Launching and leveraging lean manufacturing within the plant and throughout the network. If your organization's goal is to improve overall customer value, increase bottom line savings, deliver quality improvements, drive top-line revenue contribution or all of these, you likely have a lean initiative planned, starting or in process. During this comprehensive week-long training event, you will discover and exercise the practical elements necessary for achieving the objectives set forth by your company.

Hands-On PLC Training Workshop (PLC: Programmable Logic Controllers). Start with basics move on to troubleshooting, then learn the foundations of good PLC programming while writing your first IEC-1131 compliant PLC program.

At the upcoming Manufacturing Performance Management workshop and roundtable series, moderated by MA Editor-in-Chief David Brousell and Executive Editor Jeff Moad, we'll show you how companies use Cognos to increase their visibility and improve performance in areas such as financial management, global supply networks, and sales and operations planning (S&OP).

• Hear industry experts discuss why it's important to manage to "one single version of the truth"
  
• See Cognos customer presentations describing Performance Management journeys
  
• Participate in a Q&A panel

Attendance is complimentary - bring a colleague.

Building on the success of the past three years, the MESA 2008 NA P2E Conference will focus on “Delivering on Strategies” and the new MESA strategic initiatives and guidebooks. Attendees will learn best practices and guidance that detail how plant-wide information systems support five key strategic corporate initiatives – lean manufacturing, quality and regulatory compliance, product lifecycle management, real-time enterprise, and total productive maintenance.

At PLM Road Map 2008 join leading industry analysts from CPDA, key industry players, and front-line implementation experts as they discuss their experiences in addressing strategic PLM topics. Find out about their successes in making technology work by linking it across the whole product lifecycle, the obstacles they encountered on the way, and how they developed strategies to overcome them. PLM Road Map is a strategic conference focused on the critical trade-offs that shape product development. At PLM Road Map 2008, find out first hand which issues are confronting end users. Presentations will cover driving critical parameters across design, frameworks for process transformation, the impact of organizational and cultural constraints, SOA for integration across the full development cycle, transforming CAE into a strategic business initiative, BOM integration across design and manufacturing, mechatronics and embedded software, and more.

Helping organizations to navigate North American border trade regulations and ensure supply chain security, the Customs Town Hall highlights need to know information for the latest challenges and supply chain initiatives impacting the automotive industry. High level speakers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) will present important information on current trade challenges and programs relating to import, export and supply chain security.

Learn what WMS functionality is "key" in today's DC. Discover how to get the most savings out of your WMS and how to justify enhancements to your current information systems. Understand how HighJump Software provides these savings to its customers. See how your Legacy or Best of Breed package can improve to gain greater labor savings, inventory accuracy and more. Filled with case studies and benchmarking information, you can't miss this seminar.

BigIdeas 2008 provides a forum for customers, partners, industry experts, and interested companies to discuss innovative business strategies and best practices to increase revenues, improve sales efficiency and reduce costs.

Every element of Consona Connect is specifically designed to help you revolutionize the way you do business today. From the educational workshops and networking sessions to the hands-on tutorials, one-on-one consulting and roundtable discussions, you and your colleagues will gain a clearer vision of how to respond to your biggest business challenges.

This 2-day course helps finance and operations executives find opportunities for accelerating sustainable cost reductions without creating systemic problems elsewhere in their companies. Attendees learn how to lower the total cost of manufacturing, create working capital, save money by partnering with suppliers, reduce the asset-drain of work-in-progress, reduce procurement costs, improve factory utilization, and more. Taught by Alan G. Dunn, who specializes in manufacturing management, cost management, and business finance and is a former partner at Coopers & Lybrand and a vice president at Gemini Consulting.