May 9-10, 2022
Help us promote LeanCon in your own community
Presenter files are password protected and are available to attendees only.
How to retain and engage critical employees in this very competitive job market is the subject of many sleepless nights for business leaders. In this high energy and interactive presentation, Tyler Hayden weaves stories to share insights into building solutions to answer business leader’s struggles around attracting and losing key talent in their business through a process called the 14-Minute Mentor
In this wildly engaging session you will:
Learn the difference and importance of Tacit and Explicit knowledge.
Explore the benefits of designing a structured mentoring program and how it can level-up your response to the "great resignation."
Discover how quality training and development can help to support retention and engagement strategies.
Quantify the benefits of a 14 Minute mentor strategy to help fund and augment your Human Resources strategy.
Participate in activity based learning and have some fun—shhhh don’t tell anyone that learning is fun.
Tyler will guide CME through the educational underpinnings of mentoring and how to bring it alive in your organization. You will learn about tacit vs. explicit knowledge, structured mentoring, and much more. The Philosopher and Professor: 14-Minute Mentor is a collaboration between industrial psychologist Dr. Bill Howatt and motivational speaker Tyler Hayden, that presents a solution to this very problem.
What future manufacturing leaders are building today is a metaphorical road trip with key pit stops to help any manufacturing business recognize how to: build a global brand, innovate faster than the competition and double your profits.
Many organizations are currently using Agile/Scrum as their basis for successful project and product delivery. This interactive workshop discusses how Agile/Scrum interface with Lean. The purpose of this session is not only to educate participants on Agile and Scrum, but to help participants understand how they can simply relate Lean to Agile and Scrum. With this knowledge, participants will have another tool to increase their project and product delivery.
At CKF we are faced with two significant interconnected challenges. (1) Low employee engagement scores, employees frustrated with culture of band-aid fixes, and “get it running now” only to deal with the same problems the very next week or next shift. (2) Shortage of skilled trade workers to fix these problems. We created an improvement process that took a wide range of opinion and conflicting priorities off the table and let data tell us where to focus our limited skilled trades to fix problems. We used this process to shift our approach for the betterment of tomorrow and the long term. Through this improvement process we have seen a 6.5% increase in utilization and a 28% decrease in downtime. This presentation will show how we use our data to focus our limited skilled trades on the problems that are negatively impacting our performance. It will show how we sacrifice utilization today, fix it right, for the long-term gain and bring it full circle to improving employee engagement. It will go through several examples of success stories, all using this process.
An honest and somewhat politically insensitive discussion on whether Lean or Continuous Improvement really works in an office / service provider / government environment. We find practitioners are often frustrated trying to implement the principles of Lean Six Sigma or Continuous Improvement in an office environment, because people will gladly let it all fall by the wayside (or possibly push it down the stairs) when we stop focusing on it. Is that not in itself one of the largest wastes of resources, to be implementing improvement systems our customers (staff) don’t want? A change of strategy and focus can lead to some great success stories, and frontline people asking for help. From “If we were starting over…” to just starting your journey and wanting to understand the pitfalls, the presentation will lay out a change of mindset and philosophy that will have staff stopping you in the halls with suggestions and ideas. Where do we focus and how do we inspire our staff to think differently? The presentation will wrap up with the steps to make a real and significant difference in the workplace.
Did you know that 71% of the Earth’s Surface is ocean? Did you also know that less than 10% of it has been explored? Niru’s career has taken a number of turns over the last 15 years, but she has always been committed to the exploration of the ocean.
In her keynote talk, Niru illustrates how we know more about Mars than we know about our own oceans. Niru also shares some practical examples of how continuous improvement has helped her company, Sensor Technology, develop more robust tools to better understand our oceans.
Data is critical to driving decision making but many organizations are not able to readily access it or interpret it quickly or accurately. Visualizing data is critical to daily management practices and this presentation will demonstrate how data can be leveraged effectively to create custom dashboards using Excel. Participants should have basic to intermediate Excel skills to benefit from this presentation.
We will have a one hour discussion on how we can create a Lean Culture by leveraging our most valuable asset . . . people.
What is a lean Culture?
How do we create it?
