The X-Stream Leadership Group Executive Champion Leadership Training is a one-day or two-day event that exposes the Executive Champion to both the simulation of a project and the roles and responsibilities required for executive change agents who are expected to guide their organizations in the continuous improvement journey.

As the class starts to explore the first agenda item, “What is Lean/Six Sigma”, the Master Black Belts (MBBs) immediately engage the class by having them break into teams, and, using a training tool called “Gadget X” to simulate a process that has been handed to them to fix. Once that baseline for the simulation has been established, the MBBs start the class through a discussion of the Lean principles, concentrating especially on the Voice of the Customer. Listening to the Customer, in turn, guides the class into a discussion of “Why do Lean/Six Sigma”. The third item on the agenda is separated into two parts; Lean, and Six Sigma. X-Stream Leadership Group will first present the principles of Lean in a manner that compels the teams to go back to the simulation and eliminate the waste from the process.

Once most of the waste has been eliminated, the MBBs will share basic Six Sigma tools with the class. These are tools such as Rapid Feedback, Cause and Effect Diagrams, Standard Work, etc. After the use of these tools in variation reduction has been communicated, the teams go back to the simulation one final time to take the variation out of the steps remaining in the process. The simulation culminates with a contract award and tokens of appreciation for the team who does the best at meeting the Customer goals.

Once the simulation is complete, the MBBs begin training and discussion centered on an extremely important topic, “Roles and Responsibilities”. The roles and responsibilities include the following:

• Green Belt roles
• Black Belt roles
• Team Leader roles
• Sponsor or Process Owner roles
• Executive Champion roles

The entire class is built upon the Adult Based Learning Style which provides for all learning styles including visual, auditory, reflective and kinesthetic. X-Stream Leadership Group advocates participatory training, so the audience is encouraged to ask questions, share experiences or provide feedback during the entire class session. There is also a specific time at the end of the session for additional questions and concerns.

X-Stream Leadership Group provides feedback forms to every class member and uses the comments and ratings gathered to continually improve their training. Every form will be made available to the Client for review.

X-Stream Leadership Group Lean Six Sigma Management Training exposes the supervisors through mid-level management team to an understanding of the time-tested principles of LEAN, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints and how they are inter-related in providing the most effective transformation to Process Improvement. In addition to the tools and techniques, the training includes a simulation of business operations that replicates how your organization works to include all aspects of your operations and administrative production where participants are presented with a process baseline that contains large amounts of rework, travel, paperwork and waste. They are then re-acquainted with some basic tools of LEAN and Six Sigma and given a chance to both LEAN the process and take the variation out of the process to demonstrate to the participant the power of those tools.

Then the training moves to the different levels and sequencing of events, roles and responsibilities required for executive change agents who are expected to guide their organizations in the continuous improvement journey, and the metrics and discipline necessary for sustainment.

The LST Management training provided by X-Stream Leadership Group is based on three concepts:

• Leaders must be able to articulate who their specific Customers are and understand the process experiences against which their Customers are judging them.
• Leaders need to understand the methodology their teams will be using to improve the processes.
• There must be an understanding of the roles and responsibilities required of the Leadership in order to drive change into their organizations and the metrics and discipline needed to sustain the change these improvements will bring.

A generic agenda with the proposed outcome of each item is shown in Figure One. However, X-Stream Leadership Group proposes to spend enough preparation time with your team to be able to tailor this training with the proper terms and examples to enable the participants to link our training with the desired outcomes in your organization.

Our approach is based upon extensive experience with a multitude of business organizations, functions, and government agencies. Of particular interest to an organization might be the LEAN tools of flow and pull to reduce bottlenecks, the Six Sigma tools that reduce variation in the process as well as the information on sustaining change. Our training modules incorporate the use of adult-based learning theory and techniques to enhance retention of the training material.

The LST Management Training is the fundamental groundwork and introduction for your mid-level management team that prepares your organization for a full-up implementation of LEAN, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints within a company.

