Quarter 1: Participants receive assigned roles in a mock company with traditional processes for completing the required tasks. They quickly realize the negative impact of inefficient processes, poor communication and lack of information on customers and profitability. Little direction results in individuals operating in functional silos.
Quarter 2: Participants fix some issues, resulting in slight improve-ments, but customers still suffer as significant change does not occur.
Quarter 3: Workshop participants are led through a structured approach of process analysis and a demonstration of the application of lean techniques. Participants begin to apply lean techniques, resulting in improvements to company profitability and customer satisfaction.
Quarter 4: The last quarter stresses the need for continuous improvement through fine-tuning of techniques and looking for waste in other functional areas. Individuals focus more on teamwork and aggressively look for areas in which to improve.