People Oriented
Leading in a Lean environment
Engage and Empower
Team Based Approach
Creating a Culture of Problem Solving
Process Focussed
Process, not people
Results vs. Process
Traditional vs. Lean
Plan-Do-Check-Act
Solving the improvement paradox
Purpose Driven
Making the link, tying goals to strategy
The importance of measurement
Setting Goals – be SMART
The way we work and our expectations of our employers are changing. Work arrangements are evolving, there are fewer physical boundaries in office (and between work and home), collaboration is on the rise, as is diversity. Today there are four generations in the workplace. Younger generations are joining the workforce, and older generations are working longer than previous generations. While work is changing, each generation may have different expectations, needs, and wants (that may flex and change over time). How we relate to and empathize with each other will influence our effectiveness and the engagement we have with our work and our teams. The workforce needs all these cohorts, and needs people to collaborate effectively. This session is designed to increase empathy, understanding, and collaboration between generations. We’ll look at what’s influenced each generation, what that means for expectations in the office, and strategies for increasing connection, collaboration and ultimately effectiveness.
Gage R&R has so many applications and we will walk you through how this approach was used to analyze Maplewood Farms chicken culling process to identify opportunities to improve yield and maximize profits. This session will also give participants a chance to engage in a fun gage R&R exercise to refresh your memory on how it works.
This is the first part in a two part workshop where we will walk through a real life supply chain challenge and employ lean six sigma tools to learn how to identify and avoid supply chain issues. Participants will have the opportunity to learn how to use extended value stream mapping to identify supply chain pinch points to ensure greater organizational resilience.
Lean methodologies have proven time and time again to offer measurable and impressive results in optimizing business processes. As we continue to build on our successes, however, we inevitably hit a point in which action needs to be taken to allow processes to get to the next level. This can be completed through changing the process through automation, process change, or completely changing things, but what do you choose? As with anything, you must measure it to successfully to know how and what to change. Once you have this data you can adopt things such as digital twinning, automation, AI/ML, etc. But first you must gather the data, and equally as important, you must ensure it is correct. This presentation will focus on how you can gather data from your industrial/business systems. This includes automated systems, web servers, ERPs, and more. It will focus on first identifying the correct terms and definitions, and then offering practical guidance on why and how to add this to your digital journey.
In this session listeners will learn real successes achieved at Eden Valley Poultry (EVP) as we continue our journey towards building a continuous improvement culture. Culture is defined at EVP as our behaviors, at EVP we belief in our people operating with a continuous improvement mindset each day. By engaging our employees at all levels of the organization and asking good questions to our employees, we identify how we can measure what matters. It starts at the top with our vision & mission and our strategic framework, five-year strategic pillars, corporate and team goals, with KPI’s to control process improvements and sustain results. We will discuss how EVP has identified and applied measurements that matter in our business and how we communicate and engage frontline employees. We will talk about the four key elements of process, and if any one of the preceding four elements are missing, what might the process do? If you can learn to effectively manage and control the process inputs, you are then measuring for predictability with the end goal of exceeding customer expectations. We will discuss the challenges with sustaining improvements, and how we overcome these challenges through teamwork, proper training, and strong leadership. If you achieve a culture of employees all inspired working towards the same goals you will achieve great results, we are better together.
Often businesses have great ideas for implementing new facilities, expanding building footprints, adding new equipment, and bringing in new products. However, during the implementation phase (or once implemented) things don’t always go as planned. 3P helps to ensure what is supposed to happen is what actually happens. Participants will learn about the five step Production Preparation Process (3P) and how it uses cross functional teams, lean principles, and simulation to develop strong implementation plans.
Compressed Air Leak Surveys are a significant first step for industrial customers looking to engage in continuous improvement and achieve efficiencies in production. Leak repairs are inexpensive and fall within maintenance budgets, allowing industrial facilities to reduce operating costs without making capital investments. Industrials can then use these savings to invest in energy audits or efficiency-driven capital upgrades. To quote a research study on this topic, “Optimization of compressed air systems represents one of the largest non-process industrial energy efficiency opportunities, with improvements of 20-50% readily achievable through the introduction of a best-practices approach. Lack of information has been a primary barrier to realizing substantial improvement in the efficiency, reliability, and productivity of industrial compressed air systems.” Optimization of compressed air systems, through leak detection and repair, can yield multiple benefits. Beyond the savings from the leak repairs themselves, there are improvements to overall system pressure, which can further impact equipment relying on compressed air. Total HP in the compressed air system may be reduced as artificial demand from leaks has been addressed. Furthermore, compressed air leak repair is a way to engage employees, from maintenance staff to equipment operators, in energy efficiency and compressed air management.
