Process Improvement

Analyze and improve business processes using proven methodologies that yield results including improving quality, reducing cost and speeding time to market.

  • Design for Manufacturability
    • Design for Manufacturability

      Course Number:
      12-5-RS
      Recommended Duration: 2 Days

      Intended Audience: All Employees

      Course Overview

      This two-day course will identify the major tools and techniques used in DFM and provide a highly interactive, hands-on environment for practicing their application. In addition to the case studies and exercises, the participants are encouraged to bring a product from their company to be used in an analysis done during class. The course will include a discussion on the implementation of DFM into your existing design process.

      Objectives/Topics

      As a result of taking this course, you will learn to:
      • n/a
      Prerequisites: None

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  • Design for Six Sigma
    • Design for Six Sigma

      Course Number:
      12-4-RS 
      Recommended Duration: 5 Days

      Intended Audience: All Employees

      Course Overview

      Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) applies six sigma principles to the product development process. DFSS combines statistical tools, such as Design of Experiments, with classic design tools such as Quality Function Deployment and Concept Generation to provide a methodology that ensures the right product is developed and that the business is fully prepared to successfully operationalize the product. The DFSS methodology provides a systematic process for development of the design process.

      Objectives/Topics

      DFSS has five phases, referred to as DMADV: 

      Define - basic product gaps are defined from a market and business strategy perspective. 
      Measure - specific product performance targets are set based upon measuring the customer planned use of the product. 
      Analyze- concepts, both product and business operations, are evaluated to determine the approach for development. 
      Design - product and business operations processes are designed in detail. 
      Verify/Validate - product and processes undergo verification and validation with both the customer and appropriate regulatory bodies, so as to create a baseline of both product and processes that are ready for market introduction and can be statistically controlled.

      PPI’s Design for Six Sigma program is a five day, non-sequential course, focusing one day on each of the five DFSS phases. This training is an overview of DFSS principles and approach. A case study tailored for the company is used and allows participants to practice the techniques that are appropriate for each of the five phases.

      Prerequisites: None

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  • Essential Process Improvement for High Performance Teams
    • Essential Process Improvement for High Performance Teams

      Course Number: 12-1-BB
      Recommended Duration: 2 Days

      Intended Audience: Those who wish to improve their ability to make business processes more effective and efficient.

      Course Overview

      Many change initiatives focus on improvement to business processes in order to reduce cycle times, improve quality and eliminate non-value add activities. In this course, participants will learn how to analyze and improve processes to achieve maximum business benefits. The course will be highly participative with formal consultant input blended with practical exercises and group work. All of the course work will be highly relevant to the participants’ work area.

      Objectives

      As a result of taking this course, you will learn how to analyze current processes and design and implement improvements.

      Topics

      • Process analysis
      • Voice of the customer
      • Measurement
      • Statistical process control
      • Process re-engineering
      • Practical process improvement
      • Process design
      • Tools and techniques
      • Implementation planning
      • Stakeholder communication
      Prerequisites: None

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  • Essential Skills for Six Sigma Black Belts
    • Essential Skills for Six Sigma Black Belts

      Course Number: 12-2-BB
      Recommended Duration: 6 Days

      Intended Audience: Recently qualified Black Belts.

      Course Overview

      The role of the Six Sigma Black Belt in a business is unique. The Black Belt acts as an internal consultant in dealing with the process owner, or client, and is then expected to create and lead a high performance team combining the roles of leader, chairperson, expert, and facilitator. This requires the Black Belt not only to be proficient in the skills of the six sigma process but to understand and utilize the skills of consultancy, leadership, facilitation, and project management as well as demonstrating superior communication and interpersonal skills.

      Objectives

      As a result of taking this course, the participant will learn to understand and practice a wide range of skills in the context of the Black Belt role. This course is intended to compliment six sigma development training.

      Topics

      • The course content is based on the hierarchy of essential skills required as a Six Sigma Black Belt
      • Interpersonal effectiveness
      • Consultancy skills
      • Facilitation skills
      • Leadership skills
      • Project management
      • Managing change
      Prerequisites: Six Sigma Black Belt Training

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  • Innovation with Lean and Six Sigma
    • Innovation with Lean and Six Sigma

