Process Optimisation and Efficiency Improvement Training Course

Participants can create a current-state map that exposes steps, decisions, hand-offs and delays.

• Swimlane maps show responsibilities, hand-offs, approvals and decision points
• Value stream mapping separates value-adding time from waiting and rework
• Documenting process variants reveals hidden exceptions and informal workarounds
• Customer journeys connect internal process steps with customer effort
• Gemba observation records actual work rather than documented procedures
• Process map validation uses frontline evidence, timestamps and transaction samples

Participants can establish reliable baseline measures for process efficiency, quality and flow.

• Operational definitions make measures consistent across people, locations and shifts
• Cycle time, lead time and touch time distinguished accurately
• First-pass yield measures completed work without correction or rework
• Baseline data plans specify sources, sampling periods and collection responsibilities
• Run charts reveal trends, shifts and unusual performance patterns
• Stratification separates results by channel, product, team and customer segment

Participants can identify non-value-adding work and improve flow through a process.

• TIMWOODS identifies transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, defects and skills
• Queue analysis explains how utilisation and variability increase waiting
• Batch size reduction shortens feedback loops and work-in-progress accumulation
• Pull systems trigger work from downstream demand rather than forecasts
• Takt time compares required output pace with available working time
• Little's Law links work-in-progress, throughput and average flow time

Participants can locate constraints and select actions that improve throughput without displacing problems.

• Theory of Constraints identifies the resource limiting total process throughput
• Capacity calculations compare available hours, demand volumes and staffing patterns
• Bottleneck workload profiles distinguish persistent constraints from temporary peaks
• Drum-buffer-rope protects constraint capacity and controls upstream work release
• Work balancing redistributes tasks according to skills, demand and capacity
• Cross-training plans reduce dependency on single specialists and critical roles

Participants can distinguish symptoms from root causes and test plausible causes with data.

• Pareto analysis focuses investigation on the few dominant loss categories
• Fishbone diagrams organise potential causes across people, methods, machines and materials
• Five whys traces recurring failures beyond immediate operational symptoms
• Scatter plots test possible relationships between process variables and outcomes
• Failure mode and effects analysis prioritises risks using severity, occurrence and detection
• Common-cause and special-cause variation require different management responses

Participants can design practical changes and select options using evidence, benefits and risk.

• Future-state maps remove unnecessary steps, delays, approvals and duplicate entry
• Standard work defines sequence, timing, expected output and escalation points
• Poka-yoke prevents predictable errors before they reach customers
• Impact-effort matrices compare improvement options against implementation difficulty
• Cost-benefit analysis estimates savings, capacity release, investment and payback
• Pilot designs define test scope, success measures, duration and safeguards

Participants can specify controls that make improved processes visible, repeatable and easier to manage.

• Visual management boards display workload, performance, issues and actions
• Standard operating procedures convert improved methods into controlled instructions
• Checklists reduce omission risk in repeatable, high-consequence process steps
• 5S improves workplace organisation, search time and abnormality detection
• Automation suitability assesses rule stability, volume, exceptions and control requirements
• Process mining evidence identifies actual paths, rework loops and compliance deviations

Participants can plan implementation, manage adoption risks and track realised process benefits.

• RACI matrices assign implementation decisions, tasks, consultation and communication responsibilities
• Stakeholder analysis identifies affected groups, concerns, influence and engagement actions
• Change impact assessments address roles, skills, controls, systems and procedures
• Implementation roadmaps sequence pilots, training, rollout, review and corrective action
• Benefits registers track financial, capacity, quality and customer-service outcomes
• Risk registers define owners, mitigations, triggers and contingency responses

Participants can prepare a controlled 90-day plan for improving a selected workplace process.

• Control plans define measures, thresholds, review frequency and response actions
• Process dashboards combine leading indicators with outcome performance measures
• Daily management routines escalate abnormalities before service performance deteriorates
• PDCA cycles maintain learning after pilots and full-scale implementation
• Audits verify adherence to standard work and approved process controls
• Ninety-day action plans sequence priorities, owners, milestones and review dates