Sunday, April 17, 2016

5:00 p.m. Welcome Reception & Exhibits

Monday, April 18, 2016

7:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast

8:15 a.m. Welcome

City of Fredericton & Province of New Brunswick

8:45 a.m. Panel Discussion: Changing Expectations of Government

Panelists: Mayor Brad Woodside, Janice Baker, and Edith Doucet

Moderator: Darren Murphy

Our three member panel will draw upon their individual perspectives and experiences to discuss and debate the knowledge and skills required of current and future public sector employees, the management practices required today in government to sustain infrastructure and build resilient communities, the changing expectations of the public, and the citizens’ ability to pay for these changes.

10:15 a.m. Break & Exhibits

10:45 a.m. Plenary Session- Integrating Asset Management and Lean Six Sigma – The Next Generation in Optimizing the Management of Municipal Infrastructure

Speakers: Tina Tapley Jones and Dr. Guy Félio

The new approach to managing municipal infrastructure, most often referred to as “asset management” has been evolving for a number of years amongst municipalities and other governmental agencies in Canada.  In recent years new challenges, such as resiliency and adaptability to climate extremes, have added to the issues that need to be addressed.  Some municipal /agency infrastructure owners have matured, gaining experiential knowledge and successfully introducing asset management practices within their organization.

One of the issues facing even the most successful organizations is the issue of “willingness to pay” by the customers i.e. ratepayers and taxpayers.  These customers desire a high level of service provided by core infrastructure systems but resist paying more.  The backdrop to this is the customer expectation that a municipality providing these services will find efficiencies, or perhaps more to the point, will eliminate inefficiencies in the system operations before there is a price increase.  The next step in the process of evolving asset management practices in a municipal organization is to find these efficiencies.

The City of Fredericton has been highly successful in introducing asset management practices into the organization.  They have also been engaged in introducing Lean 6 Sigma methodology to find operational efficiencies within the overall City.  This workshop will explore the integration of these two methodologies and will demonstrate that this may well be the next generation of optimal management of municipal infrastructure.

11:45 a.m. Lunch & Exhibits

1:00 p.m. Cops & Kaizens—Applying Lean Ideology in the Winnipeg Police Service

Speaker: Chris Puhach

This presentation focuses on the unique application of Lean ideology in the Winnipeg Police Service and how it was used to support a strategy to increase employee engagement and enhance service delivery.   Chris will share real examples on how to engage your people, capitalize on their strengths, and empower them to create a culture of continuous improvement.   You will hear how the Evidence Control Unit (ECU) of the Winnipeg Police Service incorporated Lean ideology to address high inventory levels, lack of storage space and escalating overtime costs.  

Attendees will gain an understanding of how a traditionally private sector business model can be used in a public sector organization; learn how defining strategy, identifying goals and defining expectations can improve service delivery; learn how purpose-driven leadership can influence culture, empower the workforce and improve morale.; acquire knowledge on how Lean can improve efficiency, effectiveness and deliver cost savings; and earn how the Winnipeg Police Service is expanding this methodology into other areas of the organization.

1:00 p.m. P3 as a Way to Build and Replace Assets

Speakers: Fred Blaney

As public sectors face the increased demand for enhanced service delivery and reduced resources, it is important that jurisdictions employ any approach or model that will provide this.  The P3 model, when properly applied, brings to the table the discipline of the private industry and the dynamic of innovation in the competitive market. This, combined with the partnership of governments, creates an opportunity for success and early delivery of an asset or service.

Over the past 30 years Canada has been in the forefront of P3 project development and delivery. Since the early days of the Confederation Bridge, the model has continuously evolved and improved from project to project. Canada is now recognized internationally has having a “best in class” approach, that has resulted in hundreds of projects being delivered on time, on budget, claim free, and providing value for money to the citizens.

In this journey, New Brunswick has been a leader having been in the space for the last 25 years. From the early days of the Fredericton-Moncton Highway Project to the recent Saint John Clean Drinking Water Project the lessons learned have been carried forward and the model and approach continuously improved.

