Our Services

Continuous Coaching Commitment, LLC offers an extensive array of training classes in Lean Manufacturing Tools and Principles plus Continuous Coaching Commitment, LLC can facilitate the deployment of these tools as needed in your organization using the Toyota Kata methodology for bottom line results.

On-site Deployment

1-Day Toyota Kata Experience 

Toyota Kata addresses the question “How can we lead our companies so they will survive and thrive long term?”  Since the future lies beyond what we can see, the solutions that we employ today may not continue to be effective. So it is not the solutions themselves – whether Lean techniques, today’s profitable product, or any other – that provide sustained competitive advantage, but rather the ability to understand conditions and create fitting, smart solutions. Toyota Kata is the routine to develop this capability in the organization, and is both a key factor in Toyota’s long-running success and a core responsibility of its leadership.  Briefly put – Toyota Kata channels and utilizes the capabilities of all its members in order to strive for continuous improvement better than our traditional management methods. Join us for a “learn, share and do” opportunity as we explore:

Ansbach Class 2

  1. Hear and see how companies are utilizing the Toyota Kata methodology of the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata to coach for daily continuous improvement.
  2. Review the Toyota Kata Handbook slide material found on Mike Rother’s website regarding:
  • The Improvement Kata:  A scientific 4-step iterative PDCA routine that addresses only those obstacleswhich lie on the path of a trajectory that leads to the achievement of short term Target Conditions that are in line with a long term Vision/Challenge.
  • The Coaching Kata:  A daily routine that utilizes The Five Questions to help teach the Improvement Kata thinking pattern and ensure that it is imbedded within an organization via team accountability.
  1. Participate in a multi-round simulation that is progressively interwoven in with the slide material to make it easy to understand how the Toyota Kata trajectory components come together (i.e., Vision/Challenge, Current Condition, Target Condition, Obstacles, PDCAs and Coaching).

2-Day Toyota Kata Experience 

Are you searching for an answer to,  “How can our continuous improvement
process survive and thrive?”

Toyota Kata addresses this challenge by providing the framework for a sustainable problem solving culture incorporating targeted experimentation and personal learning.
In this practical workshop you will learn about two specific behavior routines, or Kata as we will review a lot of the Toyota Kata Handbook slide material found on Rother’s website regarding:

First, the Improvement Kata is a repeating routine of establishing challenging target conditions, working iteratively through obstacles and learning from problems encountered along the way. The Improvement Kata is a scientific 4-step iterative routine that addresses only those obstacles that lie on the path of a trajectory that leads to the achievement of short term Target Conditions that are in line with a long term Vision/Challenge.

Second, the Coaching Kata is a pattern of teaching the Improvement Kata to employees at every level, ensuring that it permeates their thinking and actions. The Coaching Kata is a daily routine that utilizes The Five Questions to help teach the Improvement Kata thinking pattern and ensure that it is imbedded within an organization via team accountability.

Participation in the Improvement Kata simulation makes it easy to understand how the Kata components come together. The interactive simulation brings Kata “to life” as team members systematically improve their way toward a target condition by using the Improvement Kata steps.  The simulation, that is progressively interwoven in with the slide material to make it easy to understand how the Toyota Kata trajectory components come together. (i.e., Vision/Challenge, Current Condition, Target Condition, Obstacles, PDCAs and Coaching).

If you are seeking a better way to lead, manage and develop people to produce continuous improvements results, this session is for you!

Kata Skill Week (KSW)

A Kata Skill Week (KSW) can be customized to fit your company’s needs in order to start the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata deployment at your site. The general format is a three, four, or five day week which typically starts with the one-day Toyota Kata Experience and progresses on to making the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata real by selecting your own processes to begin the deployment. By taking the classroom learning directly to the shop floor, office area, or medical floor immediately the next day, students have the opportunity to put their newly learned skills into practice. It is on this day 2 that we help your company to select real processes and real obstacles and begin constructing the Kata Storyboard in order to put the four steps of the Improvement Kata into action which are:

1. Understanding the direction

2. Grasping the current condition

3. Establishing the next target condition

4. Iterating with PDCA toward the target condition.

By day three or four your employees are actually practicing the coaching kata by using the five Toyota Kata questions with a designated learner, first coach, and second coach. With the assistance of a Master Kata coach who instructs and guides this entire week your company will be up and running with daily coaching routines as you advance from target condition to target condition on your way to achieving real meaningful challenges.

