Process improvement before automation · self-paced
Map the work people actually do, separate the hands-on minutes from the waiting and rework, and decide which steps to remove, simplify, automate or keep with a person. Then test the change in a small pilot you can reverse, and put AI to work on the review with Coach Q beside you.
Operations managers, quality people, consultants and coordinators who are asked to speed up a workflow or judge an automation proposal. No programming needed.
The vendor's AI writer drafts a quote in 30 seconds. Ours take two days. Buy it?
Find out where the two days go first. If the hands-on work is 22 minutes and the rest is waiting, a faster writer saves minutes, not days.
Sound familiar?
The AI writer drafts it in 30 seconds. Buy it.
If the document takes 22 minutes of hands-on work and the customer waits two days, the writer saves minutes. The days are in the queues and the loops back. You'll find them before anyone signs a purchase order.
The procedure says five steps.
The work takes more. Side spreadsheets, extra checks and requests sent back for missing information never make it into the procedure. You'll map the route people actually follow, with its handoffs and open questions.
It's slow because the new coordinator is slow.
Blame is a hypothesis, and usually the wrong one. You'll write down what each explanation predicts and pull the records that tell them apart, before anyone gets named.
The vendor says it saves 400 hours a year.
Checking, exceptions and upkeep come off that number every month, and released hours aren't cash until someone changes spending. You'll estimate value as an honest range and say which part is capacity and which is cash.
What it does for you
When the demo ends and the room is ready to buy, you're the one who asks where the time actually goes, and has the map and the numbers to show it.
A net saving shown as a range, with checking, exceptions and upkeep counted, and capacity kept apart from cash. People trust the person whose numbers survive the first question.
A final case study a person reviews, a 30-question final exam and a certificate anyone can verify, for your training record and your LinkedIn.
No course can promise you a raise or a title. What you'll have is the skill, the work to show for it and a certificate anyone can verify. That's what those conversations run on.
Why it matters
In McKinsey's 2026 global AI survey, nearly three-quarters of the AI high performers said they had fundamentally redesigned workflows because of their AI use. Among the other respondents, one in four.
High performers are the 6% of respondents who attribute an EBIT impact of 5% or more to their AI use. The survey doesn't prove the redesign caused the profit. It does show the companies getting value didn't just point a new tool at the old process.
Other research says it from the other side. BCG's 2024 survey of 1,000 executives traced about 70% of AI challenges to people and process, and about 10% to the algorithms. Gartner predicts over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027, over cost, unclear value or weak risk controls. This course works on the process, the value and the controls.
What you'll learn
You follow one fictional request process at Harbor Field Services from first observation to a pilot you can reverse. Each of the first six labs adds a piece of the same review, so you finish with a complete package. Module 7 puts AI to work on that review, and you check its draft line by line.
01Module 1
The procedure says how work should move. The process is what people do, workarounds included. You'll set the boundaries first, interview the people who do the work, and map the route with its handoffs, loops and open questions.
02Module 2
Most of the clock runs while nobody works. You'll follow one request in working minutes, split every step into touch time, waiting and rework, and add up lead time without counting overlapping work twice.
03Module 3
A cause is a hypothesis until a record backs it. You'll map competing causes, see why five whys is a prompt and not proof, and point every explanation at the design of the work, not the person doing it.
04Module 4
Every step gets one of five treatments: remove it, simplify it, automate it with a fixed rule, let AI assist with a person checking, or keep a named person's decision. A step that's slow is never a reason to remove a required approval.
05Modules 5 and 6
Twenty hours isn't a thousand dollars. You'll work out gross and net saving after checking, exceptions and upkeep, keep capacity apart from cash, and name the risks and owners. Then you'll charter a pilot that can be judged, stopped and undone.
06Module 7 · AI on a process review
AI is useful for drafting maps, summaries and charters from records you supply. It shouldn't do the arithmetic, and it never decides. You'll learn what stays out of every tool, write a prompt in five parts, and check an AI-written review pack before it reaches anyone who decides.
Who built it
Will Trikha
Founder and CEO, QMS Learning · Third-party registrar auditor
Will Trikha is a third-party registrar auditor with more than 20 years in aerospace and quality. An audit compares what the procedure says with what people actually do, and asks for the record behind every claim. That's the method this course teaches, applied before anyone buys a tool.
He's COO of PTX Defense, an AS9100D-certified aerospace manufacturer, and founder of QMS Leader, which implements quality management systems for manufacturers. At QMS Learning he builds AI workflows where a named person signs every decision.
