Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Conference Day 1

Conference Welcome

Geoff Neiley, Conference Chair, LPPDE

Keynote: Evolving A.O. Smith’s Study Phase

Marcos Esterman, Enterprise Excellence Manager, Product Design Engineering at A. O. Smith Corporation

In this presentation, Marcos will share some of the challenges and key learnings when evolving their study and scope phase which involves a lot of knowledge gathering and creation. This is about focusing on gathering existing knowledge, defining knowledge gaps and creating new knowledge to accelerate the phase.

 Marcos Esterman has over 30 years of combined experience in industrial and academic settings His passion is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of product development so that the amazing innovations developed by technologists reach the communities that need them. He is an expert in product development and complex systems engineering. At A.O. Smith, Marcos is responsible for the development, deployment, and support of the product development process. Prior to joining A.O. Smith, Marcos served on the faculty of the RIT Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, where his research contributions included: The Integration of Lean Principles with Systems Engineering, Sustainable Development, Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development, Community Engaged Design, and Medical Device Innovation. Marcos’ previous industry experience includes General Electric Medical Systems and Hewlett-Packard. His analysis work at HP enhanced design and product architecture decision-making.

Networking Break

Digital Lean: Going Beyond the Factory Floor

Sean McAuliffe, Director of Product Management at Shop Your Way (SYW)

How do you transform how your teams work? Not just what they deliver. Most transformation efforts focus on process, but the focus should be on people. No amount of Agile frameworks, OKRs, or quarterly plans can fix a culture where teams don’t feel safe, engaged, or empowered.

We need to work more with leadership, alignment & coaching and define the future culture you’re building (not just the one you’re escaping). Sean will share some of his deep knowledge and experience in this presentation.

 Sean McAuliffe has helped organizations shift from process-heavy transformation to true cultural change rooted in Lean principles. By focusing on leadership behavior, psychological safety, and adaptive teaming, he build high-trust, high-performance cultures that move fast, learn faster, and deliver real outcomes. Sean has a long experience as product owner in diverse industries.

Improving our LPPD system

Jeswin Jeyasurya, Senior Product Development Engineer at Trudell Medical International

Jeswin attended last year’s LPPDE NA 2024 conference to gain more knowledge and experience about LPPD. With a clear view of the problems he is facing in his day to day business in his current area of practice Jeswin went about transforming the way of working to the better using LPPD. He will tell us about his journey, the initial successes and failures and specially about all the learning they have gained.

 Jeswin Jeyasurya is an experienced project engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the biomedical industry. He has experience with new medical device development, product development from design to manufacturing, designing and conducting clinical trials, intellectual property development, writing and publishing scientific papers detailing research, SolidWorks, and Matlab. Jeswin is a strong research professional with a Master of Applied Science focused in Assistive Robotics from The University of British Columbia.

Learning Session

Reflection, teach back of key takeaways, and summarize key learnings

Networking Lunch – Open Space

A People Centric Approach to Doing the Thing Right

Bengt Johansson, Lean Agile Coach at Lean Peak Solutions

In the dynamic landscape of today's market, innovation is the lifeblood that ensures not just survival but the ability to flourish and lead. Let’s have a look at a game-changing strategy: leveraging the transformative power of continuous learning, training, and skills development to fuel the organization's innovative edge.

 Envision a workforce that not only has the skills but also the courage to break new ground and pioneer industry-changing ideas. This is the power of a commitment to ongoing professional advancement that ignite creativity, equipping the team with the latest in technology and problem-solving skills, turning potential into reality.

 Continuous learning is at the heart of our approach, creating an environment where innovation is constant. Investing in the team means investing in the future, fostering engagement, loyalty, and a reputation for innovation.

 Bengt Johansson has spent his entire working life at ASSA ABLOY and has seen the company grow to a global champion. Bengt has been working around 25 years with product development in different roles, production engineering, through quality management and product development. The latest 15 years Bengt spent in ASSA ABLOYs Lean Innovation program where he has been the Global Lean Innovation Manager the latest 6 years.

Accelerate Knowledge : Accelerate Innovation

Geoff Neiley, Rapiscan Systems

Innovation is the engine that drives growth, progress, and transformation. Whether it’s the development of groundbreaking products or the refinement of existing processes, innovation plays a critical role in shaping the future. At the heart of every innovation lies knowledge—both the knowledge we already possess and the knowledge we continuously create. The faster we can access and generate this knowledge, the faster we can innovate, adapt, and lead.

In today’s fast-paced world, the ability to quickly tap into relevant information and insights is more important than ever. Organizations and individuals alike are seeking ways to accelerate their learning, improve collaboration, and stay ahead of the curve. But how do we do that effectively? What tools, strategies, and communities can help us unlock the full potential of our collective knowledge?

