I can’t believe my tenure as president of the Milwaukee Chapter of APICS is coming to a close.  I have really enjoyed working with the great people that make up our board of directors.   When I took on this role I wanted to provide the best experience possible.   I know that each person has their own perception of what is a “best experience” but I believe we really offered a variety of options that can help operations managers develop professionally.

   Looking back we had some great tours.  We visited J. W. Speaker Corporation and heard about their methods and practices that make them successful and able to tackle their aggressive growth plan.  We also visited two of the Milwaukee areas premier sport facilities; Miller Park and the Pettit Center.   Not much to do with manufacturing but a lot to do with planning and logistics.

   Being a Brewers fan it was great to see behind the scenes at Miller Park.  We got to walk around the entire facility.  We heard about the methods they apply to keep things running smoothly and even got to see where Bob Uecker calls the game.

   Being proud to be an American, touring the Pettit Center was very informative.  We learned that we have one of the two Olympic training facilities for speed skating, one of the most successful winter Olympic events for the United States.

   Speaking of logistics we toured the FedEx Smart Post facility in New Berlin.  This tour showed us how packages move through the process and how they are accounted for along the way.   Our speaker shared details about QDM – Quality Demand Management and how FedEx uses its methods and philosophies to be successful.

   This month we have another tour.  We will be visiting Concordia College Green Facility and learn about CCES – Concordia Center for Environmental Stewardship.   This is a joint meeting with ISM so I am sure there will be good opportunities for networking.

   We didn’t just have tours we had speakers share their plans and successes, starting with Governor Scott Walker in October at Marquette University.   This was joint meetings with ISM and ASQ.   This well attended event was good for networking.  Having the governor speak at one of our events is a great honor.

   Our two other speakers were from health care and education, areas that you don’t relate to manufacturing directly but both presentations showed how OMBOK principles were used to build successes.   This reinforced to me that operations management principles can be applied to all operations to build success, not just manufacturing related businesses.

   We tried something new in December by having a holiday open house.  This event was geared toward giving our members a chance to network all night long.  All board members were represented, giving our members a chance to make direct suggestions to or inquiries of any director and get answers to their questions.

   We didn’t stop there.  We offered both fall and spring classes at WCTC as well as onsite classes.  These efforts helped add to our ranks of certified professionals.  We had a QRM seminar in October and monthly breakfast roundtables, all geared toward educating and networking.   We sponsored 4 teams at the district student case competition and launched a student internship program, adding to the support of our student chapters.  To top it off we launched a social media initiative to get the word out about our events.

   As you can see we worked very hard to bring you options.  The APICS Milwaukee Board of Directors is a group of dedicated and creative professionals that are focused on providing the best experiences possible.  I can attest to their efforts.  I am proud of what we offered this year and couldn’t have done it without my fellow board members.  It is going to be hard to top what we accomplished this year but you can count on your board of directors to try to continuously improve our offerings.  Keep an open mind; everything connects to the OMBOK and operations management.   Don’t miss the chance to benefit from all this hard work.  Thank you for letting me serve you as president. 

See you at a PDM.

Kurt A Horner, CPIM

April PDM - Top Management/Colleague Night and Awards Presentation

by Kurt Horner

  Our April PDM was our Top Management/Colleague night which allows members to bring their boss or a colleague to experience a PDM – Professional Development Meeting.  We want to show upper management and colleagues the value of a PDM and encourage them to attend again in the future.

   Our April PDM was also our awards night.  This annual event is designed to recognize our company, instructor, student and member of the year.   This year was no exception.

   Our student of the year is Julie Ann Forsthye.  Julie is the president of our student chapter at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.  She helped coordinate our practice student case competition and actually participated in two district student case competition, captaining the UWM team this year.

   Our company of the year is J. W. Speaker Corporation.   They were represented on our board of directors, sponsored our September PDM and have held onsite training classes.  These are all good ways to show their support for our APICS Chapter.

   Bob Reynolds is our instructor of the year.  Bob has been a member of APICS for 40 years and has been teaching APICS classes for 25 years, working with literally hundreds of Milwaukee professionals.  Bob is CPIM and CSCP certified and is one of the main reasons our certification classes are so successful.

   Our member of the year wasn’t able to attend and will receive his award at the May PDM.   He is Tom Shield.  Tom volunteered to help with our social media efforts.  He jumped right in after attending our December PDM and really gave our social media efforts a jump start.

