Operational excellence

Why train managers in operational performance?

Because a site’s performance is decided at first-line supervision. A team leader who can run a team, measure and solve problems methodically does more for output, quality and safety than new equipment that nobody uses well.

The requests we receive tend to look alike. A fish cannery in Safi has to absorb its peak season with crews reinforced by seasonal workers. A packaging printer near Kenitra sees scrap rising and cannot say which line, shift or material is to blame. A cold store in the Tanger Med area must meet picking lead times set by European customers. An industrial group in Casablanca runs three projects at once without a trained project manager. The same pattern is common in agri-food plants in West Africa and in distribution centres across the Middle East.

In each case the technical skills are there. What is missing is a shared method: a common way to frame a problem, measure it, decide and follow up. This training domain exists to install that method, from the frontline supervisor to the executive committee.

ACG’s founder, Dr Ismail Idrissi, is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. The courses in this domain are designed by consultants who use these methods on client assignments in manufacturing, logistics and services across Morocco and Africa.

What does the Management and Operational Performance domain cover?

Eight families of courses, from managerial behaviour to statistical methods. Each targets a specific audience and a change you can observe on the shop floor.

In the 2027 training catalogue, these topics are spread across the operational excellence, soft skills and logistics domains. The main courses, with their catalogue duration:

The Lean Six Sigma programme is led by a Black Belt; Afflatus Belts are validated on a project with quantified gains and recorded in the participant’s training passport.

Quality-system tools (8D, FMEA, SPC, 5S) sit in the ISO standards and management systems domain. The two domains work together: one equips the management system, the other equips performance.

Yellow, Green or Black Belt: which Lean Six Sigma level?

Choose the level by the role a person will play in projects, not by seniority. A Yellow Belt contributes to a project, a Green Belt leads one, and a Black Belt leads complex cross-functional projects and coaches others.

There is no single standard for Belt levels; several bodies publish their own body of knowledge. The IASSC (International Association for Six Sigma Certification) publishes its own openly, and we use it as a reference point for the content of each level.

Three clarifications prevent most misunderstandings:

1. Training is not certification. ACG issues a certificate of training; the Afflatus Belt certification in the 2027 catalogue is earned on a project with quantified gains. A third-party Belt certification requires an exam run by that body under its own rules. ACG does not claim IASSC or ASQ accreditation.
2. The project matters as much as the course. IASSC recommends real project experience on top of training. A Green Belt without a project soon forgets the tools.
3. The right mix depends on site maturity. Training ten Black Belts in a company that has never run a structured project achieves little. Start with Yellow Belts and a few Green Belts, then let project leaders emerge.

How does Lean Six Sigma training deliver measurable results?

By starting from a real problem, quantified at the outset, and measuring the same indicator at the end. The course supplies the method; the project supplies the evidence.

Take a packaging printer whose scrap rate on one press is drifting. In an in-house Green Belt group, the participant defines the problem and its scope, first checks that the measurement system can be trusted, collects data by shift and by material, identifies the significant causes, tests a solution and puts a control plan in place. Between sessions they work on their own line; at each session they report progress. At the end, management sees a before-and-after indicator, not an attendance sheet.

The same logic applies to a warehouse cutting picking errors or a cannery stabilising can fill weights. Lean often comes first: map the flow, find the waiting and the work-in-progress, standardise the workstation, organise 5S.

Before enrolling someone on a Green Belt course

• The problem is real, recurring and measurable.
  
• A baseline indicator exists or can be measured quickly.
  
• A management sponsor is named and will follow progress.
  
• The participant has time for the project between sessions.
  
• The data needed is accessible (production, quality, maintenance).
  
• The scope is limited to what the participant can actually influence.
  
• A final presentation to management is scheduled.
  

How do you train a frontline manager to hold performance and safety?

By working on the situations they face every day: the start-of-shift meeting, the instruction, the deviation, the difficult conversation, welcoming a new starter, escalating an incident. The frontline manager links management and the shop floor; if they cannot lead a team, no method reaches the workstation.

