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Empowering Tomorrow's Workforce.

The Executive Summit brings together leaders from industry, academia, and consulting to address dynamic issues and challenges facing the workforce in the digital era including engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain management.

March 26, 2024 // Huntsville, AL

Whether you lead a tech-driven company, oversee operations, or are driving digital innovation, the summit provides a platform to explore the challenges and opportunities inherent in the digital era and their impact on the workforce. Leaders from diverse backgrounds will present advancements in workforce development tools and techniques, share lessons learned from common implementation challenges, and provide practical examples of successful implementations. Through break-out sessions, leaders will share issues impacting their programs and organizations, exchange ideas, and challenge current best practices and norms.

Join us to connect with thought leaders, share experiences, and strategize for the future of work in an increasingly digital and interconnected world.  

 

Symposium Details

Speakers

Agenda

Venues

Hotel

Sponsors

 

Standard Rate

$149 — registration closes on March 19th

Lunch and Joint Closing – Dine, Wine, and Talk are included in the Rate.

REGISTER NOW

Who Should Attend?

This exclusive event is designed for those at the helm of their organizations, including CEOs, C-suite executives, directors, and senior managers across industries. The summit provides a unique platform for high-level networking, knowledge exchange, and discussions.

Benefits

  • 0.5 Accredited CEUs (5 Professional Development hours)
  • Professional Certificate to Validate Your Attendance

What are the Focus Topics for the 2024 Summit?

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  • Workforce Development and Sustainability
    Workforce and management capability is driving operational success and company value metrics.* To put it simply, the quality of your workforce is the main driver of your company's long-term success.

  • The link between workforce development and the practical application of the latest tools in Digitization, Industry 4.0, and Continuous improvement. We will highlight industry success stories from achieving operational excellence in engineering, supply chain, and operations environments

  • Fresh perspectives in an exclusive circle with in-depth sessions on
    • Automation and digitization
    • The social and governance aspects of ESG
    • Global value chains and sustainability
    • Leadership and culture

*Source: Environmental, Social, & Governance scores from Refinitiv, February 2021

Keynote Speakers

Vineetha Menon, Ph.D.

Vineetha Menon, Ph.D.

Dr. Terence Reed Endowed Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Big Data Analytics Lab at UAH

Biography »

Nicholas Phillips

Nicholas Phillips

Partner and Head of Industrial Consulting and Workforce Development at Staufen AG

Biography »

Additional Speakers

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Diane Aloisio, Ph.D.

Systems Engineering Branch Manager, Dynetics Leidos Company

Gholston Sampson, Ph.D

Sampson Gholston, Ph.D.

Department Chair and Professor, UAH Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management

Wilhelm Goschy

Wilhelm Goschy

CEO, Staufen AG

Jan Brazeal Ingenrieth

Jan Brazeal Ingenrieth, MA, SHRM-SCP

Director, Internship Program, Alabama Productivity Center

Jamie Jones

Jamie Jones

Assistant Vice President, Director, Radiance University

Nicholas Loyd, Ph.D.

Nicholas Loyd, Ph.D.

Director, UAH Center for Management and Economic Research (CMER) and Clinical Assistant Professor, UAH Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management

Rainer Neufeld

Rainer Neufeld

Corporate Electronics Manager, SEW Eurodrive

Jason Pickering

Jason Pickering

General Manager, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing (MTM)

Haydn Powell

Haydn Powell

Industry expert in manufacturing operations, supply chain management, and industry 4.0

Tim Van Alstine

Tim Van Alstine

Commercial Business Lead, Integration Innovation, Inc. (i3)

Kristin Weger, Ph.D.

Kristin Weger, Ph.D.

Summit Chair and Assistant Professor, UAH Industrial Organizational Psychology

Ana Wooley, Ph.D.

Ana Wooley, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, UAH Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management

Agenda

A printable PDF of participant information is available here.

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION

 

Tuesday, March 26

Morning

UAH I2C // Atrium

Join us for a warm welcome as we kick off the summit with a registration and networking session. Connect with fellow participants and set the stage for a day of collaboration, learning, and growth.

Dr. Charles Karr // President of UAH

Welcome to the inaugural Executive Summit including an overview of the summit's theme and its relevance to leaders in academia, industry, and consulting.

Wilhelm Goschy // CEO of Staufen.AG

Introduction of Staufen.AG, highlighting their commitment to workforce development and leadership excellence.

