Programme 2021

Uwe has more than 25 years experience in the manufacturing environment and with industrial software and automation products. He spent 5 years as an application engineer with Schiess a major manufacturer of heavy machine tool builder before he started to be involved of developing the first Industrial pc´s and the use of pc equipment to control and optimize palletize systems. Prior to Incuity and Wonderware, Uwe has built up the sales area for an engineering company and sold automation solution to all kinds of manufacturing segments. After running his own business Uwe joined Wonderware in 1994 as regional sale manager in the west part of Germany. 1995 he moved to the head quarter in the US to develop the OEM program. In this timeframe Uwe gained also international expirience in Asia. Since 1997 he was leading the sales organization of the German operation including the ERP and Maintenance sales which came through Wonderware in 1999. January 2001 he took over the position as managing director in Scandinavia where he was building up the new entity which was created in April 2001 with a clear focus on adding value to their customers business. In 2003 Uwe became the additional responsibility of the German operation as Managing Director. April 2005 he exepted the position as Director Business Development and Marketing EMEA where he was responsible for extending the established markets and grow new emergency market segments or area. Together with his Marketing manager he developed the marketing strategies for Wonderware in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His primary goal was to grow significant the business in EMEA as well as identifying new potential business segments. Since Jan 2014 Uwe was also appointed to the Chairman of the EMEA board of Mesa International a non profitable association focusing since more than 20 years on Manufacturing. Uwe Kueppers is married and has a son and a daughter.

David Streit is an experienced sales professional with special expertise in project- and sales management. Located in Siegen, north of Frankfurt, he spent the last 8 years in leading sales positions serving OEM´s and Endusers in several industries. As an Industry Account Manager at Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company focused on Industrial Automation, Control and Information Solutions for the manufacturing industry, he is responsible for key customers in the Life Sciences Industry in Germany. David is focused on supporting manufacturers on their journey of digital transformation, developing the right strategy and a reliable implementation planning. Together with his wide network of experts in automation, he sees himself as a travel guide on the ongoing, exciting journey of digitalization in the manufacturing industry.

Martine is involved in ATS global’ s Commercial Business Strategy, Sales, Marketing and Customer Success. Her focus is to build a commercial organization and grow the business further.

Martine has more than 20 years of experience working together with customers for global companies in different industries. Prior to joining ATS Global she held commercial management positions at a variety of companies such as Accenture ABN Amro and Salesforce. Martine has worked in line positions on commercial strategy and execution as well as in management consultancy helping companies with their digital transformation.

People centricity, unlocking potential and customer engagement are important factors in achieving her goals.

Martine holds a Master’s degree in Business Economics from the University of Maastricht.

Lutz Feldmann studied Plastic Engineering back in 1988 in Darmstadt. He holds a patent at BASF for Gas Injection Molding. Mr. Feldmann spent his whole career in Engineering environments whether at SolidWorks, Dassault Systems and now with Markforged. His major focus is enabling partners and herewith clients to get the highest possible value from their investments.

Since 2016, Sarper Arslan has been working as Senior Head of Corporate Services in HUGO BOSS Textile Industries, which is the biggest production facility of HUGO BOSS AG. Arslan was one of the team members who had taken a role in Hugo Boss İzmir’s foundation in 1999. He has been in the management team of HUGO BOSS Textile Industries for more than 20 years. Through this time, Arslan had also managed various business units such as production, quality, and organizational development. Besides, Sarper Arslan had taken the responsibility of managing several transformation projects, including new plant establishments, while coordinating the lean manufacturing technics and 6 sigma projects in the production facility. As a Senior Head of Corporate Services, Arslan is now responsible for technical product design, product development, maintenance & energy, corporate projects, technology laboratory departments. currently, Arslan is also leading projects around robotic and automation systems.

Simon was appointed VP, Head of Operational Strategy for Oxford Biomedica in April 2021, where his principal focus has been defining the manufacturing digital strategy - key to this work is the introduction of electronic batch records and digital systems to facilitate faster batch review time and improved data integrity.  Simon is also leading the concept design of OXB’s next planned expansion project.

Simon joined OXB in August 2013, leading the Manufacturing team through three previous capacity expansions and overseeing the growth of the team by over 20-fold.  His achievements include OXB being approved as the world’s first commercial manufacturer of a lentiviral vector, significantly reducing the cost of goods by improving process robustness,  and implementing the manufacture of the AZ/Oxford University vaccine in less than 4 months.

