Session ID:

VS2-04

n Intermediate

Leveraging Lean to achieve Product Development Excellence
DJO employs lean thinking and the kaizen blitz to win the Product Development Management Association’s Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award

At DJO, Lean and continuous improvement are part of the company culture. Since early 2000, the company has been on-track to becoming a benchmark, world-class manufacturing organization. Using the kaizen blitz approach and through employment of Lean tools and a lot of innovation, the Product Development process at DJO has been transformed from one of frustration and delay to one of near seamless new product integration.

In 2005, DJO released 24 new products, all on time and under budget. All this was accomplished with 30 percent less engineering and technical resources than existed in 2001. Furthermore, Senior Vice President of Global R&D, Rich Gildersleeve and his team were presented with the prestigious OCI Award by the PDMA in 2005. Rich will elaborate on the key techniques and cultural changes that made this happen. Vice President of Operational Excellence, Jerry Wright, will discuss the company’s kaizen culture and how the “core team” product development concept really made a huge difference in project management success at DJO.

DJO is a NYSE listed global medical device company specializing in rehabilitation and regeneration products for the non-operative orthopedic and spine markets. DJO had approximate sales of $412 million in 2006 . DJO has approximately 3,000 employees worldwide. DJO maintains operations in 9 countries and distributes its products and services to over 40 countries.

Rich Gildersleeve, Senior Vice President of Global R&D

Rich Gildersleeve is Senior Vice President of Global R&D at DJO. Throughout his career, Rich has been involved in developing new products and product development processes. His team at DJO earned the Product Development and Management Association’s (PDMA) 2005 Outstanding Corporate Innovator (OCI) award by demonstrating sustained excellence in the development and profitable commercialization of new products and services.

Rich received a BS in Applied Mechanics at the University of California at San Diego and a MS in Mechanical Engineering and a MBA at San Diego State University. He is a licensed professional engineer in the State of California and possesses 17 issued US patents. His book, Winning Business, How to Use Financial Analysis and Benchmarks to Outscore Your Competition, details many business metrics used to improve company performance.  Rich is a board member of the Lean Product & Process Development Exchange (LPPDE).