Introduction

Lean IT is the extension and adaptation of Lean Manufacturing (a management model widely used in industrial processes) to IT environments. Lean IT helps organizations and IT departments provide better services to their customers, eliminating anything that isn’t meant to deliver value. Lean focuses on understanding customer value, continuous improvement of the processes that provide this value, how to manage performance, the form of organization, and the attitudes and behaviors needed.

Lean IT applies to the entire IT domain, from requirements to maintenance. Applying Lean IT involves both management and employees.

Lean IT is complemented by most guides in best practices, such as ITIL, and provides a series of tools that allow organizations to analyze and improve all its areas of action.

This course prepares participants for the Lean IT Foundation certification.

Objectives

At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Understand the fundamental principles of the Lean IT philosophy
• Analyze and understand the value to the customer
• Understand how Lean IT approaches on improving processes and eliminating customer-invaluable tasks (waste)
• Learn how to measure performance and its key elements
• Improve the efficiency of the organization, including the use of visual management tools
• Understand troubleshooting tools
• Work with the DMAIC improvement model
• Understand the behaviors and attitudes needed to succeed within Lean organizations

Student Profile

Any managers and specialists with direct or indirect responsibility for information systems, and in general, any IT professional who wishes to understand the philosophy, principles, and techniques of Lean in order to apply them in an organization, department, or IT team.

Prerequisites

We recommend students have professional experience in IT departments or companies.

Course Materials

Each student will receive a copy of the course documentation prepared by Netmind. As well as a Lean IT Foundation exercise manual and sample exams.

Methodology

Engaging and interactive course. Our instructors teach all course materials using the demonstrative method; the participants learn new concepts through exercises and real application practices.

Certification

This course prepares students for the Lean IT Foundation certification exam (not included in the course). Get details on the Lean IT Foundation certification exam.

Additionally, students will earn 14 credit hours for their attendance.

Accreditation

A certificate of attendance will be issued to students who attend the course for at least 75% of the duration.

Course Outline

1. Introduction of Lean
   1. Historical development of Lean
   2. Key Principles: Customer Value, Value Stream, Flow, Pull, Perfection
   3. Concepts of Waste, Variability, and Overburden
   4. Classification of activities: Value-Add, Necessary Non-Value-Add, Non-Value-Add
   5. Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle as the generic method for quality improvement
   6. Definition of Lean IT
   7. Dimensions of Lean IT: Customer, Process, Performance, Organization and Behavior & Attitude
   8. Key ‘players’: Shingo Prize, Lean IT Association, author community
2. Customer
   1. The voice of the Customer (VoC) and the types of customers
   2. Types of customer value
   3. Concept of Critical to Quality (CTQ)
   4. Ways to analyze the Voice of the Customer
   5. Sources of continuous improvement opportunities: Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Business, Voice of the Process, Voice of the Regulator
3. Process
   1. Definition of process and the basic processes in an organization
   2. Key components of a process: goal, result, input, throughput, output, customer
   3. Concepts of Push and Pull
   4. SIPOC Model
   5. Key aspects of a Value Steam Map (VSM)
   6. Most important metrics in a process: Cycle time, Takt time, Lead time, Waiting time, Changeover time, Work in Progress, Parallel Lines, Throughput, Capacity
   7. Value improvement in processes: possible sources of improvements including specifically heijunka and 5s
   8. Concepts of value demand and failure demand and the related value and failure steams
4. Performance
   1. Definition of performance
   2. Definition and requirements for Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
   3. Concept of Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE) as a method of understanding time usage
   4. The goal of understanding the availability of skills and knowledge
   5. Combination of Performance indicators, Time and Skills & Knowledge to steer performance
5. Lean Organization
   1. Organizational requirements for Lean IT structuring for customer orientation, empowerment of frontline to act in delivery of value to customers and speed of communication through the organization
   2. Principle for organizing: customer orientation and speed of communications
   3. Goal of management to empower employees
   4. Concept and components of the performance dialogue
   5. Concept and goals of visual management include use of boards
   6. Concept of Kanban and its role in visual management
6. Behavior and Attitude
   1. Characteristics of the Lean mindset, empowerment of the individual to stop the production line
   2. Types of Lean behavior, Quality at the source (First Time Right)
   3. The role of mangers within a Lean environment
   4. Lean Leadership – Go See, Ask Why, Show Respect
   5. Valley of despair in relations to people’s expectations over time
7. Problem Solving / Kaizen
   1. Definition of Kaizen and Kaikaku as the two forms of improvement within Lean
   2. Overview of steps in the DMAIC method
   3. Define phase: Definition of a problem
   4. Measure phase: Definition of a Pareto chart and its use
   5. Analyze: Definition of an Ishikawa (Fishbone) diagram and its use
   6. Analyst phase: 5 Why method for root cause analysis
   7. Improve phase: inputs for future state
   8. Control phase: explain Poka Yoke as a way to stop mistakes from happening
   9. A3 method

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