Design Thinking and Design for Six Sigma Symposium, Houston

Design Thinking For Operational Excellence & Design For Six Sigma

Join us for this exciting educational opportunity focused on unleashing your creative potential through design thinking! This 2-Day in-person gathering will take place starting on Thursday November 21, 2024 in Houston, Texas. Immerse yourself in a dynamic environment where you'll learn how to apply design thinking principles to drive operational excellence.

With a maximum of 50 paticipants this is a very intimate learning opportunity designed to maximize the amount of time and attention given to each of the participants efforts and allow for meaningful peer-to-peer engagement.

Discover innovative strategies and techniques that will empower you to tackle complex challenges with fresh perspectives. And engage in interactive workshops led by industry experts to develop your problem-solving skills.

Whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting your journey, this unique learning opportunity will have you collaborating and networking with peers and colleagues to share experiences, and gain insights from other industry leaders.

Don't miss this incredible chance to enhance your creative thinking abilities and drive next-level operational excellence through your organization in new and exciting ways!

Travel and accommodations are excluded from the price.

Time is the enemy of the 21st Century Organization. And the competitive advantage will be those who; • Can see further beyond the horizon • Recognize opportunities and threats sooner • Devise and deploy a decisive response faster • Set the pace and maintain control of the execution phase and narrative • Know and can rely on the capacity and capabilities of their leadership, resources, processes, technology, and value-chain – who have a superior level of “operational excellence” – to press the prosecution of their strategies.

Leveraging Design Thinking and Design For Six Sigma to compress time

The combination of Design Thinking and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) can create a powerful and comprehensive approach to prob-lem-solving, innovation, and process improvement. Each methodology brings its unique strengths to the table, and their integra-tion can enhance the overall effectiveness of the design and improvement processes. As such, organizations can create a holistic approach that not only ensures high-quality processes but also delivers innovative and user-friendly solutions, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction and business success.

Parking: The East Garage is recommended.

Directions: To get to the Classroom and Business Buildign after parking in the East Garage:

1. Walk across the street towards the campus
2. Go past Melcher Hall, which is the three-story triangular black glass building on your left.
3. CBB is the five-story rectangular beige brick and glass building behind Melcher and further from the side street.

Customers/Users:

Holistic Solutions: The combination ensures that products and services not only meet high-quality standards (DFSS) but are also designed with a deep understanding of user needs and preferences (Design Thinking).

Enhanced User Experience: The iterative nature allows for con-tinuous improvement based on user feedback, resulting in prod-ucts and services that align better with customer expectations.

Competitive Advantage: The combination enables organizations to not only deliver high-quality products and services consistently (DFSS) but also stay innovative and responsive to changing market demands (Design Thinking).

Operational Efficiency: DFSS contributes to operational excel-lence, reducing costs and enhancing efficiency, while Design Thinking helps in identifying new business opportunities and customer-focused strategies.

Engagement and Empowerment: Employees benefit from a cul-ture that encourages collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving (Design Thinking). DFSS adds value by providing struc-tured methodologies to streamline processes, reduce errors, and increase overall efficiency.

Innovation: Design Thinking fosters a creative environment, pro-moting ideation and out-of-the-box thinking. DFSS complements this by providing a systematic approach to ensure the feasibility and reliability of innovative solutions.

Optimized Processes: DFSS ensures that the processes used to design and develop products are efficient and produce high-quality results. This aligns with the goals of Design Thinking to create user-centric and innovative solutions.

Robust Solutions: DFSS ensures that the solutions designed are robust, reliable, and meet quality standards. Design Thinking complements this by emphasizing user satisfaction and adapta-bility.

Continuous Improvement: The iterative nature of Design Think-ing aligns well with the continuous improvement philosophy, allowing teams to continuously refine and enhance processes based on user feedback.

Efficient Processes: DFSS contributes to the optimization of manufacturing and operational processes, reducing variations and enhancing efficiency. Design Thinking ensures that the de-signed products are compatible with streamlined supply chain processes.

Sustainable Growth: Shareholders benefit from a combination that not only focuses on delivering consistent, high-quality prod-ucts and services (DFSS) but also ensures the organization re-mains innovative, adaptable, and poised for sustainable growth (Design Thinking).

Design Thinking is a structured and user-focused method that aims to enhance operational processes and boost overall organi-zational performance. It integrates empathy, creativity, and iterative problem-solving to promote innovation, improve user experiences, and optimize operational efficiency. This approach offers a fresh perspective on addressing complex challenges and is characterized by a mindset that values curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to embrace failure as a natural part of the crea-tive process.

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a systematic methodology used to design or redesign processes, products, and services with the goal of achieving high levels of performance, reliability, and cus-tomer satisfaction. It is an extension of the Six Sigma methodol-ogy, which focuses on improving existing processes and reducing variation in manufacturing and business processes. DFSS is par-ticularly applied during the design phase to ensure that the final product or process meets or exceeds customer expectations and quality standards.

Day-1

0800h Coffee and Crullers; Create Personal “Stickies” 0830h Welcome, Introductions, and Agenda Review

0900h Introductions to Operational Excellence, Design Think ing (DT4OpEx®) and Design For Six-Sigma (DFSS) 1030h Break 1045h Walk “Turning Vision into a Reality” DT4OpEx® Bill board and review the logical elements and their use.

1200h Lunch 1300h Walk “Creating and OpEx Program”. Engage and mod erate DT4OpEx® Billboard 1400h Creating a DT4OpEx® Billboard

1500h Break 1515h The Billboard “7-Step Process”, a guide from start-to f inish for engagements and workshops 1630h Open Discussion

1700h End of Day

Day-2

0800h Coffee and Crullers 0830h Welcome, Introductions, and Agenda Review

0900h Why DFSS and exploring the synergies that exist be tween DT4OpEx® and DFSS

1030h Break 1045h Initiate Project (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, optimize, verify, and launch.

1200h Lunch

1300h Explore and discuss the innovation tools and processes

1400h Present and discus a Case Study

1500h Break 1515h The Synergies of OpEx, DT4OpEx®, and DFSS

1600h Review Stickies 1630h Open Discussion

1700h End of Day

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

C.T. Bauer College of Business, 4250 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Houston, United States