
The Journey to Competitiveness – Developing Your Own In-House Lean Expert
South Suburban College and WCM Associates have partnered to offer The Certified Lean Facilitator (CLF) program, a comprehensive training program for those who will be leading and training Lean teams within their organization. The program includes an in-depth understanding of the Lean Tools along with how to successfully apply the Lean Tools through a team-centered leadership style. The goal of this certification is to allow organizations to develop in-house Lean experts so they do not have to rely on consultants for the long term. For companies to implement and integrate Lean as a system, they must “own” Lean.
There are currently four business areas of certification:
- Manufacturing
- Healthcare
- Construction
- Other Service Industries
The certification process consists of three parts: three weeks of classroom experience, the experience of participating and running at least four shop floor/office kaizen events, and finally participation in a World Class Company benchmarking trip. The first two weeks of training vary by certification business area; week three is the same for all areas).
Upon completion of the Certified Lean Facilitator, participants will:
- Be able to develop, with the executive team, the key metrics that drive organizational improvement
- Have the knowledge to lead an organization’s Lean initiative
- Have a complete understanding of the Lean tools and the ability to apply those tools to specific organizational objectives
- Know the importance of associate empowerment through a team-centered environment
- Understand the role of the customer and know how to increase customer satisfaction
- Be able to train fellow associates on the tools of Lean
- Be able to facilitate improvement activities including Kaizen events
Week One
- Overview of Lean – 1 day
Proof of the need to change and adopt Lean, a description of the Lean tools, and a simulation comparing batch vs. flow production - 5S/Visual Enterprise – 1 day
A 5S/Visual Enterprise implementation leads to improved pride, quality, and productivity in the workplace while sustaining the improvements for safety, cleanliness, and organization. Includes a 5S exercise/simulation. - Team Building – 1 day
Learn the requirements for teamwork to occur, develop an understanding of team dynamics, how teams positively impact productivity, and the impact of effective communication in a team environment. Includes a team building exercise. - Total Productive Maintenance – 1/2 day
With operator involvement as the foundation, the plant-wide role changes required to support TPM are established as the starting point on the journey to zero unplanned downtime. - Setup Reduction – 1/2 day
Reducing equipment setup times improves production capacity, reduces product lead-times, and improves customer satisfaction without adding resources or increasing costs. - Process Cells – 1 day
Gain exposure to the tools, thought processes, and support systems required to design and implement one-piece flow (including calculating task time and standardizing work practices).
Week Two
- A3 Problem Solving – 1 day
Learn all the basic problem-solving tools with a critical element – application using a simulation. - Error Proofing – 1/2 day
Gain a complete understanding of what error proofing is, how it is used as an improvement strategy and how to analyze a problem for error proofing potential. Includes error proofing exercise. - Inventory Kanbans – 1/2 day
Proper Kanban design will simultaneously reduce inventory, improve customer service levels, eliminate part outages and shortages, while providing a materials management process that all employees can interpret and understand at a glance. - Value Stream Mapping (VSM) – 3 day
Utilize this visual tool that graphically identifies every step in a product’s flow, giving visibility to both the value-adding steps as well as the non-value adding steps. Completed on an actual host company process.
Week Three
- Advanced Team Building – 1 day
Team leaders and team facilitators learn how to effectively challenge teams to achieve greater performance results. - Kaizen Event Preparation and Facilitation – 1 day
Learn the role a team facilitator and team leader play in conducting a kaizen event and event follow-up. - Leadership Development Day 1 – 1 day
Develop leadership skills needed when implementing change. Focus is on why leadership and listening skills are essential in the change process. - Leadership Development Day 2 – 1 day
A continued development of leadership skills. Focus is on why empowerment, motivation, and attitude are essential in the change process. - Leading Change including Accounting for Lean and Policy Deployment – 1/2 day
Participants will learn how leaders impact the change process and the fundamentals of effectively leading an organization through transformation. - Presentation Skills – 1/2 day
The basic tools for creating powerful presentations and training sessions using audio/visual aids, props, voice and the human body.
For full information, contact Nancy Burrows at (708) 596-2000, ext. 3258.
This program is presented by WCM Associates LLC