Introduction to Operational Excellence Transformation (OET)

What is it?

We define Operational Excellence as “Having an operations capability that offers a genuine competitive advantage from consistently delivering a high quality, profitable product to the customer, exactly when they need it, safely”.

Delivering true operational excellence is complex, sometimes painful, but potentially extremely rewarding. It often requires almost counter intuitive actions that will not succeed unless the whole organisation is behind it. It requires really strong leaders who will stubbornly pursue an agenda that throws up new barriers to progress each day.

Our Operational Excellence Transformation (OET) process has been developed to take your leaders and operations teams on a journey that can help you to make a breakthrough on your specific operational goals. It combines teachings from Lean, Six Sigma, and the Theory of Constraints (TOC), to offer a complete solution that delivers remarkable results.

This workshop will give you an experiential introduction to the key philosophies, concepts, and tools behind Operational Excellence. Through simulations, you will see the challenges that are posed by going on an OET journey, but also the huge benefits that can be achieved.

How does an Introduction to Operational Excellence Transformation (OET) help?

Many organisations we meet with tell us that they have already tried going Lean or “doing” Operational Excellence. They will point to some nice yellow lines and a shadow board as evidence of deployment of 5S. They will pull out a 5 year old document from a drawer as evidence of standard work. They will talk about the limitations of Operational Excellence in their world.

The truth is that many organisations are a long, long way from demonstrating anything close to operational excellence. The reason is that making sustained benefits from the principles of lean, six sigma, and theory of constraints requires taking your whole organisation on a difficult journey. Without a full appreciation of the principles, tools and leadership behaviours required to execute this journey, it is destined to fail.

This introductory workshop will help your senior and front-line leaders to understand the true meaning and value of Operational Excellence. Through multiple simulations they will begin to experience, and in doing so understand, the principles and tools that lie behind an Operational Excellence Transformation (OET) journey. They will see the pitfalls as well as the benefits for themselves, and be inspired to confront the huge opportunity before them.

Our Training

This workshop is targeted at the Operations Leaders in your business. It is beneficial to invite a mix of both Senior Operations Leaders but also Front-line Team leaders who are more accustomed to the day-to-day realities on the ground, and whose support will be critical.

The training is a combination of teaching, simulation and application. There is a heavy emphasis on learning by doing, so each concept is supported by an exercise, as well as practical guidance on the pitfalls and benefits in the real world.

Some of the key concepts covered include:

1. Basic Introduction: Lean, Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints (TOC)
2. Quantity Control: Just-in-time, Flow, Takt, Line Balancing, Quick Changeover
3. Quality Control: Managing variation, Error Proofing, Problem solving practices
4. Eliminating Waste: The 8 Wastes, Value Stream Mapping, Standard Work
5. OpEx Leadership: Key leadership behaviours, driving team accountability
6. The OET Journey: The roadmap, benefits, pitfalls and first steps

Please see the table below for details of this course

As well as this standard training, we can offer several in-house training solutions depending on your specific business goals. It is always advisable to contact us first to help you design the right solution for your needs.

Also please take a look at our article: Why aren’t we operationally excellent?

What should we do next?

Having been inspired by this training, are your leaders ready to start unlocking the huge potential in their business? Why not speak to us about going on an Operational Excellence Transformation (OET) journey?