Lean Service Improvement Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Operations Managers, Process Improvement Specialists and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-QP-057

Before you join: Participants should have experience working in, supporting or managing a service process, such as customer operations, shared services, administration, case management, contact centres or transaction processing.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Service organisations often face long customer waits, repeated hand-offs, avoidable rework, backlogs and inconsistent outcomes. Teams may work hard while customers still receive slow or unreliable service because demand, process steps, capacity and performance measures are poorly aligned. Lean service improvement provides a disciplined way to identify non-value-adding work, reduce failure demand and improve flow without weakening service controls, compliance or customer care.

This course equips participants to analyse and improve end-to-end service processes using Lean principles and practical improvement methods. Participants learn to define customer value, capture voice-of-customer requirements, map current-state processes, identify the eight wastes, measure service performance and find root causes of delay and error. The programme covers value stream mapping, SIPOC, demand analysis, queue management, standard work, visual management, A3 problem solving, PDCA and control planning. Participants build the skills to select realistic improvement priorities, test changes and sustain gains through daily management.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with service-sector cases, facilitated process analysis, group exercises, simulations and structured application planning. Cases reflect settings such as banking operations, public services, healthcare administration, shared services, contact centres and NGO programme delivery. Participants leave with a practical Lean service improvement pack for a selected process, including a problem charter, current-state map, waste analysis, root-cause analysis, future-state design and implementation plan. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the five-day course.

The course is suited to professionals responsible for service delivery, operational performance, process improvement or customer experience. It is particularly useful where teams need a common improvement language and a repeatable method for reducing lead time, errors and avoidable workload.

What you will be able to do

  • Define customer value and critical-to-quality requirements for a service process
  • Map end-to-end service flow using SIPOC and value stream mapping
  • Identify the eight Lean wastes, failure demand and process constraints
  • Measure service performance using lead time, takt time, workload and first-time-right metrics
  • Analyse service delays and defects using Pareto analysis, fishbone diagrams and five whys
  • Design future-state service processes using flow, pull, standard work and visual controls
  • Prepare an A3 improvement proposal with countermeasures, ownership and measures
  • Create a control plan and daily management routine to sustain improvements

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Diagnose service delays using a repeatable Lean improvement method
  • Lead structured discussions about waste, flow and customer value
  • Present evidence-based improvement proposals through an A3 format
  • Build credible future-state process designs with measurable service targets
  • Support promotion into operational excellence or continuous improvement roles

For your organisation

  • Reduced customer waiting, rework and avoidable service contacts
  • Clearer ownership of process performance and improvement actions
  • Better use of staff capacity through demand and workload analysis
  • More consistent service delivery through standard work and visual controls
  • Sustained improvement gains through control plans and daily management

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame a service improvement opportunity using Lean principles and a defined problem charter.

  • Lean principles of value, flow, pull, perfection and respect
  • Service value defined through customer need, demand and failure demand
  • End-to-end service systems compared with isolated departmental efficiency measures
  • Customer touchpoints distinguished from back-office steps and support activities
  • Lean maturity assessment identifies conditions for sustained service improvement
  • Improvement charter sets problem, scope, sponsor, measures and boundaries

Participants can translate customer needs into measurable service requirements and process boundaries.

  • Voice-of-customer data translated into critical-to-quality service requirements
  • SIPOC diagrams define suppliers, inputs, process, outputs and customers
  • Service families grouped by customer need, routing and processing complexity
  • Operational definitions remove ambiguity from service quality measures
  • Customer journey stages reveal moments of waiting, uncertainty and effort
  • Scope decisions separate controllable process steps from external dependencies

Participants can map a current-state service process and identify waste, hand-offs and constraints.

  • Current-state value stream maps show information flow and work flow
  • Process walk observations record actual steps rather than documented procedures
  • Eight wastes applied to waiting, queues, rework and unnecessary approvals
  • Touch-time and elapsed-time comparison exposes hidden service delays
  • Swimlane maps reveal hand-offs, role confusion and duplicated activities
  • Constraint analysis identifies steps limiting overall process throughput

Participants can select and interpret operational measures for service quality, speed and workload.

  • Lead time, touch time and queue time measured consistently
  • First-time-right rates distinguish defect prevention from defect correction
  • Demand profiles separate predictable workload from exceptional demand patterns
  • Takt time compares required service pace with available capacity
  • Pareto charts prioritise error types, contact reasons and delay causes
  • Run charts distinguish common-cause variation from meaningful performance shifts

Participants can diagnose demand-capacity imbalance and select practical actions to reduce queues.

