Online Improvement eLearning Training

QC Tools - Check Sheets A check sheet is a tool to collect data associated with the process. It is one of the seven basic quality control tools defined by Ishikawa. The data collected from a check sheet is often used as input into other quality tools. This is one of eight courses on the subject. more...

Providing Effective Feedback Course description -- Many people have good intentions to provide helpful feedback, but dona t know the simple rules and techniques for doing it. This course includes tools to develop helpful feedback and use it to motivate employees. It has techniques and methods to foster a nurturing environment, convey your improvement ideas, check for understanding, and help others learn from their mistakes. more...

Management & Leadership Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Training Program This course will teach you how to effectively and efficiently implement a system of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) for your organization. more...

Effective Email Series: Policies and Procedures ...routine internal communication. While many see this as an improvement on previous methods and a more open and informal way of communicating, others see it as an attention-grabbing and invasive means of communication. There are some disadvantages to the use of e-mail, but they are generally outweighed by advantages. In order to protect IT systems and employees, organisations will normally set in more...

Overview of Business Process Management In today's business world, competition is tough. Organizations are under a great deal of pressure to become more productive and more efficient while developing new, innovative products and services more rapidly than ever before. Management is demanding improved quality, reduced costs, and increased productivity with fewer resources. How can organizations respond to these pressures while remaining more...

Process Analysis and Documentation ... a roadmap that points the way to process and performance improvement. The second phase in this methodology is Measure. You cannot hope to improve processes and performance without first knowing where you are, assessing where you want to be, and then planning how to get there, while measuring progress toward the goal all along the way. In the words of an old adage, what gets measured, gets more...

The Oil and Gas Industry Overview Version 2 ...investing heavily in exploration, technology, operational improvement, and research and development, are still left with huge surpluses in an industry so far known only as a modest return.In reality, there has never been a more challenging time for the oil and gas industry. While oil companies face tough challenges in finding new sources of oil and gas to replace the old ones, the emerging oil more...

Identifying Your Customer s Expectations Customers have expectations of all the companies with which they transact business. These expectations may be predominantly unspoken but, all the same, they have a strong influence on how your company, its employees, products, and services are perceived. In the first lesson of this course, you'll be shown what characteristics customers want to see demonstrated, what external influences generate more...

Bridge The Expectations Gap You have to be prepared to walk a mile in their shoes to understand more fully what customers experience when they deal with your company. There's nothing more effective in emphasizing the gap between what you believe their experiences to be and their realities than thinking and acting like a customer. This course takes you through several processes for doing exactly that, and you'll be shown how more...

Leading A Customer-Focused Team The quality of your customer service is in the hands of the people who deliver it. As their leader it's your responsibility to give them the direction, resources, and support they need to succeed. This course shows you how to work with them to create a customer-focused environment that fulfills customers' expectations while still achieving corporate goals. The first lesson explains how to work more...

Developing Customer Satisfaction Surveys By the time most people have the chance to develop their first survey, they've seen so many that it seems like developing one will be a piece of cake. To an extent, they're right. Developing a GIGO (Garbage In/Garbage Out) survey is a no-brainer. Developing a survey that gets valid, reliable data, however, is both science and art. In this course, you'll learn to use the principles of survey design more...

Information Technology IT Industry Overview Version 1 ...gh fluctuating markets and must concentrate on continuous improvement to survive. Most agree that the demand for IT products and services will continue to increase, but at the same time, the customer is demanding more value per dollar in order to justify IT spending. Rather than ad hoc purchasing to solve a specific problem, customers are evaluating IT purchases in light of how they will serve more...

Evaluating Internal Assignments So, is it success or failure? It's crucial that you take time to review your project and confirm outcomes on completion. What has been achieved, and what didn't go as planned? And how have you performed personally? Of course, success depends on your ability as an internal consultant to continually develop in the role, increase your skills, and make overall improvements in your performance. This more...

Evaluation and Review So, is it success or failure? It's crucial that you take time to review your completed project and confirm the outcomes. What has been achieved, and what didn't go as planned? And how have you performed personally? Of course, success depends on your ability as an external consultant to continually develop in the role, increase your skills, and make overall improvements in your performance. This more...

