Sewickley, PA, January 16, 2007 -- "Office processes are ripe for improvement with Lean Manufacturing concepts," asserts Beau Keyte, keynote speaker for the PIA/GATF Continuous Improvement Network Annual Conference, April 15–18 in Jacksonville, Florida. Keyte, co-author of the award-winning book, The Complete Lean Enterprise, believes that while printers often begin their Lean journey on the production floor, they only realize the full benefits of Lean when they pay attention to the high costs and lead times of nonproduction office activities. “It may surprise some people, but all of the lean concepts typically applied to production processes also apply to nonproduction and administrative processes. I show companies how to use Lean to attack waste in areas such as estimating, quoting, and accounts payable,” says Keyte. The conference will again feature a series of 10 case studies in which offset and flexographic printers share the intimate details of their quality successes. The case studies focus on the real-life implementation of fundamental concepts such as lean work teams, sustaining improvement gains, value-stream mapping, 5S, and quick response makeready, and more advanced concepts of six sigma, cellular work systems, gage studies, and creating a culture of empowerment. Other sessions will teach attendees how to prepare and conduct a Kaizen (rapid improvement) event, review best practices in project management, share the secrets of how some companies consistently achieve high rates of improvement, and discuss the book Re-energize Your Printing Business. A new addition in 2007 is a special seminar track, organized by the Association for Graphic Arts Training (AGAT), to help companies increase their productivity through efficient education and training. The PIA/GATF Continuous Improvement Network Conference is presented in partnership with the Foundation of Flexographic Technical Association and AGAT. Now in its 17th year, this event helps printers strive for reduced costs and increased excellence in manufacturing and customer satisfaction through the use of quality concepts, philosophies, and tools. Information on the conference and the article 5 Things You Should Know About Quality is available at the conference web page at www.gain.net (visit “Events and Training”) or by contacting Ned Herrick at PIA/GATF at (800) 910-4283 (x712).