Certification Courses

What are Certification Courses?
Certification Courses directly address the core requirements of each Roadmaps Institute™ certification program.  Each certification program has core courses that are needed to assure competency in fulfilling the roles that the certification program confirms.  DRIVERs must be capable of facilitating the SCORE Process.  Masters must be capable of facilitating all five DR²IVE™ Processes.  Partners must be capable of everything that a Master is capable of doing within organizations, as well as fulfilling three roles of consultant, facilitator (teaching focus), and registrar.

Certification Courses Available

DRIVER Certification:

Fundamentals of Project Management

Advanced Project Management

Fundamentals of Roadmaps Development

DRIVER White Paper

Master Certification:

Advanced Roadmaps Development

Robust Roadmaps

Robust Roadmaps Rationalization

Master White Paper

Partner Certification:

Business Development

DESIGN Facilitation

SCORE Facilitation

AUDIT Facilitation

ROADMAP Facilitation

DRIVER Certification:

Fundamentals of Project Management:  The Fundamentals of Project Management is a foundation course.  The course is required to understand how to develop Robust Roadmaps™.   Projects are the building blocks of roadmaps, so a solid understanding of project management fundamentals is needed to be able to assess organizations based on capabilities, convert capability needs into tangible projects, break and combine projects into manageable structures, select projects based on their return, link projects into networks based on dependencies and resources, and manage the network of projects.  The course will use Microsoft Project to illustrate project management techniques.  A participant that does not have Microsoft Project can download a fully functioning demo at microsoft.com that will meet the needs of the course.

Advanced Project Management:  Advanced Project Management builds on the Fundamentals of Project Management course.  Since projects are the building blocks of roadmaps, a more in-depth command of project management fundamentals is needed to better understand how to: assess organizations based on capabilities, convert capability needs into tangible projects, break and combine projects into manageable structures, select projects based on their return, link projects into networks based on dependencies and resources, and manage the network of projects.  A strong focus will be placed on collaboration methods and techniques. The course will use Microsoft Project to illustrate project management techniques.  A participant that does not have Microsoft Project can download a fully functioning demo at microsoft.com that will meet the needs of the course.

Fundamentals of Roadmaps Development:  The Fundamentals of Roadmaps Development course shows participants how they can increase their organization's return from strategic projects with no increase in resource investment. The approach presented and discussed in the course that enables such gains is DR²IVE™. DR²IVE™ enables organizations to expand their Efficient Frontier through Robust Roadmaps™. The Efficient Frontier represents the optimal project portfolio available to organizations given their current resource constraints and opportunities. Robust Roadmaps™ leverage world-class best practices and structured collaborations internally and externally with alliances to expand the Efficient Frontier to the new Robust Frontier. Participants leave the course with an understanding of how they can return to their organization and develop Robust Roadmaps™ to expand their Efficient Frontier to the Robust Frontier.

DRIVER White Paper:  The DRIVER White Paper is a course that helps participants write their first full Chart Report.  The Chart Report is essentially the written assessment of an organization on a single World-Class Management Chart.  The DRIVER White Paper sections are usually as follows: Executive Summary, Chart Score, High Priority Projects, Future Projects, Current Capabilities, Emerging Capabilities, Conclusions and Appendices.   Participants may either conduct the assessment leading to the report through interviews and face-to-face meetings or use the online DR²IVE™ Software Suite's SCORE Module.

Master Certification:

Advanced Roadmaps Development:  Advanced Roadmaps Development builds on the Fundamentals course with a strong focus on collaboration methods and techniques.  A process appropriately called the ROADMAP Process is presented in detail.  ROADMAP is the acronym for Review, Opportunity, Analyze, Develop, Milestone, Authorize and Proceed.   Through this process organizations transform their assessments into actionable Enterprise Roadmaps, which integrate divisions and business units.  To develop Alliance Roadmaps, participants should take the course titled Robust Roadmaps™.

Robust Roadmaps:  Robust Roadmaps™ are strategic plans within and between alliances.  They are based on interdependent hierarchical project networks focused on achieving world-class capabilities that result in reduced uncertainty and costs.  This course builds on the Advanced Roadmaps Development course by showing how organizations can develop Alliance Roadmaps, through the ROBUST Process.  The ROBUST Process acronym stands for  Review, Opportunity, Broker, Start, Track.  The ROBUST Process is a methodology that tangibly enables the development of strategic plans between alliances. 