With the Kata Skill Week your company can decide to either participate in an open, multi-company format with only a few of your people, or the Kata skill week can be closed and customized for up to 9 people forming 3 Improvement Kata teams which will give you the basis of what is commonly referred to as an “advance group”. These initial team members are not necessarily Lean experts or Six Sigma Black Belt certified, they simply go in “advance” of others within your company and are the first to experience the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata. This initial group will eventually have the responsibility of shepherding the future Improvement Kata teams as they both teach and guide with the assistance of a Master Kata coach as you deploy both horizontally and vertically throughout your organization.

On or Off-site Training Courses

Lean 101 – Principles of Lean Manufacturing

This is the best publicly available live simulation and the first step to learning the principles of Lean Manufacturing. Participants manufacture test circuit boards in a simulated manufacturing setting. Results of the first simulation round provide the setting for continuous improvement by applying Lean Manufacturing principles to reduce the 8 wastes. Lecture and hands-on simulations introduce standardized work, workplace organization, visual controls, set-up reduction, batch size reduction, point of use storage, quality at the source, workforce practices, and pull systems. Each technique helps improve key metrics dramatically.

Training Within Industry

Training Within Industry – Job Instruction (TWI-JI) is a dynamic program that uses a simple four-step “learn-by-doing” approach to teach supervisors and team leaders from all industries the essential skills that will train workers to quickly remember how to perform jobs correctly, safely and conscientiously.

Value Stream Mapping

Learn how to create a map of your plant’s entire current state value stream (and related information flow), how to identify non-value added activities, and then learn how to map the future state value stream. Company learns the steps to eliminate waste in the current value stream map in order to achieve the enhanced future state value stream. Company also uses its own product lines to draft current and future state maps.

Visual Workplace/5S

Use hands-on simulation to learn how to transform a factory into a place where thousands of messages concerning product quality, productivity, scheduling and safety are rapidly delivered and utilized every day. Participants learn the 5S + 1 methodology to implement specific, easy to access visual systems which enhance communication and productivity. Through case histories and visual examples, participants learn what visual order is, what the visual workplace looks like and how these concepts function holistically on the production shop floor. The seminar teaches how to deal with resistance, develop checklists and use a process map to drive the initiative.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

Participants learn how to proactively maintain machines and equipment at peak productivity. Participants gain knowledge and a deeper understanding of TPM, its five major components, how TPM increases overall equipment effectiveness, how it can help avoid interruptions to production and a functional understanding of the seven steps to autonomous maintenance.

Setup Reduction/SMED

Through live simulation, participants learn the fundamental and underlying principles of set-up reduction. The instructor clearly defines set-up and discusses reasons for, and barriers to, reducing changeover times. The seminar follows the principles outlined by Shigeo Shingo on Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED). Participants learn the standard methodology in applying SMED to any type of set-up or industry.

Cellular/Flow Manufacturing

Bottom-Line results for your Business, and Employee Engagement for your People Participants learn how to link and balance manufacturing operations to reduce lead times, minimize work in process, optimize floor space usage and improve productivity. Through a 5-step process, the instructor leads and assists the participants in designing and implementing work cells in either assembly or machining applications. Topics include product family definition, TAKT time, total work content, work balancing, task/operator standardization, machine/operator optimization, cell layout, flexible staffing and teamwork.

Pull/Kanban Systems

Participants learn how to control shop floor inventory and production schedules by implementing pull systems. The participants learn how to design and implement a visually driven and employee controlled material replenishment system. Participants also learn how to implement repetitive and non-repetitive pull systems, how to set up point-of-use material storage, how to interface with planning systems and how to balance lot sizes with capacity (not economic order quantity).

John Maxwell Leadership Series

“ONLY ONE THING STANDS BETWEEN YOU AND SUCCESS.
IT ISN’T EXPERIENCE.  IT ISN’T TALENT.”  – John C. Maxwell

JMTSeal-rev
We cannot become what we need by remaining what we are.
John C. Maxwell
People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
John C. Maxwell
Disagreement doesn’t mean disrespect.
John C. Maxwell
People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.
John C. Maxwell
Your attitude determines your outlook.  Your attitude colors every aspect of your life.  It’s like the mind’s paintbrush.
John C. Maxwell
Leadership is influence.  Nothing more, nothing less.
John C. Maxwell
The only difference between ORDINARY  people and EXTRAORDINARY people is their response to and perception of FAILURE.
John C. Maxwell
Leadership develops daily, not in a day.
John C. Maxwell

