Services

Summary of Services

James F. Leonard is a semi-retired consultant who specializes in teaching the principles of the late Dr. W. Edwards Deming as a new system of management. He has maintained his own consulting practice for the past 33 years, serves as a Senior Consultant for Quality Support Group in Westford, MA, and for 29 years taught his seminars through the Division of Corporate and Professional Education at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA, where he also served as an Adjunct Professor of graduate Operations and Industrial Engineering. Jim has worked with clients in health care, consumer products, medical devices, transportation, electronics, biotech, tool and die, chemicals, and other manufacturing and service industries. He has also worked with government agencies and academic institutions.

Seminars and Workshops

Jim provides dynamic one- and two-day seminars and workshops on the following topics:

• Executive Overview: The Science of Leadership
  (available in two-day, full-day, half-day and two hour formats)
• Transformational Leadership: Applying Deming’s Principles and Process Improvement Techniques for Success in the New Economic Age
• The Team Process for Process Improvement Project Teams
• Process Improvement Tools & Concepts
• Essential Statistical Methods: Statistical Process Control (SPC) Techniques & Concepts
• Advanced Problem Solving: A Systematic Approach to Root Cause Analysis
• Introduction to Design of Experiments (DOE)
• Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
• Introduction to Advanced Design of Experiments
• Train the Trainer

Consulting Services

In addition to teaching, Jim also provides application consulting services to his clients. Those services include:

• Assisting senior executives and administrators in strategic planning for continuous improvement
• Meeting with individuals and teams regarding leadership issues and statistical techniques
• Helping leaders to select and assign process improvement projects and teams
• Coaching managers and teams in the application of Deming’s principles and statistical methods
• "Data clinics" to guide statistical analysis of process and experimental data
• Serving as a facilitator for teams applying root cause analysis, FMEA and DOE 

Process Improvement Certificate Program

Program Description

The courses listed below and found in the “Seminars” link on the home page comprise the learning portion of a formal Process Improvement or Six Sigma Certificate Program. Up to six seminars are presented over a three- to four-month period. (Depending on their past training and their needs, clients may choose to schedule as few as four of the seminars shown below.) Between each seminar, teams of participants apply the concepts and techniques to process improvement projects selected and assigned by management.

Prior to each seminar in the schedule, the teams must submit certain deliverables to demonstrate progress on their projects. To earn the certificate, participants must not only attend and successfully complete the seminars; they must also successfully complete their projects.