      Course Number: 12-7-RS
      Recommended Duration: 2 Days

      Course Overview

      Lean and Six Sigma are two popular methodologies for improving manufacturing performance. Lean is a set of tools and principles that focus on reducing waste in the process. Six Sigma is a set of tools and methodology that focuses on reducing variation in the process. Many organizations have combined these to implement a comprehensive manufacturing improvement process. These powerful methodologies have a demonstrated track record for achieving results with existing products and processes. Design for Six Sigma goes one step further. It uses a methodology to create a new product or service that meets a set of specific customer needs. However, many organizations have found that the results from Lean, Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma programs only led to incremental improvements. These companies were expecting paradigm shifts in their operations and did not experience that. That is because a fundamental principle in each of these techniques is to reduce risk – yet innovation is inherently risky. There are several paradigm-shifting innovation techniques that can be embedded in the Lean and Six Sigma methodologies that often create the looked for improvements. These techniques do not replace the Lean and Six Sigma techniques, rather they augment them. This course will discuss the impact of these innovation techniques and show how to embed them in the Lean Six Sigma methodologies.

      Course Objectives

      • Understand why Lean and Six Sigma methodologies inhibit innovation.
      • Be able to apply innovation techniques on a technical projects.
      • Understand how to augment Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to enable innovation.

      Key Topics


      Day 1 Agenda – Innovation Techniques
      • Principles embedded in Lean, Six Sigma, and Design for Six Sigma methodologies
      • Lateral thinking innovation
      • Value Creation Mapping innovation
      Day 2 Agenda – Innovation Application
      • Redefining “Value” to enhance innovation
      • Setting Innovation Design Targets and KPIs
      • Embedding Innovation into Lean
      • Embedding Innovation into Six Sigma
      • Embedding Innovation into Design for Six Sigma

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  • Managing Design Transfer
    • Managing Design Transfer

      Course Number:
      12-9-RS 
      Recommended Duration: 1 Day

      Intended Audience: All Employees

      Course Overview

      Even though a product development team has designed a great product, that does not ensure business success. The company must still get that product into production; often in multiple sites around the world. The design transfer process can be a larger and more challenging project than product development. This course will discuss the principles for effective design transfer and share the best practices that have proven effective.

      Objectives/Topics

      As a result of taking this course, you will learn to:
      • n/a
      Prerequisites: None

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  • Managing New Product Development Projects
    • Managing New Product Development Projects

      Course Number:
      12-3-RS
      Recommended Duration: 2 Days

      Intended Audience: All Employees

      Course Overview

      The course will take you through the entire product development process beginning with customer needs identification and moving to specification development and team building. The course then introduces a variety of DFX techniques including the various design considerations and the introduction of the new product to manufacturing, sales, and the customer support. The course includes the use of many checklists for different stages of product development.

      Objectives/Topics

      As a result of taking this course, you will learn:
      • The new product development process.
      • Customer needs identification and benchmarking.
      • Program specification development.
      • Concurrent engineering.
      • Product line strategy and concept generation.
      • New product project team.
      • Product lifecycle and rapid prototyping.
      • Design for target costing, quality and service, manufacturability, and the environment.
      • Product certification.
      • Manufacturing, distribution/sales, and customer introduction.
      Prerequisites: None

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  • Product Line Strategy and Portfolio Management
    • Product Line Strategy and Portfolio Management

      Course Number:
      12-8-RS
      Recommended Duration: 2 Days

      Intended Audience: All Employees

      Course Overview

      A product line strategy is the roadmap for how a product will evolve in a manner that implements the business strategy in the marketplace and in the business operations. From this definition it is obvious that to develop a product line strategy there must be four elements: 1) a business strategy, 2) a clear understanding of the marketplace, 3) a clear understanding of operational strengths and weaknesses, and 4) an iterative plan for how these will change over time. This program will show how all of these must work together to create an effective product line strategy and to manage the product portfolio.

      Objectives/Topics

      Participants will be able to:
      • Understand how to link business strategy to platform and product line strategy.
      • Create a product line strategy.
      • Prioritize projects and resources within a project portfolio.
      • Manage product positioning and pricing within a portfolio.
      Prerequisites: None

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  • Voice of the Customer
    • Voice of the Customer

      Course Number:
      12-6-RS
      Recommended Duration: 1 Day

      Intended Audience: All Employees

      Course Overview

      Everyone says that they want the voice of the customer to be reflected in their product requirements and product designs, yet often they have no methodology for capturing and analyzing this information. It is not enough to just repeat a few anecdotes, a systematic approach should be used to both understand what the customer wants and to translate that into design requirements. This course reviews several techniques for doing both of those.

      Objectives/Topics

      As a result of taking this course, you will learn to:
      • n/a
      Prerequisites: None

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