Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Printing Industries of America is proud to announce the 2011 Continuous Improvement Conference--the only conference for the printing and packaging industry that is focused on operational excellence and Lean manufacturing--will be taking place April 10–13 in Kansas City, Missouri. Now in its 22nd year, the 2011 Continuous Improvement Conference will feature a tour of Harley-Davidson and Hallmark factories, two plants that utilize Lean techniques, as well as advanced case studies, a new "how-to" tutorial track, and keynote addresses.

While touring the Harley-Davidson factory, a world-class practitioner of Lean thinking, attendees will see firsthand how the company is using Lean thinking to take advantage of the down economy and build upon its market-leading position when things rebound. Attendees of the Hallmark tour will spot many examples of how the company has developed innovative solutions to cut costs and improve the quality of its production operations.

New to this year's program is the "How-To" Tutorial Track. These sessions teach those new to continuous improvement the basics--spotting waste, implementing 5S, performing a kaizen event, establishing effective standard work, avoiding common reasons for the failure of improvement efforts, and connecting your safety program to continuous improvement.

Case studies will be presented by an assortment of companies to ensure that attendees see the benefits of applying Lean techniques from many angles. Companies include: Hallmark, Huhtamaki, Ovid Bell Press, Japs-Olson Company, H&H Color Lab, and Transcontinental Printing. Also presenting is Sandia National Laboratories, recipient of the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, the first public sector organization ever to win such worldwide recognition.

Keynoting the conference will be John Goodman, vice chairman of TARP Worldwide, and Gwendolyn Galsworth, Ph.D., principal of QMI/Visual-Lean Institute. John Goodman, one of the founders of the customer experience industry, will describe his company’s research on the impact of quality problems on loyalty and word of mouth. Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth will discuss how companies can use visual devices in production to drive higher levels of improvement.