Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service Business Improvement Academy

The Business Improvement Academy will help you meet the process excellence requirements needed to capitalise on new opportunities (for example, in the energy transition space).

Our Academies represent an innovative new approach that combines business improvement with behavioural change.

The Business Improvement Academy is delivered with a mix of five workshop-based learning days combined with best practice. It also involves on-site project work to support companies wishing to engage in the concept of sustainable continuous improvement – with a focus on combining improvement tools and techniques with behavioural change.

Participants of the Academy will become effective change leaders for their business, capable of delivering sustainable improvement through developing employee engagement and embedding supporting behaviours.

The guiding principles of the academy are:

• Continuous improvement combined with behavioural change – implementing Lean tools and unique skills tailored to the participant’s own business improvement project
• Use of active learning techniques – supported by experienced practitioners
• A focus on sustainable change – embedding learning to deliver future business benefits
• Leadership excellence – practical improvement and embedding of effective leadership skills
• Business excellence – building resilience, capability, capacity resulting in increased productivity and competitiveness
• Engagement – encouraging continuous improvement by engaging with others

With an average project saving of £130k across all SMAS Business Improvement Academy’s, the Academy will deliver an immediate return on investment from improvements arising from your business improvement project.

The Business Improvement Academy is designed to support ambitious and growing businesses that recognise the need to engage with the concept of sustainable continuous improvement by combining improvement tools and techniques with behavioural change.

You should consider attending if you have the ambition to drive significant improvements (both process and behavioural) within your business, but face the following issues:

• Your current rate of change is slower than anticipated
• The appetite for change isn’t quite what it should be, and any process changes achieved so far may have been short lived
• There is also an expectation that any changes won’t be fully supported, with a consequential migration back to previous practices

If this sounds like your business, this is the programme for you.

The Business Improvement Academy will provide you with the tools to embed a culture of business excellence in your company. This will help you to be more productive, competitive and outward looking. In turn, this will ensure you are ready to capitalise on global opportunities such as energy transition.

It will also show how making the most of the skills and talent of your people will enable you to exploit new opportunities and constantly innovate.

This programme is for those who have responsibility for driving change in the business and are keen to secure a higher level of ownership and engagement from their colleagues.

It will also be helpful for those that need to develop and improve their leadership skills and continuous improvement capabilities.

• Sponsor Day - 29th October 2024
• Delegate Day - 30th October 2024
• Delegate Day - 5th November 2024
• Delegate Day - 12th November 2024
• Delegate Day - 19th November 2024
• Delegate Day - 26th November 2024
• Best Practice Visit - 3rd December 2024
• Onsite Coaching - (3 half day sessions) - TBC
• Presentation Day - 25 February 2024

Please note that the sponsoring business leaders will be required to attend:

• A half-day Sponsors Session on 29 October 2024, in order to fully understand their role in supporting their delegates back in the workplace as they implement change
• The final delegate presentation day on 25 February 2025

The Business Improvement Academy is open to applications from businesses with aspirations for growth.

An initial meeting will ensure the Academy is the best option to meet your current business needs – please contact Ashley Gibson at [email protected] for more information.

The cost is £1000 (excluding VAT) for a small-to-midsize enterprise (SME) and £1250 (excluding VAT) for a non-SME per delegate paid in advance by credit card.

The programme will be held at ETZ Ltd, Hareness Road W-Zero-1 Collaboration Space Aberdeen AB12 3LE.

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Host or Publisher Scottish Enterprise