THOUGHT LEADER: Riad (Ray) Ardahji, Zimmer Biomet

Tell us about your roles & responsibilities within your organization.

I am responsible for the Global Industrial Engineering (IE) team. Our IE role at Zimmer Biomet is simple; Optimization of all resources including: People, Materials, Methods and Processes. In addition, our IE team works closely with operations to develop/maintain the manufacturing time standards for over 22K SKUs as well as the transformation from CAPEX to OPEX including asset management.

What are the critical challenges your presentation will address?

Many companies have implemented lean manufacturing, including the 1st pillar, "JIT", which is fairly well understood. However, most companies have not yet applied the second pillar: Jidoka. I believe the 2nd pillar is essential to create a true lean transformation. Many failed lean initiatives can be traced back to not understanding this second pillar. 

After your presentation, what are you hoping the attendees will take away with them?

• Realize the importance of 2nd pillar of TPS- Thinking People System
• Learn the essence of JIDOKA
• Why it is so imperative to the true Lean journey

What have been the biggest developments in Operational Excellence in the last 12 months in your profession?

• The pursuit of a Global Performance Excellence Standard.
• Standardization and deployment of the Global KPI Metrics.
• Roll out of regular Kaizen (Lean) workshops.

How do you see Operational Excellence developing over the next 5-10 years?

• Transformation within the Compliance/ Internal Audit functions to become more proactive in problems solving and early prevention.
• Leveraging ISO 55000 to transform companies from CAPEX to OPEX.
• A heavy emphasis on new disruptive technologies like autonomous machines and material handling equipment such as AGV.

If you could take any 3 lessons away from this summit, what would they be?

• Lessons learned from others as well as the Do’s and Don’ts from the OPEX Award winners.
• New ideas/ concepts on lean and OPEX.
• Network with OPEX leaders/ organizations.

Riad (Ray) Ardahji is the Global IE/ CI lead at Zimmer Biomet. He leads the global IE organization and transforming Zimmer Biomet into a leaner organization. In addition, He is leading the activity- based costing team in Warsaw, Indiana. Furthermore, he is also the Advanced Automation Lead at Zimmer Biomet. He works closely with operations team to optimize product flow, reduce foot print, and improve process reliability. Learn about JIDOKA with Ray in his track session at the Business Transformation & Operational Excellence World Summit.