Simon takes an active participation in training and development at Oxford Biomedica. He introduced apprenticeships into OXB in conjunction with the CGTC Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship Community. Simon is also the first senior leader sponsor of a Management Development Programme cohort.

As a PhD trained Organic Chemist, Simon previously worked for Pfizer and SAFC pharma.

Currently active as the Head of Business Process Systems Supply Chain - IT, Dorin is providing Projects and Process Support since March 2014. Previously, he held various roles on the Hot Strip Mill on Galati plant and lately acted as Supply Chain member within the Planning & Scheduling department as well as for Order Dresser Support.
Dorin is an experienced Business Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the supply chain & metals industry, skilled with a Bachelor of Engineering - in Metallurgy and Materials Science.

Uwe has more than 25 years experience in the manufacturing environment and with industrial software and automation products. He spent 5 years as an application engineer with Schiess a major manufacturer of heavy machine tool builder before he started to be involved of developing the first Industrial pc´s and the use of pc equipment to control and optimize palletize systems. Prior to Incuity and Wonderware, Uwe has built up the sales area for an engineering company and sold automation solution to all kinds of manufacturing segments. After running his own business Uwe joined Wonderware in 1994 as regional sale manager in the west part of Germany. 1995 he moved to the head quarter in the US to develop the OEM program. In this timeframe Uwe gained also international expirience in Asia. Since 1997 he was leading the sales organization of the German operation including the ERP and Maintenance sales which came through Wonderware in 1999. January 2001 he took over the position as managing director in Scandinavia where he was building up the new entity which was created in April 2001 with a clear focus on adding value to their customers business. In 2003 Uwe became the additional responsibility of the German operation as Managing Director. April 2005 he exepted the position as Director Business Development and Marketing EMEA where he was responsible for extending the established markets and grow new emergency market segments or area. Together with his Marketing manager he developed the marketing strategies for Wonderware in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His primary goal was to grow significant the business in EMEA as well as identifying new potential business segments. Since Jan 2014 Uwe was also appointed to the Chairman of the EMEA board of Mesa International a non profitable association focusing since more than 20 years on Manufacturing. Uwe Kueppers is married and has a son and a daughter.

Since 2016, Sarper Arslan has been working as Senior Head of Corporate Services in HUGO BOSS Textile Industries, which is the biggest production facility of HUGO BOSS AG. Arslan was one of the team members who had taken a role in Hugo Boss İzmir’s foundation in 1999. He has been in the management team of HUGO BOSS Textile Industries for more than 20 years. Through this time, Arslan had also managed various business units such as production, quality, and organizational development. Besides, Sarper Arslan had taken the responsibility of managing several transformation projects, including new plant establishments, while coordinating the lean manufacturing technics and 6 sigma projects in the production facility. As a Senior Head of Corporate Services, Arslan is now responsible for technical product design, product development, maintenance & energy, corporate projects, technology laboratory departments. currently, Arslan is also leading projects around robotic and automation systems.

Mark Carnaghan is an advocate of best in class leadership management who specialises in developing and implementing employee owned strategies that transform mindsets, ways of working and customer experiences. After a stint in the British Armed Forces as an Infantry Officer Mark has led operational excellence and transformational strategies within the food manufacturing industry for the last 14 years. Most recently he has joined the Eurofins family as MD of their Food and Waters testing business in the UK and Ireland. With an intense interest in Customer Orientation, Information Management and personnel development Mark also supports mentoring programmes at the University of Leeds.

I like considering myself a Millennial with almost 20 years of experience. Italian, “friulano”, engineer. I spend a huge portion of my career in operations, starting from operator in assembly to factory director in Electrolux Porcia. In Electrolux Porcia factory we introduced in 2015 an innovative platform of resource management. This experience was fundamental to make the good knowledge owned by few excellent managers available to the whole organisation. In the last 2 years I’ve been leading digital transformation in Operations Europe for Electrolux. Together with my digital team we are connecting the 15 factories in Europe towards new digital experiences. We are either piloting and adopting new technologies and enabling people in becoming more familiar with them.

Luke Kerr is a former British Army Commander and Physical Training Instructor and is best known for his awarding winning successes in business and sport as a motivational leader, coach, mentor and instructor.

