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| Seeley Conference 23-26 June 2007 | |
| Seeley Conferences were established in 1986 in honour of Dr. John G. Seeley after his retirement from Cornell University. Each year a conference topic important to the future of floriculture is chosen by the Board of Directors. Seeley Conferences are intended to promote duscussion by industry leaders of issues important to the future of commercial floriculture. Profit Squeeze – is there a solution, is the theme under discussion this year. The simple action of passing on costs behind us is not likley to return. Will the current severe squeeze on Company profits be overcome a) through innovative approaches that reduce operational costs or b) by improving the value of products in ornamental horticulture, or both developments. Business experts in ‘Lean Horticulture’ (lean=streamlined) first aligned the segments of the ornamental horticultural industry as a total supply chain. Participating business leaders represented US and foreign growers, volume and traditiona retailers, wholesalers, importers and bunchers, allied suppliers. Interactive discussion in the 2.5 day conference tackled the following questions: (1) what is ‘Lean-Flow’ and how can it be applied to horticulture; (2) can these principles be applied across all segments in the ornamental horticultural industry; (3) how to approach operations to obtain a different result; (4) how to introduce change so that it is accepted; (5) how to shift focus from cutting costs to customer satisfaction and producting what the customer will pay for; (6) how can ‘Lean Horticulture’ answer the problems that are knocking on the sector’s doors when it seems that the only important thing to be done is to produce a cheaper product. For further information on the conference, contact: Dolores Higareda, Fax 001 607 2550599, E-mail: seeleyconference@cornell.edu www.hort.cornell.edu/seeleyconference |
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