Description

The term "Lean" has become synonymous with the successful elimination of wasteful practices in mass production environments and claimed increases in productivity approaching 50%. More recently it is being applied, and with similar success, to the challenges of specific service industries, such as healthcare and local government.

The basic principles of 'Lean' have evolved through a series of publications by James Womack and Daniel Jones from Lean Thinking, to Lean Solutions, with its roots embedded in the pioneering practices of Henry Ford and Toyota. Lean Thinking places consumer satisfaction at the heart of every decision, whilst maintaining a healthy respect for the interests of the producer. Lean Solutions begins to consider the fundamental value-based perspectives of the consumer and producer. Together they discuss how to:

• Provide the value actually desired by each customer;
• Identify the value stream (value-add activities) involved in the fulfillment of each product;
• Make value flow continuously without interruption through alignment of consumption and production processes;
• Let the customer pull value from the producer;
• Pursue perfection in all aspects of provision by eliminating waste and wasteful activities.

This course uniquely combines the concepts and methods of Lean Thinking, Outside-In Thinking, Service Management Systems Thinking, and Customer Experience Management, to explain and demonstrate how to learn to see and eliminate wasteful activities, and to ensure innovation and continuous improvement programs are customer relevant and centric.

The net effect is to allow you and your organization to align work, internal priorities, and ongoing improvement efforts with those of the business and your customer. This represents the very essence of service excellence. The methods used in this course are universally applicable to any service organization operating in any service industry.

Prerequisites: None

Contact Hours: This course requires 14 student contact hours.

Certification: A certificate of completion is offered upon successful completion of this course. This syllabus is compatible with Service Management Qualification Scheme managed by the Service Management Society™ and accrues education credits towards credentials offered by examination through that scheme.

Related Courses: The Outside-In Service Management Foundation; Service Experience Design Workshop.

References: Primary The Guide to the Universal Service Management Body of Knowledge (USMBOK®), Ian M. Clayton, and Lean Service Management Program workbook, Ian Clayton

Audience

This course will significantly benefit:

• Any professional interested in how to apply Lean Thinking principles and methods to the challenges of managing a service organization in any service industry; 
• Any individual wishing to enhance their career by developing Lean centric knowledge, skills and methods; 
• Any individual interested in, or responsible for, transforming an organization from one focused on infrastructure management, to one focused on customer service, value, experience, and satisfaction levels; 
• Any service industry professionals who needs to understand the key concepts of the service experience and how to map, inspect and innovate this as part of a customer focused service management strategy; 
• Any service management professionals responsible for the, design, development, introduction and operation of a customer focused service management strategy; 
• Staff, consultants, or service management professionals interested in programs designed to improve the quality or cost of providing services;
• Anyone responsible for the design, implementation or improvement of a service management system, or the roles within a service provider organization.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain the driving factors behind the service experiential economy and its affect upon management imperatives; 
• Understand why traditional process improvement and capability maturity led initiatives fail, and avoid making the same expensive mistakes; 
• Explain the origins, genealogy, and key principles of Lean Thinking; 
• Describe the origins of service and service management theory, and communicate what ‘service management’ is to various communities and stakeholders within an organization; 
• Explain the principles of outside-in or customer centric thinking, customer expectation management, and customer experience management; 
• Describe the key elements of a service management system and the major roles within a service provider organization; 
• Apply Lean Thinking within any service industry and service organization, and specifically to propel a service excellence and/or continuous improvement program; 
• Establish a Lean Service (Improvement) Office and supporting Lean focused organizational culture; 
• Use Lean Thinking and its methods to assess any aspect of current service provider operations and Identify issues within existing practices, the impact of each issue, and select and apply correction actions from a Lean perspective; 
• Prepare for, conduct, and report the findings of, a Lean Event (also termed a Point Kaizen); 
• Define a problem, its impact, and recommended solution and improvement using the A3 Report format; 
• Use the Kaizen Newspaper concept to help inform the organization and stakeholders about how problems are translated into opportunities for improvement, and the benefits realized from change; 
• Use the Lean Service Management ten-step program as the basis for a transformation and continuous improvement initiative focused on what a service does for the customer in terms of enabling and supporting their 'Successful Customer Outcomes (SCOs)'.

