CAREL at the Product & Process Development Exchange

CAREL was invited to describe the application of lean principles to product development at the Product & Process Development Exchange (LPPDE) held in Reading, United Kingdom, at the end of April. LPPDE is a non-profit organisation created to foster opportunities to grow and share the knowledge, expertise and experiences that help lean organisations improve performance. The organisation’s conferences are called Exchanges, emphasising the concept that the best way to learn is to listen to experts, see peers, discuss, learn from best practices from others and participate in workshops.

The CAREL presentation also saw the participation of Daniel T. Jones, author of many books on lean, including “The Machine that Changed the World”. Other internationally-renowned attendees included Micheal Ballè and Durward K. Sobek II. “This was an excellent opportunity to learn from the experiences of other companies and to exchange ideas with other brands”, commented Alberto Rosso, CAREL Change Agent. “We had the chance to meet representatives of large multinationals such as ABB, Hilti Group, Philips and Volvo, as well as Cranfield University and Milan Polytechnic. After many years of lean thinking, we have improved many different aspects, yet there are still quite a few we need to examine, as part of our growth process focused on continual improvement”.