Luke is an experienced, successful and highly driven operations and supply chain transformational leader with a proven record of accomplishment of success within global manufacturing and distribution corporations across a wide range of markets that cover Automotive, Transportation, Wind Energy, Marine, Military, Retail and Government sectors. Providing high-level strategic planning, operational and financial management control whilst being able to go into the detail in order to apply continuous improvement techniques (Lean and Six Sigma) to increase business performance through operational efficiency and profitability.

A pro-active customer facing leader, results orientated, profit focused with productivity, profitability, quality, service, delivery and with health, safety and environmental transformation skills.

Extensive experience in strategy, growth, supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, continuous improvement, change management, quality/profitability/efficiency initiatives and ERP systems.

Accomplished in leading major change programmes including business transformation, ERP implementation (SAP & Microsoft Dynamics), P&L management, cost reduction and performance management.

Over the past 25 years Luke has had varied and colourful career from serving in the forces on operations in Africa and Northern Ireland to competing in elite levels of sport from running and boxing in the Army, to working as FIFA Instructor in the middle east to running ultra-marathons across the UK & Europe whilst raising money for the mental health charity MIND.

Today Luke is well respected in business as an experienced, successful, and highly driven transformational supply chain and operations leader who creates and sustains high performing teams able to execute business strategy and deliver top line objectives whilst applying a lean six sigma methodology to achieve operations excellence. Luke has won various business awards for his ability to develop teams and gain business success.

Alongside business life and having a family Luke has dedicated 20 years of his life to date with developing beach sports more notable beach soccer where Luke served as Head Coach of England for over 3 years and went onto start both his own events company and various coaching organisations, today Luke holds variety of leadership roles across a variety of both business sand sports organisations.

Victoria Bryazgina, former Head of SCM Development at United Metallurgical Company (OMK) and TOP 100 (9/100) Women in Supply chain 2021, has 10 years of experience in Supply Chain Management.

Her background includes: SCM and logistics network development, development of SCM processes at large petrochemical and metallurgical enterprises, SCM strategy and cross-functional teams creation and management.

Her current SCM projects include: participation and implementation, including new facilities creation and implementation projects, supply chain design, supply chain optimization, individual business processes modelling, and the implementation of specialized planning and scheduling systems.

I like considering myself a Millennial with almost 20 years of experience. Italian, “friulano”, engineer. I spend a huge portion of my career in operations, starting from operator in assembly to factory director in Electrolux Porcia. In Electrolux Porcia factory we introduced in 2015 an innovative platform of resource management. This experience was fundamental to make the good knowledge owned by few excellent managers available to the whole organisation. In the last 2 years I’ve been leading digital transformation in Operations Europe for Electrolux. Together with my digital team we are connecting the 15 factories in Europe towards new digital experiences. We are either piloting and adopting new technologies and enabling people in becoming more familiar with them.

With an educational background as technical draftsperson, Bachelor of Science in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and her Engineering Diploma in Product Engineering and Management, Cornelia started her early career as project manager in polymer processing for the automotive industry. In 2010, she changed branches when taking off for Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen, where she succeeded in various positions. She has been continuing her professional career at ArianeGroup GmbH since 2017. As team leader and leader of the Smart Devices work group within the company project Factory 4.0, Cornelia is well prepared for her private role as “working mom” of two children.

Holger gained his experience in various roles in R&D and the Supply Chain with one of the biggest multinational FMCG companies. Passionate about manufacturing, he firmly believes that the Supply Chain should be looked at from an end-to-end perspective. At HUBER+SUHNER AG, a manufacturer of electrical and optical connectivity solutions, he is driving the implementation of a global approach across all manufacturing sites worldwide.

Mark Carnaghan is an advocate of best in class leadership management who specialises in developing and implementing employee owned strategies that transform mindsets, ways of working and customer experiences. After a stint in the British Armed Forces as an Infantry Officer Mark has led operational excellence and transformational strategies within the food manufacturing industry for the last 14 years. Most recently he has joined the Eurofins family as MD of their Food and Waters testing business in the UK and Ireland. With an intense interest in Customer Orientation, Information Management and personnel development Mark also supports mentoring programmes at the University of Leeds.

Sven Strassburg is an IBM Industry Solution Architect Lead for Europe. He has both a production and software engineering background. For the last 19 years he been involved in on all aspects of process automation, system integration, production optimisation and IOT focused engagements. Starting 7 years ago he became increasingly involved in connecting the physical world to the digital world, which is now his full time focus within the AI Application division of IBM.