What a careful approver asks before signing an automation proposal
Check us before you pay
The usual way, and this course
Here's what changes when every step has to hold up for the person who signs the proposal.
Not like training used to be
Training used to mean days in a classroom or hours of video. These real screens come from Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and every tool in them comes with this course too: short sessions where you make the call, a plan that fits your week, and an expert in your pocket.
Coach Q · your expert on call
Maybe, but find out where the two days go first. If drafting is 22 minutes of hands-on work and the rest is waiting in queues and loops back for missing information, a faster writer saves minutes, not days.
Follow a handful of recent quotes from request to send. Record the working minutes at each step, how long each one waited, and every time one went back. Then you'll know which step deserves the money.
Want me to help you lay out the time ladder for those quotes?
Coaching, not decisions. You make the call. Comes with your course, no renewal fee.
Study plan · Your personal trainer
Tell it your goal date. It builds sessions around your week and shows each day whether you're on plan, so the course actually gets finished.
Focus timer · 25 minutes, no tab-hopping
One click starts a focused session, and it follows you from lesson to lesson. Short sessions are how busy people finish.
Course Hub · Process documents drafted with you
Pick a template, give Coach Q your facts, get a working draft you edit and keep.
Apply at work · Proof your boss can see
Log what you tried, what happened and how you know. Record your manager's sign-off with their name and date, and export the log for your performance review.
Today view · One look and you know what's next
Your goal, days left, lessons done, your streak and today's session.
Give the study plan your goal date and it sizes each session to your week. Coach Q works on the facts you bring from your own job, so the examples are yours, not a textbook's.
Lessons are built around calls you make: read the record, sort the evidence, catch the mistake. Checks and labs score you on the spot, and your first win comes in the first few minutes of lesson 1.
Coach Q doesn't leave when you finish. It comes with your course, no subscription and no renewal fee, so it's there for the next automation proposal, and the one after that. When the rules behind this course change, we update the lessons and the coach's setup, and we move the coach to newer AI models as we test them.
What you walk out with
Customer, unit of work, start and finish set first, then the real route with its handoffs, loops and open questions, not the five boxes in the procedure.
Touch time, waiting and rework split step by step in working minutes, with overlapping work counted once.
Competing explanations, what each one predicts, and the records that tell them apart, before anyone gets blamed.
Remove, simplify, automate, assist or keep with a named person, with the required approvals kept where they belong.
Gross and net saving after checking, exceptions and upkeep, as a range, with capacity kept apart from cash.
Baseline, targets, a guardrail, a fair sample, a named owner, stop conditions and a written way back.
Inside the course
About 5 hours, self-paced, in short sessions that fit your week.
Map the route people really follow, with its handoffs, loops and open questions. 2 lessons.
Separate touch time, waiting and rework, and calculate lead time without double counting. 2 lessons.
Treat causes as hypotheses and pick the evidence that tells them apart. 2 lessons.
Decide for each step whether to remove, simplify, automate, assist or retain, and mark where a person decides. 2 lessons.
Estimate released capacity as an honest range, and name the risks, owners and recovery for a change. 2 lessons.
Charter a small pilot with a baseline, fair sample, stop conditions, an owner and a way back. 2 lessons.
Hand process-review drafting to an approved AI tool, keep the arithmetic in a spreadsheet, and check every line before a named person decides. 2 lessons.
The itemized list
Each priced line shows what a comparable item costs from another provider, with the source, so you can check it yourself. The included lines are what get the course finished. Checked October 14, 2026.
Seven modules, each a short guided lesson full of hands-on practice, then a lab. You follow one fictional request process from the first observation to a pilot you can reverse: map the real route, build the time ladder, test causes against records, pick a treatment for every step, estimate the value and charter the pilot.
COMPARABLE · Lean Enterprise Institute, Learning to See Using Value Stream Mapping, self-paced, 69 lessons with 1.5 hours of video and current and future state map exercises, plus three 30-minute sessions with a live coach (lean.org, Oct 2026): $599
Each lab adds a piece of the same package: a current-state map, a time ladder, a cause test table, a future-state map, a benefits ledger and a pilot charter. Labs and checks score you on the spot, and every hint is logged with your work.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
Eight templates: current-state map, time ladder, cause test table, future-state map, benefits ledger, pilot charter, rollback plan and check-the-AI list. Coach Q drafts each from your facts, you edit, save and download.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
Bring the automation proposal on your desk, any hour. It's set up for process improvement, works on your own facts, asks what evidence you used and marks what's missing. It never makes the call for you. Comes with your course. No subscription or renewal fee. It stays with you after the course, and we keep its setup current as the methods and AI tools change.
