Lean Six Sigma for Executive Leadership

Course Agenda

The following course agenda is flexible and can be tailored to specific customer interests.

Operational Excellence (OpEx) Leadership

Module 1 is an overview of Operational Excellence. It includes a summary of the great thought leaders like Deming, Shingo, Ohno, Juran and others followed by discussions of the Operational Excellence mindset. The module includes two hands-on exercises designed to demonstrate important concepts in the building of an OpEx culture.

Specific topics include:

• Deming, Juran, Shingo, Covey and other thought leaders
• Hands-on exercise: process simulation
• The 3 important business voices
• Operational Excellence mindset, focus on people
• Operational Excellence mindset, focus on continuous improvement
• Hands-on exercise: Leading by example
• Improving the return on your training and statistical software investment
• Freeform discussion

Lean Six Sigma Leadership

Module 2 dives deeper into the way Lean Six Sigma fits into a strategic plan for Operational Excellence. The module includes a business case study and hands-on work to demonstrate Lean Six Sigma project selection and related concepts. Also included is a discussion of The One Question that Executives should ask out at the workplace.

Specific topics include:

• Lean Six Sigma strategy & tactics
• Project selection
• Hands-on exercise: L-maps
• Case study

The Lean Mindset

Module 3 covers fundamental Lean Principles and a proven way to improve process flow and systematically set up process owners for success.

Specific topics include:

• The sequence to Lean Implementation
• 5S and why it often fails
• Waste kills profits, The Ohno Circle
• Hands-on exercise: Waste Audit (at Gemba, if possible)
• The importance of process mapping
• Hands-on exercise: Spaghetti Diagrams and Value Stream Mapping
• The One Question to ask your production operators
• Hands-on exercise: batch processing versus single-piece flow
• The PQPR analysis
• Hands-on exercise: PQPR analysis
• Kaizen is a mindset first, an event second
• Visual metrics
• Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
• The Lean Office
• Common Lean pitfalls and how to avoid them

The Six Sigma (statistical) Mindset

Module 4 covers fundamental Six Sigma Principles including the best way to analyze data and how to avoid common data analysis pitfalls. Hands-on exercises include Visual Process Risk Assessment, Turn Opinion into Hard Data, Measurement Systems Management and Statistical Process Control along with a demonstration of the way designed experiments can optimize complex production equipment and uncover valuable process knowledge.

Specific topics include:

• The Great Mathematical Quandary
• The 3 Principles of Statistical Thinking
• Inspection and pass-fail thinking kill profits (Taguchi’s superior view)
• Hands-on exercise: Sequence and delay maps
• Hands-on exercise: Data visualization and common pitfalls
• Your measurement systems may be burning your money
• Hands-on exercise: Trust no measurement
• Variation kills profits
• Software demonstration: The power of Shewhart Control Charts
• Technical risk assessment
• Hands-on exercise: The Visual Process Risk Assessment
• If your process isn’t optimized, you’re losing money
• Software demonstration: Process Optimization
• How to cheaply monitor progress and defeat entropy
• Common Six Sigma pitfalls and how to avoid them