A key consensus today among most companies is the labour force challenge. Many employees have become less motivated with work today. Companies need help creating a positive and engaging workplace for people to develop their careers. LEAN can establish a progressive, proactive attitude in the workplace. It can help bring workers’ frustrations to the surface and get them addressed. 5S can help organize the workplace and keep everything in its place and this can greatly reduce stress for everyone. The training of a LEAN project is often what starts true worker involvement in improving the workplace. It provides a structure and guidelines for continuous improvement. When workers become engaged they are the best source of ideas for positive change. LEAN allows companies to establish processes to hear about product flow and shop floor issues and to take action to address them in a team setting. While the LEAN process helps the efficiency of the business, it more importantly helps make the company a much better place to work. This helps everyone’s motivation. The panel of managers from Western Nova Scotia will discuss their experiences with LEAN, some from early adoption stages, to intermediate and through to lengthy experience. Discussion will include heavy manufacturing, processing and service operations and will be moderated by Rob Stephenson of the Western REN.
Digital Twins are a relatively new and exciting approach to improving operational and financial understanding of manufacturing processes. First conceived in 2002, Digital Twins are defined as a “virtual representation of the elements and dynamics of how business processes within an organization operate”. Essentially, Digital Twins are interactive software models that turn often disparate operational and financial data into meaningful results for decision-making.
This presentation will provide an overview of Digital Twins and more specifically what Gartner calls a “Digital Twin of an Organization (DTO)”. It will show how advanced business process modeling and Lean Value Stream Mapping (VSM) can enable any manufacturer or exporter in creating a DTO that provides new insights into key process management areas such as capacity planning, costing, and profitability analysis. It also provides a platform for “future state” scenario-planning be that process improvement and/or new products or customers.
The presentation will also walk through a real-world case study of how a Maritimes company, Crosby’s Molasses, have used DTO modeling to enhance their operations by evaluating production line capacity and utilizations, identifying the true cost of non-value add activities, understanding which products were over and under costed, and developing process improvement business cases for capital investments such as manufacturing systems and robotics.
Your employee retention and engagement worries are not a management problem, they’re not a human resources problem; they’re a leadership problem.
In Serve to Lead, Phil’s premium keynote speech, he shares his key leadership beliefs that any leader or organisation needs to embrace to navigate today’s challenges.
He does this whilst recounting his times on patrol in the wadi’s and deserts of Afghanistan and the lessons he learned on the way; ones that had been introduced to him during his training and became embodied during some of the most intense challenges a leader can face.
Regardless of the industry or sector, Phil strongly believes his principles can, and should, be universally applied. This follows his motto: that leadership is leadership is leadership—no matter the industry or profession, and it starts with leading oneself.
This is the second of a two part workshop where we will walk through a real life supply chain challenge and employ lean six sigma tools to learn how to identify and avoid supply chain issues. Participants will have the opportunity to learn how to use a failure modes and effects analysis to determine the risk associated with supply chain pinch points, prioritize and mitigate those risks using empirical methods to ensure greater organizational resilience.
Have you ever heard of the seven wastes when it comes to improvement? I am sure you have used at least one of the easy to remember acronyms and possibly even ready to debate that there are more than seven and use something to represent eight or even nine wastes. The real question I would like your input on is if you have ever thought of the other side of the coin? If TIM WOOD is truly the “king of waste” or heads on a coin toss, then what is on the other side? If you are not looking to drive out waste from your process what else are you trying to do? What about adding value to the customer and to your bottom line as a business? Waste, often referred to by the acronym TIM WOOD, is what companies want to minimize from the value stream. The flip side of the coin, E A S I E S T to remember would therefore, be the value that can be maximized by a company. We will walk through a simple side-by-side comparison that can help better illustrate the comparison. We will then expand on TIM WOOD and EASIEST further so companies can identify in process wastes and opportunities to maximize end value to customers – let’s not just leave it to a coin toss!.
For decades, Lean has been used by manufacturers to reduce operational complexity and improve productivity. It provides a foundation for operational excellence and boosts organizational performance through a focus on value-adding activities. But embracing Lean by itself is not sufficient to address the operational challenges of an increasingly digitally connected and globalized world. Industry 4.0 offers new approaches for dealing with products and new complexities to supply chains. Advanced manufacturing promotes faster, more agile, and more efficient processes using automation technologies for consistent quality and productivity gains. Both Lean and Industry 4.0 promise to solve manufacturing challenges by uncovering the most effective way to reach the next level of operational excellence.
