Get Productiv Academy: Standardizing Work Across a Growing Footprint

Over a decade ago, Productiv was founded on using lean principles to maximize throughput and quality in packaging and fulfillment operations. Now, as we expand our footprint, we are taking another step closer to standardizing work in our 11 strategic and client embed sites with a new in-house training program called ‘Get Productiv Academy’ or GP Academy, for short.

The Academy Curriculum - Lean Principles, Leadership, and More

The goal of the Academy is two-fold:

• Standardize work among all our facilities to ‘The Productiv Way’ incorporating lean principles, aligned incentives and servant leadership
• Develop leaders who will grow with us as we expand

The Academy will ultimately include multiple courses that build on each other. The modules include:

• Lean Production Principles
• Advanced Production & Assembly
• Warehouse Operations
• Program Administration
• Leading Teams

The first course, Lean Production Principles, is a 7-week self-guided online course. All Productiv Site Managers have completed the course so they can be trainers for their sites. This initial training module was designed for new Supervisors and Line Leads to teach them how to implement lean principles when setting up a production line for single piece flow, line balance and first pass quality. Val Tunnell, Regional Operations Manager, designed the Academy curriculum with input from other Productiv operations and engineering leaders. As a Productiv Operations leader and former US Marine Corps drill instructor, Val is uniquely qualified to lead the Academy. He notes, “we were training our Leads and Supervisors on-the-job. When you have just a few sites, it’s easy to spread the expertise. Now that we’ve expanded across 11 sites, the Academy allows us to deliver training and standardize work more consistently, and test for understanding along the way.”Academy participants receive recognition for completing courses, but more importantly share in our gainshare program for putting their learnings into action by achieving KPIs with their teams for throughput and quality.

Managers and Supervisors in Dallas, Charlotte and Chicago give final input on the ‘Lean Production Principles’ module of GP Academy.