A Workable Solution for Internal Clients One of the many challenges of working as an internal consultant is that of "making things happen." But making decisions isn't always easy. There are so many options and you may encounter resistance to changes you propose during internal consulting assignments. How should you deal with this? And how can you be so sure that working practices won't simply revert back once you're "off the scene?" You more...

Establishing Team and Customer Relationships This course will familiarize the learner with the underlying benefits and skills needed to establish team and customer relationships. Teamwork is a critical component of a Support Center. This course looks at the individual responsibilities of each team member, as well as the team as a whole. It also addresses the role of strong leadership in building and maintaining successful teams. In a more...

The Technical Professional as Internal Consultant ... hired to appraise a situation and recommend paths toward improvement. These agents of change may be brought in to downsize a company, recommend efficiency improvements, recommend ways to improve employee morale, or facilitate other changes. Today, companies are selecting technical professionals within the organization to accomplish similar results. This course is designed to provide technical more...

Managing a Project The factors of a successful project almost always end up depending on how much money and time is needed to create a product worthy of the customer. This course will help you manage the constraints of time, money, and schedules, and how they relate to the overall quality of your project and product. This course is targeted toward a diverse range of managers and staff members who wish to acquire the more...

Accepting the Decision Implement Decisions This course helps learners to identify progress points and areas for future improvement at the conclusion of the problem resolution process. Professionals who want to resolve workplace challenges more effectively. more...

Coping with Criticism and Feedback We all need feedback so that we can learn and improve. What we often get is criticism, or feedback given to us in such a way that we feel defensive or angry. When your emotions get involved, it is difficult to be objective and to use the feedback effectively. This course links the concept of emotional intelligence, and EQ, to the practice of receiving feedback. By doing this, it provides you with more...

Addressing Problem Performance Simulation You're the head writer for The Jackie Lewis Show, a TV talk show on a basic cable channel. The six other writers and the writers assistant report to you. Unfortunately, several of these workers have become problem performers of one type or another. As their supervisor, you will need to inform them of these problem performance issues as well as facilitate improved performance using various methods, more...

A New Manager s Role in the Company s Future Perhaps one of the most exciting and challenging changes that comes with moving into a management role is the need to take a more strategic view of the work you are doing. You need to develop a greater awareness of how your own work, and the work of those in your department, fits with the strategic vision of the company. You will also need to have a greater understanding of the impact that the more...

The Potential of Self-directed Learning How often have you heard these buzz words of the '90s: self-directed learning; continuous learning; the learning organization; the knowledge worker? If you wonder what these terms really mean, why they are so important, and how you rate as a worker for the 21st century, this course is for you. Find out what you can do to take control of your own skill and career development. Learn to identify more...

Knowledge as Strategy Performance Improvement In the 21st century--the Knowledge Age--corporations will see workers as intellectual capital. Workers themselves, rather than just information, will become the resources that allow organizations to respond quickly and effectively to rapid change. Learning is at the core of these demands--whether it's learning a new skill, knowing how to manage existing and new knowledge, or creating more...

The Power of the Learning Organization In the new Knowledge Age, the only successful organizations will be those that know how to gather, support, and manage knowledge. If you're a manager or trainer who wants to improve performance, you need support from the corporate culture. Take this course to discover what factors make up a learning organization, how to assess whether your organization has them, how to train leaders to support more...

Total Quality Management Principles In Total Quality Management Principles you will build on the fundamentals by examining the principles of customer satisfaction and quality teamwork. It teaches the importance of training and motivation, performance excellence and shared quality, as well as the first steps in implementing an improvement process. This curriculum is aimed at all individuals who wish to input to and improve quality more...

IT Challenges Present and Future ...improvement in information technology comes new challenge. Whether trying to upgrade systems, enhance e-commerce opportunities, or simply make projects more successful, your job as IT manager is to avoid the pitfalls inherent in each task. Meanwhile, new and demanding responsibilities are on the horizon for governance, cybersecurity, and incident response, fields that are still under more...

Control Charts and the Pre-control Process ...e. However, in the Control phase of the Six Sigma process improvement system, teams go further and verify that improved processes continue to perform at the improved levels. This course will present control charts, which are used to determine with statistical precision the extent to which improved processes maintain improvement level performance with minimum variation and are, thus, under more...