Most lean practitioners are familiar with the application and use of process maps and value stream maps but metrics based process mapping provides the best of both worlds. Metrics based process mapping provides the granularity of traditional process mapping with the data of a value stream map. Combined this provides a powerful tool to analyze your processes for efficiency opportunities. In this session participants will learn what metrics based process map is, when to use it and how to develop one.
Hybrid is here to stay. Is your organization ready for the new realities of a hybrid workplace in your manufacturing organization? Janice Tanner Ernst, Senior HR Consultant with KBRS, will reflect on pre-pandemic manufacturing environments and explore the current state of hybrid workplaces, the challenges and opportunities, and how organizations can help all employees thrive. Participants will explore the impact of hybrid workplaces on collaboration, communication, culture, and employee well-being, with the opportunity to learn from best practices and other participants.
What does a traditional (conventional) manufacturing environment look like?
Lessons Learned through the Pandemic
What can we do?
MTechHub will have completed the Smart Factory Challenge by March 31, 2023. Ten Canadian SME’s in various manufacturing sector’s identified a production bottleneck that limited revenue growth. We’ll review the journey each company took to combine a digital twin with continuous improvement. We’ll highlight the challenges, solutions results and operational excellence achieved by the Smart Factory Grand Champion. We’ll show even the smallest organization can now afford budget-friendly technology to improve quality, production capacity, lead time and carbon reduction. The Champion was judged on their strategy, capacity for delivery of customer satisfaction, communication and also the extent to which they have created an environment of change, continuous improvement and employee engagement.
The presenter will speak of the Canadian Federal Government Cyber-security ecosystem, current threats and risk management.
Tours run concurrently so you may register for only one tour.
Irving Shipbuilding uses a progressive build approach to construct Canada’s Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships—the most efficient process for building modern ships. Over the course of time, 63 smaller units become 21 larger blocks, which become three mega-blocks (the bow, centre and stern). This same progressive build approach will be used for the Canadian Surface Combatants. Participants will tour the Assembly/Ultra Hall.
At Pratt & Whitney, we work with an explorer’s heart and a perfectionist’s grit to design, build, and service the world’s most advanced aircraft engines. We do this across a diverse portfolio—including Commercial Engines, Military Engines, Business Aviation, General Aviation, Regional Aviation, and Helicopter Aviation—and as a way of turning possibilities into realities for our customers. This is how we at Pratt & Whitney approach our work, and this is why we are inspired to go beyond.
Pratt & Whitney Canada’s Halifax facility is opening their doors for a tour to showcase their three manufacturing subdomains. This tour will highlight the following:
Facility overview
Domain key processes
Elements of the CORE Operating system
OEE and visual systems
Additive manufacturing supporting 5S
Implementation of automation through lean method application
Tiered Gemba
And more . . .
Your field visit to the Port of Halifax will include the port’s two leading container terminals and the ultra-class containership infrastructure serving all of the world’s major container trades from Halifax as well as the dry bulk, breakbulk, roll-on/roll-off cargo business at the port. You will also visit Canada’s first living lab for the marine transportation sector—The PIER. The PIER which is known for its Port Innovation Engagement Research collaboration is home to over 40 member companies working on leading projects in sustainability, data and analytics, workforce development and the marine policy regulatory environment.
Event Manager: Alexia McGill Call: (902) 422-1886 Online:
LEANCON Presenter
Over the last 20 years, Darrin grew a very successful manufacturing business. He developed a worldwide marketing system with partners in six (6) continents, patented intellectual property, a global supply chain and profits 10x the industry average. Most impressive, he did it from a small remote Island. Not adjacent to the customers or supply chain- he used social media, innovation and resourcefulness to create a new model for business.
Brenda is a senior professional who has guided over twenty organizations in Nova Scotia in the past few years in their Agile/Scrum transformations. Brenda is President of BrenDaniel Productions Corp. With a background in telecommunications and software development, Brenda is focused on working with clients in their Agile and Scrum projects.
Justin has 19 years of experience in manufacturing. Eighteen of these years were in the automotive industry as Quality Manager, Director of Quality and Operations Manager. He has served as Production Manager at CKF for the past eight months. Justin’s strengths include: team building, lean manufacturing, employee engagement, and data analysis.