This presentation will highlight the key success factors and the best practices in the market today to ensure successful identification, development and implementation of a project.  By their nature P3 projects follow disciplined processes and are continuously improving based on industry consultation. While not a panacea, P3’S are a proven approach to solve infrastructure deficit and service challenges.

2:10 p.m. Using ROI to Demonstrate Benefits of Lean – A Case Study of the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services

Speaker: Morteza Zohrabi

In 2012 the Ministry of Community and Social Services undertook a Lean review of its transfer payment management process, identifying 19 changes to streamline and simplify the process. This presentation outlines the project and uses it as a case study to apply a Return on Investment methodology to calculate the benefit of the changes. Through this case study, participants will be introduced to a methodology for applying a Return on Investment lens to change initiatives, focusing on time and used resources in the project, the cost of the project and monitoring tangible and intangible outcomes.

This presentation will review the five levels of needs assessment, measurement strategies and target setting based on the V Model.  The presenter will share available calculations for the ROI assessment and a template of the V Model, giving participants a better understanding of the ROI methodology and its application.

2:10 p.m. The Envision® Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System—A Paradigm Shift for the Design of Sustainable Infrastructure

Speakers: Brian Bylhouwer and Eric Dunford

The Envision® Rating System is a comprehensive infrastructure planning tool that facilitates sustainable design for all types of infrastructure, from roads to pipelines and all infrastructure in between. Envision® is a framework for planning, designing and constructing projects that incorporates the needs of communities to achieve a higher quality of life, while protecting valuable environmental resources. Envision® is also an objective platform for justifying design decisions based on a triple bottom line approach.

Brian and Eric will explain how Envision® is used as a planning framework for evaluating infrastructure projects during their design and construction, and can be used on different scales, from a simple sewage lift station to the design of a full-fledged wastewater treatment plan.   This presentation will provide the audience with a succinct overview of the Envision® framework, how it came to be, how it is deployed, and how it improves upon the conventional approach to designing infrastructure in North America. Presenters will also work directly with the actual rating system to give attendees a firsthand view of how Envision® can be used to influence the design process.

3:10 p.m. Break & Exhibits

3:40 p.m. Meaningful Metrics for Municipalities to Drive Improvements Using Value Stream Mapping

Speaker: Dale Schattenkirk

Today’s municipalities understand the need to use data and information to drive decision making for quality improvement initiatives and day-to-day operations. This workshop will walk participants through the steps to create a system value stream map for their municipality and how to build a comprehensive, yet highly functional, metrics system. The presentation will then tie together the metrics system, quality board huddles, quality improvement projects and system transformation.

These connections will show participants that they cannot be a world class organization without having a comprehensive yet uncomplicated measurement system to identify how well the organization is performing and where its primary opportunities lie. This presentation will use case studies from a large city (Ottawa) a smaller city and a county to ensure all participants understand how this methodology will work in their environment.

Participants will leave with a knowledge of:

  • How to identify the number one measure for their municipality;
  • How to identify and capture cascading metrics;
  • How to build a data matrix to capture key performance indicators;
  • How to identify the five key measures in each Value Stream Bucket;
  • How to build a system Value Stream Map; and
  • How to engage your complete organization in the exercise.

3:40 p.m. Implementation of a Large Scale Infrastructure Asset Management Program at the NB Department of Transportation and Infrastructure

Speaker: Ahmed Dassouki

The New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (NBDTI) deploys more than $150M of projects per year using its in-house Asset Management System (AMS) for highways, bridges, culverts and buildings.  This presentation will provide an overview of asset management at NBDTI including:

  • an overview of the Asset Management System, its scope and objectives;
  • the components of Asset Management System;
  • the asset management decision framework related to the acquisition, maintenance and divestiture of assets;
  • the modelling process (mathematical and computer models) including objective functions, scenarios and data collection;
  • data collection, interaction and use including videos, engineering data, field data;
  • the process for building and adjusting the plan;
  • continuous improvement of the plan, i.e. how assets are tracked, logged and brought into the AMS;
  • communication and getting buy-in; and
  • lessons learned and next steps.

