5 Key Benefits
The benefits of an AME Conference are many, but probably the most rewarding ones are personal. In fact, it is the personal experience that is a large part of what puts the AME Conference over the top, and gives it an average rating of over 95% customer satisfaction as the best Lean learning experience. There are countless new insight "aha" and "that's funny" discoveries that set innovative thinking into motion. And the new Lean thinking and insight you gain at the conference will likely result in saving your organization time and money.
These are probably the top five benefits and reasons for coming to the AME Conference and experiencing Lean excellence learning at its best.
1. Practitioner-to-practitioner learning.
What a difference a day makes when you are hearing other practitioners describe their best practices in action. People who have endured the same challenges of putting change into action as you have. When you are on a Lean journey, working with Lean advisors and coaching experts provides a great deal of support, but you cannot beat learning from those who actually do the doing. There is nothing like the sharing that a fellow practitioner can provide. Be it from a keynote speaker, a presentation or a tour, our conference attendees always tell us they benefit most from learning about Lean from peers who are passionate about how they achieved success - warts and all. They will tell you about the good, the bad and the ugly, and how they managed everything along the way. AME's practitioner-to-practitioner conference-based learning provides the highest practical value at the lowest practical price, for a first-rate Lean learning experience:
At least, that's what our over 95% customer success rate tells us.
2. A trusted reliable source for Lean information.
The Association for Manufacturing Excellence is a not-for-profit volunteer-based organization. The benefit this provides a conference attendee is the assurance that there is no hidden agenda. Our sole purpose is to provide our attendees with a solid, jam-packed, practical and reliable source of Lean learning ... Period !!!
We are not exclusive. We are an inclusive association of volunteers, with a passion for excellence. We are here to help fellow manufacturing practitioners gain more knowledge about how to do things better. We scour the world for best and leading-edge practices and for manufacturers who will share what they have learned by making presentations, or by opening up their plant doors for visiting practitioners to come and take a closer look at excellence in action. That is exactly how they learned to think Lean, by observing others' best practices at an earlier AME Conference presentation or a plant tour. And now they want to help you and others, by giving something back, by providing you with a reliable source to learn about new ways to save time, effort and money. AME Conferences provide you with fresh, new ideas and the motivation you need to move from good to great.
3. Networking around Lean thinking and best practice sharing.
Building a social network of like-minded people is an important part of the Lean journey. AME has been helping people to do this for decades. AME Conferences are noted for providing opportunities to build a personal network of Lean practitioners who love to share their common passion for excellence. Those who are new to the conference will appreciate the immediate rewards of networking at the conference, and over time come to appreciate the long-term rewards gained by being part of the largest and richest Lean learning networking family.
For many, networking at AME Conferences is like a family reunion - they get together once a year and share how they are doing on their Lean journeys. They learn from each other, one-to-one, and connect to those who are in the know, have experienced ups and downs when applying Lean and have the desire to share their knowledge of the world of excellence. AME people are very giving and they exchange business cards openly. AME is a catalyst for building personal learning relationships that extend well beyond the conference - new relationships with people from around the world who are in the know about the need to share Lean and best practices.
4. Compacted accelerated Lean-learning experience.
The AME Conference provides a compressed experience, jam-packed with so much Lean learning that you will be hard-pressed to absorb it all. In three full days, you will learn more about Lean than you would in a lifetime of trying to apply Lean without support. Without a concentrated learning experience, you risk moving too slowly to make a difference. Effective Lean requires quick action, based on a solid understanding of customer-driven proven processes. When you come to an AME Conference, you are dramatically accelerating your knowledge of Lean. And that translates into fast-tracking solutions that will help you implement the lessons of your peers by building on the successes they made along their journeys.
This conference provides the most powerful way to gain an unbelievable amount of knowledge in this short a time. Who knows, you may be one of those who recoups your investment within days of returning home and applying the practical knowledge that you learned. Many companies realize just how valuable the right kind of learning can be. At past conferences, many have brought more than 20 people from their companies, in order to super-compress their learning experience. Why? Because the more people you have who are knowledgeable and inspired, the faster you will travel along your Lean journey. Experience shows that accelerating your Lean learning will prove to be a huge return on that investment.
5. Practical Lean learning you can borrow with pride.
You learn proven, practical solutions at AME Conferences. You can take plant tours and see the great strides made by companies who have applied Lean. You can go to Value Stream presentations that show how innovative yet practical thinking can transform complex processing challenges. You can catch the pre-conference and post-conference Workshops, and gain insight into new ways of applying Lean. That gives you great lessons you can assess and immediately apply to your place of business. Maybe you will not have to re-invent the wheel after all. Practical learning leads to practical, applicable Lean thinking that can be implemented easily and immediately. It is a tremendous benefit to be able to see what has been tested, measured and verified by others. We used to call this "Stealing with pride", but we think "Borrowing with pride" is more appropriate. And we encourage you to do so. It is one of the biggest AME Conference benefits - practical knowledge you can borrow and apply to your own companies to make a difference. Invest wisely and move from good to great.