Wade Kierstead is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with twenty-seven years’ experience in government, ten of which have been focused on Continuous Improvement. With experience in Staffing to Demand, Daily Management, Lean Six Sigma, and other tools, Wade’s Continuous Improvement team has focused on redesigning how the City of Fredericton operates from the ground up. They started the national Canadian Lean Summit as well as the New Brunswick Municipal Innovation group, and have mentored various municipalities starting their own Continuous Improvement journey. Wade is currently working with the Fredericton Police Force to modernize and redesign how they deliver services. Wade also has a private company “Simplified Chaos” through which he offers help to community members who want to make a difference.
Robert Newcombe is an Associate Partner with Barrington Consulting Group and the co-lead of the Barrington OPS practice. Robert has worked with clients in manufacturing, food processing, agriculture, and the public sector improve their processes, increase their productivity, and eliminate waste.
Robert is the designated trainer for time management and Microsoft Outlook for the Provincial Government of Nova Scotia and a personal productivity fanatic.
Andrew is a Degreed Professional Industrial Engineer, a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Nova Scotia (APENS) and has been a practicing Industrial Engineer since 1992. Andrew has been certified as a Lean-Sensei by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Association of Manufacturing Excellence and Shingo Prize and has a background in Six Sigma methodology. Andrew has worked at a senior management level for major companies since 1992, developed and deployed strategy and has completed over 400 improvement projects. Lean Results Consulting is an Atlantic Canada based company that specializes in facilitating LEAN transformations by applying effective team training, facilitation, coaching and professional services. We believe in engaging and motivating your workforce to improve faster than your competition.
Laura is passionate about talent management and organizational development. She brings a strategic focus and hands-on experience designing and implementing programs organization-wide. With expertise in leadership development, learning, performance management, and employee engagement, Laura is a trusted advisor to clients and colleagues. •Holds a Masters in Human Resources Management from York University and a BComm in Human Resources from Saint Mary’s University •Chartered Professional in Human Resources and member of CPHR Nova Scotia •Chair of the Atlantic Canadian Irish Dance Championships Society, a group bringing two major dance competitions to Halifax Outside of work, Laura is a co-owner and coach at Rising Tide Irish Dance Academy and is the first Irish dance adjudicator in Atlantic Canada. She enjoys baking, yoga, and spending time with her family.
Marion brings a depth of practical and personal experience to our clients. She is the former President of a national communications consulting firm serving clients in the consumer, corporate, healthcare and government sectors. Marion has also worked directly in telecommunications and financial services.
Jenny Ward is an entrepreneur, professional storyteller, and career transition coach. With 15+ years of HR and executive recruitment experience, Jenny empowers people to tell their personal and professional stories to get the career they want. Jenny fosters positive career development and has made it her mission to collaborate with goal-oriented professionals to create a meaningful impact in their working lives. Jenny’s thoughtful client approach celebrates individuality and distinctive triumphs, and she believes in fierce self-advocacy and speaking to one’s accomplishments. Jenny partners with her clients to develop roadmaps and action plans to ensure they embrace their voice, live with intention, and catapult their professional impact in the world.
She understands that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to a high-yielding career. Under her direction and leadership, Jenny has helped realize the dreams of many professionals spanning multiple industries. Her work and message have been shared on LinkedIn and multiple podcasts.
Gary Cox is a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Master Black Belt with Barrington Consulting and a Senior Associate Partner and co-lead of Barrington OPS. Gary brings more than 15 years of Black Belt project execution experience to the team and has been a Master Black Belt since 2010. Gary has extensive LSS experience in both the public and private sector and has worked with practitioners at all levels of client organizations, from senior executives to middle managers to front line staff. With Eden Valley Poultry, he is leading the training and coaching for frontline supervisors and managers with visual management huddle boards and real-time in-process performance and quality indicators.
Jeff Young, P. Eng. is the Quality Manager of DRS Pivotal Power (a division of Leonardo DRS) with over 15 years of management and leadership experience. He is responsible for ensuring product conformance to specification, and that contractual requirements are maintained. He is also responsible for the manufacturing test department which verifies product operates within the specified parameters and for Repair & Overhaul which provides after service support for all products manufactured by the company. A recent Green Belt graduate of Barrington Consulting, Jeff is taking the knowledge and skills obtained to foster a continuous improvement environment and culture at Pivotal Power to support growth as a world class manufacturing facility.
