LSS Webinar: August 2018

It’s also for your job flexibility, these types of skills can really be applied to many different industries. Even our certificate graduates have come from healthcare to construction, finance, automotive, military, you can see the entire list there.
So why would you choose Purdue? We know there are many other options out there. But I think these points really drive home why Purdue can provide you with the best education. We have a great reputation specifically for online programs. The content was developed by Purdue, from the ground up. So you know you’re getting a good education. Our expert instructors are the one thing I like to talk extensively about, with a potential certificate graduate and Rick Ring will certainly go over what the courses are all about and what to expect from his courses. The courses are designed to really be for everyone from a beginner to experienced professionals. If you’re brand new to Lean, never heard of it before, you can certainly get a lot out of this course to someone who’s been doing this for 20 years. Um, you will also learn a lot. Course progression – we’ll get into the different courses that we offer and why it is so helpful to do all three if, if the Black Belt is your ultimate goal and why we’ve designed to do it that way. Of course, the convenience, the online convenience, but the flexibility and not having to log in at a certain time. You can also earn a CEUs which are continuing education units.

So we do offer the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Principles, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and the Green Belt Refresher. So the first option is, you can take a couple of courses by themselves individually, which is the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or the Lean Principles course. Neither of those have prerequisites and you could take those at any time based on our start dates. The other option is, if your ultimate goal is to get a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, then you would have to complete both of those courses prior to the Black Belt, but they can certainly be taken in any order. The other option is, we know a lot of people out there may have already gotten a Green Belt, so we’d be happy to review your current Green Belts and in that case you may have to take the Green Belt Refresher, Lean Principles, and then you could pursue the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. So what is it like to take an online course at Purdue? The really nice thing about it is it is 100 percent online, meaning you won’t have to log in for anything live. There will be weekly due dates and deadlines to give you some structure and most importantly it is instructor led. And Rick, we’ll get more into that later, but you’ll be talking about with the Lean Six Sigma experts and all of them put together, have decades of industry and consulting experience.

So what types of things will you be doing in the course? You’ll be looking at video lectures, there will be, like I said, quizzes, self-tests, some assignments based on the course work and then there will be some discussion boards available to make sure everyone is understanding the concepts. Alright, so let’s get into the real meat and potatoes about the courses and I’ll pass it over to Rick Ring.

Again, weekly assignments and quizzes to be completed on schedule. We have online discussion for classmates. Now we have that also in the other classes. There’s something called a discussion board and we provide the topics and then the students chime in on their takes on particular topics we have. We get a lot of good stories on that. Then the instructors again chime in with their takes on certain things. Real-time coaching, emails, phone, text, we also have webinars that are very effective. And again, since we want you to do this on your own schedule. We record the webinars if you can’t make that particular time so that they’re available at your leisure to go on the site and see them.

What makes Purdue different? Well, for the Black Belt, and I’ll talk about Black Belt first and then I’ll include the other classes, but for the Black Belt, other courses we found reteach some of the Green Belt content in prep for the Black Belt. We’re able do that, we get right into the Black Belt material. Other classes or courses may not include a project. We feel very strongly that the completion of a project is essential in order to earn a Black Belt certificate and other classes and courses may not be instructor guided.

So, on the Black Belts, I must say on the Green Belt class and in our other classes, students do work closely with instructors throughout the class. Our classes are indeed, instructor led, we emphasize interaction that the instructors interact with the students. We emphasize webinar usage, again, they’re recorded. And I think very importantly we emphasize flexibility, in that we understand that our students may have other things pop up and I’ve certainly seen a lot of that in my classes and I’ve taken a lot of online classes. So I understand it from the other angle also; we’ll work with you to get the job done and so that you can finish the class, and receive your certificate. Green Belt Refresher or [inaudible] those who want to refresh knowledge, this is for them. This ensures that students are prepared to succeed in other Purdue courses. Again, they’re instructor led and we evaluate the student’s current level where they’re at, and then we’ll provide assignments, up to 12 to strengthen any deficiencies. And in this particular class there’s six months access to course materials.

Okay. So we reviewed a little bit about the courses. If I may, let me give you a brief review of how Lean Six Sigma works. Lean Six Sigma principles. Just take a minute and review these. Very important. And that’s what Lean Six Sigma is all about. Check out some of the key terms; Team based, Documented, Projects, Targets waste, flow, defects, or errors.

We will follow the domain process, a problem solving process, and use database decisions to solve problems.

We will use improvement tools to gather data and analyze data. Very important. The last bullet, customer focused and integrated with the goals of your organization.

Well, here’s an example. I think I might’ve had about a third of the folks in my last class that were tied into to the healthcare sector and they took the healthcare track as far as the case studies and we’ve got a lot of good feedback from our case study work by the way. Well, here’s an example. Many times our patient’s wait up to 60 minutes after the scheduled appointment time to see the doctor. We understand ideally there is no great time, however, given the things that we cannot control, we feel that no wait time is just not achievable. We do think a reduction from 60 minutes to 15 minutes is achievable and sustainable. So what we’re looking at here, this project will be all about reducing time, other projects, can be reduced errors, reduced cycle time, reduce defects. This particular one, reducing time, we form a team, we’re going to use it to make method and Lean Six Sigma to improve the tools to get this done. So the first stage is defined, select the team, initiate a project charter. Remember a couple of overheads back, I said that a Lean Six Sigma projects must be documented, so the project charter, you see the pathway or the plan and then as you fill it in, it becomes a documentation.

