Session C - Pre-Conference Workshop
Ian Bradbury and Dick Steele on
Quality as a Business Strategy
 

Tony Brown

Biography: Ian Bradbury is currently President of Peaker Services Inc., a 36% ESOP company providing unique prime mover and control system solutions through remanufacture, field service, distribution and custom application of components to industrial customers. Ian acted as trustee for a leveraged transaction establishing the ESOP in 1999. It is ultimately the intent that Peaker Services become 100% employee owned.

He was previously Senior Statistician for Product Engineering in General Motors Powertrain Group, where he jointly led the Powertrain Statistical Network. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor of Statistics at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan and visiting Assistant Professor of Statistics at the University of Texas, Dallas.  Ian accompanied Dr. W. Edwards Deming on many consulting visits to General Motors and has attended, co-facilitated or facilitated numerous Deming 4-day seminars. He is an active member of the W. Edwards Deming Institute and the Greater Detroit area Deming study group, and has served as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Indiana Quality and Productivity Improvement Council and on the Advisory Boards for Kettering University’s Department of Mathematical Sciences and Michigan Technological University’s Applied Mathematics Department.

Ian has a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, an M.B.A. from The University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Statistics from The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England. He has been admitted to the status of Chartered Statistician with the Royal Statistical Society.

Contact: Ian can be reached by e-mail at isb@peaker.com for additional information about this pre-conference session.

Tony Brown

Biography:
Dick Steele founded Peaker Services, Inc. in June of 1971 with two other guys, three service vans and a two-car garage.  Peaker Services, Inc. has two main lines of work: rebuilding the diesel engine that normally goes into locomotives or large boats and designing electrical systems for power control applications.  We have approximately 85 people employed producing about $20 million annual revenue.

Dick became familiar with Dr. W. Edwards Deming in August of 1988 and started his study of the philosophy at that time.  Performance appraisals were eliminated the Monday after getting back from the first of several 4-day Deming seminars.  Dick is a member of the Board of the W. Edwards Deming Institute and is active with the Deming Study Group of Greater Detroit.

Dick has been a board member of Old Kent Bank of Brighton, McPherson Hospital and Habitat for Humanity Huron Valley.  Dick has also served as house leader for 11 homes built by Habitat for Humanity in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor.

Dick has two degrees from Iowa State University, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. Hobbies include mountain biking in the summer and skiing in the winter.

Contact: Dick can be reached by e-mail at dicksteele@aol.com for additional information about this pre-conference session.


Workshop Title: Quality as a Business Strategy

Date: Thursday, April 17th

Length: 3 hours (9:00-12:00pm)

Location: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne - 6633 Canoga Avenue, Canoga Park

Workshop Cost: None

Description: This workshop will provide an overview of Associates in Process Improvement (API)’s Quality as a Business Strategy (QBS). QBS is a template derived from Dr. Deming’s Production Viewed as a System, and as such seeks to integrate:

  1. A foundation of continuous matching of products and services to a need through design and redesign of processes, products and services.
  2. An organization that performs as a system to achieve this matching with the need as a target.
  3. A set of methods whose application will ensure that changes result in real improvement of the organization.

Examples of applying QBS will be provided from Peaker Services. Participants will also work on application of some of the ideas to their own organization.

Target Audience: This workshop is designed for those who wish to help their organization more effectively meet the needs it serves through improved integration of activities.

Organization Issues: Many organizations have invested significant resources in developing mission, vision and beliefs and values statements, system and process models, balanced scorecards, market research, benchmarking, strategic planning and improvement teams. Although value is often perceived by those directly involved within a given activity, the connection to sustained improvement of organization wide results is often questionable.   

Objectives: The workshop will have been a success if participants have gained:

  • An understanding of the five activities of QBS (Purpose, System, Information, Planning and Managing Improvement)
  • An understanding of how to visualize and manage the interactions between these five activities for the organization as a whole
  • Specific ideas for improved integration and application in the participant’s own organization

Workshop Handouts: Available for download