Our White Belt training course will provide your Key Leadership with an understanding of the time-tested principles of LEAN, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints, and how they are inter-related in providing the most effective transformation to Process Improvement. X-Stream Leadership Group training uses an interactive set of tools and exercises to drive home this message. In the one-day White Belt Course, the level of detail is designed to ensure you develop a basic understanding of the fundamentals of LEAN, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints. We will work with your team to develop specific examples from your business and tailor the exercises and scenarios for your organization. For the past several years Process Improvement community has been divided into three distinct camps; LEAN – as defined by Womack and Jones and based on the Toyota Production System; Six Sigma – as defined by Motorola, Allied Signal and General Electric; and the Theory of Constraints – defined by Eli Goldratt and used by the U.S. Navy (among others).

It is the opinion of X-Stream Leadership Group that true continuous process improvement is a combination of all three. However, the underlying law of Continuous Improvement (CI) must be LEAN principles must be implemented first! It makes no sense to optimize a system bottleneck or remove systemic variation from a process that contains waste. That course of action will certainly cause sub-optimization at the enterprise level Value Stream and, most assuredly, waste time and money in the effort with little or no long-term improvements sustained by the organization.

X-Stream Leadership Group will show during the one-day White Belt Course how these principles are utilized to develop a new process that meets delivery schedules, produces defect-free output, and delivers the lowest cost to ensure the greatest possible ROI.

Once the first principle is fully explained, the training moves into the structure used to support the principles of Customer Value, Value Stream, Flow, Pull, and Perfection. We also fully integrate and implement the DMAIC process of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

The X-Stream Leadership Group training course also discusses what will be required of your leadership team to implement, support, drive, and fully sustain process improvements.
This final section of the training will discuss an extremely important topic, “Roles and Responsibilities”. The roles and responsibilities include the following:

• Green Belt roles
• Black Belt roles
• Team Leader roles
• Sponsor or Process Owner roles
• Executive Champion roles

Once the training has concluded, a short, open book exam will be given to all participants. Upon successful completion of the exam, White Belt Certification will be conferred upon participants by the presentation of a diploma. The entire day is set in the Adult Based Learning Style which provides for all learning styles including visual, auditory, reflective, and kinetic. X-Stream Leadership Group advocates participatory training, so the audience is encouraged to ask questions, share experiences or provide feedback during the entire day. There is also a specific time at the end of the session for additional questions and concerns as we do an exercise described as the Plus/Delta. In this open forum, the participants are encouraged to assist us in learning what part(s) of the training they enjoyed most or received the most value from, as well as how we can kick it up a notch for the next presentation. In addition, X-Stream Leadership Group provides feedback forms to every class member and uses the comments and ratings gathered to continually improve their training – using our tools on our own process.

Our LST Yellow Belt training course will provide your students with an understanding of the time-tested principles of LEAN, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints, and how they are inter-related in providing the most effective transformation to Process Improvement. X-Stream Leadership Group training uses an interactive set of tools and exercises to drive home this message. In the Three-Day LST Yellow Belt Training, the level of detail is designed to ensure you develop a true understanding of the fundamentals of LEAN, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints.

For the past several years Process Improvement has been divided into three distinct camps; LEAN – as defined by Womack and Jones and based on the Toyota Production System; Six Sigma – as defined by Motorola, Allied Signal and General Electric; and the Theory of Constraints – defined by Eli Goldratt and used by the U.S. Navy (among others).

It is the opinion of X-Stream Leadership Group that true continuous process improvement is a combination of all three. However, the underlying law of Continuous Improvement (CI) must be LEAN principles first:

• Understand VALUE from the Customer’s perspective
• Understand the VALUE STREAM of your process
• Remove WASTE from all steps of the value stream
• Make FLOW AND PULL part of the process
• Strive for PERFECTION

It makes no sense to optimize a system bottleneck or remove systemic variation from a process that contains waste. That course of action will certainly cause sub-optimization at the enterprise level Value Stream and, most assuredly, waste time and money in the effort with little or no long-term improvements sustained by the organization.

X-Stream Leadership Group will show during the Three-day LST Yellow Belt Training how these principles are utilized to develop a new process that meets delivery schedules, produces defect-free output, and delivers the lowest cost to ensure the greatest possible ROI.

