Management. Lift your career and your organisation.

Lean Six Sigma is a smarter way to manage, putting the customer first and using facts and data to drive better solutions. First applied in Japan, Lean management is now used globally in a range of business environments.

This Lean Six Sigma course is designed for supervisors, managers and leaders who are seeking to improve productivity from the office to the production floor. It introduces the principles of lean management and their application, which ultimately leads to 6 sigma workplaces (3 mistakes per 1 million processes). This is achieved by removing wasteful processes and human error.

Implementation of Lean Six Sigma methodologies should enable you and your company to:

• decrease errors and time taken on tasks
• improve customer satisfaction due to improved quality and service
• gain business growth and improve profitability
• improve communication and teamwork through the sharing of ideas, problems, successes and failures
• develop a common set of tools and techniques with a methodology that can be applied by anyone in the organisation.

This course introduces you to principles for improving productivity and competitiveness in teams within organisations. In so doing, we will examine what the customer truly values and what they consider is wasteful. The focus will then be on increasing efficiency by removing wasteful steps in processes. Lean is centred on preserving value with less work. Improvements in these areas usually represent dramatic financial benefits to businesses, as well as opportunities to retain customers, capture new markets, and build a reputation for top-performing products and services.

Objectives

Course objectives include:

• acquiring techniques for achieving process efficiency within a team environment, achieved by also providing a benefit for each team member
• identifying waste from a customer perspective and therefore delivering value with less work
• providing a process for finding the root cause of defects and then precluding future defects by removing human error
• building a skill set for increasing organisational competitiveness by using the tools provided by Lean and Six Sigma, namely the 5S, 8 Wastes, Value Stream Map, Root Cause Analysis, Poka Yoke and Creative Problem Solving within team environment
• developing a leadership style that encourages teams to feel empowered, take ownership and accountability for process improvements and reducing errors.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• nurture a team-based culture that facilitates respect in solving problems creatively using either lean tools or Six Sigma methodology
• lead teams in communicating effectively with stakeholders so as to identify waste in processes
• apply lean tools to generate work-based efficiencies
• apply six sigma tools to reduce error rates (known as Defects per Million Opportunities)
• develop success metrics using both lean and six sigma methodologies.

Content

The basis and tools of lean

Introduction to lean concepts including kaizens (changes for good), 5S, 8 Wastes, root cause analysis, creative problem solving and mistake proofing (poka yoke).

Application of lean tools

Explanation and application of lean tools to a variety of settings, including commercial, government and not-for-profit environments. This includes outlining lean concepts and demonstrating how they can used across a variety of environments.

Metric for determining success with lean projects

Lean measures relating to availability, performance and yield.

The basis and methodology of Six Sigma

Introduction to Six Sigma methodology that is based on processes having characteristics that can be defined, measured, analysed, improved and controlled (DMAIC).

Application of Six Sigma methodology

The use of Six Sigma methodology in cross-functional teams to solve broader business problems and reduce variability and eliminate error.

Introduction to leadership “Green Belt” training

How to lead teams by empowering team members, whilst encouraging risk taking and creative problem solving to reduce errors with non-human intervention.

Metrics for determining success with Six Sigma projects

Understanding how to set tolerance levels and calculate Defects per Million Opportunities.

Intended audience

Suitable for anyone interested in removing wasteful workplace processes, reducing human stress arising from process inefficiencies and eliminating errors by introducing non-human interventions. This is across commercial, government and no-for-profit organisations. In particular, the course is designed for:

• Line managers and supervisors
• Managers
• Team leaders and supervisors
• Manufacturing staff
• Administration staff.

Delivery modes

• Face-to-face, presenter-taught workshop
• Online workshop via the platform Zoom

Delivery style

Coursework consists of mini-lectures, followed by practical exercises. These exercises include group work based on case studies. There will be also an opportunity towards the end of the day to volunteer your own change scenario for building up an action plan based on input from the entire class.

Materials

Course materials are distributed electronically using Dropbox.