Certificate Program: Lean Facilitator Laboratories

In this 37 hour/8- week online certificate program,  you will learn the skill to serve as the role of Lean Facilitator in the laboratory. By understanding the historic background of quality we will identify with the established tools, concepts and philosophy of Lean. The principles and concepts of Lean are the necessary elements that contribute to a foundation of continuous improvement. The facilitator will learn the skill to assist the organization to establish a foundation of continuous improvement through cleaning, organizing, and preparing the laboratory for waste elimination. By executing a collective effort called 5S Workplace Organization, the laboratory will accomplish a state of an organization through removing or discarding anything from the environment not used. The elimination of equipment, old supplies, and ineffective processes allows the laboratory to redesign and create effective waste-free processes. Through team development, brainstorming and root cause analysis we will use the tools of Lean to understand current processes and note the complexity of the problem. By observation in the area where the work is happening, we will go and see and ask the operator “why” in order to grasp a deep understanding of how and where defects are generated. The facilitator will learn how to construct a high-level laboratory process flow called Value Stream Mapping that includes each step from supplier to customer and identify where the inefficiency exists. Through A3 Scientific Method of Problem Solving, the learner will understand how to eliminate inefficiency from reoccurring. We will discuss initiating process improvements by applying problem-solving and simple data collection techniques to eliminate problems noted during mapping.