Lean Operational Excellence for Food & Beverage Manufacturing
Production performance, yield, quality and resource efficiency. A practical 16-hour programme designed specifically for food and beverage manufacturing.
- 16 hours over 2 days
- 14 modules, 6 practical exercises
- In-company, classroom or Live Online
At a glance
What participants will learn
- Identify value-added and non-value-added activity
- Recognise major operational losses
- Understand and interpret OEE
- Identify bottlenecks and flow constraints
- Analyse yield and material losses
- Recognise process variation
- Apply structured root-cause analysis
- Understand SMED and changeover reduction
- Identify resource-efficiency opportunities
- Select meaningful operational KPIs
- Use daily management principles
- Build an initial improvement roadmap
Course modules
1. Operational Excellence in Food & Beverage
Lean, Six Sigma, customer value, waste, variation, COPQ, PDCA and DMAIC.
2. Understanding the production process
SIPOC, process mapping, value-stream thinking, CTQs and process ownership.
3. Eight wastes
Transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, defects and unused talent.
4. Production performance and OEE
Availability, performance, quality, downtime, speed loss and OEE interpretation.
5. Bottlenecks, flow and capacity
Constraint identification, throughput, WIP, cycle time and schedule adherence.
6. Yield, waste and material loss
Yield, scrap, rework, giveaway, overfill, start-up and packaging losses.
7. Process variation and quality
Common and special causes, process stability, capability and basic SPC thinking.
8. Root-cause problem solving
5 Why, Fishbone, Pareto, evidence, corrective action and verification.
9. Changeover reduction and SMED
Internal and external activities, preparation, standardisation and first-good-product time.
10. Product complexity and scheduling
SKU growth, private label, short runs, sequencing and hidden complexity cost.
11. Resource efficiency
Energy, water, raw materials, packaging, utilities and waste.
12. Daily management and KPIs
SQDCP, visual management, tier meetings, escalation and leading and lagging indicators.
13. Prioritising improvement opportunities
Impact × Evidence × Feasibility and method selection.
14. Building the roadmap
Problem statement, baseline, business impact, KPI, data needs and next actions.
Practical exercises
Dairy yield
Understand losses between incoming material and finished product.
Bakery changeover
Reduce production time lost between product families.
Filling line OEE
Separate availability, speed and quality losses.
Packaging process
Identify defects, waiting and transition opportunities.
Production bottleneck
Determine which process constraint limits throughput.
Resource efficiency
Examine energy, water or packaging consumption per unit.
Who should attend
Progression pathway
- Lean Operational Excellence for Food & BeverageThis 2-day course.
- Lean Six Sigma Yellow BeltCore improvement principles and tools.
- Lean Six Sigma Green BeltData-driven improvement projects.
- Applied improvement projectCoached, on a real production problem.
- Operational Excellence leadership developmentFor those who lead improvement in the organisation.
Certificate and trainer
Participation is completed with a certificate of attendance from Greece Lean Six Sigma. The fee does not include a certification exam by an external body. How to get certified: see the Certification & Recognition page.
Trainer: Victoria Tsolidou, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, with 25+ years of international experience in Operational Excellence across industry, logistics, hospitality and services.
Related services and training
Frequently asked questions
Do participants need prior Lean or Six Sigma knowledge?
No. The course has no prerequisites and starts from the fundamentals, with examples from food and beverage manufacturing.
Can it be tailored to our production?
Yes. In the in-company format, exercises can be based on your own data and processes.
Is certification included?
No. Participation is completed with a certificate of attendance from Greece Lean Six Sigma. Certification options are explained on the Certification & Recognition page.
How does it relate to the diagnostic?
It can run before the diagnostic to prepare the team, or after it to build the capability the improvements require.
Where is it delivered?
In Greece, Cyprus and Europe, at your premises, in a classroom or Live Online.
Improve the process behind the product.
Improve yield. Increase throughput. Reduce losses. Protect quality. Build improvement capability.