To attain certification, participants need to complete one workplace assignment and a final on-line exam. The assignment is worth 40% of the overall certification mark and can have a customized or in-house focus whereby participants target an area within their organization and leverage the Lean tools and practices covered in the program to initiate and/or implement physical improvements. This has proved to be an extremely beneficial element of the program.

The following are some of the improvements achieved through program assignments

• Overall equipment effectiveness increased from 9 to 30%
• 7 man weeks per year saved in packing list effort
• 21% reduction in test cycle time, 3.5% reduction in process cycle time
• $2.7 million inventory reduction
• Space, heads, pick time down 25%, handling/storage down €39k
• 3 hrs per day saved in lab. 20% increase in lab capacity
• 20% process lead time improvement
• €36k saved in storage (of unneeded items)
• 75% reduction in delivery errors
• Validation cycle time down 25%, 2hrs per day saved
• 16% reduction manual time in cell, 25% distance reduction
• 5.75 hrs reduced from process lead time