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 ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
Many organizations have recurring problems that their corrective action process does not effectively address. The cause is often inadequate depth of the analysis ... fixing only the physical and not the system causes. We teach people how to distinguish between the two levels of causes, how to determine when the deeper level should be pursued, and how to use powerful tools for guiding the analysis.
We've conducted this course more than 200 times in the past eight years. One of the companies reduced the number of paperwork errors by more than 90% within two weeks; other projects have had a bottom line impact of $100k-$500k. The course is relevant for dealing with customer complaints, equipment or product failures, audit findings, and many other process or organizational problems.
If you'd like to attend an open-enrollment course see the Events page for upcoming courses. If you'd like to bring the course in-house, Contact us. If you'd like to take an online version of the course go to the Resources page. We've also published several articles and a book on root cause analysis, which are listed on our Publications page. You can download some of the articles as well as the first chapter of the book.
Many participants have indicated this is the best course they ever attended!
MEASURING PROCESS & ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Organizations often have difficulty maintaining a consistent focus on strategic priorities. One mechanism for accomplishing this using performance metrics aligned to strategic objectives deployed throughout the organization. This workshop provides a structured approach for selecting, defining, reporting and managing metrics that allow everyone in the organization to effectively manage and improve processes for which they are responsible. One course participant from a service organization quickly learned the value of process thinking when trying to identify metrics.
If you'd like to attend an open-enrollment course see the Events page for upcoming courses. If you'd like to bring the course in-house, Contact us.
INTERNAL QUALITY AUDITS
Another measure of process performance is that of auditing compliance to standards, procedures and principles of effective process management. We train employees, regardless of their backgrounds, to be effective auditors of your quality management system. The course covers the relevant standards (e.g., ISO 9001, ISO/TS 16949) and audit principles & practices, and includes both case studies and a live audit to provide a full experience.
This course has been conducted since 1992, training thousands of internal auditors. One company even made it a criteria for consideration when promoting personnel. If you'd like to schedule a course for your organization Contact us. We've also published several articles on auditing, some of which you can download on our Publications page.
PROCESS MANAGEMENT
The foundation of success for every organization is alignment of operations with strategy. This calls for understanding how to identify, manage and improve business processes. We provide training and support for organizations to help them understand the critical nature of process management, how to plan and define operational processes, how to monitor process performance and how to improve processes.
It is also critical in today's environment to integrate process management with IT and HR, and to align processes with widely accepted and validated frameworks. We also have a process management maturity matrix that can be used to evaluate the degree to which your organization effectively manages operational processes. PROCESS FAILURE MODE & EFFECTS ANALYSIS When you're designing or changing a process it's useful to think through what all could go wrong, what the impact would be, and how well the current controls in the process will be able to deal with it. A pFMEA is a formally designed way of conducting such a review, and provides rankings that allow prioritizing what areas might be deemed most at risk, so preventive action be taken prior to releasing the process. This course presents how to get organized for a pFMEA (such as who to involve and what information should be available beforehand), how to step through the process to identify the risks, and how to review the output for potential actions. Other uses of the pFMEA, such as for training and process maintenance planning are also discussed, as well as how to do FMEAs in a high-product-mix environment. Examples used during the course are processes with which anyone is familiar, and practice on your own processes is also provided in the longer versions.
FACILITATION SKILLS
It's one thing to bring together a group in order to improve a process or implement a quality management system, but it's another to have that group work effectively and efficiently. This is the role of a facilitator, to bring organizational and technical skills that help the group achieve their mission.
This courses covers three major components of the facilitation role: 1) having and following a Technical Process for achieving the mission, 2) using good Meeting Process techniques so that time is well utilized, and 3) ensuring that the Group Process creates an environment where people will contribute.
OTHER EDUCATION & TRAINING
In an age where everyone has access to the same capital & equipment, knowledge is the greatest tool for competitive advantage. We help companies increase performance by providing specially developed courses targeted at not only improving the work process, but also how people think about their work. Workshops are also available to professional organizations and universities for continuing professional development. Examples of additional courses we've developed and delivered include:
- Project Management
- Change Agent Skills
- Statistical Process Control
- Understanding ISO 9000 (and ISO/TS 16949)
- Train-the-Trainer
- Process Analysis and Improvement Methods
- Advanced Quality Planning
If you'd like to improve the skills of your employees so they can better manage and improve your processes Contact us.
QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
We've directly helped dozens of companies achieve ISO 9001 and ISO/TS 16949 registration by conducting gap assessments, training management and staff, guiding system development, training internal auditors, and conducting pre-assessments. Hundreds of firms have been served through our public training courses on quality management systems and auditing.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Sometimes there simply aren't enough resources available within an organization to carry out a specific high-need project. We've provided expertise as a project manager, process improvement specialist, process facilitator and/or technical writer to help organizations implement projects such as:
- Conduct an organizational assessment based on a knowledge management framework
- Write a European Quality Award application
- Design, document and implement a quality management system
- Review production processes for control adequacy, and facilitate cross-functional development of process failure mode & effects analyses (pFMEA)
- Develop the requirements and conceptual design for a computer aided process planning (CAPP) system
- Improve the strategic planning process to make it more holistic
- Facilitate a root cause analysis to confirm findings of an internal investigation
GUEST SPEAKER
Management retreats, professional conferences, and many other groups look for someone who can provide listeners with an understanding or new ways of acting on trends. We've spoken to more than 150 groups on a wide variety of topics; following is a partial list:
- Selecting the Optimum Problem Solving Approach
- The Role of Root Cause Analysis in Continual Quality Improvement
- Selecting the Right Tools for Root Cause Analysis
- Financial Thinking for Quality Professionals
- Maximizing the Yield and Minimizing the Damage from Performance Metrics
- e-QM: Quality Management in a Digital World
- Barriers to Effective Root Cause Analysis
- Complex Adaptive Systems and Quality Management: Are They Compatible?
- Auditing for Supply Chain Reliability
- Dealing with Multiple Levels of Change
- Critical Thinking: A Fundamental Requirement for 21st Century Organizations
- Supply Chain Quality Management
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