Jesper has delivered organizational footprint and technology strategies within Element design and Mould Manufacturing - establishing Engineering centers in LEGO manufacturing sites in Mexico and Denmark. Responsibilities include delivering innovation to support product development and leading engineering on manufacturing sites. During his work Jesper has profound focus on how IoT can support his visions and enable the future – a true IOT-technology evangelist. Jesper has worked for LEGO in several roles. 1) Responsibility for R&D in Packaging and Processing (Decorations and Assembly) product line. 2) Responsibilities for product development execution for LEGO DUPLO, LEGO Games, LEGO Technic, LEGO Hero Factory - leading development teams through design, sourcing and marketing process from concept to finished product. 3) establishing logistics strategy, delivered turn around results in increasing differentiated services and reducing costs by e.g. outsourcing, consolidating sites and redefining logistic service offering.

Marko Yli-Pietilä is an experienced Digital Transformation professional. Today he is Head of Smart Operations in Stora Enso, which means digitalising operations to improve operational efficiency. Prior to joining Stora Enso, Marko has held international positions for example in Nokia and Teradata, which are leaders in their respective industries of Telecommunications and Advanced Analytics. He has also worked with renewable materials companies and their digitalisation related development programs for years as a Consultant. Marko holds a Licentiate of Technology post-graduate degree and he is also a certified vocational teacher.

Sydney Badger is a twelve-year fashion supply chain and retail veteran, having spent the bulk of her career between Amazon.com and Ralph Lauren. She lives between Shenzhen, China and Seattle, WA where she co-founded Public Habit in 2019. Public Habit is a fashion eCommerce business committed to making only what we sell in order to eliminate textile waste in the fashion industry. They are disrupting the fashion supply chain by flipping the traditional model, starting with customer demand and producing only what is needed. They ship straight from the source and deliver within 2-4 weeks.

Josef Kriegmair works as Representative Production Turbine Blade / Structure Castings at MTU Aero Engines AG in Centre Production. His focus is on developing and implementing digital process chains, CAM/CAM methods, NC simulation solutions, manufacturing intelligence for turbine blades and structure castings. Prior to this, he was in technical procurement, logistics & plant maintenance, production engineering focus technology development for production and maintenance, repair & overhaul at MTU Aero Engines. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering focus Production Technology and a degree in Industrial Engineering focus Project Management and Technology Management.

Jesper has delivered organizational footprint and technology strategies within Element design and Mould Manufacturing - establishing Engineering centers in LEGO manufacturing sites in Mexico and Denmark. Responsibilities include delivering innovation to support product development and leading engineering on manufacturing sites. During his work Jesper has profound focus on how IoT can support his visions and enable the future – a true IOT-technology evangelist. Jesper has worked for LEGO in several roles. 1) Responsibility for R&D in Packaging and Processing (Decorations and Assembly) product line. 2) Responsibilities for product development execution for LEGO DUPLO, LEGO Games, LEGO Technic, LEGO Hero Factory - leading development teams through design, sourcing and marketing process from concept to finished product. 3) establishing logistics strategy, delivered turn around results in increasing differentiated services and reducing costs by e.g. outsourcing, consolidating sites and redefining logistic service offering.

Uwe has more than 25 years experience in the manufacturing environment and with industrial software and automation products. He spent 5 years as an application engineer with Schiess a major manufacturer of heavy machine tool builder before he started to be involved of developing the first Industrial pc´s and the use of pc equipment to control and optimize palletize systems. Prior to Incuity and Wonderware, Uwe has built up the sales area for an engineering company and sold automation solution to all kinds of manufacturing segments. After running his own business Uwe joined Wonderware in 1994 as regional sale manager in the west part of Germany. 1995 he moved to the head quarter in the US to develop the OEM program. In this timeframe Uwe gained also international expirience in Asia. Since 1997 he was leading the sales organization of the German operation including the ERP and Maintenance sales which came through Wonderware in 1999. January 2001 he took over the position as managing director in Scandinavia where he was building up the new entity which was created in April 2001 with a clear focus on adding value to their customers business. In 2003 Uwe became the additional responsibility of the German operation as Managing Director. April 2005 he exepted the position as Director Business Development and Marketing EMEA where he was responsible for extending the established markets and grow new emergency market segments or area. Together with his Marketing manager he developed the marketing strategies for Wonderware in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His primary goal was to grow significant the business in EMEA as well as identifying new potential business segments. Since Jan 2014 Uwe was also appointed to the Chairman of the EMEA board of Mesa International a non profitable association focusing since more than 20 years on Manufacturing. Uwe Kueppers is married and has a son and a daughter.

