Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Celebrating its 25^thanniversary the 2014 Continuous Improvement Conference is set to providequality management strategies that attendees can use to outperform the competition and boost profits. The 2014 Continuous Improvement Conference, presented by Printing Industries of America, in partnership with Flexographic Technical Association and Specialty Graphic International Association, will be held March 30–April 2 in Dallas, Texas.

The Continuous Improvement Conference started as the Statistical Process Control (SPC) Users Group with its first conference in Dallas in 1990 and is, appropriately, returning to Dallas to celebrate its 25^th year. It is the only industry event focused on helping companies achieve operational excellence by using the concepts of Lean Manufacturing and other management and quality systems.

Presidents, CEOs, COOs, plant managers, production managers, and quality managers consistently link reduced costs, lowered waste, and increased profit margins to ideas gained from the conference presentations and networking.

The 2014 agenda features three breakout tracks: Leadership and Culture, Process and Tools—Advanced, and Process and Tools—Fundamental. All attendees will benefit from Keynote speaker Dale Crownover, president and CEO, Texas Nameplate Company (TNC). In 1998, TNC—with its 60 employees—became the smallest organization to ever win the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Six years later, TNC did it again! He will share how TNC involves every employee and applies ingenious approaches to achieve a competitive advantage and financial stability. 

Keynote speaker Dr. Jeffrey Liker is a professor of industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan and the best-selling author of The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. He’ll be speaking about themes covered in the latest of his nine books, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence Through Leadership Development. He has won multiple Shingo Prizes for Operational Excellence and is in the Association for Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame.

After the conference, attendees have the option of touring several facilities that demonstrate well-developed management and quality practices. This year, attendees will have the option to tour AT&T Stadium, an engineering marvel that has been called the 8th wonder of the world. Additional plant tours will be announced in the coming months.

For registration and hotel information, and for more on the 2014 Continuous Improvement Conference, visit www.printing.org/ciconference.