Robust Roadmaps Rationalization:  In a Robust Roadmaps Rationalization, participants learn a three step approach to analyzing and preparing an organization for a Robust Roadmaps Initiative.  First, participants learn how to review the core competencies of an organization to develop a DR²IVE™ Model that matches an organization’s specific needs.  Next, participants learn how to review an organization’s current relationships with suppliers and customers to determine which ones should be transactional, collaborative or alliance relationships.  Finally, participants learn how to help organizations set goals for modifying the organization’s relationship portfolio.  The three steps result in what the Roadmaps Institute™ calls a R3 Report, which provides a foundation on which to pursue the assessment phase of developing Robust Roadmaps™.

Master White Paper:  The Master White Paper is a course that helps participants write their first SCORE Report.  The SCORE Report is essentially the written form a full 360° organizational DR²IVE™ assessment that combines multiple World-Class Management Step Chart Reports.  Participants are encouraged to facilitate the creation of Chart Reports by managing DRIVERs to do the majority of the work rather than doing the work  themselves.  In addition to the subsections for each chart, the sections of the SCORE Report are usually as follows: Executive Summary, DR²IVE™ Summary, DR²IVE™ Score, Navigation Wheel, Highest Priority Opportunities, Annual Improvement Goals, Conclusions and Appendices.   Once the Master White Paper is completed, participants are capable of running DR²IVE™ organizational assessments.

Partner Certification:

Business Development:  The Business Development Course is focused on teaching prospective Roadmaps Institute™ Business Associates and Partners how to present the Roadmaps Institute's products and services to potential clients and customers.

DESIGN Facilitation:  The DESIGN Facilitation Course instructs Roadmaps Institute™ Business Associates and Partners how to facilitate face-to-face DESIGN Workshops and online DESIGN Engagements.   The DESIGN Process is perhaps the most critical of all DR²IVE™ Processes since it lays the groundwork for organizations to enter the follow-on processes of SCORE, AUDIT, ROADMAP and ROBUST.

SCORE Facilitation:  The SCORE Facilitation Course instructs Roadmaps Institute™ Business Associates and Partners on how to run a face-to-face SCORE Workshop and an online SCORE Engagement.

AUDIT Facilitation:  The AUDIT Facilitation Course instructs Roadmaps Institute™ Business Associates and Partners on how to run an online and face-to-face AUDIT Process for a client.  The focus of the course is on how to validate and verify an organization's assessment as articulated in their SCORE Report.

ROADMAP Facilitation:  The ROADMAP Facilitation Course instructs Roadmap Institute™ Business Associates and Partners how to run face-to-face ROADMAP and ROBUST Workshops, as well as online ROADMAP and ROBUST Engagements.  The ROADMAP and ROBUST Processes are almost identical which allows the course to cover both processes.

Contact Roadmaps Education
If you have any questions, comments or applications for Roadmaps Education, please contact the education group directly at roadmapseducation@roadmapsinstitute.org or call 1-888-4WC-MAPS to speak to a representative.

Touring Courses

What are Touring Courses?

Touring Courses enable participants to develop the knowledge to analyze the capability of an organization using DR²IVE™ World-Class Management Charts.  Each Touring Course is three weeks online or three days in a face-to-face meeting room.  Touring Courses are almost exclusively facilitated by faculty members from the Financial Times Top 100 Business Schools.  Twenty Touring Courses are available for organizations.  Unlike other courses offered by the Roadmaps Institute™, grades are assigned for Touring Courses.  The primary reason for the assignment of grades is to ensure the quality of Roadmaps Institute™ certificate programs graduates.  The secondary reason is to allow the courses to be applied for university credit.  Please see the section titled “Master in Business” for more information.