We’ll define the process output to be improved. Okay. It’s waiting time. You define waiting time, waiting time starts when and so in this case we might say waiting starts when the patient checks in with the clerk or the receptionist and waiting time will end when the patient is face to face with the doctor. Really important. However, we have to document how it was going to define a way you have to document the output, how we’re going to define the output. In this case, its 15 minutes max, past scheduled appointment time. We’ll go ahead and study and document the process that needs improving. There’s several tools that we can use for this. We can use the value stream map, we can use process flow, we can use [inaudible]. Many tools that we can use and that we discuss in class. The major phase. Well, we better do a couple of things here. We need to establish the baseline. Well, one of the nurses thinks that patients are waiting on the average of 60 minutes, but she has no data to back that up. We’re going to get data to document the actual waiting time, so we’ll take our samples and we’ll calculate among other things the average waiting time, and we’ll look at the variability and we can use tools like control charts and capability studies to do this. This information will give us our baseline.

Now we’re into the analyze phase. Now, some of you may have experienced in the past on any problem solving a venture that you happen to go on. We might jump right into this phase. Forget defining what the project is all about. We forget trying to measure it. We think we already know what the baseline is. We want to get right in there and solve the problem, Lean Six Sigma is in. We’re going to define and measure first. Now we get into root cause analysis. We cover lots of tools to do this. Can we talk here in terms of brainstorming to identify and list all potential causes that we think may add to the problem? Then we come up with lists, I like 54 lists. I like 50 potential causes for a problem, when I was teaching live, that is on site, we would actually go out and brainstorm, we wouldn’t stop until we had 50, take just a few seconds and think about some of the things that could be affecting the long wait time.

Maybe the patient didn’t bring in life insurance forms or cards. Maybe it’s a certain time of the day. Maybe it’s a certain day of the week. What about the number of rooms that are available? How about walk-ins? Do the doctors arrive on time? Do we have the correct paperwork? From time to time do we forget about the patient? How about patient load, number of doctors, number of clerks. How about seasonal illnesses? Like the flu? How about unnecessary visits, how about disasters? Many times on problem solving exercises. We stopped at two, three or four and fail to capture everything accurately captured. Well, once we figure out what the one, two, or maybe three root causes are because there’s a lot of times there could be more than one it will cause. We’ll brainstorm, use other tools to identify and implement solutions to correct the main causes. You do that and then we let that run a little bit and we collect new data after the corrective actions are taken to see how much are we improved and how we met the original goal. This is a very important phase of the process, because if you do not do this, all of your work may have been for naught, if we don’t identify an income control methods to maintain the improvements, it could all go down the drain and we end up with nothing but where we started from. Methods that we talk about in the class or control plans, control charts, training and other things. We not only sustain the improvements but we see if we can spread the improvements to other processes in our organization.

Okay. Well, take a minute and take a look at these tools. Here is a partial list of Lean Six Sigma tools that we talk about in our classes, you probably have used some of these already. What we find out is most Lean Six Sigma improvement tools have been around for some time. I used a lot of these tools back at Pillsbury back before Lean Six Sigma was even thought about. Some of these you may know, some of these, you may not. Some of these can be used a lot. Others, maybe not so much. What I put down here in red are some of my favorite tools and that’s a personal decision on the student in the belts. Which tools do they like? Which tools do they want to use just about on any project. I like brainstorming. I like control charts. I liked the, five S, the histogram, process capability, like standard work and value stream map. That’s not to say the others are very, very important, but those are the ones that I’ve used almost on every project. The good thing about the class is that we will expose you to many tools and then you can choose the tools that you like or the tool or tools that will best fit your Lean Six Sigma project.

About the tools – we do not have to be professional statisticians. We have software for that, back in the day when we didn’t have the software, at Pillsbury, we had a statistics department up in Minneapolis and they were manned by very able statisticians and really not a lot of people could understand what they were talking about, we would stand around and nod our heads and do what they told us to do. We don’t have to do that anymore, we have software for that. Now we have to understand the software and a team member must be able to use this statistical software correctly. I’ve seen a lot of projects in go south because the software was not used correctly, so we have to have someone that can do that for us. We must be able to choose the right tool for the job, talked about that already. Remember the last two bullets, we as folks as people, generate improvements, not the tools, we use the tools, the tools don’t use us, and the tools are combined with subject matter knowledge. Subject matter experts’ knowledge needs to be supported by data.

Key thoughts – follow the yellow brick road. That is key. The define, measure, analyze, improve, control process. That’s key. I’m not saying you have to use that on all of your projects, but if you skip a step the team better document and decide that we don’t need to do that step and this is why, normally you’re going to do all the steps. You will be judged by your projects.

