Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Conference Day 2

Marcos Esterman, Conference co-chair LPPDE – Welcome back and reflection

Marcos Esterman opens the second day with reflections on the learnings from the first day. As always on a Lean Project and Process Development Exchange event the learning and knowledge exchange is central. Marcos will share his learnings from the first day and let the knowledge sink in through a reflection before presenting the second days content.

Keynote: April Mills Engine for Change – Driving Change in Lean Product & Process Development: Everyone is a Change Agent

In lean product and process development, the greatest barriers to innovation are often human, not technical. Sustainable change accelerates when more people see themselves as change agents, ready to act with the time, title, and resources available today. Drawing on her background as a former U.S. Navy nuclear engineer and leader of large-scale transformations at Intel, April K. Mills shares her Change Agent Essentials and hands-on tactics from Everyone Is a Change Agent and Change Tactics. Participants will learn to shift from “driving people” to “driving change,” overcome resistance, build momentum, and deliver faster, more sustainable results. This session gives PD leaders, engineers, and practitioners practical tools to turn strategy into reality and break free from the status quo.

April K. Mills is a nuclear engineer turned change accelerator and the founder of Engine-for-Change: The Bureaucracy Hacking Company. A decorated former civilian nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy, she designed major transformations as Chief Acceleration Officer for Intel’s 500+ person consultancy. April specializes in making complex organizational changes faster, more effective, and more human—helping teams deliver "impossible" results without extra authority, budget, or time.

She is the author of Everyone Is a Change Agent and Change Tactics. A global speaker, consultant, and advisor, April empowers individuals at all levels to drive meaningful impact in product development, innovation, and beyond. Executives describe her as a high-impact change leader and leading-edge pioneer.

Networking Break

Peter Palmér, Senior Strategist and Business Developer at TRATON – LPPD and Agile – The Chief Engineer in an Agile World

The Chief Engineer is a very complex figure in theory. The different stories that mainly origin from Toyota Product Development talk about this “super-person” the knows all aspects that are important for the customer. According to Toyota's product development philosophy, an Entrepreneurial System Designer (ESD) is a leader who is responsible for the entire success of a product or system—not just its engineering. The concept comes from Toyota's Lean Product Development research by Allen Ward, James Morgan, and Jeffrey Liker, and is closely associated with Toyota's Chief Engineer (Shusa) role.

The agile system introduces the Product Owner as primarily responsible for maximizing value by managing and prioritizing the product Backlog so the Scrum Team builds the most valuable work first.  Ana the Product Manager as responsible for the product's overall strategy, vision, and market success. Toyota's Entrepreneurial System Designer combines many aspects of both roles while adding deep technical leadership and end-to-end responsibility for the entire product system, we will discuss the difference and similarities between the system.

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

Larry Navarre, Instructor of Business at Kettering University – Systems Thinking Applied to Innovation Development

New Product Development is one of the most complex and nonlinear processes in business, shaped by uncertainty, iteration, resource constraints, and cross-functional interdependence. This presentation applies Systems Thinking and the science of System Dynamics to provide insight into how innovation development can be understood as a dynamic business system rather than a sequence of isolated project tasks. It examines how feedback loops, delays, rework cycles, coordination demands, and managerial decision rules influence development performance, and explains why many innovation problems stem from underlying system structure rather than simple execution failure. The presentation argues that leaders can improve innovation performance by using systems-based insights to strengthen learning, effectiveness, and efficiency across the product development system.

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.

Learning Session

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

Peder Fitch, I2M Excellence Leader at Philips – Execution Excellence – Experiences in Process Simplification, Training and AI

What does Execution Excellence look like in practice?  This session will share a real-world journey to simplify product development and strengthen execution by focusing on the customer, sharing knowledge, and thoughtfully applying AI.  Through practical examples, the talk highlights how engaging teams and reducing complexity can improve flow, quality, and predictability without adding bureaucracy or relying on heroics.

Peder Fitch is a product development leader with broad, cross-functional experience across domains including ultrasound, defibrillation, oral care, automotive, and aerospace.  At Philips Oral Healthcare, Peder serves as I2M Excellence Leader, where he drives improvement across the development lifecycle through targeted simplification initiatives, Lean, and Design for Six Sigma.  His current work focuses heavily on improving flow, quality, and predictability by strengthening customer focus, building global capability and knowledge sharing, aligning systems with workflow, and embracing digitalization.

Networking Lunch – Open Space

Panel Discussion: Carolyn Carter, Dantar Oosterwal, ?, ? moderated by Marcos Esterman – Machinery of Innovation

Carolyn Carter, Principal Consultant at Carolyn Carter Consulting

Carolyn Carter is Principal Consultant at Carolyn Carter Consulting after an extensive career at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation where she got her experience in Research Product Development with additional focus on Lean and LPPD in Development, and Engineering, Operations and Quality in Manufacturing.

Dantar Oosterwal, Driving Growth and Transformation, LPD, R&D & Innovation Systems and Author at Fluor

Dantar Oosterwal is highly regarded as a global thought-leader in Lean Innovation & Product Development systems as well as an advisor, speaker and award-winning author. He has a passion for learning and applying lean product development systems to impact improvements of business performance. Dantar has championed many large and global operational improvement initiatives as well as developed and led Lean Innovation transformations for organizations resulting in profound improvements to both top-line revenue and bottom-line efficiency.

He has been awarded the Shingo Prize for his work in Lean Innovation by the Shingo Institute, the Outstanding Corporate Innovator award from PDMA and several product patents. Dantar has served as the Global Vice President of Innovation at Sara Lee and Product Development & Product Planning Leader at Harley-Davidson Motor Company. His consulting experience spans a diversity of industries ranging from raw materials (mining and chemicals) to high-tech defense systems. Dantar is the author of The Lean Machine and co-author of Visible Knowledge for Flawless Design.

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

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.

Matthew O´Brien, Large Scale Systems Orchestration at Boeing – Precedence-Based Project Management

Traditional project management often emphasizes schedules and milestones, but successful delivery depends on understanding and managing the dependencies that drive progress. This presentation introduces Precedence-Based Project Management, an approach that focuses on identifying, visualizing, and optimizing the relationships between activities, decisions, and information flows. By making dependencies explicit, organizations can improve coordination, reduce delays, manage uncertainty, and increase project adaptability. Through practical examples, participants will explore how a precedence-based approach supports more effective planning, execution, and decision-making in complex projects.

Matthew O´Brien is a subject matter expert in helping cross-functional teams & leaders solve complex problems in strategic, design/build integration and process focused environments. He is currently working on Large Scale Systems Orchestration in the Enterprise Production Engineering Office.

Networking Break

TBD

Andy Wagner, Conference chair LPPDE - Closing Address

Andy Wagner closes the conference with his own reflections and learnings and sums up the connection to our theme “Machinery of Innovation”.

Session End