational excellence. ⁤⁤Understanding how to drive growth through Lean strategies is crucial for sustained success. ⁤

Lean Outside: Thriving Without Control

Discover how to apply Lean principles beyond manufacturing in one of the toughest environments: Landscaping. From - 10°C to +35°C, we operate outdoors year-round, overcoming extreme conditions while growing our people and implementing Lean strategies—without breaking the bank. This speech uncovers the hard lessons and mistakes I made over our 7-year Lean journey, so you don’t have to repeat them. Learn how to supercharge your continuous improvement efforts, even when faced with staffing and work shortages, retention challenges, and the unpredictability of outdoor environments.

Rating: Intermediate

There is data all around you... and now you can use it!

Robots, PLCs, Tablets, Computers.... there are devices all around your factory that have a story to tell; you just need to know what tools are available to help you listen. In this presentation, you will hear about how a SCADA system was brought into a factory to monitor a few custom machines and it was so flexible and easy to use that it became so much more. Learn what SCADA systems are, various case examples, and a few tips on how YOU can get started at your own business

Fostering a Culture of Excellence is a Bumpy Ride

After 20 years of practicing Lean, Argus continues to learn how to develop and support problem solvers to help us navigate towards our True North of Enterprise Excellence. Perhaps our greatest lessons learned are those around fostering a culture to support a sustainable lean journey.

In this presentation, the audience will gain insights to guide strategies and tactics around the importance of developing people to understand lean thinking, not just lean practice. Argus’s lean journey began in 2005 with what now can best be described as an “industrial engineering” approach to lean, otherwise known as a focus on the tools.

What was previously a “factory floor” only focus, has now grown to include everyone touching our value streams, meaning, every team member from rack-hand to CEO. We are seeing business success by developing a customer centric mindset through process ownership supported by lean thinking and practice.

Foundational to this lean reset is understanding and living daily into our shared values: YOU MATTER because you are part of ONE TEAM, we OWN IT because we share a PASSION FOR EXCELLENCE

Rating: Intermediate

This presentation covers the more than five-year journey of an established BC signage manufacturer that transformed its operations after undertaking a third-party environmental audit. 

How to take lean practices from a distribution company and apply them into manufacturing

How Lean aligns and impacts our company strategy: Improving our operational efficiency and providing more value for our customers has been a part of our strategic map for the past 10 years. We have applied lean tools and integrated them with other objectives in a detailed cause-effect matrix to have even more impact.

Navigate the marketing hype - ensure that your IT strategy and systems are achieving your business goals.

Many, if not most LEAN initiatives will involve some form of improved method of managing information, which most often involves some form of technology generally referred to as IT.  IT is a trillion-dollar, fast-moving industry where every vendor confidently assures you that their solution will be the silver bullet.  This provides business leaders with the daunting challenge of how to best leverage available technology to their advantage, ensuring their business is neither limited nor exploited by technology solutions. 

 Unlock the potential of technology in large-scale farming with Sunnybrook Swine’s cutting-edge methods. This session will jump into PigFlow and PigKnows, tools that not only enhance animal welfare but also boost operational efficiency. Additionally, we’ll showcase the Gestal Electronic Feeding System and Bin Scales, demonstrating how precise feeding and inventory management can lead to a leaner, more profitable manufacturing process.

Improvement is always possible

C4 Card is a simple guide that navigates you through problem solving process in deliberate fashion. It encourages ownership, creativity, critical thinking, quantitative analyses, planning, organizing and evaluation.

Building Products & Lean: The start of something great!

Learn how Building Products & Concrete Supply LP, a company that have been in business for 100+ years started our Lean journey. From the investments and buy in from top leadership to the change of culture within the whole company. Creating a space for employees to express their ideas and see them come to fruition. We will walk you through a successful Kaizen in our payroll department and highlight the benefits that were achieved by the company and employees. Also sharing testimonials from top execs to frontline employees on continuous improvement.

Decoding Uncertainty: Your Path to Growth with Data 

Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity. Economic fluctuations. Shifting consumer behaviour. Rapid advancements in technology. Feeling like a roadblock?

Discover how data-driven marketing can transform unpredictability into profitability for your business. Learn how to make smarter marketing decisions, improve ROI, and set your business up for long-term success in an ever-changing landscape.

