Process Engineering Foundations

  • course details
  • Dates and time: 6 – 8:00 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays, Feb 25 - Mar 20, 2025 (Mar 10th week Spring break)
  • Format: Online, instructor-led live sessions on Zoom
  • Number of sessions: 6
  • Instructional fee: $545, reduced fees available (see Cost section below for details)

This course covers the critical aspects of process and manufacturing engineering with a focus on Zero Defects. It combines theoretical knowledge with practical applications, ensuring that engineers are well-equipped to implement these concepts in their work.

Register now

What you will learn

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Use several tools to manage processes more efficiently
  • Use problem solving tools such as fishbone charts and the 5-Whys to analyze problems and drive to root cause(s),
  • Develop a value stream map
  • Understand quality management through Six Sigma
  • Implement KPIs and use them in data collection and analysis
  • Understand how all tools covered in the course fit together to achieve Zero Defects

Who should attend

Supervisors, technicians, and engineers can all learn these important tools and concepts to improve their skills in processing. Whether it is manufacturing processes, health care processes, or business processes, the tools are all applied similarly and can be utilized in each setting.

Course content

A typical course covers the following:

  1. Introduction to Process Engineering and Management
    • Overview of process engineering roles and responsibilities
    • Basic terminology and concepts
  2. Foundational Skills and Principles
    • Problem-solving techniques (Root cause analysis, Fishbone diagrams, 5 Whys technique, failure mode effects analysis (FMEA))
    • Zero Defects: Core principles and implementation strategies
  3. Process Design and Optimization
    • Process mapping and flowcharting
    • Value Stream Mapping
    • Integrating Zero Defects in process design
  4. Quality Management and Continuous Improvement
    • ISO9001:2015
    • Zero Defects as the foundation for quality
    • Six Sigma integration (DMAIC, Statistical process control and design of experiments)
  5. Lean manufacturing principles
    • 8 wastes in lean
    • 5S methodology, Just-in-Time (JIT) and pull systems
  6. Safety, Compliance, and Risk Management
    • Process Safety Management (PSM)
    • Process hazard analysis techniques
    • Management of change (MOC)
  7. Project Management for Process Engineers
    • Project planning and execution (Critical path method and Gantt charts)
  8. Measuring and Sustaining Process Excellence
    • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Zero Defects and process efficiency
    • Sustaining improvements over time through control plans and SOP’s

Instructor

Will Kitchen

Will Kitchen is a solution strategist working in the Southwest Washington area with several professional clients. He is a lifetime member of Mensa and a senior member of the American Society for Quality, holding a Certified Manager of Quality / Operational Excellence certificate. He teaches Lean and Six Sigma as a Master Black Belt trainer for several organizations and has achieved world class results. Mr. Kitchen has a chemical engineering degree from Clarkson University, NY.

Cost

The instructional fee is $545. There are limited number of seats available for employees of small businesses with fewer than 150 employees ($349), non-profits and educational institutions ($299), and for current WSU students ($75) and employees ($299). All instructional fees are per person and include a nonrefundable administrative fee of $75. See Registration for details.

The registration fee is the same regardless of residence.


Meetings and format

The course is delivered via Zoom videoconference with live instruction. To attend, you need a computer with webcam, microphone and high-speed internet.

Each Zoom session allows for live interactions with the instructor and other students via chat, web conferencing or phone, all in real time. Assignments and other materials will be available online through a web-based learning management system.

Certificate completion

  • Attend at least 5 of 6 sessions and actively participate