Lewis talks lean manufacturing at Baltimore event

Jim Lewis, widely recognized expert on lean manufacturing, will speak at Wood Pro Expo.

Wood Pro Expo Baltimore will take place October 8-9, 2014, at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Exhibition Hall, located just north of downtown Baltimore. The event is designed to be a great opportunity for woodworking executives and suppliers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast corridor to connect, especially those who don’t attend the industry’s major semi-annual trade shows. Wood Pro Expo will feature a strong education component and other opportunities for face-to-face networking.

Strong education program

Lewis’ Lean Journeys column is a popular monthly feature in CabinetMakerFDM, detailing real life examples of woodworking businesses working to adopt lean thinking to make their businesses for successful and efficient.
Jim Lewis will discuss lean with three woodworking executives, Dustin Hunter of Hunter Trim and Cabinets in Fort Worth, Texas, Brad Cairns of Signature Wood Systems in St. Thomas, Ontario, and either Jack Busby or Scott Pfaff of Busby Cabinets in Alachua, Florida. It is an open forum with the three panel members providing their testimony of lean at their facilities and a question and answer session with the audience. Lewis will moderate and facilitate the discussions and he will have his own questions for the panel to respond to. This is an opportunity for existing lean users or executives and managers contemplating lean to get answers/suggestions/recommendations from their peers regarding any and all concerns pertaining to a successful lean transformation.

In addition to Lewis’ talks, business skills, pricing, production efficiency, and technical information will all be in good supply as part of the education presentations, panels, and discussions available at Wood Pro Expo. A number of presentations that are part of the Cabinet Makers Association certification program will be available, including discussions about estimating, project management, web site development, automation and working with designers or architects.

Other talks will highlight key advice from industry experts. Jamison Scott of Air Handling will talk about issues related to combustible dust. A representative from KCD Software will talk about advances in kitchen design software. Jens Shulz of Leuco and Chad Sloan of Weinig will talk about tooling.

Columnists in person

CabinetMakerFDM readers will have the opportunity to meet and learn from featured columnists of the magazine who will be on hand in person. Editor Will Sampson will talk about pricing for the custom shop and results of the latest CabinetMakerFDM Pricing Survey. Lean columnist Jim Lewis will lead a panel discussion titled “Real Life Lean 5S,” featuring the true experiences of successful shop owners sharing their experiences with lean manufacturing transformations. And wood technology columnist Gene Wenger will offer his prescriptions in person, answering your wood technology questions.

Wengert has been training people in efficient use of wood for 35 years. He is extension specialist emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But to readers of CabinetMakerFDM, he will always be simply the Wood Doctor.

Networking barbecue

Another unique event of this new trade is a networking barbecue slated for Wednesday, October 8, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. right on the show floor. Attendees and exhibitors will have a chance to talk face-to-face outside of individual exhibit booths but still within the surroundings of the show floor. The full exhibit hall will remain open until 8 p.m. that day.

For more information about the show or sign up as either an attendee or exhibitor, just go to www.cabinetmakerfdm.com/wpehome.html.