Thorsten Allenstein is the Managing Director for India and Sri Lanka at Triumph International. Thorsten will shed light on the success Triumph has achieved by establishing a manufacturing presence in India. He will highlight the importance of moving to India as a long-term strategy, stressing it is not a move for a “quick buck”. Additionally, he will assert that the key to succeeding in India and ensuring profitability is by adapting to the country’s culture.

Scott Park is CIO and Senior Vice President at Volvo CE Group. Scott will highlight how Volvo CE has reduced overall costs by maximising efficiencies across their manufacturing processes. He will detail how they improved quality with better control over end-to-end production processes while simultaneously filling manufacturing operations vacuums . Scott will also reveal how Volvo CE are replacing and consolidating disparate manufacturing operations systems.

Dr. Christof Spathelf is Head of Manufacturing Overseas at Volkswagen. Dr. Spathelf will put forward the argument that an economic upturn is coming and that manufacturers need to be ready to reap the benefits. He will highlight Volkswagen’s approach to preparing for this impending upturn is to continue with a global strategy. Having recently opened a new factory in India, Dr. Spathelf will assert it globalisation remains key to ensuring competitive advantage after the crisis.

Paul Neutjens is Lean Director for the Sapa Group. Paul brings a wealth of experience in lean implementation, and will advise that lean is a long-term journey; not simply a quick fix solution. He will highlight how lean at Sapa Group has been a journey of organisational learning, moving to all parts of the enterprise; not solely manufacturing. Paul will also emphasise how important it is to manage your workforce through the lean journey to ensure you achieve your lean goals and objectives.

David Croft is the Global Head of Conformance and Sustainability at Cadbury, bases in the UK. In an era where cutting costs to drive bottom line benefit is vital, he will reveal how driving down your carbon footprint will indeed drive down costs. Arguing that green manufacturing is no longer a mere compliance issue, David will illustrate how Cadbury Schweppes has minimised costs by switching to renewable and low carbon energy sources.

Jose Bravo is the Chief Scientist at Shell, based in the USA. Jose will headline day two of the summit, revealing how Shell create competitive advantage through its use of innovative technologies. He will discuss how Shell embraces technology to pump Shell’s business by maximising visibility to facilitate better decision-making. Jose will illustrate the intelligent use of technology at Shell has improved manufacturing processes and driven new ideas for production.

Bendt Jorgensen is Vice President for Business Systems at Danfoss. Having won the Operational Excellence award at the 2008 Strategic Manufacturing Awards, Bendt will reveal how Danfoss’ award-winning approach to operational excellence drove productivity levels, reduced inventory and delivered a bottom line impact of over 200million DKK. He will also discuss the next steps for his Danfoss Productivity Programme (DPP), highlighting how the programme will be embedded into the business culture between 2009 and 2011.

Pierfrancesco Manenti is Research Director EMEA at Manufacturing Insights IDC. Pierfrancesco will bring his experience and expertise to put forward key trends in European manufacturing through 2009-10, as well as highlighting the opportunities for revival. He will emphasise the importance of continued innovation to ensure survival and revival, while also propagating the bottom line value of being green in these challenging economic times. Pier will also suggest that that the current climate has resulted in a retreat from low cost manufacturing.

Kevin Duggan is Founder and President of the Institute for Operational Excellence, based in the USA. Kevin will host a masterclass at the Manufacturing Strategy Session, detailing how to go beyond lean and actually reach a destination with operational excellence to deliver business growth. He will emphasise that lean is not a never-ending journey, asserting that business growth can be achieved by managing operational excellence with a new wave of process-based scientific thinking.

John Bowling is Head of Planning, Risk and Information Management at General Dynamics. John will focus on optimising information flows throughout the business, emphasising the importance of product data management. He will highlight how General Dynamics defines and implements its PLM strategy to ensure one source of product data, in turn enabling General Dynamics to develop and deliver products and programmes faster.

Robert Claasen is Director for Corporate Manufacturing at DSM, based in the Netherlands. Robert will highlight how DSM are integrating their Manufacturing Execution System (MES) with the wider enterprise to ensure the business remains agile during what has been a volatile climate. He will highlight how MES exists as a strategic business lever to achieve integration with the enterprise, while he will also reveal how DSM are placing their MES platform at the forefront of its business growth strategy.

Tapani Ryhänen is Head of Strategic Research at the Nokia Research Centre, based in the UK. While many companies have minimised Research & Development (R&D) budgets in light of the global climate, Tapani will highlight how a recession is in fact the time to invest in R&D to drive innovation and be ready for the upturn. He will emphasise the need to trust R&D in difficult economic times to gain competitive advantage, while asserting that if you are not developing new products in a downturn then you will not be ready for the upturn.

Dr. Mandyam Srinivasan is a Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Tennessee and internationally-renowned author. Dr. Srinivasan will host a masterclass during the Manufacturing Strategy Session, highlighting how to create competitive advantage through the lean enterprise. He will maintain lean as a growth strategy, combining it with the Theory of Constraints to eliminate barriers to business growth. Dr. Srinivasan will also discuss how to position your business for a quantum leap in customer demand.

John Skat Dalgaard heads up the Mayflower programme at Danish based Vestas. Vestas is the market leader in the global wind turbine market with a 20% market share and 38,000 turbines installed. The programme is coming to the end of a global implementation of harmonised business processes supported by SAP across Vestas sales business units, which are designed to maximise growth and performance. John will address some of the key practical, people, process and technology lessons learned around delivering change within a global environment.