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QualPro Leadership Symposium

18th Annual QualPro Leadership Symposium - Featured Speakers

Bridgestone/Firestone Retail & Commercial Operations (BFRC)
Bill Perdew
Chief Operating Officer

With more than 2,200 consumer and commercial stores and approximately 22,000 teammates in North America, BFRC operates the largest number of company-owned full-line automotive retail generalist stores in the world. Store channels include ExpertTire, Firestone Complete Auto Care, GCR Tire Centers, TiresPlus, and Wheel Works. Automotive service is the largest part of BFRC's business, accounting for approximately 50 percent of sales, with tire and financial services making up the rest.

Bill Perdew, Chief Operating Officer of BFRC, is responsible for all North American retail operations. After 30+ years of experience running various BFRC operations, Bill is "committed to serving our diverse customer population with diverse teams of teammates."

Bill described how BFRC used MVT^® to develop innovations that better serve customers, increase revenues, and decrease costs. By simultaneously testing 30 store and advertising strategies and tactics, BFRC is rapidly identifying actions that provided tens of millions of dollars in financial benefits and better satisfied customers.

LifeMasters
Ian Worden
Vice President, Information Technology and Project Management Office

LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, one of the nation's leading disease management companies, provides programs and services that create health partnerships among individuals, their physicians and payors.

LifeMasters stands alone as the only disease management company in the nation with a long tenure uniquely focused on delivering disease management solutions that improve health outcomes while significantly reducing costs. Today, LifeMasters is one of the largest and most widely recognized disease management providers in the nation. With over 600,000 participants, LifeMasters offers programs for individuals with diabetes, congestive heart failure (CHF), coronary artery disease (CAD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hypertension, and asthma [all of which are fully accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and URAC] and musculoskeletal pain.

Ian Worden is Vice President of LifeMasters and is responsible for information technology and the enterprise project management office, which includes efforts to improve LifeMasters' business processes. He has worked with MVT^® for almost a decade, including his work at LifeMasters and previously at Deluxe, the world's largest check printer.

Ian described his experience with MVT^® and the role it is playing at LifeMasters. He shared how MVT^® is rapidly identified actions to make enhancements in LifeMasters' interactions with current and prospective program participants. With MVT^® experimentation in direct mail and telephone communications, as well as the face-to-face interactions by nurses, LifeMasters is making breakthrough improvements in the effectiveness of its enrollment and engagement efforts.

Lincoln Paper and Tissue
Keith Van Scotter
President

Located in Lincoln, Maine, Lincoln Paper and Tissue provides value-added paper and tissue products to specialty products producers as well as printers and publishers. A recognized innovator in recycling technologies, it provides products that are engineered to both meet the needs of customers and maximize environmental stewardship.

Lincoln Paper is a true success story where government and industry worked together. In January 2004, the plant was closed by the former owners and 500 workers were immediately unemployed. Maine Governor, John Baldacci, had law enforcement officers guard the empty complex and prevent it from "freezing up" during the winter months. He hoped to find someone bold enough to reopen the plant.

By the following summer, Keith Van Scotter and John Wissmann were able to use a highly leveraged deal to purchase the plant and reestablish operations, hiring back 320 workers.

Lincoln Paper is now profitable and has increased market share and paper quality to become competitive on a national scale. It has even constructed the first new paper machine (it produces tissue paper) in Maine in nearly 20 years.

During his presentation, Lincoln Paper president, Keith Van Scotter, shared the role that several MVTs^® have played in cutting production costs and solving the most pressing quality issue. After his involvement in MVT^® successes at previous operations, including Boise Cascade, Keith easily saw how MVT^® could benefit Lincoln Paper. In just a few months, MVT^® tests enabled him to improve the pressing paper quality problem from the worst of seven competitors to second best in the grade segment. This opened new profitable markets for Lincoln Paper. MVT^® was also used in other areas to determine ways to reduce costs and chemical consumption. The use of MVT^® is increasing the speed at which improvements occur.

Since 1982, QualPro has used Multivariable Testing (MVT®) with 1000+ companies to test 100,000+ improvement ideas. MVT® tests between 20 and 40 ideas simultaneously, accurately predicting the bottom-line impact of potential process changes in weeks. Take existing process initiatives, like Six Sigma, to a whole new level. All process improvement tools and approaches (TQM, DOE, Six Sigma, Re-Engineering, SPC) can be enhanced through the use of Multivariable Testing by QualPro.