Touring Courses Available:

World-Class Cost Management^SM

World-Class Customer Management^SM

World-Class Demand Management^SM

World-Class Design Management^SM

World-Class eCommerce Management^SM

World-Class Leadership Management^SM

World-Class Lean Management^SM

World-Class Program Management^SM

World-Class Quality Management^SM

World-Class Supplier Management^SM

World-Class Brand Management^SM

World-Class Capital Management^SM

World-Class Channel Management^SM

World-Class Ethics Management^SM

World-Class Legal Management^SM

World-Class Process Management^SM

World-Class Resource Management^SM

World-Class Service Management^SM

World-Class Strategy Management^SM

World-Class Sustainability Management^SM

World-Class Cost Management^SM:  The World-Class Cost Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Cost Management.  In the World-Class step of World-Class Cost Management^SM, cost measurement across collaborative enterprises is enabled. The focus on measurement across collaborative enterprises is the next "great frontier" for cost management. Measurement across collaborative enterprises is very difficult since it requires coordination, technology, education, and investment between members. These collaborative relationships are based on the knowledge that all members must be satisfied with the value received for their contributions. Members of these relationships recognize that money dedicated to relationships must be allocated in a manner that ensures the viability of the parties involved. Developing and managing these relationships requires extensive cost management data accumulation and dissemination, transparency of costs, and improved knowledge and skills. Learn the best practices of  cost management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Customer Management^SM:  The World-Class Customer Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Customer Management.  World-Class Customer Management^SM is the management of operations that meet the needs and expectations of the customer as defined by the customer. The definition is broadened from traditional customer management definitions which state that customer management is strictly the management of the services. The definition of customer is also expanded to include potential customers in new markets. World-class firms have formally integrated the "voice of the customer" into almost all operations, both service and manufacturing. "Meeting the needs and expectations of the customer" means you know what your customer wants and what they expect, and you provide that to them on a consistent basis. Customer management is becoming more formalized in today's firms through software applications known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM). CRM is about collaborating with each customer, being able to create the classic win-win situation, adding value to each customer's daily life, and earning customer loyalty in return. World-Class Customer Management^SM is a focus for many organizations as they shift away from customer-acquisition towards customer-retention, churn-reduction strategies, and development of new customer markets.  Learn the best practices of customer management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Demand Management^SM:  The World-Class Demand Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Demand Management. World-Class Demand Management^SM seeks to estimate, control, smooth, coordinate, balance, and influence the demand and supply for a chain's products and services in an effort to reduce total costs for individual firms and the chain as a whole. Demand management recognizes that forecasts are developed at several points throughout an organization. Demand management accepts forecasts from customers and other functions, and then updates them based on actual, real-time demand. Demand management also works with the supply side to adjust the inflow of materials and products. Control in demand management is accomplished through the execution of effective production plans, calculation of inventory levels, setting of capacity levels, and developing customer service strategies. Demand managers recognize that demand management is a process (versus a bounded business function) that requires the utmost in coordination and communication between the responsible parties.   Learn the best practices of demand management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Design Management^SM:  The World-Class Design Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Design Management.  The design and development of new services, products and processes is a critical process for most organizations. The effort should be approached from a collaborative perspective with a focus on existing and future customers. Effective cross-functional and cross-firm involvement proactively improves designs, which subsequently results in improvements in the areas of quality, cost, and time to market. Documentation in firms has shown that 75 to 85 percent of avoidable total costs are controllable at the design stage. In a manufacturing firm, when specifications for the tangible product are fixed then the final design of the product is also fixed. The final design of the product often dictates fixing ancillary costs such as packaging and the required service for the product. Therefore, when the final design is fixed, the product's competitive stance, and its profit potential are also fixed. Consequently, early involvement of alliance members and cross-functional professionals is essential to reduce total lifecycle cost.  Learn the fundamentals of what World-Class is in Design Management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class eCommerce Management^SM:  The World-Class eCommerce Management Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in eCommerce Management.  ECommerce is defined broadly as activities conducted using electronic data transmission via the Internet and the World Wide Web.  The Internet enables individuals, departments, divisions, companies, and ultimately alliances the ability to synchronize their operations and gather data to aid in strategic decision making. The results are reduced cost, better time management, improved competitiveness, and profitability for all members of the extended enterprise. The Internet helps organizations compete effectively as a contributing member of dynamically connected communities or networks, not as isolated enterprises. The process of developing the eCommerce capability within any organization should not be left to information technology professionals who are technically capable, but not formally educated in the specific needs of functions and the collaborative relationships. Only through cross-functional and cross-firm development can the result optimize the possibility for the greatest gains in containing costs and fostering synergistic opportunities between members.   Learn the fundamentals of what World-Class is in eCommerce Management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency."

