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SixSigma IASSC
The IASSC Certified Lean Practitioner (ICLP) exam validates foundational Lean concepts, workplace tools, quality problem‑solving, and management sustainment, enabling candidates to apply Lean principles across operations.
60
Minutes
50
Questions
70/100
Passing Score
$150
Exam Cost
Who Should Take This
Front‑line supervisors, process engineers, and continuous‑improvement specialists who are new to Lean or seeking formal recognition benefit from this certification. It equips individuals with practical tools to identify waste, resolve quality issues, and sustain improvements, supporting career growth in operational excellence.
What's Covered
1
Lean Foundations
2
Lean Workplace Tools
3
Lean Quality and Problem Solving
4
Lean Management and Sustainment
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats
Course Outline
60 learning goals
1
Lean Foundations
3 topics
Introduction to Lean
- Describe the core definitions, benefits, and principles of Lean methodology and trace its historical evolution from the Toyota Production System to modern Lean applications.
- Explain the five Lean principles (define value, map value stream, create flow, establish pull, seek perfection) and describe how each drives continuous improvement.
- Apply Lean thinking to identify value-added versus non-value-added activities in a process and explain how this distinction drives waste elimination decisions.
- Explain the Gemba philosophy of going to the actual workplace to observe processes firsthand and describe how Gemba walks inform improvement decisions.
- Apply Gemba walk techniques to observe process operations, identify waste and improvement opportunities, and engage with front-line workers to understand process challenges.
- Describe the eight types of waste (DOWNTIME: Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Extra-processing) with workplace examples.
- Apply value stream thinking to distinguish between value-creating steps, necessary non-value-adding steps, and pure waste steps within a multi-step production or service process.
Kaizen and Continuous Improvement
- Describe Kaizen as a continuous improvement strategy where employees work together proactively to achieve regular, incremental improvements in processes.
- Apply Kaizen principles to identify and implement small, incremental improvements that cumulatively produce significant process performance gains.
- Apply the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle to structure iterative improvement activities, test proposed changes, verify results, and standardize successful improvements.
- Develop SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-specific) for Lean improvement initiatives that provide clear direction and measurable success criteria.
- Describe the difference between Kaizen events (focused rapid improvement workshops) and daily Kaizen (small daily improvements by every employee) and explain when each approach is appropriate.
- Apply Kaizen event planning principles to define scope, select team members, prepare data, and establish clear objectives for a focused improvement workshop.
KPIs and Waste Identification
- Describe key performance indicators (KPIs) as metrics designed to track and encourage progress towards critical organizational goals in Lean environments.
- Apply KPI selection criteria to identify meaningful performance metrics that align with organizational objectives and provide actionable insights for improvement.
- Identify the three families of efficiency losses: MUDA (waste), MURA (fluctuation/unevenness), and MURI (overburden/strain) and provide examples of each in operational settings.
- Analyze a process to identify instances of MUDA, MURA, and MURI and prioritize which efficiency losses to address first based on their impact on process performance.
- Describe common Lean KPIs including lead time, cycle time, throughput, first-pass yield, and inventory turns and explain what each metric reveals about process performance.
- Apply waste identification techniques to categorize observed process inefficiencies into the appropriate MUDA, MURA, or MURI category for targeted elimination.
- Analyze KPI trends over time to identify process performance patterns, distinguish between common-cause and special-cause variation, and prioritize improvement actions.
2
Lean Workplace Tools
2 topics
5S and Workplace Organization
- Describe the 5S methodology (sort, set in order, shine, standardize, sustain) and explain how each step contributes to workplace organization and waste reduction.
- Apply 5S implementation steps to organize a workspace by sorting unnecessary items, establishing orderly arrangements, cleaning, creating visual standards, and building sustainment habits.
- Apply standardized work practices to document current best methods, capture task times, and establish work sequence standards that ensure consistent process execution.
- Apply visual management techniques including indicators, displays, color coding, and floor markings to communicate process status and standards without written procedures.
- Describe the purpose of 5S auditing checklists and scoring rubrics that enable objective assessment of workplace organization and sustain gains from 5S implementation.
- Apply 5S audit techniques to evaluate workspace organization, score each S-element, identify gaps, and recommend corrective actions for areas below standard.
- Analyze workplace organization data from 5S audits to identify patterns of backsliding, determine root causes of sustainment failures, and recommend systemic improvements.
Process Flow and Analysis
- Explain bottleneck analysis concepts and describe how identifying the process constraint determines the maximum throughput rate of the entire production system.
- Describe continuous flow principles that minimize buffers and work-in-process inventory between process steps to reduce lead time and improve responsiveness.
- Calculate takt time as the production pace required to meet customer demand and explain how takt time is used to balance workloads and identify capacity gaps.
- Construct value stream maps to visualize the current state of material and information flow, identify waste, and propose future-state improvements.
- Create flow diagrams (swim-lane charts) to visualize cross-functional process steps, handoffs, and responsibilities across departments and roles.
- Construct spaghetti diagrams to map physical movement patterns of people, materials, or information and identify motion waste and layout improvement opportunities.