Vineetha Menon, Ph.D. // UAH

Value Accelerators - Exploiting potentials through data, digital twins, and AI

Value accelerators leverage the synergy of data, digital twins, and AI to propel profitability and business growth. By harnessing data insights organizations gain a competitive edge. Digital twins (virtual replicas of physical assets) enhance time to market and optimize performance. AI augments decision-making, automates processes, and refines customer experiences. Together they create a powerful framework that unlocks untapped potential and drives innovation across industries.

What does it mean for your business?

Learn how digitization can unlock shorter lead times and profitability within your businesses.

 

Rainer Neufield // SEW Eurodrive

Lean Sm@rt Factory based on Industry 4.0 Principles

Industry 4.0 is an evolution in production and logistics processes. Based on the value creation principles of "one-piece flow" and "small factory unit," SEW-EURODRIVE has already implemented its Industry 4.0 solutions within its own businesses. These solutions have fully developed concepts for logistics, assembly, and production tasks.

What does it mean for your business?

View the whitepaper to learn how SEW boosted efficiency throughout the value creation chain by 30%.

Sampson Gholston , Ph.D // UAH
Jan Brazeal Ingenrieth, MA, SHRM-SCP // Alabama Productivity Center
Jamie Jones // Radiance University
Jason Pickering // Mazda Toyota Manufacturing
Facilitated by Nicholas Phillips // Staufen

Join us for a dynamic panel discussion featuring representatives from industry, academia, and consulting as they discuss the changes required in how we work, lead, and learn to create organizational value.

Panel Discussion Highlights:

  • Insights into evolving workforce trends.
  • Strategies for effective leadership in a changing work environment.
  • Practical approaches to leverage the latest tools and techniques for organizational success.

UAH I2C // Atrium

Enjoy a buffet-style lunch, take a moment to relax, and connect with fellow attendees.

 

Afternoon

Nicholas Phillips // Staufen & Nicholas Loyd, Ph.D. // UAH

The Impact of Workforce Development and Continuous Improvement on Environment, Social, and Governance Investing

Workforce development and continuous improvement play a pivotal role in enhancing corporate Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. By investing in employee skills, organizations foster a culture of sustainability and ethical behavior. Continuous Improvement methodologies drive operational efficiency, reducing resource consumption and waste. A skilled and engaged workforce ensures responsible corporate citizenship, positively influencing social and community relations. Together, these efforts elevate ESG performance by aligning business objectives with broader societal and environmental goals for a sustainable future.

What does it mean for your business?

Learn about the importance of an enhanced workforce and how Staufen and UAH propose to achieve it.

Haydn Powell // Industry Expert

Practitioner experience, insights, and lessons learned from a global manufacturing perspective.

Global value chains are complex demand and supply networks that span multiple geographic regions and are often subject to high risk of disruption. Value chain design practices incorporating digital technology can greatly reduce a company's risk profile and susceptibility to disruption, thereby improving overall resiliency. During the session we will review a practitioner perspective on best practices and discuss key insights gleaned from real industry examples.

What does it mean for your business?

Digitalization of global value chains can represent a significant competitive advantage, however the strategy and required business transformation, including the impact on the workforce, need to be carefully developed. We will outline the key areas and discuss some of their implications.

Diane Aloisio, Ph.D. // Leidos & Ana Wooley, Ph.D. // UAH

Leveraging Digital Transformation and Digital Engineering to Unlock Value

Today’s leaders have access to more digital capabilities than ever before, but many companies struggle to realize the value and efficiency these digital solutions were intended to provide. Learn how to effectively lead digital transformation efforts and how to extract meaningful organizational value from digital solutions.

What does it mean for your business?

More often than not, companies fail to realize the business case intended from the digitization of their products and services. Today’s digital solutions have the power unite the functional silos of an organization inside of a connected and efficient business process. Fostering cross-functional collaboration through advanced digital engineering practices is a cornerstone for sustainable growth that requires a more wholistic knowledge of end-to-end business process. The integration of digital collaboration tools and methodologies ensures seamless communication and knowledge sharing across teams, breaking down silos and promoting a unified approach to product development and industrialization.

UAH I2C // Atrium

Take a break and enjoy a cup of coffee before the afternoon breakout sessions.

Tim Van Alstine // Integration Innovation, Inc. (i3)

Empowering Organizations through Virtual Training Development and Deployment: Harnessing the Right Tools for Maximum Growth

In today's fast-paced world, adapting and upskilling quickly is essential for organizational success. Virtual training offers a dynamic solution to meet the evolving needs of modern workforce training. Discover how virtual training can revolutionize your organization's learning initiatives and unlock its full potential.

What does it mean for your business?

