Annual conference expands to larger venue

A PICME product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 17, 2005

PICME's annual conference is set for 26th and 27th September at the Telford International Conference Centre.

PICME's annual conference is set for 26th and 27th September at the Telford International Conference Centre.

A day of learning and experience from PICME clients and others in the process industries will be preceded by an evening dinner.

The PICME annual conference is unique for both the UK process industries and for the business conference circuit in that it presents stories of manufacturing improvement through the words and actions of people in the shop floor teams that carried out the work.

PICME presenting clients for this year's event are set to include Innovia Films, AH Marks, Genzyme, Geberit Terrain, Tetley and McFarlan Smith.

A PICME led team will also report on 27th September from a September 2005 study tour of best practice in the North American process industries and will share the findings with the Telford audience.

PICME CEO Mark Lewis says: "Our annual conference is the ideal opportunity for all process manufacturers to visit with us and sample all the kinds of lean and improvement work that our clients achieve".

"A key element in this year's conference will be showing how companies have sustained their lean manufacturing".

"People, as ever, are key and it is no accident that sustainable lean manufacturing is closely linked to the training and motivation of first line supervisors, as many of our client stories on the day will show".

Lewis adds: "We are very pleased that the UK process sector, the DTI and the trade associations continue to support the PICME conference in force".

"I urge all process manufacturers to make a date with us in Telford on 27th September".

"We have increased the traditional capacity of the venue in order to spread the message wider and allow for increased networking and crossfertilisation of ideas".

Now in its fourth year, the mainstay of the PICME message continues to focus on showing and telling about sustainable improvement culture through people power.

Also stressed are the effective deployment of plant and equipment and the reduction of all kinds of waste.

The PICME conference, previously at Cranfield School of Management, has now been sold out for three years running.

Places typically book up within seven weeks of the announcement.

Previous presenting names at the PICME have included: Akzo Nobel, Marley Plumbing and Drainage, Avecia, Jotun, Novartis, Rohm and Haas, Muraspec, Ocular Sciences, Octel, Rhodia and Wrafton Laboratories.

Lean manufacturing techniques illustrated at the conference typically include the principles and results of the PICME masterclass, as well as the tools of value stream mapping, policy deployment, benchmarking and others.

Lewis notes that as well as its original and popular masterclass framework for improvement PICME is increasingly offering new services to the industry in the form of training that fits with specific relevant NV qualifications, senior management awareness, first line supervisor development and communication skills.

Other techniques such as pull systems and value stream mapping (VSM) have also been adapted for use in the industry.