In 2019, Frank Göller took over the management of the "Digital Production" department with the main task of steering the group-wide digitization activities in production and logistics. Objective and responsibility are orchestrating the restructuring of the IT architecture in production and logistics as well as organizing synergies across all brands and plants in the Volkswagen Group as part of the digital transformation. Frank Göller and his team are therefore the central partner of the brands in the group for the design and control of the digitalization roadmap in production and logistics. This also includes the development of the internal Digital Production Platform (DPP) and the external implementation of a Industrial Cloud with VW and its partners.

Before returning to Volkswagen, Mr. Göller held various managerial positions in industry and consulting. Most recently, he founded and managed the Stuttgart office for the management consultancy ROI AG. Furthermore, he was responsible for various strategy topics and operational implementation programs as a member of management and as managing director in the Festool Group for over 7 years. At the beginning of his professional career, he worked for AUDI AG for 6 years in various production and logistics-related functions. He was then able to enrich and apply this knowledge at McKinsey & Company for over 8 years in various branches of the manufacturing industry. The founding of a start-up in "green energy" business with up to 100 employees as shareholder and COO enlarge his entrepreneurial profile.

Frank Göller's expertise spans between large-scale transformation programs, digital production strategies and organizational development programs. Mr. Göller always emphasizes the importance that people, processes and technology are inseparable and that is what makes a sustainable transformation successful.

I am the Production Unit / Operations Manager for DES (Drug Eluting Stents) Production Unit in Boston Scientific, Galway, Ireland. I lead an organisation of over 620 employees focused on delivering high quality medical devices, supporting annual revenue of $1.5bn with annual operations budget of $180m. Our success is based on a culture of high performance, enabling our teams achieve their goals focused on a common purpose. With over 15 years’ experience, my background in Operational Excellence has enabled me build systems that deliver high customer value through a culture of engagement and excellence. I have an B.Eng. in Industrial Engineering through NUIG, Galway (Ireland) and a MSc in Lean Enterprise through University of Buckingham, UK. In the 15 years of my profession career I have learned, implemented and tested methods of delivering Operational Excellence / Lean in multiple production areas and sites. From 2013 to 2016, I lead the Operational Excellence team of 15 employees in Boston Scientific, Galway in which we developed the sites Operational Excellence strategy in conjunction with the site Leadership Team. The strategy focused on delivering excellent systems based on a Culture of Engagement. In 2015, the People Engagement program commenced using a Rapid Mass Engagement approach. This program enabled the site improve Engagement levels year on year, outstripping benchmark organisations while the site grew from 2500 employees in 2015 to over 4,200 employees today. In the past 4 years I moved into direct Operations Management where I led teams and Production areas from 400 employees to over 600. My background in Operational Excellence and Culture development allowed me to introduce new systems in these areas and truly test both these systems and my ability to lead and own the results “Business and human endeavours are systems… we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system. And wonder why our deepest problems never get solved” (Peter Senge)

Christoph Behler spent the first 28 years of his career in various functions in the areas of technology, marketing, key account and solution business with partners for the international automation business of Mitsubishi Electric Europe for the EMEA area at the European headquarters in Ratingen. During the period from 2005 to 2020 he was also an elected advisory board member of the Profibus user organization and was involved in various industrial associations. Since April 2019 he has been working for the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) in Europe as Business Development Manager and is driving the adoption of CC-Link IE TSN in the European market. This is the first open industrial Ethernet to combine gigabit bandwidth with Time- Sensitive Networking (TSN). He is committed to working with the leading automation providers in Europe and beyond to provide the converged network architectures required for Industry 4.0 to enable the connected industries of the future. His career is based on a degree in electrical engineering and communications engineering.