It must be customer focused, fully documented and tied into business objectives and there must be a place in your organization to store these projects. You’re going to do on a fairly large project, a lot of work and generate a lot of knowledge and that knowledge, if properly documented can be used for other projects. Remember that you will be leaders, you’ll be coaches and you’ll be teachers. It’s very important therefore, that you understand and use properly, the Lean Six Sigma terms.

Improvement is a team effort. This is not about one person sitting in the corner throwing out data. A little story I tell about the last bullet is the ham and eggs breakfast and you’ve made well for this one. Uh, so we sit down, we eat ham and eggs and we have two main suppliers and of course that’s the chicken and we have the pig and the chicken makes a lot of noise, runs around, and lays the egg. It’s good for us. And then rushes off for a further, fun and an adventure in other places. So the chicken is involved and then takes off, what about the ham? The Ham and the pig’s a different story. The pig is fully committed, he gives everything there is to give for the breakfast and that’s what we want our top management support and involvement to be. It’s essential and that they have to lead, they have to support and they have to be involved. With that, I will turn it over to you Tressa. Thank you.

Once you get to the Black Belt, again, you do have to complete the Green Belt and Lean Principles prior to starting that course. But again, those can be taken in any order. The course fee alone is $3,750. The Six Sigma handbook will cost about $60 and then by the time you get to that Black Belt, you will have to purchase the QY macros for $99. Typically speaking, it takes our students about 10 to 12 months to do all three courses based on our start dates, so that six months trial period will run out. The Green Belt Refresher, the course fee alone is $395 and there are no additional fees in that. So for all three courses, if the Black Belt is your ultimate goal, will end up being $8,045. We do offer a bundle package, if you pay for all three courses in full upfront, it would be $7,195 for the courses.

We do offer discounts for groups, as few as three people. So three to four people is a five percent discount, and five or more people is a 10 percent discount, if any of you have large corporate groups, we’re happy to discuss those discount options as well. So reach out to myself or the other program advisors, we’d be happy to discuss that with you. These courses are eligible for the GI bill. It’s a little bit different process, but real simple, we just ask you to fill out a brief application form for us and provide us with your certificate of eligibility. Last but not least, these are the fees, nothing hidden, we don’t charge exam fees or recertification fees. What you see here is the cost.

So what are we looking at in terms of our next offerings? The Green Belt is something that we do offer every single month, typically on the first Wednesday of every month. September actually is now closed, so we’re looking more at October 3rd would be the next start date to get enrolled and after that it would be October 31st. The next Lean Principles is October 17th and that date will actually be the last one for the year. And then for those who have already completed the Green Belt and Lean Principles, the next Lean Six Sigma Black Belt starts October 15th.

So any questions, we’ll give you a few minutes to chat those in while we take a look at some of what our prior graduates have had to say. And as you’re reading through those, you know, I’ve worked with several people throughout the program, in the finance industry to healthcare to IT. So these courses really are applicable to any industry. One of my favorite stories was from a gentleman in the finance industry and he really wanted his Black Belt. He wasn’t sure how the other two courses would help him because he was told that’s ultimately what he needed. And he started off with our Lean Principles course and I know people really associate Lean with manufacturing, he got back to me after the course and said he has already started to apply the concepts that he learned from Lean Principles into his current role. So it really does show that you can apply these concepts to any sort of role or industry that you’re in.

So I’m going to start answering some of these questions here. Does the bundle discount, meaning Green Belt Lean Principles into Black Belt, does it apply to GI bill? Yes, that package is eligible for GI. You’ll see on the application form that we can email you, that you can select that as an option including all of the materials.

And no, there is no re-certification required and these certifications do not expire. Thank you for that.

There’s not a required timeframe to complete all three [programs]. The average student will do all three in about 10 to 12 months.

That’s a great question — if we have certification pass rates. It’s not something we’re tracking at the moment. We rarely have a student who doesn’t pass. If you’re working with the instructor, if you’re submitting the assignments, we really do give you all of the opportunities to get as many points as you can. If you ever do feel like, you’re not understanding a concept or your feeling behind, or maybe there’s something going on at work that week, please get in touch with your instructor right away. They do want to work with you and again, set you up for success. Maybe Rick, you can chime in on that as well.

We actually do have some 2019 dates scheduled, so if you could, actually I’m going to write your name down and I can email you those links.

That’s a great question – is the length of the Black Belt and additional six weeks to the Green Belt of 10 weeks or is it 10 weeks for the green and a separate 16 weeks for the Black? It is the latter. So these are three separate courses. Lean Principles is an eight week course. The Green Belt is a 10 week course and the Black Belt is a 16 week course and they all do have specific start and end dates.

Unfortunately we don’t have any direct discounts for nonprofit organizations. Again, we do offer those group discounts, if you have as few as three people who are interested, we do offer that five percent discount, so hopefully we can connect later, then discuss if you have some additional employees who are interested.

Can the course lecture can be downloaded, so you don’t have to be logged in to the course site in order to watch that. Rick, can you respond to that?