Trish Calder is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Associate Partner and Co-lead of the Operational Performance Services practice at Barrington Consulting. Before beginning her consulting career four years ago, Trish performed a variety of roles as a Lean Six Sigma practitioner in the Process Engineering, Integration and Improvement department for 13 years at Canada Post, supporting mail processing, delivery and retail operations. In the course of her career, she has successfully led, coached and sponsored process improvement projects and has delivered numerous continuous improvement training programs and workshops. Trish specializes in project delivery, project coaching and strategic program deployment and, in addition to countless soft savings, has delivered savings exceeding $20 million. She has a passion for supporting the development of emerging practioners and believes strongly in the strength and power in a community of practice.
Nathan Field leads the Automation and Robotics team at Enginuity Inc. He has a passion for what he does and truly enjoys automation, robotics and Industry 4.0 technologies. Since moving to Nova Scotia in late 2019, Nathan has worked for Enginiuty Inc., bringing their automation and robotics division to life.
For Continuous Improvement to succeed at all it needs to become part of culture, not an event that gets the team excited for a week, but a process that works alongside the production line in every shift produces real business benefits every month. Troy is responsible for factory wide lean transformations with improvements spanning years and not months. Through a combination of lean practice, metric development, employee engagement and staff development he has built world beating processes that have created consistently excellent products. Troy is an Expert at building lean across an entire business and making continuous improvement methodologies show consistent improvements to the company bottom line. He helps manufacturers to build better processes, engage their staff more and by doing so keep the best customers and build bigger margins and benefits every month that are sustainable and predictable.
Blair Oickle, Associate Director, Operating System (CORE™), Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC)
Blair Oickle is an Associate Director for Pratt & Whitney Canada and is based out of P&WC’s Halifax Operations site. Blair manages continuous improvement and lean manufacturing within the Halifax facility and has over 30 years of operations experience with 22 years specifically focused on continuous improvement and lean manufacturing. He is one of 25 certified CORE™ Principals within Raytheon Technologies, with his specialty being Lean.
As Pratt & Whitney Canada’s only CORE™ Principal he also works with other facilities within P&WC and is an active member on teams supporting CORE™ development within Raytheon Technologies. CORE™ stands for Customer Oriented Results and Excellence and is Raytheon Technologies Operating System. CORE™ provides a common language, toolset, and methodology and is a framework for how Pratt & Whitney operates.
Sarah Mitchell joined EfficiencyOne in May of 2012 as an Efficiency Specialist with the Custom team, working chiefly with the industrials in the province, and establishing the compressed air leak survey program. In March of 2016, Sarah joined the Business Development team to continue working with the Industrial sector, and supporting them in their energy management efforts. Sarah is the Industrial Lead for the Business Development team and the Industrial Energy Management (IEM) Program which focuses on providing engineering support and strategic energy management to organizations looking to implement efficiency improvements. With a Bachelors in International Development, Biophysical Environment, she is excited to be working in a field that has an impact on reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Long time fisherman, and businessman, Evan d’Entremont, started Evan’s Fresh Seafoods while still fishing for himself. Evans Fresh Seafoods has been processing fish since 2008 in Lower West Pubnico. In December 2021, after being his own contractor and building his brand new facility, Evan’s opened for business in its fresh location where you can find it today being operated largely by Evan’s daughter Juliette Kerr and her husband Jimmy Kerr.
Jill Inwood HR Director has more than 30 years of experience in human resource management and joins The Pines from Muskoka, Ontario where she worked across a broad range of HR roles.
Juliette Kerr ran her own service business in the town of Yarmouth for many years before becoming part owner of Evan’s Fresh Seafoods. Juliette is responsible for HR duties, being very involved, hands on, working side by side with the employees.
Rob Stephenson has been the BusinessNow Lead since April 2020 – Rob originally joined the team as the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program (AIPP) Manager in October 2019. He has nearly 20 years of management and sales experience in the seafood industry in Nova Scotia, along with seven years in management abroad in the private sector. He has exported products and done business around the world.
Rob has an MBA and a B.Sc. in Biological Science and speaks Spanish.
