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Course Outline
Day 1
Operational Excellence Foundations
- Define OpEx beyond Lean/Six Sigma
- Explore systems thinking; review frameworks integrating people, process, and technology
- Group discussion: What does OpEx mean in your organization?
- Establish shared understanding of OpEx as a system aligned to business goals
Resilient Systems & Variability Management
- Identify systemic waste, variability drivers
- Introduce tools (standard work layering, flow mapping, bottleneck analysis)
- Case study: Variability reduction in high-mix manufacturing. Small group flow mapping exercise to diagnose and prioritize improvements
Design Thinking for Operations
- Apply design thinking to operational challenges
- Reframe a common operations issue (e.g., setup reduction, defect elimination)
- Group share-out
Applied Systems Thinking Workshop
- Facilitated team activity
- Map an operational system from participants’ organizations (or provided case) and identify systemic barriers to excellence
- Group reflection on key learnings
Day 1 Recap and Q&A
- Consolidate key learnings and prepare for Day 2 focus on implementation
Day 2
Reflections and Takeaways from Day 1
- Reconnect to key concepts and personal insights
Management Systems & Leader Standard Work
- Explore OpEx management systems with visual management, tiered meetings, leader standard work
- Introduce the principles of Kata Coaching to help leaders support daily continuous improvement, reinforce habits of scientific thinking, and sustain operational excellence through structured coaching routines
- Interactive design of leader standard work routines
- Review of real-world sustainment examples
Culture, Trust & Sustaining Excellence
- Build a culture of trust and accountability by applying ACT principles to strengthen engagement and support lasting behavior change
- Learn ACT-based approaches to build psychological flexibility in leaders and teams
- Explore how values-based conversations, mindfulness strategies, and commitment techniques can be used to reduce resistance, increase engagement, and support long-term cultural change
- Develop a cultural sustainability map that links behaviors to operational expenditure (OpEx) outcomes
Operational Excellence Action Plan Project
- Develop tailored OpEx action plan. Current state, priority opportunities, systems, cultural strategies, metrics
- Peer reviews and instructor feedback
- Ensure an actionable plan is aligned with the participant organization
Final Reflections and Commitments
- Share action plans and next steps
- Build accountability for follow-up in participants’ home organizations
Program Director
Program Director
James Rink