Six Sigma--Lean Tools for Control ... Six Sigma's Control phase is to ensure that the previous improvements made by the Six Sigma team remain fixed, or in control, into the future. "Control" is the final step in the Six Sigma process improvement model, DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Candidates for Black Belt certification; managers/executives overseeing personnel involved in the implementation of Six Sigma in their more...

Six Sigma--Measurement System Re-analysis Have you ever tried to change your life with a diet or exercise program, only to backslide and lose all the positive changes you made? It's easy to lose sight of the ultimate goal--improved health and fitness--after reaching your goal weight and fitness level. Maintaining positive changes takes just as much effort and vigilance as making the changes initially. Likewise for businesses--the benefits more...

Define the Six Sigma Opportunity ...f this is a company that begins to make organization-wide improvements before identifying which improvements would provide optimal benefits. This course, Define the Six Sigma Opportunity, is a guide for choosing those processes that will reap the greatest corporate benefit from Six Sigma projects. Besides being given guidelines for establishing an improvement opportunity, you'll learn specific more...

Six Sigma Team Dynamics and Performance ... unequivocally that without effective teamwork, a process improvement project will fail. So how is effective teamwork ensured? The best way is by understanding Six Sigma team dynamics--that is, the way in which team members work together and interact. The more that team members understand team dynamics, the greater the team's collective performance is likely to be. This course, Six Sigma Team more...

Six Sigma Management and Planning Tools ...he Six Sigma approach for insuring quality and continuous improvement. This course will cover the seven tools--affinity diagrams, interrelationship digraphs, tree diagrams, activity network diagrams, cause-and-effect matrices, prioritization matrices, and process decision program charts (PDPC). Six Sigma is a registered Trademark of Motorola Corporation, and all rights, title and interest in more...

Six Sigma and Critical Customer Requirements Mark Twain once said, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it." Unlike the weather, serving customer needs is something companies actually can do something about. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic process for motivating a business to focus on its customers. In a Six Sigma environment, such a focus is central to success. In this course, you'll learn how more...

Defining and Mapping the Six Sigma Process ...tools in guiding Six Sigma teams in the quest for process improvement; it is impossible to improve a process that you don't fully understand. In this course, you will be introduced to the mapmaker's art as it applies to Six Sigma. You will learn techniques to help you survey the business landscape from a high level. You will then learn how to fill in the details and sharpen the focus by using a more...

Scoping the Six Sigma Project Six Sigma Black Belts are called upon to solve problems that have no known solutions. This is a risky endeavor. Yet Six Sigma deployment has a track record of success. One of the keys to its success is proper project scoping. No one wants to try to do it all with a single opportunity. Six Sigma projects need to be selected mindfully and scoped appropriately. Yet, without known solutions, more...

Design of Experiments DOE ...lains how to design and implement efficient and effective improvement experiments. Six Sigma is a registered Trademark of Motorola Corporation, and all right, title, and interest in Six Sigma belongs to Motorola. Candidates for Black Belt certification; managers/executives overseeing personnel involved in the implementation of Six Sigma in their organization; consultants involved in more...

Design and Analysis ... subsequent analysis can organizations pinpoint areas for improvement. This course will enable you to choose between process methods, determine the most effective process, and take into account all of the necessary factors by designing and analyzing full factorial experiments, fractional factorial experiments, and experiments for special cases, such as Plackett-Burman, Box-Behnken, and Central more...

Taguchi and Quality Improvement Well-designed experiments result in effective process design or redesign, and ultimately, improved organizations. The Taguchi Method is a technique for designing and performing experiments to investigate processes where the output depends on many variables. The Taguchi Method allows the Six Sigma teams to avoid the tedious and costly task of running a process using all possible combinations of more...

Experimenting for Process Improvement ...ncerns locating the optimal conditions of a process. Many improvement techniques used in Six Sigma concentrate on the impact of single factors on response or yield. In order to achieve breakthrough improvements, however, it is necessary to determine how multiple interacting factors impact response. This course introduces the sophisticated statistical tools used to optimize performance during more...

Lean Concepts ...elimination of all forms of waste, strives for continuous improvement, and simplifies business processes. This course explores how businesses that implement Lean Thinking learn how to reduce waste, streamline production and improve operational flexibility. Practical steps and tools for the identification, treatment and removal of waste are explored while focusing on increasing organizational more...