Gilles Theriault is President at A. F. Theriault & Son Ltd., a Ship building and repair business that was founded in 1938 by his grandfather, Gus Theriault. Gilles is a third generation Theriault who works with his team in managing the company’s day to day operations with his cousin David. He also oversees activities at AFT Sawmill a hard wood saw mill witch is off site from the yard. His father, Arthur, and his uncles Ernest (deceased), Larry and Russell (deceased) retired a few years ago. Gilles plays an active part in promoting the company. He attends trade shows and prepares promotional materials showcasing the boat building and repair facilities available at A. F. Theriault & Son. The enterprise continues to attract local, national and international clients. Gilles prides himself in giving A. F. Theriault clients the great customer service that they deserve as well as delivering the required specification, whether it be a boat repair or new build. He also has a keen interest in advanced technologies in the marine industry. Furthermore, employee education and training, safety and innovation in the workplace are all things he values very much - a tireless champion with a vision to continually develop the company into the best it can be. In February 2017, Gilles was inducted into the Atlantic Canada Marine Industries Hall of Fame.
Mike Haley, M.Sc., is President of Landmark Decisions Inc., a Canadian consulting firm providing worldwide “Performance Alignment” facilitation, training, and implementation services. Mike has over 25 years’ experience in developing and delivering business management frameworks and methodologies/technologies that enhance strategic and operational planning and cost modeling. The focus for these techniques has been to help both private and public-sector organizations increase their awareness of the impact business processes have on costing and budgeting while improving their overall decision-making capacity. Mike has also worked with many technologies that support Gartner’s vision of a Digital Twin of an Organization (DTO).
I’m Roberta Rose, your data driven, on-demand productivity consultant. I’ve been a Six Sigma Black Belt since 2001. As an ENFJ, I’ve been told I’m tenacious and strategic. I’ve always been driven to find the best ways to do quality and safety better, faster, and easier. I see possibilities where others see roadblocks. My passion, optimism, and high expectations have aided me in helping various companies leverage their time, money, and resources by creating coordinated efforts to move the needle on the improvement and metrics that drive results and improve the bottom line. Credentials: 24+ years of Safety, Quality, Leading Change and Balanced Scorecard experience. 21+ years coaching, training and implementing six sigma and lean concepts across Operations, IT, Logistics, Maintenance and Support functions. Implemented cross functional communication in diverse industries including forestry, government, private and global public sectors.
David Haire is the Vice President of the CME NL Division and Executive Director of Made Safe NL, tasked with increasing the competitiveness and growth of Manufactures and Exporters in domestic, national, and international markets. The role includes the facilitation of program and network planning, development, implementation and maintenance, advocacy on key issues that manufacturers and exporters deem necessary, communication of the trends, issues and results that manufactures and exporters are experiencing and education on Lean, Green, Leadership, Safety, Technology, Innovation, Exporting, etc. for the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.
A graduate of Industrial Engineering Technology from Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland he also holds a Quality Assurance Technology Certificate from Conestoga College, a Principles and Practices of Lean Manufacturing Certificate from the University of Kentucky, and a 6 Sigma Green Belt from Arizona State University.
Guided by a people-first approach, Janice provides organizations with thoughtful human resource advice and practical solutions to impact culture and achieve performance goals. She offers a wealth of knowledge on key issues facing today’s employers including organizational effectiveness, learning and development, talent attraction and retention, compensation, employee engagement and workforce planning. Her approach is informed by her experience in senior HR roles with prominent organizations from small and medium-sized enterprises to global organizations. With a passion for cultivating effective work environments, Janice believes making people a priority in organizations is best for the bottom line and the right thing to do. She is also actively involved in community building initiatives personally and professionally and encourages organizations to do the same.
Mark Corker Executive Director MTechHub Mark has over 30 years of experience in helping manufacturing companies. His passion is applying technology to help manufacturers scale profitably. Currently, he is hard at work learning how the smart factory can amplify and support lean initiatives. Mark has a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from McMaster University and is the Executive Director of MTechHub – North America’s first Industry 4.0 technology innovation hub.
Shawn M. is a career intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Currently serving as the Director General of the Service’s Cyber Operations Division, he has more than twenty years of experience in both domestic and foreign assignments. Prior to his career with CSIS, he spent more than 6 years as an infantryman in the Canadian Armed Forces Primary Reserve. He holds an undergraduate degree in Soviet Studies from Carleton University in Ottawa and a Master of Arts degree in Strategic Studies from the University of Calgary.