Process Optimization

Project
Get ready to enter the professional world, because you will spend two days a week working at a company in or near Zwolle! This company will provide a complex problem and situation. You will be part of a small group of students actively engaging in tackling this problem. In the past, students have completed projects for companies such as Scania, Unilever, Abbott, Ola, Bosch and Nefit. The main goal of the project is to assess the quality of a business process. You and your team will use Lean/Six Sigma to come up with improvements in a structured way and to implement these in an existing organization.

Six Sigma and Theme-activities
Through lectures and seminars, you will get to know the Six Sigma methodology (Design, Measure, Analyze, Implement, Control, or DMAIC) as a tool for improving processes. You will get the opportunity to achieve a Six Sigma Green Belt certificate (€ 50). 
Theme activities are guest lectures, workshops, excursions and teambuilding.

Many organizations run numerous improvement projects. These ambitious projects tend to tie up people for considerable amounts of time, on top of their normal tasks. Each individual project assesses a current problem within the organization as a whole. The question is, is there also improvement in the bottom-line performance of the organization after completing a project? If there is no process to address the constraint in the organization, there is also no focus which areas should be addressed. In this course you will learn to set up a process to address the restrictions within the organization and increase the performance of an organization as a whole.

Planning and scheduling are forms of decision-making that play an important role in most manufacturing and service industries. The planning and scheduling functions in a company typically use analytical techniques and heuristic methods to allocate its limited resources to the activities that have to be done. During this module, you will cover the following topics: 
•    MPC systems, S&OP, manufacturing and dispatching rules
•    Characteristics of service industries, Project and CPM
•    Scheduling: programming, shifting bottleneck procedures, annealing, Tabu search and Beam search
•    Interval scheduling, reservation systems and timetabling
•    Economic Lot Scheduling
•    Personnel scheduling problems

The module Consultancy skills helps you to develop effective consultancy and communication skills. We challenge you to examine the assumptions and interpretations you have about yourself and others. This will help you to examine the way you communicate, in order to become more effective in getting your message across as a professional consultant.

During the Simulation module, you will learn how to use simulation study for production process improvement and management of production processes. After this course, you will be able to recognize when simulation can be used as a tool for decision-making, especially in a manufacturing environment. You will also be able to use the software Siemens Plant Simulation, make simple calculations as a means of validating a simulation study and to interpret and analyze the results from a simulation study.

Complete your exchange semester or year by taking one or two cross-departmental modules. You will receive ECTS credits when you complete a module successfully.

• Behavioural Change in Organizations
• Cambridge English B2 or C1
• Drama and Improvisation
• Dutch Language
• Dutch Society
• Economic Mindsets
• Innovation Research Competences for Urban Development  
• Intercultural Awareness
• Personal Leadership (7 Habits)
• Youth and Media Literacy

Want to know more about the exchange programme of Process Optimization? Check the course catalogue for more information about matters such as assessment and teaching methods. 

Read the course catalogue