Geoff Neiley has been in the mechanical engineering field for 30 years. After graduating from the University of Maine, Orono, he learned much about the custom equipment business at NESLAB Instruments designing water chilling systems. Following this he spent 15 years working for BTU International where he designed and lead projects for conveyorized furnaces using in the electronics and solar industry. During this time, he earned his master’s in mechanical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. It was at BTU where Geoff began to see the value of concurrent engineering. Geoff joined AS&E in 2011 where he led the mechanical team to introduce state-or-the-art x-ray products for the security market. Three years after joining AS&E (now Rapiscan Systems) in 2011, the leadership team introduced the concept of Lean Product Development. Geoff joined the leadership team reading many Lean PD books, inviting Lead PD practitioners to AS&E and attending LPPDE for several consecutive years. AS&E has roundly embraced the concurrent engineering aspects of Lean PD focusing greatly of Set-Base Innovation and cross-functional collaboration with our supply chain and manufacturing team. In 2022, Geoff took the role of Director of Continuous Product Improvement and Configuration Management. In his new role, he continues to leverage his learning from 8-years for practicing LPPD. Geoff has been a member of the board of Lean Product and Process Development Exchange since 2019. Today he is still learning and experimenting with lean processes and enjoys the pride felt in enabling a cross-functional team to achieve challenging, rewarding goals.

Networking Break

Lean Development with AI

Larry Navarre, Instructor of Business at Kettering University

The basis of Lean Product and Process Development comes from the studies of Toyota from 1995-2005 by Allen Ward, Durward Sobek, Jim Morgan, Jeff Liker and Mike Kennedy. These have been applied in different extent in western companies focusing on the main principles;

• Focus on creating usable knowledge
• Eliminate waste
• Synthesize knowledge into trade-off curve pages
• Lead with entrepreneur system designers
• Create teams of responsible experts
• Practice set-based innovation
• Create flow

and methods like knowledge briefs, A3-reports, trade off curves, visual management, chief engineer and much more. But what about agile, digitalization, machine learning and AI?

Larry will give us a taste of the future. What was impossible yesterday is already happening...

Larry Navarre is a full-time Lecturer at Kettering University teaching courses in innovation development, supply chain management, project management, and business analytics since 2008.  Larry has earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Kent State University (Kent, Ohio) and a Master of Science in Management degree from Purdue University's Krannert Graduate School of Management (West Lafayette, Indiana).  Larry has 20 years of management experience in the steel, machinery, and plastics industries.  His management responsibilities have spanned from Production Supervisor to Director of Global Product Management and Asian Operations. He has worked internationally with customers, suppliers, and colleagues in 20 countries.  Larry is also a managing owner of two family-owned small businesses managing commercial real estate.

Developing Teams of Responsible Experts: Bringing Forth Knowledge in People

Andy Wagner, Process Engineer, BCA Future Production System at Boeing

Andy Wagner, Process Engineer, BCA Future Production System at Boeing – Developing Teams of Responsible Experts: Bringing Forth Knowledge in People

The presentation will focus on how you develop teams of responsible experts. "I confess that I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much in-determined and unpredictable, to a pretense of exact knowledge that is likely to be false." - Friedrich Hayek

Andy Wagner has been a student of aerospace production systems for his entire career, striving to understand their technical, business, and human aspects, and how the unique aerospace context influences their performance. A sponge for ideas in this domain, Andy is continually testing approaches against the lens of his current and past work to find novel and hybrid solutions to persistent problems.

• 8+ Years leading automation, producibility and process improvement teams and initiatives
• 12+ Years in manufacturing-technical functions, (process engineer, manufacturing engineer, and quality engineer)
• 17+ Years of collaborative Design-Build engineering experience in aerospace
• Lead, coach, and mentor continuous improvement and integration between engineering and manufacturing
• Focused on understanding problems and root causes to drive meaningful solutions

Networking Break

Accelerating Learning with Toyota Kata

Peter Palmér, Senior Strategist and Business Developer at TRATON

Toyota Kata was first defined by Mike Rother in his 2009 book with the same name.

The book describes how Toyota uses the martial arts practice of kata to get the essence of how they manage continuous improvement through the improvement kata and coaching kata.

This is a practical training of the basics also known as “the Kata puzzle” or “Kata in the classroom”. It´s a fun practical exercise you can bring home and run yourself.

Peter Palmér has extensive experience in lean management in both production and product development, as well as experience of leadership in other cultures. With 18 years of experience within production, engineering and quality followed by 20 years in various management positions in product development Peter has many stories to tell. Since the beginning of the 1990es he has been closely involved with the Scania Way development journey both in Sweden and South America.

He is a frequent speaker at international and national conferences on the subject of LPD and leadership. Peter has been working closely with LPPDE since the organization's start 2008 including seven years on the LPPDE board with a second period started 2023. Through LPPDE Peter has organized and chaired or co-chaired many conferences in Europe and in the US. Since the end of 2020 he chairs the monthly LPPDE Virtual Summits, a four-hour learning exchange with four different speakers. He is a member of various LPD-networks and has co-developed LPD training courses with Chalmers Professional Education and The KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Learning Session

Reflection, teach back of key takeaways, and summarize key learnings

Networking Buffet

The knowledge exchange continues under relaxed conditions