Description

A focused course, tailored for you

The Operations Manager's Course on Streamlining Production When Capacity Hits Bottlenecks

Turn chaotic floor traffic into a predictable flow that meets demand without overtime or missed deliveries.

Stop rebuilding the same production dashboard every Monday while missed deliveries keep haunting the exec board.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

Every week the shop floor swells with mismatched batch sizes, causing machines to sit idle while workers scramble to meet tight shipping windows. The current spreadsheet of takt times lives on a shared drive, but nobody trusts its numbers, and supervisors spend hours reconciling manual logs after each shift. When a major client requests a faster lead time, the lack of a clear visual control board forces you to guess which line can absorb extra volume, risking missed commitments and overtime spikes.

Competing priorities from finance and sales push you to cut inventory, yet the absence of a real-time work-in-process register means you cannot prove that safety stock levels are sufficient. The result is frequent last-minute re-scheduling, overtime approvals that get rejected, and a leadership team that questions the reliability of your production plan. If the next quarterly review surfaces these gaps, the credibility of your function will be on the line.

What you walk away with

A calibrated value-stream map that highlights true bottlenecks.
A daily visual control board ready for the next shift huddle.
A standardized work-in-process register that feeds real-time capacity reports.
A lean KPI scorecard that ties takt time adherence to on-time delivery.
A stakeholder briefing deck that demonstrates capacity gains to finance.

The 12 modules

Module 1. Mapping the Current Value Stream

84% of manufacturers miss hidden waste because they never document the end-to-end flow. In a typical Monday morning audit of the line, you’ll discover where queues build up and where value is actually created. The module guides you through capturing each process step, linking it to cycle time data, and producing a clean value-stream diagram. Output: A populated value-stream map ready for review.

Module 2. Identifying True Bottlenecks

During the weekly capacity review the team debates which machine is the choke point, but data is scattered across three spreadsheets. This module shows you how to overlay actual run-time logs on the value-stream map to pinpoint the real constraint. The deliverable is a bottleneck analysis sheet that isolates the limiting resource. What you ship from this module: a bottleneck analysis sheet.

Module 3. Designing a Visual Control Board

When the shift lead walks onto the shop floor and sees no clear status display, daily updates become spoken rather than seen. By building a visual control board that aggregates takt time, WIP limits, and queue lengths, the entire crew gains instant situational awareness. The artefact is a ready-to-print control board layout. Output: Visual control board layout.

Module 4. Standardizing Work-in-Process Registers

By module end a populated work-in-process register sits in your drive, capturing real-time counts for each cell and feeding capacity dashboards.

Module 5. Creating a Lean KPI Scorecard

Finance asks for a clear line-item view of production efficiency, yet you only have informal metrics. This module builds a scorecard that ties takt adherence, first-pass yield, and overtime hours to financial impact. The artefact is a concise KPI scorecard ready for quarterly reporting. What you ship from this module: KPI scorecard.

Module 6. Implementing Daily Stand-Up Protocols

A stakeholder POV: the plant manager wants a 15-minute huddle that surfaces issues before they become delays. This module defines the exact agenda, visual cues, and decision-rights needed to keep the stand-up on time and effective. The deliverable is a stand-up script and checklist. Output: Stand-up script and checklist.

Module 7. Balancing Inventory Buffers with Lean Pull

A tension between sales demand volatility and floor space constraints forces you to over-stock or under-stock. This module walks through a pull-system design that aligns buffer sizes with actual demand variability. The artefact is a buffer sizing matrix. What you ship from this module: Buffer sizing matrix.

Module 8. Rapidly Re-Scheduling Capacity

The fastest path from a chaotic re-schedule to a clear capacity plan is a three-step algorithm that uses the bottleneck analysis and WIP register. You’ll apply it to a real-world scenario where a large order arrives mid-week. The deliverable is a re-schedule plan template. Output: Re-schedule plan template.

Module 9. Communicating Gains to Finance

The CFO wants proof that lean changes reduce overtime costs. This module crafts a briefing deck that translates takt time improvements into dollar savings, complete with before-and-after charts. The artefact is a finance briefing deck. Output: Finance briefing deck.

Module 10. Embedding Continuous Improvement Loops

A question that the operations manager asks themselves: How do I keep the system improving after the initial rollout? This module defines a Kaizen cadence, metrics review schedule, and ownership matrix. The deliverable is a continuous improvement calendar. What you ship from this module: Continuous improvement calendar.

