Hands-On Activities For Training Staff In Operational Performance Improvement Tools

Session
Tools, Techniques & Strategies for Change

Authors
Rick Olson
Assoc. Professor
University of San Diego

Bradley Chase
Assoc. Professor
University of San Diego

Description
This session will present hands-on activities that can be used to train people throughout your organization. The principles of active learning will be described and demonstrated through a variety of activities that can used to teach your organization about important ME skills including quality, lean, pull systems, and simulation.

Abstract
For management engineers to sell and implement change initiatives in their organizations, it is imperative that they be able to explain new principles to their colleagues. One effective way to accomplish this objective is to use hands-on, active learning exercises to demonstrate the value of the new ideas. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find exercises that will demonstrate the topics.

This presentation will provide attendees 5-7 hands on exercises that they use in their own settings. Among the topics demonstrated will be ways to teach: 1) The impact of process variation on system performance, 2) Key steps in process improvement, 3) How Pull systems differ from Push systems, and 4) Why buffer inventories may hurt system performance.

The exercises will be drawn from a wide range of sources including the presenters' experiences teaching industrial engineering, MBA, and supply chain students. While it will not be possible to fully demonstrate all of the activities, they will be explained in sufficient detail for attendees to be able to recreate them at their own facilities. References to resources containing other exercises will also be presented.

Consistent with the topic, this session will be conducted in an active learning mode.