Thursday, April 9, 2026 Virtual Conference

Peter Palmér, LPPDE and Juha Tammi, Lean Association of Finland - Welcome and Instructions

Peter and Juha represent the two organization who organize these virtual online events and will moderate the Virtual Summit.

Anand Nicodemus and Dantar Oosterwal, Global Director, Lean & CI and Driving Growth and Transformation, LPD, R&D & Innovation Systems and Author at Fluor – Mastering the Beginning through Early Knowledge-Driven Decisions: Challenges and Solutions in Shaping Lifecycle Profit in Complex Projects

We will bring clarity to the so called fuzzy front-end and how to analyze different options early in projects a fact-based way. Assuring a lifecycle profit in complex projects.

The main focus will be on:

• Development as a socio-technical endeavor - elevating trust, communication & collaboration
• 80-90% of lifecycle profit is affected early in product development – let’s get it right

Anand Nicodemus is currently the Global Director for Lean within a Fortune 500 integrated Engineering, Fabrication and Construction Company, tasked with building it worldwide lean capacity and capability; and guiding its application of lean for Transformation. He is also the Lean Sensei of Lean Practitioners Canada a not-for-profit Lean advocacy, coaching and practice organization - the first of its kind in Canada. Anand is a Professional Engineer from Alberta and a Lean Sensei, with demonstrated success of application of Lean Thinking and Management in over 80 organizations across 12 countries in improving their Strategy and Operational Performance. As Head of Business Excellence for one of the largest Crown Corporations in the World, Anand set up and operated a Strategy & Continuous Improvement System that spanned 22 Business Units, and generated financial benefits of over a billion in a 5 year period and an Annual Recurring Benefit 20 times the operating budget for Business Excellence He advocates the idea that transformation is possible when an enterprise operates as a "community", for which he has developed an “execution model”, with a set of powerful enablers from the world of Lean Culture. This is a human-centered approach with a higher probability of success.

Dantar Oosterwal is a 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.

Juho Raukola, Innovation Manager (Additive Manufacturing) at Wärtsilä – Using Additive Manufacturing to Improve Innovation

This presentation is about Wartsila's launch a world-class 3D printing Research Centre in Vaasa. First order of business: creating a strong ecosystem which combines industry excellence with academic muscle. Steering the project along, Innovation Expert Juho Raukola believes that the potential of 3D metal printing is enormous – and that 3D printing has the power to usher in a brand-new era in manufacturing. This is the story so far.

Juho Raukola (AM Innovation manager), WHAM – Wärtsilä Hub for Additive manufacturing team lead & former head of Operational Board in FAME (AM ecosystem of Finland). Juho made his master’s thesis for Wärtsilä Vaasa factory on the potential of 3D printing in 2017 and was hired as the first full-time AM person in the company in 2018. Today he leads the technology development for Additive manufacturing in Wärtsilä.

Gwendolyn Galsworth, Visual Thinking Inc. & Visual Thinking Europe – Your Obeya - Powered by Visual Thinking

Obeya is not a new concept. Toyota introduced id while developing the Prius. Gwendolyn will briefly touch on the core elements of obeya, but then move on to making Obeya sessions more effective through visual thinking and visual leadership practices. As well as some discussion on assumed rivalry between digital and physical boards.

Gwendolyn D. Galsworth, PhD, is a widely-recognized visual workplace and visual management expert, credited with codifying visual workplace concepts, principles, and technologies into a single, coherent framework of knowledge and know-how.  Founder/president of Visual Thinking Inc. and Visual Thinking Europe, Dr. Galsworth is a hands-on practitioner with over 30 years of leading visual conversions and training internal and external consultants on five continents. Visual workplace technologies—including Obeya—accelerate operational excellence, strengthen cultural alignment, and achieve long-term sustainable results.

Dr. Galsworth served as Faculty Fellow at the Shingo Institute for over a decade and is lifetime member of the Shingo Academy and author of seven books, including Visual Workplace-Visual Thinking and Work That Makes Sense, both winners of Shingo Research Award. She is currently completing two new books: The Visual Workplace: People-Making, and Your Obeya / Powered by Visual Thinking. Follow her weekly newsletter, The Visual Thinker, on LinkedIn.

Final reflections and remarks

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By Juha Tammi & Peter Palmér

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