The cost of poor quality in structured statistical improvement projects is rarely visible in any single budget line. Most defects in improvement projects are designed in long before they are detected. The content is relevant to those who own the quality and productivity management discipline and to those who are held accountable for its results. Benchmarking exercises repeatedly place structured statistical improvement projects among the areas with the widest performance spread. Plans for the practice within quality and productivity management often fail at the handover point between functions. Every module pairs a short input on improvement projects with structured practice on the participant's own material. They leave able to brief senior management on structured statistical improvement projects in terms that support a decision. The course gives participants a defensible structure for improvement projects and the judgement to adapt it. The course ends by identifying what the participant will stop doing to make this area of quality and productivity management sustainable.
Expected Learning Outcomes
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Identify the failure points in structured statistical improvement projects most likely to cause loss, and control them first.
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Design the internal audit programme covering improvement projects.
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Measure productivity in structured statistical improvement projects without incentivising the wrong behaviour.
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Identify the sources of variation in improvement projects and rank them by effect.
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Reduce waste and non-value-adding steps in structured statistical improvement projects.
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Establish escalation routes for improvement projects that work outside normal hours.
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Communicate the purpose of structured statistical improvement projects to those who have to comply with it.
Who Should Attend
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Department managers accountable for productivity of structured statistical improvement projects.
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Business partners who must understand improvement projects well enough to challenge it.
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Planning staff whose forecasts and budgets are affected by structured statistical improvement projects.
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Process and industrial engineers redesigning improvement projects.
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Training officers building problem-solving capability in structured statistical improvement projects.
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Supplier quality engineers assessing inputs to improvement projects.
Course Modules
Open any module to see its sessions and topics.
01
Structured statistical improvement projects: cost of poor quality
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Finding the variation that matters in structured statistical improvement projects
Define quality for structured statistical improvement projects in terms the customer would recognise.
Set the review interval for improvement projects and who attends.
Choose productivity measures for structured statistical improvement projects that do not reward shortcuts.
Confirm that contractual obligations around improvement projects are understood.
Session 2Where improvement projects typically breaks, and why
Identify the few causes responsible for most defects in structured statistical improvement projects.
Map the process behind improvement projects by walking it, not by describing it.
Prepare the response for the most likely failure in structured statistical improvement projects.
Map the handovers in improvement projects between functions and secure them.
02
Improvement projects: internal audit and certification evidence
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Removing steps from improvement projects that add no value
Estimate the resource structured statistical improvement projects requires to run as designed.
Define acceptance criteria for improvement projects in advance.
Write down the assumptions underpinning the approach to structured statistical improvement projects.
Set sampling for improvement projects on statistical grounds, not on habit.
Session 2Costing poor quality in improvement projects
Record the rationale for each significant choice made about structured statistical improvement projects.
Set out how exceptions to improvement projects are requested and approved.
Arrange the handover of structured statistical improvement projects so capability survives staff changes.
Measure current variation in improvement projects before attempting improvement.
03
Improvement projects: control plans, sampling and acceptance
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Getting other functions to support improvement projects
Verify six months later that changes to structured statistical improvement projects have held.
Establish what evidence demonstrates improvement projects is under control.
Design the internal audit schedule covering structured statistical improvement projects.
Calculate the cost of poor quality attributable to improvement projects.
Session 2Solving the defect in structured statistical improvement projects that keeps returning
Identify non-value-adding steps in structured statistical improvement projects and remove them.
Set escalation thresholds for improvement projects that work out of hours.
Benchmark structured statistical improvement projects against a comparable operation and record the gap.
Check that records of improvement projects answer the questions likely to be asked.
04
Improvement projects: mapping the process as actually performed
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1The hard cases in improvement projects and how to reason about them
Decide what will be stopped to create capacity for structured statistical improvement projects.
Build a control plan for improvement projects identifying what is checked, when and by whom.
