Thursday, May 7, 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.

Peder Fitch, I2M Excellence Leader at Philips – Experiences with Development 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.

Markus Ganter, Senior Partner at Lean Partners Projekt Gesellschaft – Accelerating product development : Agile & Lean – Symbiosis or Contradiction

A major equipment company finds their development projects too long, too costly and too incremental in increasing performance-to-cost ratio. They decided to upgrade their development process for heat exchangers by using digital 3D models and functional simulation first, before actually building and testing physical prototypes. Furthermore, the change to Agile project management should facilitate the team`s adoption of new tools, new roles and new responsibilities.

From a leadership and consultant perspective it was important to support the team in developing its new setup in 3 dimensions simultaneously :

• Product (from detailed product design to MVP)
• Process (prototyping digitally and in reality, simulation and testing)
• People (letting go of old roles, overcoming perfectionism, entering new knowledge domains, embracing simplification, accelerating delivery)

Markus Ganter is Partner at Lean Partners Projekt Gesellschaft since 2020 and expert in Lean Management in R&D and Operations: from apprehending customer needs to product platforms, cross-functional project management, until industrialization and market launch. With current state analysis, individualized concepts and thorough implementation he leads improvement projects to establish sustainable organic growth and strategic differentiation. His competency is consulting top management in LEAN Business Models, LEAN Development and LEAN Operations including multi-project management.

His clients are in the chemical industry, plastics industry, electrical/electronics and medical devices, as well as in custom engineering and capital equipment.

Educated as Ph.D. in Material Sciences and Chemistry Markus Ganter has held management positions in the electronics, electrotechnical and plastics industry, with 10 years on executive board level. Equipped with an Executive MBA of University St. Gallen in Switzerland he has access to the latest methodology in corporate management and business economics.

Alberto Flores, Vice President of Product Engineering at Korn Ferry – Design for Manufacturing is a Leadership Mindset

Design for Manufacturing is what makes products competitive. Many teams focus on features and aesthetics, but long‑term success depends on integrating manufacturing early in design. DfM is a leadership mindset, not just an engineering tool: design decisions define how well a product can be built. When manufacturing is embedded from the start, companies achieve faster development, lower cost, higher quality, and more robust operations. The winners aren’t those with the most features—but those who design products that can be manufactured competitively. (3) Post | Feed | LinkedIn

Alberto Flores is a multicultural and results-driven executive with over 20 years of experience leading global product development, R&D, and manufacturing operations across the Consumer Durables, Appliances, and Data Center Infrastructure industries. He has a proven track record of driving profitability, operational discipline, and innovation in high-growth, multicultural environments. Alberto is currently serving as VP of Product Engineering at Integra Mission Critical, leading the transformation of modular infrastructure programs for power, cooling, and edge data centers.

Final reflections and remarks

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By Juha Tammi & Peter Palmér

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