Module 11. Scaling Lean Practices to Adjacent Lines

During the quarterly review the plant director asks which other lines can adopt the new flow. This module provides a replication checklist that maps the current line’s artifacts to a new cell, ensuring consistency. The artefact is a line-scaling checklist. Output: Line-scaling checklist.

Module 12. Final Review and Action Plan

Stakeholder POV: the VP of Operations wants a single-page roadmap that shows next-step actions, owners, and timelines. This module consolidates all earlier artifacts into an actionable plan that can be presented at the next leadership meeting. The deliverable is an implementation roadmap. Output: Implementation roadmap.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Module 1 covers Mapping the Current Value Stream , exactly the chaotic data collection you face when the Monday morning audit asks for an end-to-end flow diagram.

Module 5 covers Creating a Lean KPI Scorecard , precisely the finance-driven request for a clear line-item view of production efficiency before the quarterly review.

Module 8 covers Rapidly Re-Scheduling Capacity , the exact scenario when a large order arrives mid-week and you need an immediate capacity plan.

What you get with this course

A populated value-stream map with baseline metrics.
A bottleneck analysis sheet pre-filled with sample data.
A printable visual control board layout.
A work-in-process register template ready for data entry.
A lean KPI scorecard ready for quarterly reporting.
A daily stand-up script and checklist.
A buffer sizing matrix for pull-system design.
A re-schedule plan template for urgent orders.
A finance briefing deck linking KPIs to cost savings.
A continuous improvement calendar.
A line-scaling checklist for adjacent cells.
An implementation roadmap for leadership review.

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Day 1: tailored playbook in hand, value-stream map template pre-populated for your environment, visual board layout ready.

Week 1: first version of the KPI scorecard live and shared with finance, WIP register populated with current shift data.

Month 1: recurring visual control board and capacity reporting cadence running, leadership receives the implementation roadmap.

Before and after

Before

Your production data lives in fragmented spreadsheets, the visual board on the floor is a whiteboard with stale numbers, and every overtime request is justified with ad-hoc emails. When a major client pushes for faster delivery, you scramble to pull reports, and the finance team questions the reliability of your capacity forecast. The lack of a unified register means the audit of work-in-process often reveals missing entries, leading to repeated re-work and lost trust.

After

All core artifacts live in a single, up-to-date repository: the value-stream map, visual control board, and WIP register refresh automatically each shift. Capacity reports are generated in minutes, and the finance briefing deck shows clear cost-avoidance numbers. Leadership now sees a predictable production cadence, and you can confidently defend headcount and budget during quarterly reviews.

What happens if you do not address this

If you ignore this gap, the next quarterly review will reveal untracked overtime and missed delivery metrics, prompting leadership to question the value of your team. The plant may face a forced reduction in line capacity, and your credibility will erode just as the company tightens its cost targets.

Who it is for

A mid-level operations manager who runs daily stand-ups, owns the production schedule, and constantly juggles line capacity, inventory buffers, and cross-functional handoffs. They rely on legacy Excel trackers, spend evenings cleaning data, and need a repeatable method to turn raw shop floor data into actionable, leadership-ready artifacts.

Who this is NOT for. This is not for someone who needs a basic introduction to lean concepts rather than a hands-on implementation method.

How it arrives

Within 24 hours of purchase your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it. The playbook is hand-built around your specific situation, not LLM-generated boilerplate.

Time investment. 6 hours of focused work spread over a week, saving an estimated 40-60 hours of internal scaffolding effort.

Why $199 is the right number

A half-day consultant would charge $2,500-$4,000 for the same lean capacity mapping, a generic certification runs $1,200, and building the artifacts yourself can consume 60+ hours. At $199 you get a proven framework and ready-to-use tools that pay for themselves in weeks.

FAQ

Do I need prior lean certification to take this course?

No, the material assumes only basic familiarity with lean principles and builds the practical artifacts you need.

Will the templates work with my existing ERP data?

Yes, the templates are designed to import data from most ERP exports without custom coding.

How much time will I need each week?

Around 3 hours per week, spread across the 12-module schedule.

What if I need help customizing an artifact for my plant?

The hand-built playbook includes step-by-step guidance tailored to your environment.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.