- Analyze process flow maps to identify bottlenecks, excessive wait times, unnecessary transportation, and redundant handoffs that contribute to lead time and waste.
- Describe short interval control as standardized management rituals that monitor performance at regular intervals to enable rapid response to deviations.
- Apply cycle time analysis to measure and compare actual processing times at each workstation against takt time to identify imbalanced or over-capacity process steps.
- Describe the purpose and structure of process staple charts (work balance charts) that visualize cycle time distribution across process steps relative to takt time.
3
Lean Quality and Problem Solving
2 topics
Jidoka, Andon, and Poka-Yoke
- Describe the Jidoka (zero-defect) principle including autonomation concepts that enable machines to detect abnormalities and stop automatically to prevent defect production.
- Apply Andon visual feedback systems that alert operators and supervisors when assistance is needed, enabling rapid response to production problems.
- Explain poka-yoke (error proofing) design principles that build error detection and prevention into production processes to eliminate defects at the source.
- Apply poka-yoke techniques to design mistake-proofing mechanisms for common error types including missing operations, wrong orientation, and incorrect assembly.
- Analyze a process to identify error-prone steps and recommend appropriate Jidoka, Andon, or poka-yoke interventions to prevent defects and reduce rework.
- Describe the three categories of poka-yoke devices (contact methods, fixed-value methods, and motion-step methods) and identify appropriate applications for each category.
- Apply Andon board design principles to create visual alert systems that display equipment status, production counts, and quality alarms for immediate team awareness.
Root Cause Analysis
- Describe root cause analysis as a systematic problem-solving methodology that drills beyond symptoms to identify the fundamental causes of process problems.
- Construct Ishikawa (fishbone/cause-and-effect) diagrams to organize potential causes of a problem across categories and systematically evaluate each cause.
- Apply the 5 Whys technique to iteratively question why a problem occurs until the fundamental root cause is identified and can be addressed with corrective action.
- Evaluate root cause analysis findings to distinguish between root causes and contributing factors and recommend targeted corrective actions for verified root causes.
- Apply PDCA methodology to implement corrective actions for identified root causes, verify effectiveness, and standardize successful solutions.
- Describe the six M categories (Man, Machine, Method, Material, Measurement, Mother Nature) used in Ishikawa diagrams to systematically classify potential causes of process problems.
- Apply Pareto analysis to rank identified causes by frequency or impact and focus corrective actions on the vital few causes that account for the majority of process problems.
4
Lean Management and Sustainment
2 topics
Standardized Work and Visual Controls
- Describe the purpose and components of standardized work documentation including task sequences, cycle times, and work-in-process inventory limits.
- Apply standardized work documentation to create task instruction sheets that capture the safest, highest-quality, and most efficient method for each process step.
- Describe visual management principles including color coding, floor markings, shadow boards, and status indicators that communicate process information at a glance.
- Apply visual management displays to create performance boards that track daily metrics, highlight abnormal conditions, and communicate improvement progress to all team members.
- Analyze the effectiveness of visual management implementations by evaluating whether visual controls successfully reduce reliance on verbal instructions and written procedures.
PDCA and Improvement Cycles
- Describe the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle as an iterative four-step management method used for continuous improvement of processes and resolution of process problems.
- Apply PDCA to plan a process improvement, implement the change on a small scale, check the results against expected outcomes, and act to standardize or adjust the improvement.
- Apply short interval control principles to establish regular review cadences that monitor process performance and trigger rapid corrective actions when deviations are detected.
- Analyze improvement cycle outcomes to determine whether corrective actions achieved expected results and identify additional improvement opportunities from PDCA iterations.
Scope
Included Topics
- All 21 subject matter topics in the IASSC Certified Lean Practitioner Body of Knowledge at the introductory level.
- Lean foundations: Introduction to Lean (definitions, benefits, principles, history), Gemba (on-site observation philosophy), Kaizen (continuous improvement strategy), KPIs (key performance indicators), MUDA/MURA/MURI (three families of efficiency losses).
- Lean workplace tools: 5S methodology (sort, set in order, shine, standardize, sustain), bottleneck analysis, continuous flow principles, takt time concepts, value stream mapping, flow diagrams (swim lanes), spaghetti diagrams.
- Lean quality tools: Jidoka (zero-defect principle with autonomation), Andon (visual feedback systems), poka-yoke (error proofing), root cause analysis (Ishikawa diagrams, 5 Whys).
- Lean management: standardized work documentation, visual management indicators and displays, short interval control and active supervision, SMART goals, PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) iterative methodology.
Not Covered
- Advanced Lean topics including Just-In-Time, Kanban pull systems, SMED, Heijunka, layout planning, Hoshin Kanri, and change management covered in Lean Leader and Lean Expert certifications.
- Six Sigma statistical methods, hypothesis testing, regression analysis, DOE, and SPC covered in Lean Six Sigma belt certifications.
- Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Six Big Losses, and Kaizen task-force workshops covered in higher Lean certifications.
- Enterprise-wide Lean deployment, stakeholder management, and DMAIC methodology.
Official Exam Page
Learn more at International Association for Six Sigma Certification
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