Josef Kriegmair works as Representative Production Turbine Blade / Structure Castings at MTU Aero Engines AG in Centre Production. His focus is on developing and implementing digital process chains, CAM/CAM methods, NC simulation solutions, manufacturing intelligence for turbine blades and structure castings. Prior to this, he was in technical procurement, logistics & plant maintenance, production engineering focus technology development for production and maintenance, repair & overhaul at MTU Aero Engines. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering focus Production Technology and a degree in Industrial Engineering focus Project Management and Technology Management.

homas Friedli is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer of Management with a special focus on Production Management at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. He is a director at the University’s Institute of Technology Management and leads the division of Production Management. He holds a post-doctoral (habilitation) and doctoral degree in Business Administration from the same university. His main research focus is the management of manufacturing enterprises. His area of expertise is in operational excellence in the pharmaceutical industry, collaboration management, management of industrial services and management of global production. Thomas Friedli is an associate member to the International Academy for Quality (IAQ) and a member of the advisory council of the Swiss Association for Quality and Management Systems (SAQ). He works with the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on quality metrics for pharmaceutical production plants. He is teaching in several executive programs and was a visiting lecturer at the Business school of Bordeaux as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. His publications have appeared in various journals including the International Journal of Production Economics, the Journal of Pharmaceutical Innovation and the International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Christian studied Materials Handling at the University of Applied Science at Erfurt, graduating with a degree in engineering (2002) and later completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree program at the University of Wales, UK (2012). Currently he is enrolled in a Master of Science degree program in Information Technology at the Indiana University Bloomington, USA. From 2003 till 2018 Christian held several leadership roles in Operations, Lean and Supply Chain Management for Grammer, ITW, TRW, Faurecia and Federal Mogul in Europe, Asia and the US. During this time, he was responsible for the setup of two manufacturing plants in Asia as well as more than 15 restructuring projects across the globe. Beside his operational responsibilities Christian was also jointly responsible with the conceptual design and roll out of the Production System for Federal Mogul as well as for TRW. His most challenging project was the setup of a new Just in Time plant in South Korea (2009). “At this time, I was fairly young (29) and put in charge in a culture where it is all about seniority and hierarchical levels. I have done many mistakes, have learned a lot and was successful in the end because of a great team and an inspirational leader”. Christian has a deep technical understanding and a high level of expertise in Production and Supply Chain with modern methods and standards. This expertise he is passing over in form of his lecturing assignments in International Production, Digital Strategies and Lean Management at two technical universities in Germany. Currently, Christian is working for STAEDTLER, a traditional German FMCG manufacturer, where he is responsible for the lean transformation along with the digital agenda for the manufacturing network.

Thirty years industrial experience in the space manufacturing industry. Production Director of the new state of art Thales Alenia Space plant in L’Aquila, mastering Lean, process Improvement, Business Continuity and Industry 4.0., a professional certified APICS CPIM.

Long experience on high mix low volume production in a focused space qualified factory for equipment and Antennas for satellite market Experiences on electronic equipment in several fields and technologies, as SMT, Microelectronic, Hybrids, Substrates, Digital, RF and Power Modules & Equipment and Test Facilities (Shaker, Shock, Thermal Vacuum, EMC), operating in clean room and laboratories Rescue, Relocation and Business Continuity Manager of  Thales Alenia Space Industrial activities after earthquake of 2009 in the center of Italy. New lean layout definion and set-up of Industrial activities in the new plant.

Playdale Playgrounds Ltd. has designed, manufactured and installed over 23,000 playgrounds in over 50 countries around the world for over 40 years. It is a family-owned business based in the North West of England. The family business dates back to 1735 when the Croasdale family began working in the forestry and allied timber trades. It progressed into the playground industry in 1978, when Playdale Playgrounds Ltd. was established. The company prides itself on providing an Experience of high-quality products matched with a high-quality service.  Right through the pandemic the Government Cabinet Office have used Playdale as examples of best practice and the GREAT inspiration campaign featured their pivot product PlayClean.

Barry is CEO of Playdale who are the UK’s leading manufacturer of children’s playground equipment, and has distributers in 50 countries. Playdale have won national Manufacturing and export awards, Barry personally receiving an MBE for services to International Trade on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2017.  In 2018 Barry was named IoD ‘Global Director of the Year’ and ‘Cumbria Business Person of the Year’, featuring in the ‘Telegraph’s Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders’ and ‘The Manufacturer Top 100 people in Manufacturing’, he is currently a Honorary Professor at Lancaster University Management School and former  Chair of the Institute of Directors in Cumbria.

