Advanced Techniques for
Job Shop Management
A Delta Dynamics Speed to Market Implementation Course
 

Cut your lead time. Train your people. Build the infrastructure you need to drive continuous improvement. Solve strategic and operating problems. Implement improvements and become more competitive with this unique course!

Job Shops are Different: Traditionally, management education has assumed manufacturing to be mass production or volume manufacturing, with little or no attention paid to the needs and special requirements of job shops and similar order-driven businesses. We’ve changed all that with this innovative approach that couples job-shop-specific management education with on-site implementation to cut lead time, solve strategic and operating problems, and build the infrastructure you need to drive continuous improvement.

Program Design: Advanced Techniques for Job Shop Management, is specifically designed to meet the needs of job shops and similar order-driven businesses. It is composed of four, three-hour modules, delivered over the course of two days with implementation assignments to ensure the lessons learned are properly applied. It is intended for owners, managers, and other key people who have the responsibility and authority to ensure implementation takes place, and results are achieved. The strategy of cutting lead time by eliminating delays and waste in the quotes to cash process is used to drive performance and profit improvement. The book, Speed to Market: Lean Manufacturing for Job Shops provides the text for the course. Overall, the course provides a structured process through which the Speed to Market technology can be understood and implemented in an order-driven business, yet it is flexible enough to fit individual company situations. Expect to achieve substantial measurable results.

 Design Criteria and Objectives: 

Advanced Techniques for Job Shop Management I is based on these criteria:

• It educates participants in Speed to Market concepts and methods and shows how to use a horizontal management model to manage a job shop business process.
• It provides the tools, perspective, and training required to streamline and simplify business processes with the goal of eliminating waste and cutting lead time.
• It incorporates our Weekly Performance Report which provides real-time data feedback critical for managing order driven businesses.  Metrics are customized for each company, and the implementation of this tool is a deliverable.
• Weekly Performance Report software is provided at no extra cost.
• It provides a structured analysis framework that enables participants to frame  their most pressing problems and issues.
• It sets baseline performance indices and measures improvement in financial and operational terms against this base.
• It is reasonably priced.  Price per participant for two days delivered in site is $495 with a minimum of 10 attendees. Travel and lodging are additional. Course fee includes a copy of Speed to Market: Lean for Job Shops (a $60 value), as well as a copy of our Weekly Performance Report software (a $600 value).  

Module One: Managing the Job Shop Business Process

This session provides the foundation for managing the job shop “quotes to cash” business process.  It includes a structured diagnostic framework that enables participants to identify and frame their most pressing problems and issues, as well as training in how to cut lead time in order-driven businesses.

Topics include:

•   Is This Your Shop? survey

•  Revenue/Profit Trend analysis

•  A new horizontal management model for job shops

• Process improvement methods and tools

• Understanding critical differences between mass production and job shops

• Modifying lean manufacturing to work in a job shop environment

• Value stream mapping and organization design

• How to understand and apply the Theory of Delays

• How to identify and eliminate the most common types of waste

•  How to use chronological and task time concepts

•  How to measure improvement

 Moudle Two:  Building the Infrastructure for Continuous Improvement

This session deals with how to construct and use a non-bureaucratic continuous improvement system. Participants will actually design and implement a Weekly Performance Report specifically for their business using software provided by Delta Dynamics, and will also develop a procedure for “closing the loop.”  Topics include:

•  The concept of continuous improvement

• Designing and installing a Weekly Performance Report

• Selecting the metrics

• Programming the spreadsheet

• Preparing to implement the Weekly Performance Report in your company

• Identifying data providers

• Graphing and managing continuous improvement trends

• The concept of closing the loop

• Tools for closing the loop

• Discussion of selected problems to address and areas for improvement

Module Three:  Learning How to Implement Effectively

Implementation has often been described as the weakest link in any performance improvement effort. This does not have to be the case. Based on our work with over 500 organizations over the past twenty years, we have amassed a great deal of implementation know-how and tools. Topics include:

• Implementation Defined

• Requirements for Effective Implementation

• Organizing for Implementation

• How to avoid the most common implementation pitfalls

• The role of leadership

• The art of the pre-present

• Developing a plan and schedule

• Developing and maintaining momentum

• Measuring results and providing feedback

• Typical reasons why change fails

• Critique of the program and recommendations for improvement

Module Four: Constructing and Implementation Plan

Participants will organize in small groups to construct focused plans, implementation schedules, and metrics for the areas they have chosen to improve.