After the baseline for the exercise is established, the focus then shifts to an overview of the three improvement strategies; LEAN, Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints, but moves rapidly into Customer concepts, facilitating an understanding of the who, what, when, where, why, and how in order to understand Value from the Customer’s perspective.

Once this is fully explained, the training moves into the structure used to support the principles of Value Stream, Waste Identification, Flow, Pull, and Perfection. X-Stream Leadership Group for process improvement is based on the DMAIC process:

1. Define
2. Measure
3. Analyze
4. Improve
5. Control

Each stage of DMAIC contains six steps to fully achieve that level. Again, the statistics catapult is used in each section to drive home the lesson and provide an interactive adult-based learning experience.

In the Define stage, the teams will define both the Customer and the Statapult rapid improvement event. The Measure stage is where the teams will map the current states using at least two mapping tools. In the Analyze stage, participants determine bottlenecks and waste in the catapult process and gather data to determine the changes necessary to improve the process. The Improve stage brings the vision of a “perfect” process and the brainstorming-for-change technique to develop the future state. That future state is the first step toward the vision that can be accomplished by the organization in the next 18 to 36 months. This section will actually be completed in two parts; one using LEAN and Theory of Constraints tools, and one using Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints tools. Finally, in the Control stage the team ensures the discipline is in place to sustain the standardized work improvements regardless of operator change out. These stages and tools will simulate many of the process improvements your leadership will see utilized by their teams on key business processes.

After the catapult exercise is concluded, the X-Stream Leadership Group training moves into the final phase. This phase discusses what will be required of the your leadership team to implement, support, drive, and fully sustain process improvements.

This final section of the Three-Day training session will discuss the reason for getting leadership involved with their teams and will outline the qualities, roles, and responsibilities the leaders of change must demonstrate in order to model appropriate Sponsor and Champion behaviors. This will support the efforts of their teams to change both the processes and the culture of your organization!

The Green Belt (GB) training provided by X-Stream Leadership Group can be structured for 6-days or 10 days. However, we believe the discriminator for X-Stream Leadership Group GB instruction is the project that the potential GB must accomplish during the course as opposed to completing a Project AFTER the course has been completed. We require the GB to present the results of their project at a formal Project Review Board to demonstrate real results, sustainability, and true value to the organization in order to receive Certification. As a result, you are realizing an immediate ROI on your training investment.

The project completion also addresses two concerns the X-Stream Leadership Group MBBs have heard voiced by many of our competitors’ Green Belts and their Executive Sponsors.

It is often heard from the Green Belt that they have certainly received all of the theory necessary to run a project or event, but they have no idea of how or where to start the execution phase. X-Stream Leadership Group's MBB will work with each student prior to class to assist them in defining a project; during the training to complete the project; and, after the class to close out the project and brief the results to the sponsoring organization. This is the only way certification of Green Belt status can be achieved.

It is also often heard from the sponsoring organization that the Green Belts received some number of hours of training, but seem ill equipped to actually assist the organization in making improvement happen. In fact, based on a study recently completed by the University of Michigan and presented at an American Society for Quality conference, the typical Green Belt project:

• Took 3.4 months to complete
• 11% of the projects were rejected for various reasons
• Average savings ranged from $1k to $30K, with a split of 31% being “hard” savings, and 69% in “soft” savings.

This study was based on the U of M’s Green Belt program, which includes 40 hours of lecture, 21 tests and one project required for certification.

That study reinforces the feedback X-Stream Leadership Group has received concerning our competitors’ GB instruction material. Therefore, in order to ensure that your Green Belts are fully equipped and prepared to immediately begin demonstrating a positive impact on the strategic goals of their home organizations, our agenda will include in-class training, simulations, homework, tests, and a project. All Green Belt training incorporates and exceeds 100% of the 2009 American Society for Quality Body of Knowledge Requirements as well as additional essential modules.

The first half of the class is based on the Lean principles. X-Stream Leadership Group Master Black Belt Sensei’s or Senior Black Belts will be available to coach the GBs during this week via telecom for any items they feel they need help mastering.

As the second half of the class begins, the GBs are asked to brief the class and MBBs / SBBs with their Project progress to date, and how they intend to close out the project and sustain the improvements. This second half of the class is based on the identifications and elimination or reduction of variation using Six Sigma tools and includes lessons learned on why projects fail.