Prof. Dr. Dimitris Kiritsis is Faculty Member at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the School of Engineering of EPFL, Switzerland, where he is leading a research group on ICT for Sustainable Manufacturing. He serves also as Director of the doctoral Program of EPFL on Robotics, Control and Intelligent Systems (EDRS). His research interests are Closed Loop Lifecycle Management, IoT, Semantic Technologies and Data Analytics for Engineering Applications. He served also as Guest Professor at the IMS Center of the University of Cincinnati, and Invited Professor at the University of Technology of Compiègne, the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard and at ParisTech ENSAM Paris. Prof. Kiritsis is actively involved in EU research programs in the area of Factories of the Future and Enabling ICT for Sustainable Manufacturing. He has more than 220 publications. From September 2013 to September 2019 Dimitris was Chair of IFIP WG5.7 – Advanced Production Management Systems. From 2013 to 2017 he was member of the Advisory Group of the European Council on Leadership on Enabling Industrial Technologies – AG LEIT-NMBP. He is also founding fellow member of the International Society for Engineering Asset Management (ISEAM), of various international scientific communities in his area of interests including EFFRA and among the initiators of the IOF (Industrial Ontologies Foundry).

Michelle White, MBA is a ‘fixer’ creating art + science strategies empowering teams to deliver results and lead through change.

After spending more than a decade on business transformation projects, marketing, and product development for multimillion dollar brands, Michelle knows what truly drives change in organizations—and it’s not ignoring the amount or pace of change you know needs to happen.  It’s how well you prepare yourself, your teams and customers for the change ahead with a compelling story.

Cardinal Health, a Fortune 15 company, recruited Michelle 3 years ago. Since then, she has been the driving force behind several major changes for at-Home Solutions, a $2B+ business unit serving more than 3 million customers, 1400 payors, 12000 DMEs annually.

Michelle holds an MBA in Marketing and a BA in Fashion Merchandising from Kent State University.

16 years of experience in planning and implementing industrial, research and transformation projects with technical/disciplinary leadership, of which

- 6 years of experience in acquisition and management of product and process development projects in the areas of automation, computer vision and sensor technology (at WZL of RWTH Aachen University)

- 5 years of experience in strategic, global transformation projects with large production staffs (at Lufthansa LSG Sky Chefs)

- 5 years experience in operational management of a production division with approx. 200 employees/staff, strategic planning and implementation of investment projects and transformation to a culture of continuous improvement (at Vaillant Group)

Erwin Bytebier has more than 20 years international experience in the stainless steel business. He took various management positions in maintenance, production, quality and continuous improvement in different countries. He has the Belgium nationality.  He  spent 7 years of his professional life in foreign countries, like Brasil, Algeria and France. Today, he is since 2017 responsible for Operational Excellence/WCMA for whole Aperam. He is happy married and father of 2 kids, with a challenging sportive mindset. Marathon de Montblanc, The Marmot and the Marc Herremans Triatlon are some of the international events on his palmeres.

After graduating as a Polymer Processing Engineer, Stéphane COUDURIER CURVEUR has equally split his 25 years career between Manufacturing & Engineering, in Operational or Central Functions. First in a UK based plant, Managing Process Development & Production, as a Toyota supplier, where he developed his hands on & lean approach of Technology Efficiency. Then as the Manager of Faurecia Worldwide team of Injection Process/Tool Engineers & Experts, based in China, to establish from this important country supplier of tools, the Excellence level expected by Faurecia. After a brief return back to the floor to recover efficiency of Faurecia Mexican Injection Operation, he is now in charge of leading the full Injection Operation of Faurecia to Excellence & beyond. 850 machines in 53 plants Worldwide, developing a collaborative network between entities to boost knowledge & efficiency, engaged in digital transformation & using successfully Big Data to improve performance & go beyond Excellence.

Electronic Engineer graduated from University of Palermo, 39 years old. 13 years of experience in Manufacturing in 3 different multinational companies. Several positions covered (Quality SPC, Lean coordinator, Production manager, Plant Manager, Industrial Director, Lean and Quality Director) and since 2016 partnership with Pavia University in Lean Production training course. Leading change and people common denominator in each role, combined with a profound belief in lean principles and continuous improvement mindset. In 2016 participation to Master Class in Japan opened my eyes and helped me to better understand the deep meaning of lean manufacturing. Challenging targets always achievable if we inspire the team with a common vision and we communicate a clear strategy to them: well defined indicators translated to all levels of the organization and people empowering is a key point for success. “Take care of your people and they’ll take care of your customers and business”: it is a note sentence in which I strongly believe.