6:00 p.m. Maritime Down East Night

Location: Delta Fredericton Hotel – Transportation will be provided from the Crowne Plaza Fredericton Lord Beaverbrook Hotel to the Delta Fredericton Hotel

Experience the East Coast with a lobster feast and Atlantic Canadian music performed by Frantically Atlantic Entertainment.  A portion of the evening will be interactive and guests will be invited to play along on supplied drums and spoons and take part in a traditional barn dance!

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

7:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m. Day 1 Recap

Murray Jamer –  Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, City of Fredericton and Summit Chair

8:45 a.m. Keynote- Unlocking the Power in Bottom-up Ideas

Speaker: Dr. Alan G. Robinson

After years of being asked to do more with less, government leaders at all levels are increasingly aware that they can no longer produce the results that are expected of them with the methods they currently use. A big part of the solution for them lies in tapping an enormous resource most governments have so far largely ignored – the ideas of their front-line staff.  Because they are the ones doing the work, front-line employees see a great many problems and opportunities that their managers don’t. They have plenty of ideas to cut costs, streamline processes, manage their organizations’ assets better and improve productivity and service levels. But most organizations today do far better at suppressing these ideas than promoting them. As Dr. Robinson will explain, some eighty percent of an organization’s potential for improvement lies in front-line ideas. When managers gain the ability to implement twenty, thirty or even fifty ideas per person per year, everything changes – for them, for their organizations, and for the people they serve.

10:00 a.m. Break & Exhibits

10:30 a.m. Performance Excellence – Driving Organizational Improvement within the Government of New Brunswick

Speaker: Jane Washburn

New Brunswick’s public service has undertaken a profound cultural change that has increased efficiency and accountability, improved services to the public, streamlined administration and seen continuous improvements across all government departments and agencies. Participants will learn how a diverse public sector organization with approximately 45,000 employees is achieving success by applying Lean Six Sigma and proven business practices to public sector management.   Jane will present GNB’s Formal Management System (FMS), comprised of five key elements, and explain how this framework was critical in driving strategic improvement within GNB.  

By aligning improvement activity with vision and strategy, identifying and monitoring key performance indicators, leveraging LSS methodology and engaging employees at all levels of the organization in continuous improvement efforts, GNB has realized over $36 million in hard cost savings, experienced significant program and service delivery improvements and achieved business improvement results.

The presentation will include profiles of several of the most noteworthy and unique process improvement initiatives, including examples of LSS project successes (using the 21 step DMAIC approach), Kaizen events, 5S Initiatives, Waste Walks and deployment of Daily Management.

10:30 a.m. Developing your Local Government Asset Management Plan – Case Study of the City of Miramichi

Speakers: John Murray and Gabe Metron

This session will demonstrate techniques, approaches and benefits that communities can take away in order to develop and maintain industry best practice asset management plans and programs.  By adopting a holistic and system-focused approach, that includes comprehensive financial analysis, prioritization techniques, risk modeling and the inclusion of all asset categories, the City of Miramichi, New Brunswick produced an asset management plan that achieved communication and exposure to Council of critical infrastructure issues.  This presentation will:

  • Demonstrate how to develop an asset management plan, through a systematic process, that includes all of the infrastructure categories a municipality owns;
  • Showcase the key sections within an asset management plan (state of the infrastructure, desired levels of service, asset management strategy and financial strategy) and will highlight the information in each section through the actual plan completed for the City of Miramichi;
  • Showcase the key Council and public communication tools that can be created and used as part of the asset management plan process; and
  • Highlight the community benefits realized with better asset management planning, that builds the foundation for long term sustainability of public services.

