The S A Partners Lean Academy is the overarching term we use for all of our Lean training, learning and personal development programmes. Graduates of our training programmes will be invited to be part of our client network, and benefit from a wide range of services and content developed to help improve their CI skills.
How Does it Work?
Our training programmes cater for all levels of your organisation, from front line tasks (Lean Awareness/Team Member/Team Leader), through to middle tier processes (Coach), and top tier systems (Master Coach).
All our certification levels are accredited to Cardiff University’s Lean Competency System, and the number of supported days will be determined by your organisation’s needs and existing capability. You can find all about each of our certification level by clicking on each of the brochures below which will open in PDF format.
What Lean Training capability do we offer?
The video below shows a large group of Clear Stream technology Plc employees taking part of the Lean Awareness in-house workshop.
Lean Competency System
Our Lean Training Programme has been aligned, continuously improved and accredited by the Cardiff University Lean Competency System (LCS) standard since 2010.
As an accredited training provider you can be assured that our training is well structured and effectively delivered and managed.
Below are the 7 Levels of the Lean Competency System covered in our Training offering:
These 7 Levels typically relate to roles and grades within organisations as shown below:
We deliver a range of open and in-house lean training. Our programmes are enriched by more than two decades of experience ‘in the field’, delivering benefits and shaping behavioural change for sustained organisational improvement.
We have worked with a broad and diverse range of organisations and have captured learning from our many interventions, which we have fed back into our training. Our programmes are significantly different to those offered by our competitors because they deliver real improvements, tangible organisational benefits and sustained change.
What makes us different?
There are many organisations offering Lean/CI training and you probably feel overwhelmed by the choice available. So what makes us unique?
• We can offer Certified and uncertified programmes, tailored to meet organisational or individual needs and goals.
• Fully tailored in company programmes or attend one of our regular public workshops.
• Flexible programmes – it is possible to enter the framework at any level. Candidates may take a stand alone workshop, or progress through the levels to achieve a qualification appropriate for their role and competence.
Why choose our Training – Benefits & Learning Outcomes
• It will equip your employees with vital change management and systematic problem solving skills
• It will empower your employees to deliver real, substantive and sustained benefits to your organisation.
• It will allow your organisation to develop an internal capability to enhance customer value.
We expect our Lean/CI Coach (or Black Belt) level programmes to target improvement projects with the potential to deliver benefits in the order of £100K per candidate.
Our Unique Selling Propositions (USPs)
Our Lean training programmes boast five USPs that clearly differentiate us from other training providers:
1. Quality-assured Learning & Development for your most valuable assets – your people. (Training is delivered by individuals who are experienced in delivering training but, more importantly, in delivering benefits).
2. Accreditation & Certification from a world-class, Russell Group, research-led University (Cardiff University).
3. Formal recognition of your people’s improvement efforts.
4. ‘Improvement’ embedded into your organisational culture.
5. Dramatic performance improvement – Training is highly results-focused – your organisation can enjoys benefits while you develop your internal capability.
Our Delivery & Assessment Methods
We use a blend of three delivery methods:
1. Conventional classroom – but highly interactive, participatory and fun.
2. Learning by doing – results-focused so that the organisation benefits while training is ongoing
3. Coaching – locking in learning and enabling sustained behavioural change to maximise the return on investment in training. In fact, some recent research findings state that:
‘To fully benefit from leadership and management development programmes, business organisations should follow up with professional coaching to ensure that knowledge is translated into leadership behaviour’
Source: Leadership and Management Wales report, Coaching for Impact: Making Leadership and Management Development More Effective, Sep 2013
Formal Assessment & Certification is carried out independent of the Training by Drs Donna Samuel & Toni Whitehead.
At each level there is a knowledge and practical application element. For our more in depth programmes candidates are required to submit evidence of work based ‘Learning by Doing’ on real projects. (An S A Partners coach can
support candidates through this stage).
Certification will support the adoption of a continuous improvement culture by engaging and rewarding your people and providing them with the capability to deliver sustainable Lean/CI transformation.
Please note that having a number of PhDs in the business, S A Partners offer mentoring, coaching and assessment of individuals who consider they are eligible for Strategic Level 3.
What our Clients say about us:
Ray Keeling, Head of Supply Operations, Allergy Therapeutics – ” The S A Partners approach focused on skills transfer so that we would be able to continue the improvement ourselves. Key to our success was integrating the problem solving work with our compliance system, and S A Partners were instrumental in helping us to that. The consultants challenged and externalised us and this is what we needed“.
Clare Hickson, Formerly of United Utilities – “S A Partners’ approach was very much about working with us rather than doing it for us. S A Partners have challenged us and have really been able to drive forward the benefits. And what have we got as a result? We’ve got a lot of engaged, up-skilled capabilities in the key areas we needed them across the organisation. They have been able to help us deliver substantial cost effectiveness“.
Gill Nicholls, Customer Experience Manager, Manchester Airport Group – “Our consultant became part of the customer journey team, with complete dedication to our development and our airport. He gave us the confidence to believe in our own abilities, in order to carry on the improvement process“.
Want to know more?
To learn more about our Lean Sigma Training Services, please contact Donna Samuel or Toni Whitehead.
Shingo Training
S A Partners have had an affiliation with the Shingo Institute since 2014. Described as ‘the’ bench mark for operational excellence, the Shingo Prize is internationally recognised as a world-class award.
As an affiliate, our Shingo training programmes consists of a 2 day hands on practical Shingo workshop at leading organisations, covering the Shingo principles of Enterprise Excellence.
Shingo trained organisations are consistently delivering new levels of success to all their stakeholders.
Shingo History & Background
The Shingo Prize was created twenty-five years ago, at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business of Utah State University. During this time, the Shingo Institute has experienced and learned many valuable and powerful things.
This has given them a greater understanding of what is required for organisations to achieve lasting, sustainable results. This knowledge has been captured in the Shingo Mode. [more]
S A Partners deliver the full range of Shingo workshops to organisations around the world.
Discover Excellence
Behaviours that lead to enterprise excellence
Enable
Behaviours that enable a culture of respect & humility
Improve
Behaviours that improve a continuous flow of value
Align
Behaviours that align people, systems & strategy
The Enterprise Excellence Master Class are 4 modules of 2 days each in the UK, or 4 modules delivered in two 4-day sessions for Ireland. They are delivered through a series of highly interactive on-site workshops, covering the following:
Our Leadership proposition provides the techniques, competencies and behaviours that will help you achieve Excellence within your business.
The WHY – Typical Problems:
Lack of:
Resulting in:
WHAT can we do to address this?
The approach will not only develop the performance of your key business processes but it will also develop the leadership competence of you and your Team in the following areas:
HOW do we do this?
Our Approach to people development is based on 70-20-10
Participants will:
What 6 Sigma training do we offer?
Who
Why
How do we train?
The Lean Competency System is a lean qualifications framework for practitioners, employees and all those whose work involves continuous improvement.
Find out how we can support your Leadership & Continuous Improvement Programmes.
Supporting your organisation to achieve Enterprise Excellence.
S A Partners continues to invest in industry research to support our customers.
Supporting your learning Journey - delivering workshops and Shingo Prize guidance