INTERVIEW – The UK Lean Summit 2024 is coming up in April. We speak to Dave Brunt to hear about the event and what we can expect from the presentations.

Interviewee: Dave Brunt, CEO, Lean Enterprise Academy

Planet Lean: Another UK summit is coming up! What can we expect?

Dave Brunt: We are back in Liverpool the week commencing 22nd April for the UK Lean Summit. The purpose of the event is to share how Lean Thinking can be used to solve the problems of today and tomorrow, but also raise awareness of the latest developments in Lean Thinking and Practice. We will also provide insights into practical ways to get started and to deepen or enhance your lean journey and transformation. And of course, we want to enable participants to build their own network of lean thinkers.

To understand how Lean Thinking can help us navigate the key problems facing us today, we have built on the Lean Global Connection themes that I worked on with Roberto Priolo - so we have an in-person event discussing them. We’ll focus on seven large-scale problems:

• The productivity challenge.

• Supply chain disruption.

• The environmental crisis.

• The growing use of digital.

• Managing inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

• Talent development and retention.

• Developing new products and services to deliver value for customers.

As mentioned, one of our goals to help participants build their own lean networks. We are doing so by assembling the best lean practitioners, sensei and attendees (including groups from the same organization) to learn and share together, and by building time into the program for people to network and reflect. We also offer a variety of learning situations, including Pre-Summit capability development workshops on leading edge topics, keynote talks, interactive learning sessions and panel discussions.

We have a series of 30-minute keynotes and 1.5 hour learning sessions. Delegates are able to choose between 4 parallel streams with the learning sessions.

PL: Can you give us an idea of the program?

DB: On day 1, I’ll kick things off by providing an overview of the themes, relating this to the Lean Transformation Framework research. Next, Mike Moore will discuss kaizen using no code and AI. Many of us have dabbled with ChatGPT, and Mike will discuss how lean has a key role to play when using this new technology and the opportunity all businesses have for applying it while doing kaizen. We’ll have three other keynotes. First, a presentation from Toyota Lean Management Centre on the Toyota Management System. Then, Nigel Hilton and Gordon Pearson from CSL Seqirus, which produces influenza vaccines, will talk about developing culture change and share the process they follow to foster employee involvement. Finally, Jim Womack, who is visiting from the US, will give a keynote with his thoughts.

Keynotes on day 2 will be equally interesting. We’ll have medical technology company Hologic telling us about they are are developing their lean culture – The Mancunian Way (they are based in Wythenshaw, Manchester) – and how they have been developing problem solving capability. Ossy Spadano will share how e-commerce hosting provider Akoova applies lean to digital. We also have Professor Josh Hung from the Cheng Kung University in Taiwan to discuss lean product and process development. Next up, another Toyota keynote: Jon Hunt, Hydrogen Transformation Manager at Toyota GB, will tell us about Toyota’s approach to developing and producing greener vehicles. In our last keynote session, we will pull all these pieces together.

Many of the keynotes will also have their own learning session where there’s chance to get into more detail into the topic of their talk. In addition, we’ll have learning sessions that link back to the wider themes. These include:

- Alex Ask, VP of TechnipFMC’s subsea services in Norway, who will share how they have been building a lean management system.

- Martin Lunn and his team from Collins Aerospace will talk about how they are doing Business Process Improvement.

- Andy Glyde from the Canal and River Trust will talk about A3 problem solving capability.

- Toyota will have a learning session on how they develop capability.

- Stephen Hepplestall from Weightmans Legal will share how they have been developing virtual processes.

- Gavin Walley from London Stone will share how they are developing kaizen across their sites.

- The LEA team will share our research on core leadership skills and behaviors to lead lean.

It’s quite a program, probably one of the best we’ve ever had. I think it hits the topics people said they wanted to learn more about in last year’s feedback as well as the hot topics we know are issues around the world (from feedback from the Lean Global Connection event.)

PL: What about the pre-summit workshops?

DB: Last year we developed half-day workshops. They worked well, but people said, on the whole, they preferred a deeper dive into a subject area. We’ve therefore chosen five one day workshops, using subjects that we developed on our lean learning platform. There are staple activities such as A3 problem solving and value stream mapping. The idea is that we teach people about those processes but also share learning processes that attendees can use themselves to teach and coach others. We are sharing the online learning materials with the participants as well as sharing exercises they can use internally. Workshops are a great chance to learn afresh or brush up on your skills.

PL: There are also visits to Toyota?

DB: Unfortunately, the Deeside visit has already sold out. There are a couple of places on the Burnaston vehicle assembly plant visit. However, people can contact us to get on the reserve list. We have been amazed at the uptake, so may well organize something extra for later in the year. We are always welcome to visit!

PL: Why shouldn’t people miss this summit?

DB: We have content on new and leading-edge topics, and we will also share some great learning material with attendees. The reflections of speakers will no doubt be invaluable. Ninety-nine percent of attendees last year said they wanted to attend another summit speaks volume for how much people get from it! It’s a greaet opportunity to learn, network and share.

THE INTERVIEWEE