  That takes care of the awards but not the PDM; we still had a speaker and presentation to come.  Our speaker was Dr. JoAnn Sternke.  She has shared the Pewaukee School’s use of dashboards and scorecards at conferences around the state, nationally and internationally.  Dr. Sternke brought a level of intensity and enthusiasm that really showed her commitment to the process and procedures she champions.   Using phrases like “actionable data”, “plan on a page”, “dipstick way” and “data wall” she shared the methods she used to make the Pewaukee Schools the best.   She was talking about managing educational processes but it might as well have been about manufacturing processes.  I would recommend attending an event where Dr. Sternke was the speaker.  I am also glad to see the passion this educator shows for the process of educating our kids, I hope it is contagious.

   We closed the night by completing the drawing for an I-Pad and one year membership from the members who filled out the all members’ survey and attended the PDM.  Dr.  Sternke pulled Bob Reynolds name for the I-Pad and Michal Riege for the one year membership.   Congratulations!

   This was a successful PDM.  Plenty of opportunities to network, to recognize members and companies that support our mission and hear a great speaker.   And the food at the Crowne Plaza wasn’t bad either.

MEET VIRGINIA ROSALES

   My name is Virginia Rosales, was born in Mexico City.  My family immigrated to Milwaukee when I was only 3.  Being the youngest girl from 8 siblings certainly had its advantages.  Love Milwaukee, but could do without some of the bitter winter cold.  I enjoy cooking (Mexican, Italian & Thai) and spending time with my great nieces and nephews (have over 20).

   My career started at Harnisfeger back in 1979.  In 1982, P&H and ASEA from Sweden entered a joint venture.  The joint venture ended 12 years later.  After a merger with Brown Boveri in the 80’s, the company is now known as ABB Inc.; located in New Berlin.  The division of ABB I work for is the Low Voltage Drives group.  We offer a wide range of Drives, Inverters and Converters that efficiently improve the way our customers use and produce energy.  Mainly controls for different types of motors as well as flexible connectivity to automation networks.

   In 1983 I joined ASEA as the Purchasing Secretary.  Several years later served as an expediter; junior buyer; buyer/planner; and am currently a senior buyer.  My responsibilities include buying all items used to build Drives for two production lines.  Visiting suppliers has taken me to China, Thailand and Mexico as well as parts of the US. It has been a rewarding career and I enjoy the challenges provided through the years.

   I joined the APICS BOD 4 years ago and currently serve as your Educational Director.  I enjoy helping our APICS community start their path towards CPIM or CSCP certification.  I am fortunate to work with very professional and experienced instructors.

   As our program year comes to end, want to remind you the last spring class is Strategic Management of Resources scheduled for 5/12 & 5/19.  Good Luck to all who are working towards your certification.  I am currently working on finalizing the Fall class schedule which should be completed in the next few days.

I can be reached at:

education1@apicsmilw.org

MEET TERE ECKROSE

   My name is Tere Eckrose, I was born in Nicaragua, and came to the United States to go to college.  I graduated from UW-Milwaukee with a Bachelors of Science in Architecture; I also earned from UWM a Masters of Business Administration.

   My career started as a mechanical designer.  I worked for Cooper Power Systems, and Square D—a Division of Schneider Electric designing sub-station transformers.  While at Square D, I switched from Engineering to Operations, to work as a Master Scheduler.

  I transferred to Rockwell Automation where I held several roles in Operations / Supply Chain.  My experience ranges from Master Scheduler, to Excess and Obsolete Coordinator, to Production Control Analyst, to Industrialization Planner.

  I currently work in the Planning and Procurement Group at Chr. Hansen, Cultures and Enzymes Division US.  Chr. Hansen is a global supplier of bioscience based ingredients for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.

   I belong to Generally Speaking Toastmasters, and have earned the designations of ATM-G – Advanced Toastmaster Gold, and CL- Competent Leader.  I love public speaking and competing in Toastmasters Humorous and International Contests.  I have competed at the Club, Area, Division and District (Wisconsin and the UP) Levels.

   I have been a member of APICS for over 15 years and I am CPIM and CSCP certified.  I am currently the Director of Communications for the Milwaukee Chapter of APICS.  I publish / edit the monthly newsletter and the PDM flyers.

Tentative Schedule for 2012-2013  APICS Year

APICS Roundtable Breakfast

Enjoy stress-free casual conversation about today’s hottest topics and earn points

Topic:  “How to Market Yourself—Preparing yourself for tomorrow ”

The meeting will be led by Natalie Cento of Aerotek.  The people that attended the April breakfast wanted to look at the professional needs of the group.  We want to encourage attendees to bring their résumé’s.  With Natalie’s help, we hope to know where we are at and where we are going professionally.

Date: May 9, 2012 Location:   Maxwells Restaurant -1005 S. Moorland Rd. -Brookfield, WI 53005

Time: 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM

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