Course Details

This course is appropriate for a wide range of professionals but not limited to:

• Continuous Improvement Specialists
• Process Owners and Operations Managers
• Quality and Production Engineers
• Leaders driving innovation in their functional areas

• Expert-led sessions with dynamic visual aids
• Comprehensive course manual to support practical application and reinforcement
• Interactive discussions addressing participants’ real-world projects and challenges
• Insightful case studies and proven best practices to enhance learning

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• Integrate Creative Thinking techniques directly into the Continuous Improvement (CI) cycle.
• Apply structured methods to define a problem that allows for innovative solutions.
• Utilize divergent ideation tools to generate novel options for process re-design.
• Implement a rapid experimentation cycle (e.g., PDCA) to test radical improvements.
• Measure the impact of creative solutions using standard CI metrics (cost, cycle time, quality).
• Foster a culture of 'breakthrough' thinking rather than just incremental fixes.

DAY 1

Connecting CI and Creativity

• Welcome and introduction
• Pre-test
• The limitations of incremental improvement (Kaizen) alone
• Defining the need for 'breakthrough' thinking in CI
• Introduction to the continuous improvement and creative thinking cycles
• Identifying "stuck" processes that require radical redesign

DAY 2

Innovative Problem Definition

• Challenging the 'as-is': Deconstructing entrenched assumptions
• Problem reframing techniques (e.g., "How Might We" statements)
• Root cause analysis focused on systemic, not superficial, issues
• Mapping value streams to identify non-obvious areas for innovation

DAY 3

Divergent Thinking for Process Redesign

• Creative techniques applied to process flow (e.g., using analogies, boundary pushing)
• SCAMPER model applied specifically to process steps and inputs
• Facilitating "Blue Sky" brainstorming for impossible solutions
• Utilizing external inspiration (other industries, nature) for process design

DAY 4

Convergent Evaluation and Experimentation

• Developing criteria to evaluate the feasibility and innovation of new ideas
• Risk assessment for radical improvement proposals
• Designing quick, low-cost prototypes and experiments
• Implementing the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle for creative solutions

DAY 5

Sustaining Innovation in CI

• Standardizing the new, improved process and documenting lessons learned
• Creating a reward system that recognizes creative improvement
• Developing an organizational CI/Creativity action plan
• Post-test
• Certificate ceremony