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Mastering Business Excellence · Supply Chain
Mastering Lean Supply Chain gives operations teams the Lean and Six Sigma tools to strip waste out of planning, warehousing and logistics flows for good.
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Waste in a supply chain rarely announces itself. It hides in waiting trucks, double handling, overstocked buffers, re-keyed data and the rework that follows a quality miss.
Mastering Lean Supply Chain trains operations staff to see those losses as a system, using the eight wastes, value stream mapping and the process view of work, and then to attack them with 5S, visual management, standard work, kaizen and, where variation is the problem, the Six Sigma DMAIC method. The aim is a workforce that improves flow continuously rather than firefighting.
For an organization the program is 33 hours of self-paced online learning on the Blue Ocean learning platform, licensed for a cohort and tracked on the administrator dashboard.
Participants draw a current-state map of a flow they own, calculate takt time, lead time and value-added ratio, and design a future state, so the first improvement project is already scoped by the time they finish. Successful participants earn a digital, verifiable MBE credential at the end.
Operations professionals who own a flow, whether a dock, a planning cycle or a delivery route, are the core participants. Warehouse and distribution managers use the tools on picking, putaway and dock congestion. Logistics coordinators apply them to carrier handoffs and the information flow around a shipment.
Supply chain planners and inventory planners learn how pull principles reduce the stock a plan requires. Procurement staff who sit upstream of all of this gain the shared language they need to work with suppliers on waste. Licensing it for a site rather than a function pays off, because most waste lives in the handoffs between departments.
The curriculum runs through 21 modules. Modules one to three cover why Lean and Six Sigma matter, Lean's origins and the process view. Modules four and five apply Lean principles and the eight wastes. Modules six to eight supply the toolset: core tools, value stream mapping and kaizen culture.
Module nine introduces the Six Sigma mindset, module ten the DMAIC framework, and modules eleven to fifteen work through define, measure, analyze, improve and control. Modules sixteen to twenty add statistical process control, lean inventory, alignment with SCOR and sustainability, digital Lean and cross-industry cases, and module twenty-one covers leading projects.
Both, in sequence. Modules one to eight are Lean: principles, wastes, tools, value stream mapping and kaizen culture applied to supply chains. Modules nine to sixteen build the Six Sigma side, from variation, sigma levels and the voice of the customer through each DMAIC phase to statistical process control. The later modules bring the two together in lean inventory, digital Lean and project leadership.
Module seven takes an end-to-end view rather than a single workstation. Participants draw the current state across suppliers, warehouse and delivery, calculate takt time, lead time and the value-added ratio, then design a future state with fewer handoffs and less waiting. The exercise is meant to be repeated on a real flow after the module, which is why most cohorts pick one before they start.
Module five first explains muda, mura and muri, then defines the eight wastes and walks through where each appears in logistics, warehousing and planning: empty running, waiting at docks, excess motion in picking, overproduction of forecasts and re-keyed data. It finishes with diagnosing waste at the gemba, the actual place of work, rather than from reports.
Module eight covers the kaizen mindset and the PDCA cycle, going to the gemba as a leadership practice, the structure of kaizen events alongside daily improvement, and the respect for people that keeps frontline staff engaged. Combined with the standard work and visual management tools from module six, participants have what they need to lead a first event with their own team.
Yes. The process view in module three and the pull principles in module four apply directly to planning, and the wastes module treats overproduction of plans and excess inventory as waste in their own right. Planners who complete it understand why operations ask for smaller batches and leveled schedules. Module seventeen, on lean inventory, pull replenishment and the bullwhip effect, is written for them.
The content amounts to 33 hours of self-paced online learning on the Blue Ocean learning platform, available on web and mobile, made up of modules, digital study resources, knowledge checks and practice assessments. Managers can see enrollment, progress and completion for every participant on the administrator dashboard. Those who complete successfully receive a digital, verifiable MBE credential.
Use the Register Now button on this page. It opens Mastering Lean Supply Chain on the Blue Ocean Academy website, where individual learners can enroll directly.
Your organization licenses seats for a cohort or a whole team. Participants study the self-paced modules on the Blue Ocean learning platform, on web or mobile, and your administrator follows enrollment, progress and completion on a dashboard.
Yes. A pilot cohort in one department is a practical first step. Use the corporate license form, and a program advisor will map the relevant courses and license options to your teams.
Ask about a corporate license to build Lean capability across planning, warehousing and logistics, or begin with a pilot cohort at one site.
Register Now opens this course on the Blue Ocean Academy website in a new tab.
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