Why Should You Attend the CI Conference?

The 32^nd annual CI — Continuous Improvement — Conference will be held in person again this year, May 1-4 in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is one of the longest-running conferences in the industry — and the only one focused on Lean Manufacturing — and year after year gives printers, manufacturers, and converters valuable information they need to help run their businesses better.

Bill Pope, VP, Technical Services, and Managing Director, TAGA, for PRINTING United Alliance, notes, “It combines pre-conference workshops, keynote presentations from some of the leading minds on Lean/CI, a variety of breakout sessions with ‘real life’ case studies where Lean/CI concepts have been put into action at printing (and some non-printing) companies, and networking sessions where attendees interact with each other while learning about and applying Lean/CI concepts and principles. There’s also an optional plant tour at a local printing operation, which this year will be at Runbeck Election Services, one of the nation’s leading ballot printing and systems providers who takes a robust Lean/CI approach to their operation.”

What is the CI Conference?

This year, the conference is broken up into three tracks: Fundamental Processes/Tools, Advanced Processes/Tools, and Leadership/Culture, ensuring there is content for everyone, whether they are brand new to the concept of continuous improvement, or it is something they have already been practicing for years.

In addition, there is a wide range of keynote speakers designed to highlight different topics throughout the event, “including how to use your individual strengths to build a culture of improvement, how to develop the people in your organization to be great problem solvers and break the habit of telling them what to do, and how to take purposeful steps to develop a culture of high performance,” Pope says.

He continues, “There will even be a performance/presentation from a magician - Stuart MacDonald - who has incorporated the concepts of Lean and CI into his award-winning magic act that fooled Penn & Teller on their TV show!”

Other reasons to attend include:

• The chance to develop a roadmap to protect your company’s survival.
• Learn in detail how to implement specific improvement strategies.
• Discover how the concepts and tools of Lean manufacturing are implemented in printing and converting companies.
• Hear case studies by printing companies revealing their advanced approaches to cutting costs and becoming more productive.
• Learn what is required from executives leading a cultural transformation.
• Participate in moderated roundtable sessions to learn from peers facing the same challenges.

“Every company, whether it’s a manufacturer or a service provider, has processes and workflows, and all of them are ripe for the application of Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement,” Pope notes. “There is waste everywhere, and not just physical waste, but wasted time as well. All businesses can benefit from incorporating the concepts and practices of Lean/CI, including greater throughput and productivity, reduced waste and cycle times, a safer and more efficient working environment, and ultimately higher customer satisfaction and greater profitability.”

The overall conference is intended to appeal to those in many different positions throughout an organization, from sessions that benefit a president or CEO, to general plant managers, to team leaders, and everyone in between. “It is a great opportunity to learn, network, and develop an actionable plan to take back and implement for meaningful change,” Pope says.

“With supply chain issues and labor shortages, it’s more important than ever to do as much as you can with what you have,” Pope continues. “There is so much hidden opportunity for improvement that, with the right tools and knowledge, you can make your business more successful and develop a workforce that is engaged with a sense of empowerment and satisfaction with the work they do. To pass on this conference would be to ignore the opportunity to improve that might just be the difference between long-term success and failure.”

In addition, the conference provides a platform for attendees and speakers alike to network and learn from one another, allowing everyone from seasoned CI professionals to those just learning of the concepts for the first time to share thoughts and ideas about ways they can improve their businesses. “There’s nothing like learning how someone else overcame their challenges and how they implemented change,” Pope says. “Many are repeat attendees and come as a group from their companies so they can take a team approach at implementing what they learn from the conference.”

The full agenda, as well as speaker bios, can be found online. Registration for the CI Conference is now open, with additional options for both introductory sessions on the Sunday before the conference starts designed to introduce the concepts of Lean manufacturing and the leadership skills needed to implement it, as well as for the optional plant tour that will take place on Wednesday after the conference ends. There are also options for group rates for businesses looking to send three or more to the event.

UPDATE 4/4/22 Given the challenges of running a business today, a new session has been added to the CI Conference: The Paper Chase: Strategies and Countermeasures for Navigating the Substrate Shortage. Given supply chain shortages and surging prices, this panel of experts will will examine the ways companies can alter buying and operating practices to limit the impacts and losses to their business.

This sessions, says Pope, will run "Monday afternoon, at the end of the day, in place of the scheduled CI Café, moving that session to Tuesday morning, and shelving the CI Trivia Contest. We’ll be expanding the Monday afternoon time slot for this to 90-mins and finishing the day strong with a topic that is very relevant and impacts all printers (and suppliers, and distributors, and print buyers)."