Virtual training provides unparalleled flexibility and accessibility, enabling organizations to deliver high-quality training experiences to employees anytime, anywhere. By leveraging virtual platforms, companies can streamline the training process, reduce costs associated with traditional training methods, and improve knowledge retention rates. Embracing virtual training enhances employee skills and fosters a culture of continuous learning and innovation within the organization.

Explore a specific topic aligned with your interests, engage in discussions with fellow industry leaders, and gain practical insights for implementation.

  1. Performance & Productivity
  2. Global Value Chains & Sustainability
  3. Leadership & Culture
  4. Digitalization & Workforce Evolution

The summary is a collective reflection that encourages further engagement and discussion among attendees. It covers key insights, highlights, and takeaways from each breakout session, giving a comprehensive overview of the discussions, learnings, and practical applications.
We will close the educational portion of the Executive Summit with concluding remarks.

The Bottle // Downtown Huntsville

We invite you to continue the conversation while enjoying dinner at The Bottle in Downtown Huntsville, an upscale eatery that features Southern Cuisine with a French influence.

 

Venues

 
 
UAH I2C

Summit Location


UAH Invention to Innovation Center (I2C) 
850 Ben Graves Dr NW
Huntsville, AL 35899

Directions      Parking Information

 
The Bottle

Joint Closing – Dine, Wine & Talk

The Bottle
101 Washington St NE
Huntsville, AL 35801

Directions

 Hotel

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Fairfield Inn & Suites Huntsville Redstone Gateway

We recommend the Fairfield Inn & Suites Huntsville Redstone Gateway 1700 Rideout Road SW, Huntsville, Alabama, USA, 35808

Tel: +1 256-480-0890

 

Directions

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

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The University of Alabama in Huntsville

The University of Alabama in Huntsville is one of America’s premier doctoral-granting, comprehensive universities known for addressing some of the world’s technological challenges. UAH, a part of The University of Alabama System, offers an environment where students are able to explore, discover, create, and communicate knowledge. With 8 colleges, more than 100 areas of study, and 17 high-tech research centers, UAH is a Carnegie R1 top-tier research university. UAH is where technology and human understanding converge and prepares students to transform their future.

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Staufen Consulting and Workforce Development

Staufen is an implementation-oriented consulting and workforce development partner. The company grew out of the automotive industry in the early 1990s and today has 300+ employees serving companies around the globe with its industry-leading solutions for Operational Excellence within Engineering, Supply-Chain, and Operations environments.

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SEW Eurodrive

As one of the global market leaders in drive technology, SEW-EURODRIVE moves countless processes, systems, and machines in many sectors of the production and process industry. SEW-EURODRIVE has been helping customers boost their productivity for more than 85 years. Solutions from SEW EURODRIVE can be found all over the world, from fast, dynamic, and highly accurate applications, as used in discrete manufacturing, to large and powerful applications as used in the raw materials industry or container terminals and continuous and logistical processes.

Summit Partners

Have more questions?

What type of credit will I earn?

The Executive Summit meets the requirements for providing Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Please note the following conversion rates into Professional Development Hours (PDH), Continuous Learning Points (CLP), Professional Development Units (PDU), and Certified Professional Education Units (CPE):

  • One CEU = 10 contact hours of instruction
  • One PDH, CLP, PDU, or CPE = one contact hour of instruction
  • One CEU = 10 PDH, CLP, PDU, or CPE

Successful course completion requires participants to attend 80% of scheduled class meetings (and complete associated exams or projects, if applicable). Participants receive a certificate indicating the number of CEUs earned.

Continuing Education Units provide a permanent record of an individual's educational accomplishments in an organized continuing education experience under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instruction. UAH OPCE's use of the CEU follows the accepted criteria and guidelines established by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), which complies with internationally recognized standards of The International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).

Refund and Withdrawal Policy

Failure to participate does not constitute withdrawal. Refunds and transfers will not be honored for failure to participate. All withdrawals with a refund or transfer requests must be received before participating. If a refund is granted, funds must be processed to the original form of payment.

If you would like to receive a refund:

  • You must request a refund in writing within five business days of the start date of the Executive Summit. Please note there will be a 10% processing fee for each withdrawal refund issued. "No showing" at the Executive Sumit does not merit an automatic withdrawal and refund. All refund requests can be submitted to noncreditreg@uah.edu.. After the five business day period, a refund cannot be issued.

If the Executive Summit is canceled due to speaker illness, weather, or other related instances by UAH, a refund will be issued with no processing fee.

What options are available for payment?

Payment is due at the time of registration for each course. You may pay by check, credit card, or by company purchase order.