Achieve Core Objectives

• minimising cost
• delivering faster
• eliminating defects
• solving problems permanently

They are mainly of interest to operations team members.

The modules that focus on the minimising cost core objective are:

• MC 1: Profit-driven decision making. This module teaches the fundamentals of cost-benefit analysis and investment appraisal.
   
• MC 2: Reducing risk. The objective of this module is to teach participants how to carry our risk assessment, planning and management. Participants are introduced to and use common approaches to reducing risk such as FMEA.
  
• MC 3: Setting budgets. Participants learn the principles of budget setting and commonly used financial terms.
  
• MC 4: Controlling costs. This module covers why controlling costs is important, the major types of cost, looking for opportunities to reduce costs, choosing what to focus on, cost reduction as a result of other improvement activities.

Reducing the time taken to respond to customer needs is an important aspect of achieving lean operations. The second core objective is to deliver faster and in this section of the PTP there are five modules:

• DF 1: Drive out waste. Participants will learn about the principles of lean operations, various forms of waste, VA/NVA analysis through participating in a simulation exercise.
  
• DF 2: Workflow rationalisation. In this module participants learn about process layout, work station design, line balancing, bottlenecks, ergonomics and visual management.
  
• DF 3: Output planning and control. This module deals with the alternative approaches to planning and controlling production and inventory. The topics covered include planning and controlling one-off operations, low volume batch production, high volume batch production, assembly operations and continuous process flow.
  
• DF 4: SMED. Reducing the time taken to changeover from one job to another makes a major contribution to smaller batch sizes and less inventory. This modules deals with the principals for set-up reduction and the techniques that can be used to achieve this objective. Participants learn how to carry out a set-up reduction exercise.

If only we could get all our processes to work reliably and accurately many of our problems would never occur. We could reduce batch sizes and inventory, delivery times would be reduced, and customers satisfied. The key to achieving these benefits is eliminating defects.

• ED 1: Active process management. Well-organized and managed processes are the building blocks of excellence. In this module participants learn to adopt a systems approach to process management and the basic disciplines such as the development of process instructions that accurately reflect the work that is done within the process. SSOW and process design fundamentals are taught.
  
• ED 2: Process control through SPC. Participants are taught the principles of SPC, such as how to distinguish different types of variation, and learn how to construct commonly encountered forms of control chart.
  
• ED 3: Data-driven decision making. Participants learn rigorous methods of analysing data, such as hypothesis testing, that they can use to make decisions with confidence.
  
• ED 4: Mistake-proof your processes. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a simple way of designing mistake-proof operations processes? The good news is that there is: it’s called poka yoke. In this module participants learn how to eliminate quality problems that occur because of human error, reduce the costs associated with non-conformance, enable closer adherence to schedules, reduce inventory levels and investment.

The final core objective is concerned with solving problems permanently and, as a result breaking out of the depressing and time-consuming cycle of having to solve the same problem time and time again.

• SP 1: Solve problems permanently. The problem with problems is not that they occur—in spite of our best efforts, stuff happens. Unforeseen circumstances will always conspire against us to disrupt the smooth operation of our production and management systems and upset our plans. The problem with problems is that we fail to prevent them from happening again. This module covers how to identify and describe problems, implement interim containment actions, identify the root cause(s) of problems, choose and implement permanent solutions, prevent problem re-occurrence.
  
• SP 2: Key improvement techniques. Participants learn about the PDCA cycle used to structure continuous improvement and the seven tools of quality.
  
• SP 3: Advance improvement techniques. This complements SP 2 and teaches participants how to use the advanced seven quality planning tools.
  
• SP 4: Organize the workplace with 5S. This module takes a proven approach to de-cluttering and organizing workplaces—whether they are offices or factories. 5S can be used by individuals, teams or whole organizations to transform untidy, poorly-organized working environments. It’s simple to apply, and dramatically reduces costs, promotes efficiency and effectiveness, boosts morale and is the essential precursor of other improvement activities.
  
• SP 5: Maximise performance with DOE. This module addresses the use of design of experiments to optimise the performance of processes.