World-Class Leadership Management^SM:  The World-Class Leadership Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Leadership Management.  World-class leaders utilize collaboration to align the company's vision, mission, and strategic objectives with the plans of teams, programs, departments, divisions, and alliance members. Such alignment recognizes that leadership must evolve to meet the emerging competitive environment of chain versus chain.  World-class leaders support relatively decentralized power structures where teams and organizational structures can self design to adjust to changing requirements based on customer needs. World-class leaders understand their constituents and work towards building trust internally and externally. In order to achieve mutual trust across collaborative enterprises, world-class leaders commit to the education and training of their constituents regardless of economic swings. World-class leaders leverage education as the means to institutionalize the organization's goals and aspirations, and assure the continuity of leadership.  Learn the best practices of Leadership Management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Lean Management^SM:  The World-Class Lean Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Lean Management.  World-Class Lean Management^SM requires development of a strategy that: leverages current technology, integrates both product and process design, enables improved service operations, synchronizes material and resource flows, constantly evaluates the need for continuous and discontinuous improvement, maintains low inventory levels throughout supply chains, embeds quality failure prevention in every process step, and "pulls" inventory to meet customer demands. In other words, a world-class lean operation strives for a global optimization strategy for multiple collaborating organizations, not a single firm. The focus of lean management in the past two decades has been on optimizing internal operations and reducing internal inventories. The focus of the next two decades is on optimizing all processes through lean approaches to reduce total waste in services and operations while simultaneously improving flexibility and customization. To achieve this goal, many existing methodologies and approaches for optimization of internal operations are being extended across the collaborative enterprise. Moreover, the methodologies are being coupled with an electronic overlay using the Internet for delivery that accumulates and disseminates tactical and strategic information in a timely manner.  Learn the best practices of Lean Management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Program Management^SM:  The World-Class Program Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Program Management.  Program management traditionally requires balancing a company's schedule attainment of multiple interdependent projects and activities against the cost of completing the program. Resource costs managed within programs fall into four major categories: human, machine, materials, and capital. Traditionally, program managers have assumed additional costs are required in order to meet scheduled deadlines. World-Class Program Management^SM calls for the extension of such analysis beyond the firm to account for the program constraints and subsequent tradeoffs both internally and across multiple organizations in collaborative relationships. World-Class Program Management^SM recognizes that a constraint that exists for a firm within the program may be alleviated through collaborative activity between two or more organizations at a far lower total cost. To achieve these world-class goals, program managers must collaborate with others in the organization and across the collaborative enterprise. Resources required must be drawn from across functional and firm boundaries. In addition, to succeed in the management of complex programs, a program manager needs to utilize a centralized program management system that enables mapping of collaborative projects between multiple organizations.  Learn the best practices of Program Management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Quality Management^SM:  The World-Class Quality Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Quality Management.  Quality management is not just about providing high quality as measured by performance specifications for a product or service. World-Class Quality Management^SM accounts for tradeoffs that exist in balancing the costs of quality failures against prevention and appraisal activity costs. Such measurement is typically missing in most firms. World-Class Quality Management^SM, like so many of the World-Class Management Charts in DR²IVE™, is frequently constrained by lack of progression in the other core competency threads (charts). For example, measurement of the costs of quality requires total cost of ownership (cost management capability) modeling and a data accumulation system (electronic commerce capability). World-Class Quality Management^SM incorporates the best attributes of well known approaches, such as Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), and the Quality Management System (QMS). However, existing approaches have all failed to achieve boundary less collaboration among collaborative enterprises. In World-Class Quality Management^SM, a company's quality system and the quality systems of customers and suppliers are viewed as parts of a single integrated system.  Learn the best practices of quality management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Supplier Management^SM:  The World-Class Supplier Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Supplier Management.  World-Class Supplier Management^SM focuses on the continuous improvement of the design, development, and management of an organization's supply system. World-Class Supplier Management^SM spans functional boundaries and company borders. Therefore, supplier management responsibility in World-Class Supplier Management^SM is owned by everyone in the firm, not just the supply chain management function. A major focus of supplier management in this context is the development and management of a relationship portfolio, where a supply base is categorized into transactional, collaborative, and alliance relationships. World-Class Supplier Management^SM concentrates on proactively improving processes with the long-term goal of upgrading the competitive capability of the firm and the firm's supply chain.   Learn the best practices of supplier management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Brand Management^SM:  The World-Class Brand Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in brand management. This Touring Course focuses on the importance of properly branding a product before it goes to market. To create a world class brand and manage it well, you must first consider how large a market your brand can create by narrowing its focus and owning a word in the mind of your potential customers. The purpose of branding a product is to sell. Create the brand from your core values and sell it with integrity.  World-Class Brand Management^SM means making critical decisions before you introduce your product. Some of those decisions are, but not limited to: competitive needs, measurability, customer recognition, uniqueness, value and market. Learn the best practices of brand management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Capital Management^SM:  The World-Class Capital Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in the management of capital.  Learn the best practices in Capital Management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Channel Management^SM:  The World-Class Channel Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Channel Management.  This Touring Course addresses an often overlooked area that is critical to the bottom line; purchasing across channels and across geographic boundaries. In today's economy the customer is king. Customers are demanding a seamless experience across channels and geography where increasing sales, profits and customer satisfaction is based upon getting information to customers whenever and wherever needed.  Learn the best practices of channel management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Ethics Management^SM:  The World-Class Ethics Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Ethics Management. This Touring Course focuses on an area that has been fraught with problems in many large, medium and small organizations recently- Organizational Ethics. To have World Class Ethics an organization and its people must first believe in its importance. The relationship between values, ethics and stakeholders in a performance context is explored. Organizations must have a focused purpose of pursuing goals through the ethical concepts of value. The foundations and importance of core values to every business are discussed in relation to modes of behavior and decision-making practices. They are demonstrated as under-pinning the strategic direction, conveying what is expected by both the organization itself and the major stakeholders. A value-based framework is developed to highlight the ingredients of good business performance in the desire to combine excellence with morality.  Learn the best practices of ethics management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Legal Management^SM:  The World-Class Legal Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Legal Management. This Touring Class addresses the importance of World-Class Legal Management^SM of an organization. This course is dedicated to assisting participants in understanding the importance of Legal Standards world-wide. This is particularly important with the advent of the internet. Legal Standards vary from country to country. However, there are basic fundamental standards that transcend the law world-wide. Learn the best practices of legal management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Process Management^SM:  The World-Class Process Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Process Management. Process management is a systematic approach to improving an organization's business processes. Participants will look at how to make business processes more effective, more efficient, and more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment. Process management is not just about improving production systems.  Process improvement also focuses on maintenance and optimization of an organization's infrastructure. Learn the best practices of process management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Resource Management^SM:  The World-Class Supplier Resource Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Resource Management.  This course focuses on multi-project resource planning and management.  When an organization has developed a detailed plan for a project, there is a capability to link multiple projects and perform multi-project resource planning.  Learn the best practices of resource management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Service Management^SM:  The World-Class Service Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Service Management. This Class will review best practices for world- class Service Management. A support staff that has world-class capabilities will have greater business knowledge and a better understanding of how to interact with a customer successfully. This issue of Service Management can make or break a company in today's fast paced Internet environment. Many companies have outsourced this important aspect of their business. The course will also cover why, how and when to outsource services.  Learn the best practices of service management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Strategy Management^SM:  The World-Class Strategy Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Strategy Management. The class on Strategy Management is one that all students will look forward to taking. The reason being, there is no clear-cut agreement on how the term "strategy" is applied to business. During the late 1970s and into the '80s, Strategic Planning was practiced by most organizations in one way or another. The term "strategy" comes from the military. It was and is used today as a means to determine the best offence or defense in any situation. There will be much room for interactive discussion in this class.  Learn the best practices of strategy management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

