The content of this MBA course was the challenging analysis and optimization of business processes using Lean Six Sigma, a concept which is based, among other things, on statistical requirements. The ZEBS lecturer in this course was a professor also working for the well-known management consultancy Horváth and Partners.

Process thinking and process optimization as basic principles of an effective economical orientation are nowadays indispensable elements of every modern business management that is meant to survive in the national and international competition.  
Especially during the period of growth of a company -  primarily in big companies -   it can be observed that the business processes lose efficiency. 

The course was well structured and offered a perfect degree of diversification between theory, practical experiences and team work. After a short introduction into business process management the single phases of the DMAIC procedure model and the introduction of Sigma XL were succeeded to acquire and statistically control the process optimization with Lean Six Sigma. The individual tools in each phase (SIPOC, Ishikawa diagram, Box-Plot-Analysis) were worked out in teams on the basis of practical examples. This helped to achieve an improved understanding.

These small elaborations and the presentation of the results were followed by a simulation game, where the acquired knowledge could be turned into practice. The basic business process contained the individual phases and all parties got involved in the credit-application-event. Each student took over a part of this banking process. Afterwards the process was analyzed in teams and an optimization based on the model was elaborated. These optimizations were tested and evaluated.

Subsequently each group analyzed the process of Frankfurt Airport starting with the arrival of the passengers until the point of departure. The challenge was to enhance the sales of the duty-free shops. As usual, the different team results were realistically presented.

Despite its complexity the course can be described as being more than successful due to its perfect combination of theory and practical experiences.

Christoph – IMP student