When tasked with supporting, improving, and celebrating the protein value chain in Manitoba, ProteinMB faced a significant challenge: the supply chain's lack of visibility. This included unknown wastes, non-standardized measurement, monitoring, and verification practices, untold best practice stories, and untapped opportunities that were not examined holistically.

Transforming Culture through Leadership, Direction, Empowerment, and Compassion

Join the presenters in sharing their successes and failures of building a winning culture while taking on a new-to-them journey of running and growing a 50 year old manufacturing company. The presentation will cover restoring an established culture through Leadership, Direction, Empowerment, and Compassion, and highlight how Lean philosophy aids in the journey.

Effective sustainability requires more than good intentions—it demands precision. This session shows how data is enabling supply chains, from agriculture to manufacturing, to operate more efficiently, reduce emissions, and adapt to regulatory pressure. Learn how to use data as a strategic asset in your path to sustainability.

How Marvin Windows and Doors Brought a College to Small Town Northern Minnesota

Hear the story of how Marvin Windows & Doors not only brought a Mechatronics program to their community 6 miles south of the Manitoba border but also created a dedicated resource to bring advanced manufacturing education and skill development to people and industry in northwestern Minnesota. Learn how small-town manufacturers on either side of the border can work towards engaging and building community while filling workforce skill gaps and building a long-game pipeline strategy to address skilled labor shortages for the future.

Uncover the strategies and tools behind Triple E RV's sustainable leadership development process

The presentation focuses on Triple E RV's journey of shifting the culture towards continuous improvement fundamentals. During the presentation, attendees will gain insights into Triple E RV’s process of developing a sustainable leadership program grounded in accurate data, accountability, and trust. This presentation will provide valuable perspectives on both best practices and challenges. 

Global implementation

Join us for an insightful presentation on how RIMEX Supply has successfully navigated the journey of integrating Lean methodologies into its operational culture. This session will explore the strategic implementation of Lean principles, focusing on standardization, waste reduction, and continuous improvement. 

How to find opportunities and maximize results by eliminating waste

How can we find opportunities? Which ones should be prioritized? In our day-to-day efforts, we strive to do our best but sometimes struggle to see what we could do differently. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is key to understanding how you can maximize value for your customers by eliminating waste in your processes. By visualizing the entire workflow, VSM helps identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and non-value-added activities. Discover the “hidden factory” within your operations and learn how to streamline processes, reduce lead times, and enhance overall productivity. Join us to explore practical examples and gain actionable insights on leveraging VSM for continuous improvement and operational excellence.

Improved product output and improved quality by 25% in 18 months

Magellan Aerospace has a Composite Fabrication Center as part of the F35 Horizontal Tail Assembly Program. Various components for the assembly are made in this area using primarily carbon fiber pre-prep material, laid up, and in two large Autoclaves. The cell is physically separated into a clean room for automated cloth cutting and lay-up, and outside the room, is the Tool Preparation, Debagging and Autoclaves. The processes are complex, require extensive training and certifications to perform and require precise operation of the Autoclaves and automatic cloth cutters.

Using “Business as a force for good” to address environmental and social challenges.

In this presentation we’ll dig into the basics of B Corp Certification; review examples of how the certification process can be a valuable learning experience; and verify that by “Doing well by doing good” can lead to increased profitability.

Practical Ideas to Drive AI Innovation

Discover how generative AI can revolutionize your entire manufacturing organization—from executive offices to the production line. In this session, we'll explore a practical, scalable strategy to drive AI adoption, starting with administrative and planning functions where productivity gains are immediate and measurable. Learn how this momentum can cascade into operational areas, enabling smarter, faster, and more resilient manufacturing processes. Whether you're just beginning your AI journey or looking to expand its impact, this session offers actionable insights to help you lead with confidence.

Loewen transformed the Operations part of the business, similar to the strategy most manufacturing organizations take to start their lean journey.  In 2019, Loewen started the lean transformation in the Administrative area.  As a natural progression, the Continuous Improvement Steering Committee was initiated in 2021 to formalize the transformation process. 

This session cuts through the hype to explore the practical, real-world applications of AI in manufacturing. The speaker will highlight how AI is driving tangible improvements in efficiency, quality, and uptime—without the jargon or empty promises. Expect grounded insights into what’s working today on the shop floor: from predictive maintenance, labour improvement, reduced costs,  intelligent automation, anomaly detection and process optimization. This talk is for those who care more about results than buzzwords.