World-Class Sustainability Management^SM:   The World-Class Sustainability Management^SM Touring Course is an online, three-week course designed to familiarize participants with world-class capabilities in Sustainability Management. This class addresses a relatively new subject to the business community. It will cover how to improve performance and create value by adopting business sustainability practices that integrate economic, environmental and social management. Integrating these three management practices is no small feat for a world-class organization. Be prepared for much discussion in this new area of development for business management.  Learn the fundamentals of Sustainability Management and how to assess your organization's capabilities in this critical core competency.

Contact Roadmaps Education
If you have any questions, comments or applications for Roadmaps Education, please contact the education group directly at roadmapseducation@roadmapsinstitute.org or call 1-888-4WC-MAPS to speak to a representative.

Tune Up Courses

What are Tune-Up Courses?

In contrast to a Touring Course which can not focus on one specific attribute within a step chart, Tune-Up Courses address specific world-class management attributes in depth.  A Tune-Up is a one week online or one-day face-to-face course led by either a faculty member from an alliance university or an industry expert.   Tune-Up Courses are not required for the certification programs, but they may be applied to any of the programs to help participants meet minimum point criteria.  In most cases, Tune-Up Courses are offered based on demand from members and organizations.  No limit exists on the number of Tune-Up Points that can be applied to the certification programs.