Lean Tools ... System (TPS). In addition, the course examines how these improvement tools are used to maintain an orderly and efficient flow of materials throughout the Lean enterprise. By successfully adopting Lean tools, companies can move significantly toward assuring their ability to competitively meet their customers' needs. Candidates for Black Belt certification; managers/executives overseeing more...

Total Productive Maintenance TPM ...king together. It also describes how TPM seeks continuous improvement of production equipment effectiveness through periodic evaluations. In addition, the requirements to successfully implementing TPM are covered. Candidates for Black Belt certification; managers/executives overseeing personnel involved in the implementation of Six Sigma in their organization; consultants involved in more...

Collecting and Summarizing Data ...s a roadmap that shows the way to process and performance improvement. The second phase in the roadmap, the Measure phase, provides a methodology and tools for establishing a baseline of current processes. This baseline is your starting point for process improvement. A critical part of establishing baselines is collecting data that will enable you to learn the current status of performance and more...

Measurement Systems ...s a roadmap that shows the way to process and performance improvement. The second phase in the roadmap, the Measure phase, provides a methodology and tools for collecting data and establishing baseline measures of current processes. However, measurement itself can be problematic. A measurement system is only as good as the measuring instruments and the operators, and both are responsible for a more...

Six Sigma Listening to the Voice of the Customer Let the buyer beware. That old business maxim of caveat emptor once struck fear in the hearts of many wary consumers. Now there's a new reality: Competition for consumer attention is intense across all industries and markets, so now it's the company itself which is being admonished to beware. That means businesses should be looking for the best way to gauge what its customers really need and want. more...

Six Sigma DMAIC Analyzing the Process Imagine the perfect cup of coffee--it tastes and smells great, it's served at exactly the right temperature, and, best of all, it satisfies you every time. Because it's perfect, you find yourself returning again and again to the cafe that sells it. The perfect cup of coffee--or the perfect product or service--is what Six Sigma is all about. To achieve Six Sigma, a product or service has to be 99.9 more...

Organizational Goals and Objectives ...lection of appropriate projects and choosing an effective improvement model are crucial tasks that help to ensure your company is pointed in the right direction. Performing risk analysis while avoiding pitfalls common to Six Sigma projects is also important to prevent project failure. Finally, performing a tollgate assessment emphasizes process management to ensure your ultimate goal of more...

Quality Management Business Process Improvement ...Improvement offers the student an overview of how to prepare and implement quality changes. The program details how to select processes for improvement, assign a process manager, and establish a process improvement team. In addition, the program teaches the learner how to flowchart and streamline a process, as well as how to measure process performance. Managers, supervisors, or team leaders more...

Six Sigma and the Corporate Enterprise What exactly is Six Sigma , and why is it important to your company? This course helps you to make that determination through a discussion of basic concepts underlying the Six Sigma philosophy. A broad overview is provided of the initial development of Six Sigma; Six Sigma's uses in leading companies to date; the benefits to be realized by successful deployment, and the metrics and core more...

History of Organizational Improvement and the Foundations of Six Sigma ..., it's useful to understand the history of organizational improvement and the contributions of various leaders in the field of quality. This course examines the concepts of quality, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement that are common among Six Sigma, the Total Quality Management movement, and continuous improvement. It also discusses the continuum among each of these business more...

Communication Skills and Project Management ... how these affect international communication. To meet an improvement project's specified goals and objectives, a manager must also effectively plan, estimate, and monitor the progress of the project and know what tools to apply. This course explores how communication takes place, and presents techniques and strategies for enhancing communication. It also examines how various project management more...

Supply Chain Management ...proaches to measuring supplier performance as a basis for improvement. It also looks at the importance of certification, partnerships, and alliances as they relate to the supplier relationship. It is aligned with the Quality Management Division of the American Society for Quality's Certification Handbook and is designed to assist learners as part of their preparation for the ASQ Certified more...

Building a Quality Management System This course introduces the Quality Management System (QMS) model which is a conceptual framework for the ISO 9001:2000 standard requirements. The QMS model emphasizes ISO 9001:2000's new focus on a process approach to quality, continual improvement, and customer satisfaction. In addition, this course describes the important role that documentation plays in building a quality management system and more...