COMPARABLE · MoreSteam, E-Learning Support, 1 hour of coaching: $250
The AI drafts, a spreadsheet adds, a rule looks up and a person decides. You'll learn what stays out of every AI tool, write a five-part prompt, then check an AI-written review pack with planted errors. You leave with your own check-the-AI list and a plan for Monday.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
A different organization, a different process, different numbers. Submit current and future maps, the lead-time math, three risks, a pilot plan and a recommendation, plus six short decisions with your reasons. A person scores it within 5 business days.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
Built around your goal date and your week. It shows each day whether you're on plan and what today's session is.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
25-minute focused sessions that carry from lesson to lesson.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
What you changed at work, with your manager's sign-off recorded, exportable for your review.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
30 questions, 80 percent to pass, three versions. Your certificate records the course and your assessed performance, and anyone can check it online. It isn't a Lean Six Sigma belt.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
Come back whenever the job needs it. Your access doesn't expire. We keep the lessons current as the methods and AI tools change.
INCLUDED · adds nothing to the total
One person, one time. $720 less than buying the comparable pieces.
5 or more people get 10% off every seat. Secure checkout by Stripe. 3-day refund.
Compare before you choose
Including the row where a coached course wins.
ChatGPT will draft a process review in seconds. It doesn't know where your time goes, and it will not vouch for you.
Prices are published list prices, checked October 14, 2026: Lean Enterprise Institute, Learning to See Using Value Stream Mapping, Learning Tree, AI-Powered Lean Six Sigma for Leaders.
Try before you buy
Before you pay
The real first lesson, with the exercises and Coach Q. Your first win comes in the first few minutes. Judge it yourself.
Try lesson 1 free ↑After you buy
Email will@qmslearning.com within 3 days of purchase for a refund. A refund ends access to the course. Refund policy
Company pays
We wrote the email for you. Job training is generally a deductible business expense for the company, so check with your accountant. Need a quote or a PO? Email will@qmslearning.com.
Send this to my manager →Questions
No. You need basic familiarity with a workflow. The course teaches mapping, timing, cause testing, choosing what to automate and running a pilot from scratch, in plain language. It isn't a Lean Six Sigma belt course.
No. The lessons follow Harbor Field Services, a fictional company, with fictional records. Module 7 teaches you to use your company's approved AI tool safely on your own process review, and what stays out of every tool.
Finish the seven labs and the module reflections. Then an unseen final case study: a case scored out of 20 by a person and six decisions scored out of 12. You need 16 of 20 and 10 of 12 with no unresolved critical error, and 80 percent on the 30-question final exam.
A person scores it within 5 business days. If it needs another pass, you get feedback and a fresh equivalent case.
No. The certificate records this course and your assessed performance. It doesn't authorize changes to a workplace process, and it doesn't grant workplace authority, a license or accreditation.
No. Your time is recorded, not enforced, and answers save as you go. You get three attempts on three versions. After an attempt that doesn't pass, the next one opens 24 hours later.
ChatGPT will draft a process review in seconds, and it will add up minutes it was never given. This course teaches you to give AI the right job, keep the arithmetic in a spreadsheet, check every line against your records and make the call yourself.
The lessons are yours for life, and Coach Q comes with your course and stays with you after you finish. There's no subscription or renewal fee.
Yes. When the methods or the AI tools this course works with change, we update the lessons and the coach's setup, and you get the update at no extra charge. Your conversations with Coach Q aren't used to train AI models.
Yes. Use a company card at checkout. Job training is generally a deductible business expense for the company, so check with your accountant. Need a quote or a PO first? Email will@qmslearning.com.
Try lesson 1 free before you pay. After you buy, email will@qmslearning.com within 3 days of purchase for a refund. A refund ends access to the course.
Pick how many people before you check out and pay once by card. Five or more people get 10% off every seat, applied at checkout. After checkout you add each person's name and email, and each of them gets their own login, private AI coach, study plan and certificate. More than 50 people, or need an invoice instead? Email will@qmslearning.com for a quote.
Everything, one more time
Priced elsewhere, piece by piece: $849
Per person, one time. Lessons for life. Coach Q included, no renewal fee.
About 5 hours. That's 10 half-hour lunch breaks.
5 or more people get 10% off every seat. Secure checkout by Stripe. 3-day refund.