TUNE-UP COURSES AVAILABLE:

Activity Based Cost Management:  The Activity Based Cost Management Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that addresses how activities are cost drivers in every organization.  By totaling costs in pools and then allocating from the cost pools to products and services by cost drivers, product and services are identified for their profitability. The conclusion is drawn that ABC is the most accurate way of allocating costs, but the question for every organization is whether the accuracy is worth the additional cost. 

Costs of Quality:  The Costs of Quality Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that covers the four cost categories associated with the costs of Quality: internal failure, external failure, appraisal and prevention.  Models for balancing the four categories will be discussed and will aid participants in deciding how to optimally invest in quality activities to reduce failures.  Discussion will also cover measurement of costs across multiple organizations.

Total Cost of Ownership:  The Total Cost of Ownership Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that is designed to help participants in understanding definitions, formulas, measurement, application and organizational best practices regarding the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).  Participants will have a stronger understanding that acquisition cost is often a very small portion of the total cost, cost management is the responsibility of all functions and multiple organizations, existing accounting systems often fail to provide guidance for cost management at the points of incursion by the end of the course.

Customer Relationship Management Systems:  The Customer Relationship Management Systems Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that helps participants improve their understanding of advanced CRM programs.  CRM entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customer base, whether it is service or sales related. Computerization has changed the way organizations are approaching their day to day CRM strategies because it has also changed consumer buying behavior. With each new advance in technology, much more of the relationship is being managed electronically.

Customization Approaches:  The Customization Approaches Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that explores best practices in the field of design customization.  Customization focuses on increasing product and service variety while maintaining or improving volume.  Traditionally firms have considered an increase in customization to result in a reduction in volume, which must then result in an increase in price for customers desiring customized products and services.  Various customization approaches have been developed in the last forty years that have enabled companies in many industries to increase variety while simultaneously decreasing costs.  Participants will examine the approaches and discuss the application of them to their organizations. 

Building Customer Alliances:  The Building Customer Alliances Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online).  For an organization to survive and prosper in today's environment it must consider alliances with its customers; however building alliances with customers can be difficult since customers are often free to switch to new suppliers.  The course first investigates what the attributes of an alliance are so that participants can determine whether their organization's current customer relationships are indeed alliances or some other type of relationship.  Best practices in the course are presented in the context of a Customer Alliance Program that participants can take back and implement at their organization. Through the Customer Alliance Program, an organization can maintain its focus on existing customer alliances while simultaneously creating new customer alliances through innovative product and service offerings.

Forecasting Models:  The Forecasting Models Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that explores qualitative and quantitative forecasting models.  Participants will be self-guided through sequential presentations of the forecasting models where they will have the opportunity to run each model with pre-loaded data in an Excel based spreadsheet template.  A series of discussions will also highlight the benefits and pitfalls of each forecast model.

Demand Management Systems:  The Demand Management Systems Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that defines what a Demand Management System (DMS) is and how it can help organizations to reduce uncertainty, allocate resources effectively, lower human and material costs, and facilitate better strategic planning.  Both electronic DMS systems and organizational roles and constructs will be discussed in the course.

Reducing the Bullwhip:  The Reducing the Bullwhip Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that will enable participants to recognize and reduce the bullwhip effect.  The Bullwhip Phenomenon is where orders to the supplier tend to have larger variance than sales to the buyer, and the distortion propagates upstream in an amplified form.  Tangible strategies to reduce the distortion in the supply chain caused by the phenomenon will be explored.

Integrated Product Development:  The Integrated Product Development Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that will outline a systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent development of a product and its associated manufacturing and sustainable processes to satisfy customer needs.  Integrated Product Development refers to the management process that integrates all activities from product concept through production/field support, using a multi-functional team, to simultaneously optimize the product and its manufacturing and sustainable processes to meet cost and performance objectives.  A systems approach using project management techniques and gates will be presented.