The course covers the manager’s role and stance, communication and listening, delegation, conflict handling, simple visual indicators on the team board, and the manager’s part in safety and quality. Most of it is role-play built from cases on your own site.

For supervisors who lead large teams, we recommend a cycle: spaced modules with work to complete between sessions. The frontline manager cycle (clear instructions, delegation, difficult feedback, conflict, motivation: 5 modules, 5 days) is one of the 12 paths of the 2027 catalogue: see custom programmes and learning paths. Site supervision on construction projects sits in the construction site management domain.

Leadership, time management and communication

These topics apply at every management level. Leadership covers direction, cascading objectives and leading change. Time management covers priorities, weekly planning and protecting time for deep work. Communication covers public speaking, business writing, running meetings and working with foreign customers and partners, a daily reality for exporters.

Project management, logistics and supply chain: which skills to build?

The skills that keep a deadline, a budget and a service level. They are organisational skills, often assumed and rarely taught.

Project management covers scoping (objectives, scope, stakeholders), planning, risk management, progress tracking and closure with lessons learned. It applies to an industrial project, a line start-up or a certification project alike: an ISO 9001:2026 or FSSC 22000 Version 7 project is run like any other project, with a project lead, a plan and a steering committee.

Logistics and supply chain cover inventory and procurement, warehouse organisation, order picking, transport, planning and service indicators. They matter most to exporters, distribution platforms and temperature-controlled warehouses, where a flow error ends up as a customer claim.

How are courses in this domain delivered?

In three formats, in French, Arabic or English, with preparation, assessment and follow-up after the course.

• In-house: a group from your company, a programme adjusted to your procedures and cases, on or near your site. This is the preferred format for Green and Black Belts with a live project.
• Open enrolment: participants from several companies, useful for one or two people and for learning from other sectors.
• Online: virtual classrooms and e-learning modules on OmniLearn, the learning platform built by Solvitas, ACG’s start-up studio.

Spanish and Portuguese are available on request. Every session follows the same sequence: placement test, invitations, attendance, knowledge test, end-of-course evaluation, certificate and report. After the course, the CourseTwin AI tutor extends learning on the course content. The full sequence is described in before, during and after training.

How can these courses be funded in Morocco?

By entering them in the training plan before they take place. Courses in this domain may qualify for OFPPT special training contracts (CSF), whose reference rules are:

• 70% for planned training delivered by an external provider;
• 40% for unplanned training;
• for in-house training, the same rates (70% planned, 40% unplanned) applied to a retained cost of MAD 800 per day per participant;
• a ceiling based on the vocational training tax (TFP) declared by the company.

These rules come from the CSF procedures manual of May 2006 and its Amendment No. 2 of 2 June 2014: rates apply to costs excluding tax, and only in-person training qualifies, not virtual classrooms.

The needs analysis and training plan that come first may qualify for GIAC funding. Under the GIAC procedures manual (March 2003, Amendment No. 1 of 2 June 2014), the reference rule is 70% of the engineering cost excluding tax, 80% when it follows a strategy study approved by the GIAC, up to MAD 100,000 of reimbursement per year per company. Confirm the conditions and procedure with your sector’s GIAC before starting the study.

A rate is not an amount. ACG is CSF-eligible: we apply the rule, cite the source, simulate the reimbursement on your data and prepare the file, but only OFPPT sets the amount reimbursed. The simulator and method are on our CSF and OFPPT funding page. Outside Morocco, funding depends on local schemes and is reviewed case by case.

What does ACG do for your teams’ performance?

ACG links training to consulting: the methods we teach are the ones our consultants apply on assignments. The firm is ISO 9001 certified for its consulting and training activities, has trained more than 120,000 people and delivered 502 projects with 32 consultants and experts.

• Needs analysis for management and performance skills, by function and by job.
• In-house and open-enrolment courses, from Yellow Belt to Black Belt, from frontline supervisor to executive committee.
• Coaching of live projects through to the results presentation.
• CSF and GIAC files for the courses selected.

When performance runs through the management system, see also QHSE and ISO management systems, ISO 9001 certification and outsourced QHSE. For the full offer, browse our training catalogue, then describe your project.