Format

This is a classroom based, instructor led course that uses a combination of tabletop simulators, presentations, and team assignments. This course combines traditional study lessons that provide information on basic concepts and terms, with progressive ‘rounds’ of workshop styled experiential learning activities.

The workshop elements of the course are designed to allow for progressive levels of instructor-facilitated activities designed to immerse the student is a realistic simulation. At set intervals, the facilitator will collate student feedback and generally respond to student enquiries in a question and answer format. In general the course has the following format:

• Instruction element, introducing or explaining a topic, concept or theme; 
• An introduction to the assignment to prime round activities; 
• A round of activity, where a situation is experienced, and one or more assignments completed using the tabletop simulator materials - the interactive mapping exercise; 
• Breakout groups for analysis and use of data; 
• A post-round experience sharing lesson; 
• Opportunity for questions and feedback; 
• A optional ‘Check Progress’ quiz or test, offered at the end of each module, designed to test the student’s understanding and recall of key information discussed during the module; 
• A course conclusion or summary lesson. 

Where assignments are scheduled, each round of practical activity will have the following approximate timings:

• 5-10 minutes orientation of objectives and operation of the round; 
• 20 minutes of round related activity; 
• 10 minutes to collate round results; 
• 10 minutes to present feedback; 
• 5 minutes questions and answers. 

Each round has a total duration of approximately 50-55 minutes. Each student will receive a copy of the workshop workbook, which includes basic forms and templates that are completed during the operation of the workshop.

Delivery Options

This is a 2-day classroom based, instructor led course that uses a combination of tabletop simulators, presentations, and team assignments to introduce the delegate to “Outside-In” (customer-centric) thinking, and the Universal Service Management Body of Knowledge (USMBOK™), and their combined use to help design a system to manage the offer, contracting, and provisioning of services, including decisions on what products and services to offer, the makeup of those services, and the service support designed to manage the customer experience.

This course is regularly scheduled as a public event, typically using the National University's dedicated training campuses nationwide.   Please contact us if you wish to schedule a class at a locale nearer to you, and is also available for onsite, personalized delivery for up to 32 participants.

The course includes an optional multiple choice, 50 question examination and credit towards the Service Management Qualification Scheme offered through the Service Management Society.

Day 1

The first day provides a familiarization with the rationale for applying lean thinking, introducing key lean and service management concepts, discussing the challenges of a service provider organization, and the principles of using lean to improve the provision of services. The lessons include:

• Why Lean? What makes Lean so special and distinguishes it from other improvement Initiatives?
• Principles of Lean Thinking
• Principles of Service Management
• A Manifesto for Service management
• Elements of a Service Management Framework
• The Service Management System
• The Service Provider Organization
• Lean Thinking for Service Organizations

Day 2

The purpose of this day’s activities is, through practical hands-on work, to demonstrate how Lean Thinking and its methods are used to improve the service experience and operational performance of a service business, and any organization being performance managed as a service provider, as well as explaining how to integrate the thinking into a service excellence system for continuous improvement. Using a fictitious case study, and guided by the Lean Service Management Navigator tabletop simulator, participants work individually and as part of a team to complete a series of assignments designed to translate the theory learned on day one into repeatable practice.

The day begins with two brief introductory lessons, providing additional insights into customer centricity and the ten-step Lean Service Management program. Lessons 9 through 14 incrementally introduce and allow the participant to explore each step in the program, resulting in a comprehensive and complete picture of how to apply Lean Thinking within a service organization as part of a continuous improvement effort. The lessons include:

• Principles of Outside-In Thinking
• The Lean Service Management Program (ten-steps)
• Step 5 - Define the Consumer Scenario
• Step 6 - Define the Consumer Expectation
• Step 7 - Learn to See the Pathways
• Step 8 - The 'Gen' Principle (Stating the Facts)
• Step 9 - Define the Improvement (Solution) Statement
• Step 10 - Deploy and Diffuse the Improvement
• The Service Excellence Program