  • Demand analysis separates value demand, failure demand and avoidable contacts
  • Arrival patterns expose peak loads, seasonality and workload volatility
  • Capacity calculations account for staffing, availability, skills and productive time
  • Little's Law links work in progress, throughput and waiting time
  • Workload balancing reduces bottlenecks caused by uneven task allocation
  • Triage rules route work by urgency, complexity and customer impact

Participants can design a future-state service process that improves flow and consistency.

  • Future-state maps remove non-value-adding steps and simplify decision points
  • One-piece flow reduces delays created by batching and work accumulation
  • Pull systems limit work release using visual workload triggers
  • Standard work defines sequence, timing, quality checks and escalation criteria
  • Poka-yoke controls prevent predictable data-entry and routing errors
  • Service level agreements align hand-offs, response times and responsibilities

Participants can apply visual controls and workplace organisation to make service conditions visible.

  • Visual management boards display workload, priorities, risks and performance
  • Daily huddles review abnormalities, blockers, actions and service commitments
  • 5S principles organise shared physical and digital workspaces
  • Andon escalation signals highlight stalled cases and urgent customer issues
  • Checklists standardise critical steps, evidence requirements and approval controls
  • Tiered accountability connects frontline issues with management decision-making

Participants can investigate recurring service problems and develop evidence-based countermeasures.

  • Problem statements define performance gap, customer impact and operating condition
  • Five whys investigates causal chains without assigning individual blame
  • Fishbone diagrams structure potential causes across people, process and technology
  • Stratification separates defects by channel, team, product and case type
  • A3 reports connect background, analysis, countermeasures, measures and follow-up
  • PDCA cycles test countermeasures before wider process implementation

Participants can plan an improvement implementation with stakeholder engagement, testing and risk controls.

  • Stakeholder analysis identifies affected teams, decision-makers and potential resistance
  • Pilot plans define test scope, duration, measures and review points
  • RACI matrices assign accountability for actions, approvals and escalation
  • Change impact assessments identify training, policy, system and control implications
  • Implementation risks assessed through likelihood, impact and mitigation actions
  • Benefits tracking links improvement actions with agreed service performance measures

Participants can establish controls, review routines and an application plan for sustained improvement.

  • Control plans specify measures, targets, owners, frequency and response actions
  • Standard work audits verify adherence and identify emerging process drift
  • Daily management routines escalate abnormalities before backlog becomes critical
  • Visual scorecards compare actual performance with service targets and trends
  • Kaizen backlogs organise improvement ideas by impact, effort and ownership
  • Personal application plans define first process, sponsor and thirty-day actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Lean service improvement charter template
  2. SIPOC and current-state mapping pack
  3. Service waste and failure-demand analysis
  4. Future-state service design template
  5. A3 problem-solving report template
  6. Daily management control plan

Who should attend

  • Operations Managers — improve service speed, quality and resource use
  • Process Improvement Specialists — apply Lean methods to service process redesign
  • Customer Service Managers — reduce avoidable contacts, errors and customer waiting
  • Team Leaders and Supervisors — manage daily performance and standard work
  • Business Analysts — diagnose process issues using evidence and structured mapping
  • Project Managers — deliver service improvement initiatives with measurable benefits

Skills and tools covered

Service process mappingWaste identificationRoot cause analysisDemand-capacity planningA3 problem solvingDaily performance management

Tools and standards

SIPOC, Value Stream Mapping, A3 Problem Solving, PDCA

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce Lean service concepts, followed by case work, mapping tasks, group exercises and facilitated review. Participants analyse realistic service scenarios involving queues, hand-offs, errors, backlogs and failure demand. Simulations demonstrate the effects of batch work, uneven demand and unclear standards on service flow. Structured application planning helps participants adapt the methods to a process from their own workplace, while peer discussion tests assumptions, measures and proposed countermeasures.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working in, supporting or managing a service process, such as customer operations, shared services, administration, case management, contact centres or transaction processing. Familiarity with basic process steps, service measures and workplace data is useful. Participants should be able to discuss a real process from their organisation and interpret simple tables or charts. No prior Lean qualification, statistical software, engineering background or previous process-improvement project experience is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

No prior Lean training or qualification is required. Participants need practical familiarity with a service process and the ability to discuss its steps, customers and performance issues.

Participants should bring details of one service process they know well, including its main steps, recurring problems and available measures. Existing process maps, customer feedback, backlog data or service reports are useful but not required.

The course suits operations managers, service managers, team leaders, analysts, project managers and improvement specialists. It is relevant to both customer-facing and back-office services.

This course applies Lean methods to service flow, customer demand, hand-offs, queues, casework and administrative processes. It uses practical performance measures and root-cause tools without requiring advanced statistical analysis associated with many Six Sigma programmes.

Participants can use the charter, mapping, A3 and control-plan formats on a selected workplace process. The course application plan identifies an initial improvement opportunity, key stakeholders, measures and early actions.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, service cases, practical analysis, group discussion, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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