Reliable Plant July August 2008

EDITOR
Volume 4 Issue 4
www.reliableplant.com
CONSIDER ME A
MATCHMAKER
PUBLISHER Mike Ramsey
GROUP PUBLISHER Brett O’Kelley
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paul V. Arnold
CHIEF TECHNICAL Drew Troyer
EDITOR CRE, CMRP
SENIOR DESIGNER Ryan Kiker
GRAPHIC ARTS Matt Randolph
Kam-Yin Stinnett
I like to think of myself as a matchmaker.
My job as editor of Reliable
Plant is to bring together people who
have information and great ideas with other
people who are looking for information and
great ideas. I make the introduction, start the
conversation flowing and step back.
The match might be sparked by a cover
story, column or technical article in the
magazine. It may stem from an article on our
Web site or inside one of our e-mail newsletters.
Or, it could be the result of a case study
presentation at one of our conferences.
I get the most enjoyment out of the
conference matchmaking because I get to
facilitate a face-to-face meeting. An attendee
will come up to me after a speech and say,
“That plant is doing some incredible stuff.
We need to emulate them. How can I learn
more?” At some point during the conference,
I will bring the attendee over to the speaker
and start the introduction process.
Handshakes are exchanged. Business cards
get swapped. More times than not, I’ll see the
two later in the day talking shop at the same
lunch table or in the hotel bar. Weeks later,
I’ll get an e-mail from the attendee stating
that he or she is heading up a benchmarking
trip to the speaker’s plant.
The best matches occur when there is an
equal exchange of ideas and solutions. Each
party is a role model, excellent in some facet
of plant performance, and each party is
looking for help in another area. A few years
ago, I facilitated a meeting between an
attendee (a plant-floor leader at a Fortune
500 defense industry company) with a
speaker (a plant-floor leader at a Fortune
500 auto manufacturer). It eventually led to
the defense company sending two dozen
representatives 1,500 miles to learn safety
best practices from the automaker. The car
plant then sent nearly as many people to
learn lean concepts from the defense firm.
Subsequent benchmarking trips have
occurred between the companies. To this
day, the two plant leaders keep in touch. For
me, that’s a good conference.
I had plenty of matchmaking opportunities
at Noria’s recent “Lean, Reliable and
Lubed” conference in Nashville. I brought in
leaders from companies such as Bridgestone,
Boeing, Ford, BMW, Whirlpool, Rio Tinto,
Regal-Beloit, Clorox, The Stanley Works,
Weatherford International and Batesville
Casket to share their best practices and vision
on the topic of lean reliability. The response
was fantastic as measured by the amount of
networking that took place.
I’ll have another big chance October 6-8
when I bring my Lean Tools for Maintenance
& Reliability conference to Chicago.
The three previous Lean Tools events
(Cleveland in 2005, Las Vegas in 2006 and
Cleveland in 2007) featured plant and corporate
leaders from Harley-Davidson, Toyota,
Alcoa, Cargill, Raytheon, Honda, Eastman
Chemical, Intel, Coors, Nordson, Energizer,
Ford, Autoliv, AstenJohnson, International
Paper, ABB, Karl Schmidt Unisia and the U.S.
Postal Service. More great case studies are
coming this year. The firms I’m inviting to
present include heavy-hitters such as Toyota,
GE, Harley-Davidson, Dell, Lockheed Martin,
Honda, Baxter, Delphi, Solectron, Anheuser-
Busch, 3M, DuPont, Abbott Labs, Plexus,
Rockwell, Kohler, Caterpillar and Chrysler. I
expect plenty of introductions, handshakes,
business cards and idea sharing.
Full information will be found on
www.reliableplant.com, in the Reliable Plant
Mail and Lean Manufacturing Journal
newsletters, and on the conference Web site,
www.lean2008.com.
This matchmaker is looking forward to the
event. I’ll bring the knowledge resources.
Let’s strike up some conversations.
Paul V. Arnold, RP editor
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You may address case studies, articles, special
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Paul V. Arnold - Editor-in-chief
Reliable Plant, Noria Corporation
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Reliable Plant is published bimonthly by Noria Corporation.,
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2 July - August 2008 www.reliableplant.com