July 2007
Contents
General Notes
Nashville National IIE Conference Notes
Region VP Message
Kaz IE Notes
General Notes
-
New name for Region that make sense,
Western Region instead of Region 7
-
Check out our Western Region Web
page for updates and past archives
at
http://www.iienet2.org/Chapter/region7/
-
2008 Region Student Conference Host:
Cal Poly San Louis Obispo. Lets
think about 2009 and 2010
Nashville
National IIE Conference Notes
To all those whom I had the pleasure of
meeting in Nashville, thank you for
taking a moment to introduce yourselves
to Kyle and I a few weeks ago in the
music capital of America. Kyle and I
had the pleasure of meeting peers from
Boeing, Intel, UPS, USC, ASU, San Jose
State, Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona,
New Mexico State, USD, U of A and many
others to name a few. Additionally, we
had the privilege to share long strolls
down Nashville’s main boulevard,
Broadway, and visit a multitude of music
clubs ranging from Country Western at
The Whitehorse Saloon, R&B at BB Kings
and Rock and Roll at Tootsie’s to name a
few. Kyle and I also learned a
Nashville phrase, ‘Holler and Swaller’
but I could not bring myself to try a
“Two Step”.
Kyle and I were able to attend the VoLT
(Volunteer Leadership Workshop) which we
were able to present to our National IIE
peers a glimpse of what we have been
doing on the West Coast with technology
which was very well received.
During the conference proceedings we
also presented feedback from all of you
including a recommendation to change our
Region name from Region 7 to something
which folks actually can relate to.
Although various suggestions were tossed
around, the generic ‘Western’ team
concept seemed to stick and is now in
IIE HQ for approval and implementation.
When our suggestion is approved, you
will see our web site and emails change
from region7 or rvp07 to western.
Our National leadership and other Region
IIE peers also spent time reviewing the
efforts we have been making to include
the Members at Large (MAL) into our
community as an enhancement over the
prior MAL model. From the last survey
which IIE pushed out in April/May, the
feedback from the members indicated that
our Western Region satisfaction improved
and several positive comments were heard
from you indicating that we were on the
right track. For Dan, Kyle, Michael,
Sarah and I, that confirmed what we
‘felt’ with good IE quantifiable data
but we still feel that we have continued
opportunities to provide value to our
IIE members.
We also had opportunities to attend
various IE sessions and view the vendor
floor. I enjoyed nearly all of the
sessions (one was to formula driven for
my tastes) presented by several of our
peers. One of my favorites was a
presentation on using Value Stream
Mapping to optimize facility layouts.
In brief, it presented an approach to
‘lean’ out the operation using VSM and
Spaghetti charts prior to figuring out
the future expansion layouts. The
examples used ranged from a small 3
person work cell to a city bakery.
Maybe I can get the speaker (who I have
now started a friendship with due to the
conference) to present one of our WebEx
presentations.
For those who have never been to a
National IIE conference, I would
encourage you to put a placeholder in
your FY08 plans as an opportunity to
become exposed to various IE concepts
presented by great speakers and as an
opportunity to network with your fellow
IE’s. Next May it will be held in
Vancouver, Canada which should be very
enjoyable. Although Vancouver is in the
Canadian Region, it has very close ties
with our Seattle, Washington IIE peers
and I expect that we may be extending a
helping hand across the board as details
come closer.
Message from the Region Vice President
As commented on in the general notes,
our 2008 Western Region Student
Conference is being planned for Cal Poly
San Louis Obispo or SLO. For those who
have not been to SLO, it is an
absolutely beautiful location midway
between LA and SF near the Pacific
coast. Along with the famous Hearst
Castle, Morrow Bay, wineries and a
benchmark Thursday night street fair,
Cal Poly SLO has an equally beautiful
campus. Your AVPSD’s are working with
the SLO leadership to develop the
program which promises to be excellent
and I would encourage you to put a
placeholder in your FY08 budgets to
attend.
The conference is scheduled to take
place during the first weekend in March.
Your AVPSD’s are working with the SLO
leadership to develop the program which
promises to be excellent and I would
encourage you to put a placeholder in
your FY08 budgets to attend.
Conference updates are available at
http://iie7news.blogspot.com
(or iieWest.blogspot.com if we decide to
go with that).
As our 2008 student conference is in the
works, I would like to present the idea
that we open suggestions for the 2009
and 2010 conferences. If you are
interested in hosting, please contact
use for next steps.
There has also been some discussion on
hosting a Western Region conference with
several suggesting Las Vegas. Although
Vegas would most likely be very willing
to host us, it would limit our student
participation and require us pushing
virtual logistics further since there is
no Sr. Chapter. But since a few of our
peers have mentioned it to me, let me
toss it out there. If you are
interested in pulling together a
conference in Vegas for 2008, 2009 or
2010, drop me a note. I actually think
it would be a great opportunity to use
the Vegas conference as a reason to make
it more of a MAL production to invite
anyone to attend.
Kaz IE Note: None this article
Feedback from my first attempt at “Kaz
IE Notes” was very positive so I guess
unless you tell me “enough already”, I
will continue but let me wait until our
next newsletter so I don’t make this
into a mega document.
