Process Improvement with BPMN and Lean

Programme overview

Most delays in organisations aren't caused by people working slowly; they're caused by work waiting. In this course you improve Harbourline Freight's import clearance at Lagos port, where containers spend more than eight days and customers pay demurrage after three. You'll model the process precisely in BPMN, mine its event log for variants, rework and waiting times, build a value stream map and find a flow efficiency of about 4%, name the wastes, find the bottlenecks with the theory of constraints and Little's law, get to root causes with fishbones, five whys and Pareto analysis, design a future state with Lean patterns, and judge a real pilot with run charts and fair comparisons before putting controls in place. The course ends with an improvement case and an A3 for the next cycle.

Curriculum

1. 01Process Improvement and the BA20 min

   • Process improvement and the BAWhat Lean and Six Sigma are for, the improvement cycle every method shares, and how to frame an improvement problem around time, cost and quality that customers feel.
2. 02BPMN in Depth25 min

   • BPMN in depthModel a real process in BPMN with events, gateways, pools, lanes and message flows, so anyone, from a clerk to a developer, reads it the same way.
3. 03Event Logs and Process Mining25 min

   • Event logs and process miningTurn the timestamps systems already record into a picture of how a process really runs: its variants, its rework and how long each step waits.
4. 04Value Stream Mapping25 min

   • Value stream mappingMap a process as a value stream, with process time, waiting time and first-time quality at every step, and calculate the flow efficiency that shows how much of the lead time is real work.
5. 05The Eight Wastes20 min

   • The eight wastesLearn to see waste in any process with the eight Lean wastes, find the evidence for each in data and observation, and size it so the biggest gets fixed first.
6. 06Bottlenecks and Flow20 min

   • Bottlenecks and flowFind the constraint that limits a process, use Little's law to connect work in progress, throughput and lead time, and see why improving anything except the bottleneck changes little.
7. 07Root Cause Analysis20 min

   • Root cause analysisGet from a symptom to the causes you can actually fix with a fishbone diagram, five whys and Pareto analysis, and avoid the classic trap of confusing a high rate with a big total.
8. 08Designing the Future State20 min

   • Designing the future stateDesign a better process with Lean patterns (do it earlier, error-proof it, standardise it, level the flow), set targets, and estimate the benefit before you change anything.
9. 09Pilot, Measure and Sustain25 min

   • Pilot, measure and sustainRun a change as a PDCA pilot, judge it with a run chart and a fair before-and-after comparison, and put controls in place so the improvement doesn't quietly slip back.
10. 10Final Project20 min

    • Final project: the next improvement cyclePlan your final project, a full improvement case for Harbourline's next PDCA cycle, and summarise it on one page in the A3 format Lean organisations use.

Assessment and certificate

You are assessed with a final assessment (pass mark 60%) and a final project. Your certificate is awarded when you meet those requirements. Paying for the programme does not award it on its own.