Standardization and Simplification:  The Standardization and Simplification Tune-Up is a one-day (or one-week online) course that will explore the benefits of and approaches to standardization and simplification.   Standardization benefits an organization in a variety of ways: it enables mass production, enables customization, improves supplier coordination, improves quality, enables simplification, enables delayed differentiation and, as a result of many of the other benefits, standardization lowers inventories.  The course focuses on industrial standardization, which is defined as "the process of establishing agreement on uniform identifications for definite characteristics of quality, design, performance, quantity, service, and so on."  After exploring standardization, participants will shift their focus onto simplification.  Simplification, a corollary of standardization, investigates reducing the number of standard items a firm uses in its product design and carries in its inventory.  Together, standardization and simplification can vastly improve a product's design while simultaneously reducing costs.

Life Cycle Design Approaches:  The Life Cycle Design Approaches Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that explores life cycle factors that should be addressed during design stage of products and services.  Course participants first examine the variety of life-cycle design approaches developed since the 1970s.   Then, participants explore how organizations today are integrating Life Cycle Design into their design management systems, such as Integrated Product Design System.

Enterprise Resource Planning:  The Enterprise Resource Planning Tune-Up course is a one-day event (or one-week online).  Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) integrate (or attempt to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a single unified system.  A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration.  A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a single, unified database system to store data for the various system modules.

Supplier Resource Management Systems:  The Supplier Resource Management Systems Tune-Up course is a one-day event (or one-week online).  Many organizations are taking a more holistic approach to procurement by establishing Supplier Resource Management (SRM) systems.  SRM systems help organizations manage many aspects of supplier management, including: negotiation, assessment of suppliers, paying for orders, placing orders, approving requests, connecting with suppliers, and more.

Exchanges and Auctions:  The Exchanges and Auctions Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online).  Business-to-business (B2B) exchanges are essentially websites on which member organizations buy and sell their goods and exchange information.  Auctions are used primarily for online bidding; however, some organizations have integrated them into what they call online negotiations.  A primary focus of the course will be on reverse auctions, where the buying firm may specify a particular requirement and allow suppliers to bid on it.  Regular auctions are often used by sellers to reduce or liquidate excess finished goods, parts, assemblies, and equipment.

Self Designing Teams:  The Self Designing Teams Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online).  Self-directed work teams realize their real potential under conditions of interdependence, autonomy and empowerment. A work group needs a high degree of interdependence to obtain the maximum impact from teamwork. Interdependence is the "glue" needed for teamwork. Under conditions of high interdependence, members are acutely aware of how "tied together" they are and recognize the necessity and self-interest of cooperation and teamwork.  By moving to self-directed work teams, an organization seeks to elicit new behaviors- increased ownership, responsibility, initiative, flexibility and creative problem solving. The real innovation is creating a shift in the depth of ownership and responsibility employees feel for their work. This requires creating conditions where employees become "franchise owners" of a core process.

Management of Chains:  The Management of Chains Tune-Up course is a one-day event (or one-week online).  The course covers best practices in Supply Chain Management.  Essentially, the supply chain extends from the ultimate customer back to Mother Earth.  In the course, the chain is viewed as a whole, a single entity rather than fragmented groups, each performing its own function.  Money enters the supply chain only when the ultimate customer buys a product or service.  Transactions within the supply chain simply allocate the ultimate customer’s money among the members of the chain. A firm's supply system includes all internal functions plus external suppliers involved in the identification and fulfillment of needs for materials, equipment and services in an optimized fashion. 

Performance Measurement:  The Performance Measurement Tune-Up is a one-day event (or one-week online).  This course reviews various performance measurement techniques and their advantages and disadvantages.  In addition to learning various techniques, participants will learn: how to understand the major pitfalls and consequences of poor measurement design, how to develop appropriate performance measures, how to review new and existing measures to determine their appropriateness, the role of different types of measures in measuring and managing organizational performance.

Process Value Analysis:  The Process Value Analysis Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that explores the basics of applying value analysis techniques to processes.  Business processes are the collections of activities that create value for your customers.  Regardless of industry or sector, any organization that delivers value more efficiently than its rivals has a distinct competitive advantage.  Process Value Analysis enables you to pursue both paths of competitive advantage:  one based on customer value and the other on process efficiency.

Just-in-Time Principles:  The Just-in-Time (JIT) Principles Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online).  In the course, participants will explore JIT as developed by the Toyota Production System (TPS) up to today’s systems that integrate the lean and supply chain evolutions.    Just-in-Time Principles involve the elimination of waste while respecting people. JIT Principles requires buyers and sellers to work together to reduce the need for inventories.  Waste must be reduced or eliminated.  Communication must be real-time.  These requirements combine to make buyer-supplier collaboration essential.

