AME Milwaukee 2026: ten sessions for people who run a plant

The AME International Conference runs at the Baird Center in Milwaukee from October 26 to 29. These ten sessions are about the daily routine and leading on the floor: the huddle board, leader standard work, the changeover, the walk to the line. Three slots have two picks each (Tuesday at 9:30, Wednesday at 10:45, Thursday at 9:30), so split them with someone from your team. Times are Central, Milwaukee local time.

Tuesday, October 27

Engaging leaders and empowering teams through layered process audits

Mike Cougras, Lean Engineer, and Adam Koestler, Business Unit Lean Manager, Re:Build Manufacturing · Tuesday, 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. CT · Room S101B

Cougras and Koestler bring it from aerospace manufacturing. The session summary covers how LPAs go “beyond simple compliance checks to become a key driver of culture change”: meaningful questions, the layers, leaders who take part, and follow-up actions that lead to measurable improvement. On the floor, it’s the questions each layer asks, and what happens after someone answers no.

Transforming engine delivery: Doubling output and slashing grievances, with zero investment

Jason Neal, Senior Transformation Leader, GE Aerospace · Tuesday, 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. CT · Room S102D

The session summary reports an engine assembly operation that went from 9 to 21 engines a week and cut grievances by 85% without capital investment. Neal led that work, and walks through the path: problems found on the shop floor, Gemba observation and behavioral science, and low-cost ways to build accountability. If you’ve been asked for more output from the same line with no budget, this is that case. Neal is also on the panel Employee Engagement as a Continuous Improvement System, Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., Room S103B.

Respect for people: Why doesn’t lean work at my organization?

Mark Waggoner, Plant Manager, Atkore International · Tuesday, 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. CT · Room S102D

Waggoner’s session summary starts from a question, “Do you struggle with why your team balks when the tools are so logical?”, and covers how to assess a team’s culture, with remedies he has used himself: leading with humility, moving away from a blame culture, true Gemba walks and leader personal accountability. If the boards are up and the tools are in place and the team still isn’t with you, this one starts with the leader.

Wednesday, October 28

Back to the future: The daily management time machine

Skyler Coleman, Senior Continuous Improvement Black Belt, Ultradent Products Inc. · Wednesday, 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. CT · Room S101B

Coleman shares the work of harmonizing daily management across 13 business units, each with its own history and culture. The session summary covers what to standardize so information flows from the shop floor to the executive huddle, without taking ownership away from each unit. Its premise fits in one line: “Daily management systems do more than reveal performance; they quietly shape behavior.” For anyone whose tiered huddles run differently from one site to the next. Coleman also hosts the Idea Exchange Sustaining improvements after the project ends, Wednesday at 2 p.m., Room S103D.

SMED as a gateway: Three principles for lasting lean engagement

Preston Krautkramer, Continuous Improvement Manager, Kerry · Wednesday, 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. CT · Room S102B

The session summary reports changeover times down by up to 35% at Kerry, and walks through how the SMED program grew from a technical exercise into a cultural one, on three principles: systems over goals, small gains that compound, and making the work easier and better ahead of faster and cheaper. Then how to use SMED as a gateway to 5S, visual management and skills matrices, so lean becomes “a natural pull from the front line rather than a push from management.” If lean at your site still arrives from management, the entry point here is the changeover, with operators asking for what comes next.

How Rockline aligns people, tools and performance

Ben Miller, Director, Continuous Improvement, Rockline Industries, with Rob Kornblum, President and CEO, Competitive Solutions, Inc. · Wednesday, 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. CT · Room S102D

Rockline runs large facilities around the clock. The session summary walks through the routines that keep its teams aligned: standardized communication, visual scorecards and structured reviews that help people respond to issues faster and hold focus across shifts and departments. For a plant that never stops, it’s how every shift works to the same priorities, with problem-solving kept close to the work.

Leader Standard Work in action: Driving daily management in quality

Marsha Cordio, Director of Operational Excellence, Quality, Medtronic · Wednesday, 2 to 2:45 p.m. CT · Room S102D

The session summary covers how Medtronic’s quality function uses leader standard work “to make daily management real”: Cordio worked with leaders to define how they want to show up and what comes first, the practice is shaped for quality, and tier rhythms tie daily work to results across tiers and regions. If you lead quality at a plant, this is a daily routine built around your function, from a rollout across a global company.

Thursday, October 29

Embedding a lean culture into a greenfield environment

Thomas Castillo, Continuous Improvement Leader, Nucor Towers & Structures · Thursday, 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. CT · Room S102B

At a greenfield site, culture and systems get shaped together from day one. The session summary covers tiered daily management, visual controls and standard work, safety as the first standard, governance rhythms that link shop-floor improvements to strategy deployment, and a 90-day launch plan. It’s the daily routine built in at the start, before there’s anything old to work around.

Respect in Action

Krystal Nelligan, Operations Group Leader, O.C. Tanner · Thursday, 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. CT · Room S102D

The session summary covers a structured coaching system between leaders and their teams, with specific tools so that “every team member has a voice in solving problems,” and a way to line up each person’s goals with the company’s strategy. Nelligan has been at O.C. Tanner for 27 years, per her AME bio. If you lead a team, this one is about the conversation with each person on it. She also hosts the Idea Exchange Coaching Continuous Improvement Leaders, Tuesday at 2 p.m., Room S103D.

The commitment to clarity and learning

Nick Jansen, Mill Operations Continuous Improvement Manager, Green Bay Packaging · Thursday, 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. CT · Room S101D

Jansen’s team at Green Bay Packaging designed backward from a defined vision. The session summary walks through how: systems and pilots that gave front-line employees purpose and direction, metrics that tie front-line data to the strategy, PDCA on broad problems, and visual tools that show progress as it happens. It’s pitched at whoever leads a site-wide change, or a facility stuck at what the summary calls the “engagement ceiling.”

Checked against each session page on October 19, 2026. Names, titles and companies are as AME lists them. AME can still move a room or a time before the conference, so check the session page before you head over.

Every episode of How Plants Run opens with one question: what do you check first every morning, and why? If you’re going to AME and want to answer it, be a guest.