ARE YOU WINNING?
Building an Operational Excellence System That Delivers Results
Trafford Park, Greater Manchester | 23rd April 2026 | £167 Per Delegate
SPACE TO THINK. STRENGTH TO LEAD.
Designing and deploying Operational Excellence across a large manufacturing organisation requires far more than improvement tools or isolated initiatives. It requires leadership capable of aligning strategy, systems and people around a shared vision and executing that vision consistently across the organisation.
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In this leadership forum, Simon Bugeja, Darin Fleming and Dean Dickinson come together to share the story behind a multi-year transformation programme that deployed a comprehensive Operational Excellence system across 47 manufacturing sites.
Each speaker played a distinct role in shaping the strategic direction, designing the improvement system and deploying capability across the organisation. Working as a tightly aligned leadership team, they built an approach that connected executive intent with daily operational practice.
This event provides a rare opportunity to hear directly from the leaders behind that journey and explore the leadership thinking and operational systems required to deliver sustained improvement at scale.
Why Attend
During the session, Simon, Darin and Dean will share practical insight into the leadership journey and systems that underpinned the transformation.
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Topics explored will include:
Strategic Alignment
Creating a clear vision and deploying strategy across multiple manufacturing sites.
Designing the Operational Excellence System
Developing a structured improvement framework built around four core pillars.,
Embedding Operational Discipline
Introducing daily management systems, visual performance management and escalation routines.
Developing Capability
Building problem-solving capability across the organisation through structured improvement programmes.
Measuring What Matters
Assessing maturity and linking improvement activity to measurable operational and financial performance.
Why Attend
Operational Excellence is widely discussed across the manufacturing sector. Successfully deploying it across a complex organisation is far more challenging.
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Many organisations invest heavily in Lean initiatives and improvement programmes but struggle to create a system that delivers sustained operational performance.
This session explores how one leadership team approached that challenge by building a structured Operational Excellence framework that aligned leadership behaviour, improvement activity and operational management across the organisation.
The impact included:
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47 manufacturing sites aligned under a common operational framework
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160 Operational Excellence ambassadors developed across the organisation
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170 improvement projects delivered in a single year
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3,488 employee improvement ideas generated through daily Kaizen activity
These outcomes were achieved by building a coherent system that connected strategy, leadership and daily operational discipline
Meet the Speakers
Who Should
Attend?
Supporting the Future of Manufacturing
This event is designed for manufacturing leaders responsible for operational performance and organisational improvement, including:
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Managing Directors
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Operations Directors
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Plant Managers
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Operational Excellence Leaders
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Continuous Improvement Leaders
This event forms part of the launch of the Future of Manufacturing Foundation, a charity dedicated to promoting manufacturing as a career destination and connecting industry leaders with the next generation of talent.
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A £167 donation per delegate is requested to attend the event, with all contributions supporting the Foundation’s work to develop the future of the sector.