By the end of the program, participants will be able to:

• Identify ways and means to improve organizational and/or departmental productivity in order to increase profits and/or decrease/eliminate costs or losses.
• Apply several cost reduction strategies in order to meet changing global, statutory and market conditions.
• Identify business processes in need for reevaluating and/or reengineering.
• Recognize and apply quality improvement techniques in order to improve productivity.

Productivity Defined

• Definitions
• Process Based View
• Productivity Limitations
• The MUDA Factor
• Eight Types of Waste
• Cost of Poor Quality

Principles of Cost Reduction: The Quality Approach

• Quality Defined
• Avoiding Wastage and Adding Value to the Customer (Cost Reduction Strategies)
• Cornerstones of Quality
• Setting Up a Cost Reduction Program
• Cost Savings Project Selection Roadmap
• Barriers to Cost Reduction Programs
• The Resistance Psychology in Humans
• The Role of Suggestion Schemes

Productivity Improvement Tools

• Tool Selection
• Brainstorming
• Pareto
• How-How Method
• Why-Why Method
• Ishikawa Fish-Bone Diagram
• Six Sigma
• Lean Principles
• Non-Value Added Analysis
• Reengineering
• The Focus Method

Cost Reduction Opportunities

• Streamlining the Organization
• The "ESSA" Method
• Savings in Material Costs
• Reducing the Costs of Services
• 140 Ideas to Cut Costs

Measuring your Productivity Initiatives

• Key Performance Indicators
• Setting Targets for Cost Reduction
• Benchmarking
• Types of Benchmarking
• The Balanced Scorecard
• The Dashboard

Managers, supervisors and all those who are responsible for, or indirectly involved in, a cost or profit center or a quality improvement function.