AME Milwaukee October 2026
See American manufacturing excellence in its living context.
Australians read about lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and operational excellence in books written mostly by Americans. We attend local workshops that teach frameworks developed in American factories. We implement tools designed for American organisational cultures. But very few of us have stood inside those factories, watched those systems operate in real time, spoken with the practitioners who built them, and asked the questions that only arise when you encounter a living system rather than a description of one.
The AME International Conference in Milwaukee, October 26 to 29, 2026, is the opportunity to do exactly that — and the way we approach it makes all the difference.
- Why We Go as a Cohort, Not as Individuals
Every year, over a thousand practitioners attend AME’s International Conference — the largest gathering of continuous improvement professionals in the world, now in its forty-second year. They attend keynotes from visionary leaders. They participate in hands-on workshops and interactive sessions. They tour local manufacturing operations and see operational excellence in action. They connect with peers from every industry — aerospace, defence, automotive, healthcare, food, technology, maritime, and more.
All of that is valuable. But the difference between attending a conference and conducting a reconnaissance is the difference between tourism and intelligence gathering. Tourists collect impressions. Reconnaissance teams collect insight that changes how they operate when they return.
The week prior to the conference we visit the sites of Consortia Members in the USA and take time to put their learning onto our context and culture.
Reach out to me on LinkedIn if you would like additional information on the the deep dive. (link Below in the footer.)