LEAN IN LABORATORIES – REINVENTING EFFICIENCY IN QUALITY CONTROL PROCESSES AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT – Spring 2025

LEAN TRANSFORMATION IN LABORATORIES

Reinventing Efficiency in Quality Control Processes and Product Development

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

This is a Virtual Live Consultant-led Education Program for Laboratory Managers and Leaders from all countries and business sectors: Pharmaceuticals, Human and Animal Healthcare, Biotech environments, Cosmetics, Chemicals, Food industries, and R&D. Catherine Converset has developed and delivered this program since 2018 and has been highly rated by all past participants.

The Lean Laboratory certificate program is a 5-day program designed to start you on the path to continuous improvement in your lab! Learn how to manage flows and eliminate backlogs, rework, and other inefficiencies while improving service to production, supply chain customers and increasing employee satisfaction.

Why is Lean important in lab environments?

Because a laboratory is involved at each step of the Value Stream — incoming materials and goods, work-in-process, and semi-finished and finished products—delays and errors negatively impact the entire organization. Therefore, speed, reliability, and quality, i.e., lab efficiency, directly impact overall organizational efficiency, costs, and the ability to meet customer demand.

Furthermore, the specialized skills needed in the laboratory make it especially devastating for the organization when individual technicians leave due to an inefficient and stressful process and environment.

Applying Lean in a lab environment helps alleviate inefficiencies by:

• Improving end-to-end processes (Value Streams)
• Underscoring demand and its variability
• Scheduling analysis flows based on demand
• Defining resources required
• Creating and sharing standards to reduce rework

While

• Creating a working environment based on trust, empowerment, and teamwork
• Upskilling through cross-training
• Developing problem-solving skills

The Lean Lab concepts apply to all laboratories, including Production Labs, Quality Control, Quality Assurance, and R&D.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

Discover how Lean can help:

• Continuously improve customer satisfaction by improving quality at the source and reducing lead time for your customers
• Systemically and repeatedly identify process inefficiencies so they can be reviewed and eliminated
• Eliminate back-logs and failure demand – the work created when an activity is not carried out correctly the first time
• Level the analysis flows to respond to incoming demand
• Reduce absenteeism and turnover by creating more value-added work
• Make processes visible so everyone can monitor daily progress to achieve improvement goals
• Increase process capacity so more value-adding work can be performed with existing resources

BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

You will understand how these principles apply to your laboratory processes and how you can develop your “leadership legacy” through the implementation of these Lean approaches.

Upon completing this 5-day program, you will be awarded the Lean Laboratory Improvement Certificate.

PROGRAM CURRICULUM

Monday 8am-5pm (US Eastern time)

• Lean Fundamentals in Labs Environments
• A3 Thinking
• High Level Process Mapping
• Learning to See Waste in Labs

Tuesday 8am – 5pm

• Mapping and Improving the Value Streams
• Understanding Incoming Laboratory Demand
• Defining Product Families in Laboratories

Wednesday 8am – 5pm

• Planning and Scheduling to Optimize Man and Equipment Time
• Building Visual Management for Analysis Flows and Lab Activities
• Workplace & System Organization: 5S’s, Visual Standards and Standardized Work for Process Stability

Thursday 8am – 5pm

• Reducing Set-up Times
• Establishing metrics: Leading and Lagging KPI’s
• Daily Performance Management
• Team-Based Problem-Solving

Friday 8am – 12pm

• Week in Review
• Taking it Back Home: Outlining Your Implementation Roadmap

WHAT PAST ATTENDEES ARE SAYING…

“We have been able to reach all our targets in 2019, and this is mostly due to the Lean Lab program which has made us capable of guaranteeing 24hr response time to our customers.”
Laurent G., Managing Director Finance – Synlab Analytics & Services

“…your support…has allowed us to build solid fundamentals in Visual Management and Lean Labs, ….instrumental to our plant being awarded the Shingo prize…”
Amayas B., Global Manufacturing Performance Senior Director – Ipsen Pharma Biotech Techops Division

“It (Lean Labs) is so great. Everything has changed.”
Sophie S., Quality Director – Aoste

“Through Lean Labs, I have become another person, and a real manager.”
Francoise A., Laboratory Manager – Aoste

“Awesome time attending the class and would be excited to be able to attend another session from the company as it is good to know that the instructors are helping clients in real-world examples to provide knowledge, rather than “this is what you do” approach with limited experience”
C. Cain – Lab Manager – Zoetis

“The training increased my motivation considerably, and the excitement of being able to make developments in our own facility emerged.”
S. Tekin- Abdi İbrahim Üretim Tesisleri

ABOUT YOUR Teacher

Catherine Converset
Senior Lean Consultant | Lean Speaker | Lean Teacher and Coach

Catherine has been assisting US and European companies in their journey to Operational Excellence. For over 30 years, she has developed specific organic approaches to help leaders create a culture and customer centricity through people empowerment and trust. She works in all support service environments, laboratories, and R&D, knowing these services make a difference in the company’s performance and innovation capabilities!

ABOUT YOUR HOST PRODUCTIVITY INNOVATION

Productivity Innovation is a leading consulting and training company that helps organizations build new capabilities, develop people, and grow. We focus on Operational Excellence, Leadership Development and Innovation.

Working together, these strategies provide the means to continually refresh a company’s value proposition while making the organizational changes needed for daily improvement and sustainable growth.

We pioneered the implementation of Lean principles and approaches across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, finance, and other service industries.

Today, our time-tested management system, motion™ provides organizations with:

• a uniquely comprehensive approach to implementing Lean across an entire enterprise, incorporating assessment, leadership, and business renewal,
• a robust process for innovation to develop an organization-wide capability to create new forms of value – reliably, predictably, repeatedly.

More than simply a Lean consulting firm, Productivity Innovation provide you with a customized support to keep your enterprise in motion™.

Brochure

Lean in Laboratories – Certificate Program
A 5-Day Virtual Certificate Program

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