11:30 a.m. Lunch & Exhibits

12:30 p.m. Implementing Lean:Six Sigma at the City of Fredericton

Speakers: Ann Flynn and Madeleine Lamothe

City staff, in partnership with the City’s LSS training consultant, will provide participants with an overview of how the City of Fredericton implemented Lean/Six Sigma within their organization.  Ann and Madeleine will take participants on a journey from the early days of researching the LSS methodology and understanding its application and benefits, to today – where we have:

certified staff in all Departments on the Black Belt and Green Belt methodology;

trained staff in all Departments on how to conduct “waste walks”;

carried out 65+ projects over a 3 year period;

planned and delivered “Idea Generation Week” for the first time in 2015; and

rolled out “Daily Management” and “Leader Standard Work” throughout all Departments.

Participants will gain an understanding of one municipality’s methodology for introducing LSS and the challenges and opportunities this presented, including why the City chose the LSS model to drive efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery, how LSS was first introduced to the organization, how the City got buy-in from City Council, senior management and staff, and the various phases of implementation.

12:30 p.m. The Importance of Organizational Culture in Achieving your Asset Management Goals

Speaker: Nick Larson

Asset management often acts as an innovative disruptive force to improve the ability of a municipality to achieve its goals.  However the implementation of an asset management processes can be met with resistance in municipalities because it can easily become a business of shame.  It shines light in places that some people would rather leave dark.  It shows people, often with hard evidence, that they can be doing their job better.  It encourages taking risks in organizations that often have a culture where it is better to make no decision rather than risk making the wrong one. So how do we combat this in an organization?  Join us for an honest conversation to explore some ideas to help make sure that asset management is successful in achieving the goals of your municipality by establishing the appropriate organizational culture.

1:40 p.m. Effective Process Management—A Lean Manager’s Toolbox

Speaker: Rod Morgan

Lean in the public sector has garnered a lot of attention over the past decade.  Those experienced in Lean stress that a committed senior leadership team is key to a successful and sustained deployment.  Of equal importance is the need for a strong operational foundation.  Rod will introduce participants to effective process management and six key tools that every manager should be employing in their day-to-day operations to drive high performance teams.

It is generally accepted that an organization is only as good as its processes and its people.  This presentation will encourage managers to expand their view of their role in overall process effectiveness and efficiency, and start to leverage “voice of the process” to take their team’s performance to the next level.  Session participants will gain a better understanding of why effective process management is not only essential in providing high value services to customers, but key to the success of any Lean continuous improvement strategy.

1:40 p.m. The Alignment Refinement – Using Strategy and the “Big Picture” to Get the Most From Your Asset Management Program

Speaker: Ross Homeniuk

Managing our public infrastructure is a growing challenge for all of us.  News of aging assets, greater demands for service, and the changing environment is a regular occurrence.  Faced with these new realities and growing financial pressures, cities, utilities and public agencies must balance current and future requirements while living within their means.  While many are looking to their asset management program to help better plan for and overcome these challenges, many are struggling to focus the efforts of finance, engineering and operations in advancing their programs to support sustainable service delivery.

This session will show participants how to fine tune their asset management program, align it with organizational service and sustainability objectives, target and maximize the value and impact of infrastructure investment, and better plan for and manage shifting needs, challenges and constraints.  The positioning of programs and improvement initiatives to address asset management business drivers, such as risk management, financial reporting, audit outcome and changes to Federal and Provincial grant funding programs will also be discussed.

2:40 p.m. Break & Exhibits

3:10 p.m. Export Development Canada’s Lean Journey

Speaker: Dominique Bergevin

Participants will have an opportunity to hear about Export Development Canada’s Lean journey which started back in 2007 and is continuing to evolve today, now focused on establishing a systemic approach to Lean maturity.  This session will include:

  • background on EDC’s Lean journey
  • the 5-year strategic plan for Operational Excellence and
  • an exploration of both the bottom-up and top-down approach to Lean sustainability
  • Export Development Canada’s systemic approach to measuring and progressing the corporation’s Lean maturity
  • Dominique’s experience in experimenting with Appreciative Inquiry as a way to keep people engaged and energized through the Lean journey.

4:10 p.m. Plenary Session – Recap and Close-Out

Murray Jamer,  Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, City of Fredericton and Summit Chair