Inventory Management:  The Inventory Management Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that explores both the philosophies and science of inventory management.  Inventory management is the direction and control of activities with the purpose of getting the right inventory in the right place at the right time in the right quantity in the right form at the right cost.  Inventory Management has evolved through several paradigm shifts in the last forty years to become one of the most efficient management areas in business.

Reducing Program Uncertainty:   The Inventory Management Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that explores the measurement and management of uncertainty for groups of interrelated projects that form a program.  Program uncertainty can increase the probability an organization will miss deadlines and budget goals.  The best way to manage uncertainty is by reducing the uncertainty of projects before they start in a proactive planning approach.  After projects have started, then uncertainty management approaches can be applied to reach desired target parameters.

Synergistic Project Selection:  The Synergistic Project Selection Tune-Up is a one-day event (or one-week online) that focuses on evaluation of groups of projects that are interdependent.  Failure to account for interdependencies often results in a sub-optimal project portfolio.  In order to maximize returns from a project portfolio, synergistic benefits must be considered.  This course will address how to identify such synergies and mathematically quantify their returns for selection purposes.

Workload Balancing:  The Workload Balancing Tune-Up is a one-day event (or one-week online) that focuses on how to create develop schedules for resources to ensure a balanced and efficient work flow.   Workload balancing techniques generally focus on the management of bottlenecks to ensure no one work path can become overloaded.  In managing bottlenecks several techniques are used by organizations.   These techniques will be examined in the context of scheduling and resource distribution.

Statistical Quality Control:  The Statistical Process Control Tune-Up is a one-day event (or one-week online) that reviews Statistical Quality Control Techniques.  In addition to the random variations that occur naturally in any process, during the course of operations some nonrandom variations caused by external factors occur.  The quality capability of the process changes because of these unplanned events.  Statistical Quality Control can help detect these outside forces as they occur.  An investigation can be initiated, and the problem solved with the production of fewer defective products.  Implementing Statistical Quality Control involves an initial study of the process to determine that it is stable.  Operating procedures are established and measurements are recorded as they are taken.  Statistical readings are plotted on charts and interpreted.  Any points falling outside the control limits usually indicate the existence of nonrandom variance.  At this point an operator would intervene in the process to solve the problem.

Scorecard Systems:  The Scorecard Systems Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that reviews Balanced Scorecard Systems.  The balanced scorecard is a management system (not only a measurement system) that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. When fully deployed, the balanced scorecard transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the nerve center of an enterprise.  The balanced scorecard suggests that we view the organization from four perspectives, and to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of these perspectives:  The Learning and Growth Perspective, The Business Process Perspective, The Customer Perspective and The Financial Perspective.

Tools of Quality:  The Tools of Quality Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that reviews the Tools of Quality.  Production environments that utilize modern quality control methods are dependant upon statistical literacy. The tools used therein are called the seven quality control tools. These include: Check Sheet, Flow Chart, Histogram, Control Chart, Pareto Chart, Cause and Effect Diagram, and Scatter Diagram.

Alliance Management: The Alliance Management Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that reviews Alliance Management.  Supply Alliances Management focuses on all the elements of relationship management, including trust building, communications, joint efforts, planning and fostering interdependency to achieve competitive advantage.  Major gains in cost, quality, time to market and optimization of supplier technology are achieved through Alliance Management.  Lower total costs are the common result of alliance relationships.

Supplier Development: The Supplier Development Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that engages participants in a proactive approach to supplier development.  Supplier development plays the key role in helping suppliers achieve and maintain world-class status.  Supplier development can be defined as any activity that a buying firm undertakes to improve a supplier's performance and capabilities to meet the buying firm's supply needs.  Buying firms use a variety of activities to improve supplier performance including: assessing suppliers' operations, providing incentives to improve performance, instigating competition among suppliers, and working directly with suppliers, either through training or activities.

Contract Management:  The Contract Management Tune-Up Course is a one-day event (or one-week online) that reviews the basics of Contract Management.  Contract Management calls for relationship management techniques, tools and philosophies that enable collaboration.  The key objectives are timely delivery, desired quality, and performance to agree to requirements while simultaneously empowering professionals to foster synergistic opportunities.

Contact Roadmaps Education
If you have any questions, comments or applications for Roadmaps Education, please contact the education group directly at roadmapseducation@roadmapsinstitute.org or call 1-888-4WC-MAPS to speak to a representative.