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect – 1 day course

World-renowned leadership expert John C. Maxwell says if you want to succeed, you must learn how to connect with people.  And while it may seem like some folks are just born with it, the fact is anyone can learn how to make every communication an opportunity for a powerful connection.  In Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, Maxwell shares the Five Principles and Five Practices to develop the crucial skill of connecting, including:

– Finding Common Ground

– Keeping Your Communication Simple

– Capturing People’s Interest

– Inspiring People

– Staying Authentic in all Your Relationships

Part I: Connecting Principles Connecting Increases Your Influence in Every Situation Connecting Is All About Others Connecting Goes Beyond Words Connecting Always Requires Energy Connecting Is More Skill Than Natural Talent

Part II: Connecting Practices Connectors Connect on Common Ground Connectors Do the Difficult Work of Keeping It Simple Connectors Create an Experience Everyone Enjoys Connectors Inspire People Connectors Live What They Communicate

Leadership Gold – 2 day course

If It’s Lonely at the Top, You’re Not Doing Something Right
Loneliness isn’t a requirement of leadership; it’s a consequence of selfishness.
The Toughest Person to Lead is Always Yourself
To be successful in any endeavor, we need to learn how to get out of our own way.
Defining Moments Define Your Leadership
The choices we make in critical moments form us and inform others about our true nature.
When You Get Kicked in the Rear, You Know You’re out in Front
When you are at the front of the pack, everything you do attracts attention.
Never Work a Day in Your Life
Passion keeps leaders going when others quit.
The Best Leaders Are Listeners
Leaders dignify their followers by paying attention to their input and concerns.
Get in the Zone and Stay There
Success begins by knowing your purpose in life and growing to your maximum potential in your strength zone.
A Leader’s First Responsibility is to Define Reality
Good leaders balance their dreams with a sturdy dose of realism.
To See How the Leader is Doing, Look at the People
If you want to know whether a leader is successful and effective, don’t look exclusively at her; look to the health of the people she leads.
Don’t Send Your Ducks to Eagle School
Recognize that people differ in the level of their natural abilities, and do not treat everyone the same.
Keep Your Mind on the Main Thing
You will wear yourself out trying to be an expert at everything. For leaders, it is better to know the most important things than to know everything.
Your Biggest Mistake is Not Asking What Mistake You Are Making
Leaders who are willing to learn from their mistakes seldom repeat them.
Don’t Manage Your Time-Manage Your Life
Time is an equal-opportunity employer; everyone gets 24 hours a day —no more, no less—but not everybody gets the same return on their 24 hours.
Keep Learning to Keep Leading
The secret to success can be found in people’s daily agendas.
Leaders Distinguish Themselves During Tough Times
The best leaders prove their merit in the crucibles of life. They step forward to make tough choices, and they assume responsibility for the decisions they make.
People Quit People, Not Companies
The desire to leave for greener pastures is often motivated by the need to escape someone. People quit leaders, not companies.
Be a Connector, Not Just a Climber
The best basis for a leader’s influence comes from the relationships he or she establishes with followers.
For Everything You Gain, You Give Something Up
Let go of what you have so that you can reach for something new.
Those Who Start the Journey with You Seldom Finish with You
Anytime you ignore the reality of change and try to control relationships you will have problems.


Lean Office and Office Process Mapping

Learn to apply Lean principles to reduce non-productive efforts, eliminate wastes, reduce process time and improve efficiency in office support processes, administrative processes, and other non-direct labor efforts of the enterprise. Company creates current and future value streams maps for support processes such as Quoting, Engineering Drawings, Order Entry, Purchasing, Shipping/Receiving, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payables, Hiring Practices, etc.

Kaizen Events

This session teaches participants how to perform a “Kaizen Blitz.” Kaizen is a time-proven, intense, focused problem solving methodology used successfully by hundreds of companies. It utilizes a “ready-fire-aim” approach to solving problems in a team-based manner that produces immediate, tangible results.

Poka Yoke & Error Proofing

World class quality depends on, not only detecting defects, but also detecting conditions when defects are likely to occur and eliminating them. Participants learn the principle causes of defects in the workplace and cost-effective methods of eliminating them. Participants are also exposed to the basic concepts needed to eliminate variation in their manufacturing processes during an introduction to Six Sigma.