Operations Excellence – Trends in Service Delivery Process Improvement

This roundtable is being hosted by Professor Vince Slaugh. Planning for the roundtable has been supported by Steve Crowley and Brian Reece of Service Physics and Josh Howell, President of the Lean Enterprise Institute.

Topics:

• How traditional process improvement philosophies like Lean align with today’s operational challenges
• The role of advanced analytical tools in process improvement
• Trends in how workers engage with process improvement efforts
• What students at the Cornell Nolan School should learn to excite them about process improvement

Program Agenda:

Wednesday, June 19
6:30 PM-8:30 PM
Welcome Reception
Location: TBA

Thursday, June 20
Roundtable
Location: Silver Birch Suite, 5th Floor Tower, Nolan School of Hotel Administration

• 7:45-8:45 AM: Breakfast
• 9:00-9:15 AM: Welcome Remarks
• 9:15-10:45 AM: Session 1 – New Problems, Old Solutions?
  How does the portfolio of operations challenges that you face look similar or different compared to five years ago? What aspects of Lean, Six Sigma, and other well-established philosophies are more or less useful today? What new frameworks are being introduced?
• 10:45-11:15 AM: Break
• 11:15-12:30 PM: Session 2 – Frontiers in Analytics.
  What data sources and analytical approaches are most valuable? How can data scientists and operations researchers support the pursuit of operations excellence?
• 12:30-1:45 PM: Lunch
• 1:45-3:00 PM: Session 3 – Passing It On.
  How can process improvement specialists share their passion and skills to create new problem solvers within their client organizations? How should schools like the Nolan School of Hotel Administration bring process improvement into the classroom?
• 3:00-3:15 PM: Closing Commentary
• 3:30 PM  Walk to Triphammer Falls and Cornell Dairy Bar. (Optional)
• 5:30 PM  Informal dinner in downtown Ithaca. Walk downtown via Cascadilla Gorge Trail. (Optional)

If you would like and invitation, please contact Vince Slaugh at vslaugh@cornell.edu.