Certified Lean Facilitator Program

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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