At the fall meeting of the CEO Council, CEOs heard from peers during the “CEO Spotlight,” a regular part of each council meeting where CEOs share a presentation on something that they feel they do well at their respective companies. 

Among other presenters, Mark Sullivan, president and CEO, North America Inergy Automotive Systems, shared a presentation on the team industrialization process that his company developed.  It is a seven-phase process which utilizes the people who know the company processes in areas of line layout, equipment design, component presentation, work instructions, inventory management, lean processes, ergonomics, safety, etc.  The purpose is to promote employee involvement, creating new production lines with the production team members as part of the launch team.  Questions for Sullivan centered on union acceptance of the process, how employees have or have not embraced the opportunity, and challenges that the company has overcome to fully implement the team industrialization process.

During the member forum, CEOs compared notes on planning volumes for 2012.  The average of the group’s North American planning production volume projections was 13.55 million units.  The high was 15 million and the low was 13 million units. 

CEOs also heard from Ron Harbour, partner, Oliver Wyman, during an “Off The Record” discussion.  Harbour shared a presentation on OEM lean implementation based on assessments at more than 400 assembly plants.  He discussed the importance of driving lean through the supply chain and the hallmarks of successful implementations and stumbling blocks.  He further engaged in a dialogue with CEOs on benchmarking manufacturing performance, developing strategies and improving operations.

The next CEO Council meeting will take place on Jan. 11, 2012, and will include executive tours of the North American International Auto Show.  Membership in the council is open to the most senior executive from OESA regular member companies responsible for North American automotive operations.  For more information, contact Michelle Maki at 248.952.6401 ext. 229 or mmaki@oesa.org.