ASQ Boulder 2025-Apr-24 Section Web Meeting

Topic: 

Topic: Rebuilding our culture after COVID - can we do this again...
Cost: Free
Note: Thursday 5:45pm to 7:30pm US-MT meeting
RSVP on Boulder Section’s meeting "Meetup Link"
https://www.meetup.com/boulder-quality-meetup/events/305419076/
RSVP note: Please provide your Name and Hometown. Same for any guests
5:45 pm Web Conference Start: Networking, Welcome and Section Business
6:00 pm Presentation

• Speaker: David Behling, Merritt Aluminum Product Company
• Topic: Rebuilding our culture after COVID - can we do this again... 
• Presentation Slides and Video posted after meeting
• Abstract:
  • Learn how Merritt Aluminum Product Company (MAPCO) began to regain its culture while trying to move to the next level on its 10-year vision.
  • The initial part is about re-engaging the workforce, equipping and empowering them to make their jobs easier and learning to improve systems to allow the entire team (including Leadership) to accomplish more by working smarter and not harder.
  • The beginning starts with focus on what we want/need to do, becoming visual, learning what it takes to go slow in order to go faster, etc.
  • In 2020, MAPCO won the 2019 Colorado Manufacturing Award for Industrial & Equipment Manufacturer and was named Best Mid-size Company to Work for in Colorado by Coloradobiz.
  • Leadership has just completed its plan to triple growth in next five to ten years.
  • Leadership has the culture they had strived for and knew many of their systems and ways of doing business would need to change as they moved into new markets and started to grow.
  • The family-owned business had thrived due do the hard work and dedication of this engaged team.
  • However, Leadership knew MAPCO was going to have to learn to work smarter and not harder to achieve the plan.
  • The vision was in place, the team was on-board and then ... COVID hit, and "survival" became the goal and focus for the next two-plus years.
  • When 2022 arrived, Leadership decided it was time to start again and consciously began rebuilding their culture and moving forward on the 10-year plan.
  • This is where this presentation starts.
  • Key Learning Objectives:
    1. Hope! A company can start again and successfully rebuild to become even better than it was before the pandemic.
    2. People! People! People! This is where any effort has to start and grow from.
    3. It takes a family/community to succeed.
    4. You have to have a strategy, communicate it and be disciplined enough to follow it. This is not easy to do.
• Bio: David Behling is currently leading the Continuous Improvement transformation at Merritt Aluminum Products in Fort Lupton, CO.
  • He is an improvement, quality and leadership coach specializing in cultural transformations through building sustainable systems.  
  • He has a passion for helping individuals & teams enjoy their work and home lives more by simplifying processes.  He has more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing, metal processing, non-profit and government.
  • He has guided transformations through teaching and coaching servant leadership, daily problem solving and how to identify ways to provide better customer (internal & external) value for numerous organizations, including Goodrich Aerospace, Velvac (automotive), API Heat Transfer and Goodwill Industries.
  • David served on the ASQ Lean Enterprise Division leadership team for its first 10 years while chairing the lean programming for the Lean & Six Sigma Conference.  
  • He is an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality / Organizational Excellence, a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, holds a Lean Bronze Certification from the AME/Shingo Institute/SME and is a member of the AME Champions Club.  
  • David also holds Masters degrees in Engineering and Finance.
• References:
  •  TBA

7:15 pm After Presentation Networking
7:30 pm Web Conference End: meeting over
Place: Web Conference Webex

• Meeting link: TBA
• Meeting number: TBA
• Password: TBA

Meeting also posted on ASQ Boulder Meetup's 24 Apr 2025 meeting