The Lean way

  • P.O. Box 8173 Louisville, Kentucky 40257-8173 USA
  • Phone: + 1-502-322-6567
  • [email protected]

Lean Systems Certification

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This series consists of three week-long workshops, completed over the course of 3 to 4 months. During the intervals, participants complete additional projects in their workplaces and present their Results to their classmates.

The Lean Way – Designing the Lean System:

Define the architecture for lean operations in this value stream mapping, analysis, and design workshop. Discuss and apply detailed practical approaches for creating flow, and explore a variety of pull systems.

The Lean Way - The Lean Work System:

In a progressive series of hands-on simulations, apply the key tools that support a lean transformation: 5S workplace organization, workstation design, visual controls, standardized work, setup reduction, and source quality. Explore the principles of pull systems for production control & management.

The Lean Way -Managing the Lean System:

Explore the role of people in a lean system that is constantly learning and improving. Apply a variety of team building and problem solving strategies including C4, Six Sigma, and TRIZ, focusing on how to teach these methods to teams. Create a Daily Management System for an effective workplace that teaches and engages team members, fostering higher levels of performance and employee satisfaction.

  • Outcomes & Objectives
  • Target Audience
  • Delivery Options

Apply lean principles, techniques, tools and practices

  • Describe the principles, techniques, tools and practices associated with lean

  • Plan and execute a series of improvement projects in the workplace

  • Gain the trust and engagement of team members in the workplace

Help your company become more profitable

  • See the value and the waste in your processes and systematically enhance the value while eliminating waste, increasing your capacity and profitability

  • Create work flow to improve delivery to your customers while ensuring perfect quality

  • Teach and coach lean principles, techniques, tools and practices to your co-workers

  • Solve problems and drive improvements in your work processes

Create a better place to work

  • Apply basic team building approaches to develop more effective solutions to workplace challenges

  • Set boundaries and create repeatable processes through standardized work

  • Describe basic leadership principles complementing a lean transformation

We believe the only way to achieve mastery in lean systems is through demonstrating knowledge with Results-oriented projects completed in the workplace as part of our overall education program. To earn the certificate, every candidate is required to complete two transformation projects with support from their management. The savings from these projects should pay for the education many times over.

This series is designed for change agents and leaders responsible for implementing your transformation strategy. The series is intellectually rigorous but is tailored to the audience to be appropriate for all team members. When completed as part of the Strategic Transformation Partnership or Community Action Partnership, the series is also physically rigorous, with long working days gathering data, analyzing processes, building things, moving equipment, and a variety of other tasks. We have had CEOs, Presidents, all levels of managers, supervisors, and team members from all departments successfully complete this series.

We've developed three delivery options for these courses. The most effective tends to be option 3, which we recommend.


Option 1: Public Delivery

Send your people to our public workshops in Kentucky. The price is $7,500 per person, but with a larger group we discount that price by as much as 50%. This option allows your people to interact with participants from other companies, making valuable network connections for future idea sharing and learning.


Option 2: Conventional On-site Delivery

We will come to you to deliver the courses as designed. You provide the learning environment (including room, audio visual equipment, office supplies, reproduction of handout materials, meals and refreshments) and send up to 28 people at a time through the course series. The meeting room must be at least 10 meters wide by 12 meters deep (or 30′ x 36’). The price for the series is $75,000 plus expenses (instructor travel, copies of handouts, onsite meals and refreshments, other supplies as needed). We will schedule these courses at your convenience (within our own scheduling constraints). With this option, we encourage you to coordinate the student projects to focus on a particular value stream, so that the combined effect of many smaller projects will have a significant impact for the company.


Option 3: Lean Systems Certification Boot Camp

In this series, we focus on actual transformation and make the projects the vehicle for learning. We will come and make an assessment of your facility, identifying with you the key value stream and several projects substantial enough to achieve our learning and cost savings objectives. You provide the learning environment again (including room, audio visual equipment, office supplies, reproduction of handout materials, meals and refreshments.) Everyone also must have access to the gemba (the workplace where we will complete the transformation projects).

During each week, the class (again, up to 28 people) will complete a series of cost-saving projects that save you at least twice as much as the boot camp costs, Guaranteed. We will also invoice in a way that ensures the savings hit the books before the bill does, making this partnership a great investment for you, even in these troubled times. The price for this series is $120,000 plus expenses. We’re averaging 12:1 returns with current dedicated clients in the Strategic Transformation Partnership. The boot camp often requires additional instructors/facilitators.

The sequence of workshops are as follows:

Lean Systems Certification Boot Camp Week 1 – Systems

  • Assessment and Value Stream Mapping and Analysis workshop

  • Lean Systems Certification Boot Camp Week 2 – Processes
    Rapid Improvement/LIFT activity facilitated by ILS targeting the restructuring of key operations and processes identified during the previous workshop

  • Lean Systems Certification Boot Camp Week 3 – Kaizen
    Rapid Improvement/LIFT activities facilitated by ILS targeting detail work improvement and problem solving for processes featured in Week 2 activities

Bootcamp weeks, like the others, are separated by 4 – 6 weeks each, where the participants are required to complete any lingering action items from the workplace projects completed during the facilitated week. ILS provides ongoing coaching to ensure progress.

For all of these options, we offer flexible invoicing to fit within your budget better, ideally making this series cost neutral to your budget. We will also help you submit grant proposals to state workforce development and economic development agencies to further offset the cost of these programs. This still allows you to bring people from your other facilities worldwide to participate.

  • For option 1 – Public Delivery, to secure seats in the public workshops, we require registration and a nonrefundable advance deposit of $500 per person. We can break out the billing so that you receive an invoice for each week, spread out just like the workshops, rather than one lump sum for all three courses.

  • For option 2 – Conventional Onsite Delivery, no deposit is required, but we will send you a contract that outlines our mutual obligations. You may choose to pay lump sum in advance, or we can invoice by week, and if necessary issue multiple invoices for each session spread out between weekly budget cycles.

  • For option 3 – Boot camp, we will work together to define the billing sequence, so that it fits into your budget cycles and presents you with a clear, cost-neutral option (the savings will hit the books as the invoices come due). This option does require that we partner more closely to verify actual savings. It also requires commitment from management to enforce the standards we will coach your participants to put in place.

For smaller companies who may not be able to conduct a dedicated series, please read about our Community Action Partnership, where 3 to 5 companies in a single geographic community provide 3 to 8 people each to participate in the 3-week learning experience. Three different companies work together to provide a host for each week. Participants experience new learning in environments that may be significantly different from their own, but still develop the skills to take back home. The objective of the partnership is to provide the best possible lean systems education to organizations at the lowest possible net cost.


Logistics

We conduct this workshop for the public and onsite for individual companies. This workshop requires no special facilities. The ideal meeting space is approximately 30’ x 30′. The boot camp option requires access for the entire group to the work area.