Quality-minded Management ...ment, Product Realization, and Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement. This course provides an overview of the clause "Management Responsibility." It details management's role in establishing a quality policy and its responsibility to support and administer the organization's quality management system. Management must also conduct an ongoing evaluation of the quality management system to more...

Customer Satisfaction Through Resource Management The ISO 9001:2000 standard structures its Quality Management System (QMS) model into four major areas: Management Responsibility; Resource Management; Product Realization; and Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement. Resource Management is one important component of the QMS. This course examines the management of human, material, and environmental resources that are necessary to maintain an more...

Processes for Quality Products and Services ...ment, Product Realization, and Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement. Product Realization is one vital component of the standard. This course examines how one can apply the ISO standards to all the processes required to produce a product or service. The Product Realization clauses emphasize that quality objectives be established, documented, measured, and periodically reviewed. Measurement and more...

Continual Quality Improvement ...ment; Product Realization; and Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement. Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement is one vital component of the standard. This course examines the need to plan and implement measurement and monitoring activities to ensure that established quality characteristics are identified and continually improved. These activities, along with ongoing internal audits, provide more...

Steps for Successful ISO Registration ...g with the quality manual, identifying areas that require improvement, and ensuring quality procedures and work instructions are in place. This course emphasizes the importance of continual communication, benchmarking, and quality improvements. "Steps for Successful ISO Registration" guides your organization through the familiar ISO motto: say what you do, do what you say, prove it, and improve more...

Transitioning from ISO 9000 1994 to ISO 9001 2000 ...ment, Product Realization, and Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement. An additional emphasis on customer requirements and documented evidence of continual improvement has also been added to the 2000 edition. This course compares the two ISO editions and highlights the changes. Finally, using the Deming PDCA cycle, this course provides guidance for making the transition to the ISO 2000 more...

Software Project Management The Software Project Management WBT is the final course in the Software Engineering curriculum. This course is meant for professionals whose responsibilities include design, development, or management of software systems and who want to understand the basics of software project management. The course provides an introduction to the basic concepts of software project management. It examines the more...

Supply Chain Management - Building a Sustained Competitive Advantage This course provides the learner with an understanding of utilizing collaboration and technology to maximize the effect of supply chain processing. Product design and product life cycle management as elements of the improvement effort and performance measures and metrics. Models for improving all major processes within a supply chain and extensive case examples to validate the principles and more...

Supply Chain Management - Using Models This course provides the learner with an understanding of efficiency and cost savings strategies utilizing collaboration and technology to maximize the effect of supply chain processing and product design and product life cycle management as elements of the improvement effort. In addition to performance measures and metrics and models for improving all major processes within a supply chain.  more...

Excellence in Service - Establishing Service Standards In Excellence in Service: Establishing Service Standards you will learn how to identify customer expectations by evaluating the criteria customers use to assess the quality of your company's service. You will learn how to set develop and implement service standards. You will also understand the importance of surveying customers and incorporating their feedback into service standards. Finally you more...

Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 Design and Implementation Part 5: Infrastructure, Security, & Admin. This is the final course in a five part series that covers designing a network infrastructure to support Commerce Server 2000, describing the infrastructure components including Web Farms, staging servers and development servers, and covering network performance improvement by using switches to connect servers. The course focuses on providing network security, including configuring firewalls and more...

Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 Design and Implementation Part 5: Infrastructure, Security, & Admin. This is the final course in a five part series that covers designing a network infrastructure to support Commerce Server 2000 describing the infrastructure components including Web Farms staging servers and development servers and covering network performance improvement by using switches to connect servers. The course focuses on providing network security including configuring firewalls and more...

360-Degree Feedback: Experiencing 360-Degree Feedback 360-Degree Feedback: Experiencing 360-Degree Feedback covers how organizations use 360-degree feedback the benefits of using 360-degree feedback and the different methods for collecting 360-degree feedback. The program also covers the criteria for selecting raters the types of rating biases and guidelines for rating an employee's performance. Additionally it covers the type of information more...

360-Degree Feedback: Implementing a 360-Degree Program 360-Degree Feedback Programs: Implementing a 360-Degree Program covers the 360-degree feedback process and explains how to develop a feedback questionnaire choose a collection method and select raters for 360-degree feedback. It also covers how to create training programs for providing and receiving feedback as well as how to analyze 360-degree feedback results develop an improvement plan and more...