Improving Productivity with Today’s Uncertainty

With tariffs and continued economic uncertainty, many businesses and organizations have frozen budgets and are again focused on increasing productivity, improving efficiency, and reducing waste.

IQC — in partnership with PEN and WCPE — is pleased to host an online webinar discussion on Thursday, July 24 “Improving Productivity with Today’s Uncertainty.” The discussion will feature three improvement experts from three large manufacturers, each sharing their approach and best practices to improving productivity and reducing waste:

• Ted Ellefson, Seagate: Using an extensive Lean Six Sigma training program, including brown belt, black belt, and master black belt certifications.
• Dr. Arshad Alfoqaha, IBM: Using a “hybrid Six Sigma” approach, combining design thinking with Lean Six Sigma and deploying champions, external training services and software. Deploying Hybrid Six Sigma (HSS) across five dimensions—Hardware, Software/Firmware, AI, Suppliers, and Clients—to enhance efficiency, reduce development costs and waste, improve quality and reliability, and accelerate time-to-market.
• Dan Maus, General Mills: Using a continuous improvement approach based heavily on Lean and inclusive of the Six Sigma DMAIC approach.

Each speaker will have about 10-12 minutes to share their situation, tools used, and insights gained in improving productivity. They’ll share how they’ve addressed common challenges, such as maintaining momentum, succession planning for experienced trainers, and gaining and keeping leadership support.

Whether you’re in manufacturing, healthcare, education, public, or another sector, this discussion will provide actionable insights to help you improve productivity of your business/organization or team the rest of 2025!

This session is Thursday, July 24 from 8:00-9:00 CT (optional networking and mingling 7:45-8:00) using Zoom MEETING. Grab your coffee and breakfast, and join us for a rich discussion. Free for PEN/WCPE members; $20 for non-members.

Can’t make it live but interested in the content? Register anyway: all registered attendees get a link to the recording after the session!