Completion of training is the first step to Green Belt certification through X-Stream Leadership Group. In order to receive the Certified Green Belt title and certificate, each candidate must also complete their project through total implementation, pass the written exam at an 80% or better level, and demonstrate true change agent behavior.

The X-Stream Leadership Group Black Belt (BB) course is provided in two ways: the first is a full 160 hours of classroom instruction based on Adult Education Theory spread over four months. The second is a “Blended” approach that utilizes some on line self paced instruction combined with in class, hands on instruction to ensure the Black Belt if fully capable of using and facilitating the tools in a dynamic environment. The Black Belts are also required to complete one project such as a Rapid Process Improvement, Process Development Kaizen or Value Stream Analysis during the class. Our training meets and exceeds 100% of the criteria for the 2009 American Society Quality Body of Knowledge Requirements.

X-Stream Leadership Group believes Black Belts must be familiar with all Lean and Six Sigma tools. However, this does not mean they must be experts in every tool. They must be able to know which tool to use for each occasion, and where to go to get help for the more difficult tools such as Design of Experiments. Our instruction will focus more attention on the tools they will use most often in their events in order to deliver the highest ROI for our Clients as possible.

The first section of Black Belt training focuses mostly on facilitation skills which will help the BB lead and facilitate projects and events, especially those involving multi-level teams.

The second section of the X-Stream Leadership Group BB class spotlights the Lean tools, with students doing a much deeper dive into the Lean principles and how to apply them effectively.

The students are requested to provide an update on the progress on their project, and, as with every week of Black Belt training, they must pass an exam at the end of the section with a score of at least 80%.

Statistics become the focus of section three of the X-Stream Leadership Group education package. This gives the students a chance to continue working their project in order to complete it through implementation and to use the tools and skills studied in section one to foster true learning.

The final section four of the X-Stream Leadership Group Black Belt training curriculum concentrates on the more difficult Six Sigma tools such as Design of Experiments. Also included in this week is a Capstone Exercise. This Capstone allows the students to demonstrate their grasp of the Black Belt program of study by engaging in an effective process simulation designed to require using most of the tools and skills learned by the student. It also ends with a test that incorporates all of the four sections of instruction and must be successfully completed with at least an 80% score.

The X-Stream Leadership Group Black Belt certification program requires the following:

• Completion of all four sections of classroom instruction
• Passing four exams with a minimum score of 80%
• One white paper on how the Black Belt effectively used influence in order to change their organization or their Lean Six Sigma Program
• Coaching and supporting one other Black Belt candidate during their in-class project
• Coaching and facilitating two Green Belts during actual events

Once the soft copy of the paperwork for these events has been received at the home office, X-Stream Leadership Group will immediately send the notice of Black Belt Certification to the student and/or the Executive Sponsor.

Advanced Visual Management (AVM) requires that communications, information, work instructions, and process status information be presented clearly and effectively in critical locations. You must not only identify critical information, but also give considerable thought to its presentation. Abnormalities and non-conformances should stick out like a sore thumb!

An individual from off the street, with NO knowledge of your operations, should be able to (within 15 minutes) tell you who’s ahead, who’s behind, who needs help, and who needs materials… ALL WITHOUT ASKING A QUESTION OR SAYING A WORD! THAT’S Advanced VM!

AVM is founded upon a strong 5S Plus Safety Program, which establishes the discipline needed to make the rest of your AVM system work. Implementation of this technique requires definitive identification of all workplace ambiguities, i.e., situations or issues that are unclear or uncertain and that deprive your employees and management team of a clear picture of process or operational occurrences. X-Stream Leadership Group believes that your work should be designed to immediately identify all problems, no matter how trivial.

Successful AVM implementation requires a culture in which every member of the operation understands and accepts responsibility for problem identification and solution. In other words, the “it’s not my job” syndrome is the kiss of death for AVM implementation. Your organization must also develop a zero tolerance policy for repeat mistakes.

We believe that effective AVM implementation is the hallmark of a world-class organization. Find out why.

Want to find out how AVM can bring world-class prominence to your organization? Contact X-Stream Leadership Group today.