WHY TAKE THIS COURSE AT BBS?
For you:
- Learn to map office processes.
- Gain Lean, digital and Artificial Intelligence tools to improve productivity, workflows and internal collaboration.
- Learn to use apps and collaborative platforms effectively.
- Learn to distinguish between and use the three levels of AI application in business: conversational prompting, automation and AI agents, and agentic loops.
For your company:
- Improve the efficiency, profitability and quality of management and information processes.
- Develop an operational roadmap to digitalise, automate and safely delegate repetitive work to AI agents.
- Reduce the risks associated with AI adoption through governance, security and compliance with the AI Act (EU Regulation 2024/1689).
The Lean & AI Digital Office Open Program offers a practical opportunity to improve the efficiency of management processes, reduce costs and increase profitability and cash flow, while enhancing the company’s information flows and decision-making processes.
This Open Program is designed for professionals and managers who want to improve productivity and streamline their organisations by combining the Lean Office approach with advanced digital tools and generative and agentic Artificial Intelligence. It is aimed at entrepreneurs, plant managers, business and organisational managers, operations managers, team leaders, project managers and supervisors.
The programme begins with process mapping and the identification of common sources of waste in office activities, before guiding participants through a conceptual shift: from simple conversational prompting to delegating processes to AI, through automation loops and autonomous agents.
Participants will be guided through a practical learning journey to:
The programme offers practical tools that can be applied immediately, facilitating the transition from theory to practice in any business setting.
- The Lean & AI Digital Office Open Program is the ideal choice for those who want to make their company more agile, efficient and competitive, fully harnessing the combination of Lean culture, digital innovation and Artificial Intelligence. map processes and identify critical issues,
- analyse Non-Value-Added (NVA) activities that create no value for either the customer or the business,
- apply digital tools and AI to improve office efficiency,
- define indicators and metrics to measure the benefits of improvement initiatives.
- build automated workflows for repetitive tasks
The programme concludes with the development of an operational roadmap for applying Lean & AI Digital Office principles within participants’ own organisations, with implementation in the workplace recommended.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Learn to analyse and map organisational processes.
- Identify and reduce waste and inefficiencies in office activities.
- Optimise workflows using the Lean Office methodology and its tools.
- Understand when to use a prompt, an automation loop or an agent, and assess the costs and returns of each option.
- Design an automated workflow incorporating iterations, error handling and human approvals.
- Configure an AI agent for a real office process, using company data through retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and security boundaries compliant with the AI Act.
- Build a working prototype based on a business case from your own organisation.
ACCREDITATIONS AND RANKING
Bologna Business School is EQUIS – EFMD Quality Improvement System accredited, one of the most important international quality assessment and continuous improvement systems for Schools of Management and Business Administration.
Bologna Business School’s Open Programs are included in the Financial Times Ranking, Executive Education category, 2026.
Roberta Nonni
Executive Director
roberta.nonni@faentia.com
"The Lean Digital Office Open Program aims to build awareness of methods typically applied to process and production environments, which—when viewed through the lens of managing office workflows—can deliver remarkable results in terms of efficiency, potential savings, and greater operational effectiveness.
Lean Digital Office is knowledge, discovery, efficiency, and inclusion."
Claudio Zanelli
Academic Director
claudio.zanelli@faentia.com
"Waste is not found only in production processes, but also in offices. The Lean Digital Office represents a concrete opportunity to increase the efficiency of management processes and optimize information flows within office environments by reducing activities that do not create value but consume significant energy. This Open Program is designed for professionals and managers who want to enhance productivity and streamline operations by integrating the Lean approach with advanced digital tools."
Structure
The programme is structured as follows: a half-day introductory online session and two residential sessions held on Fridays and Saturdays.
The programme covers 4 modules:
- Introduction to Lean & AI Digital Office
- Process optimisation
- Digital tools and AI for Lean Office
- Lean & AI Digital Office roadmap
Schedule
23 January 2027, 9.15–13.15, online
29 January 2027, 9.15 – 17.45, on campus
30 January 2027, 9.15 – 13.15, on campus
19 February 2027, 9.15 – 17.45, on campus
20 February 2027, 9.15 – 13.15, on campus
COURSES
- The benefits of Lean & AI Digital Office and Lean Thinking applied to office environments;
- Techniques and tools for end-to-end process mapping;
- Identifying critical issues and inefficiencies in office environments;
- Techniques for identifying and analysing bottlenecks;
- How to identify NON-value-added activities and waste (Muda) in processes;
- Impact analysis and prioritisation of actions to reduce waste;
- Lean tools for workflow optimisation: 5S, Standard Work, Visual Management.
- Defining KPIs and metrics to monitor improvement initiatives;
- Pursuing efficiency: optimising communication flows within the company (emails, meetings, etc.);
- How to implement Lean & AI Digital Office in your company?
- Business data coding and architecture (Data Driven);
- Automating and optimising repetitive tasks;
- Microsoft 365, apps and collaborative platforms for teamwork;
- Risk analysis.
- AI Act (EU Regulation 2024/1689): applications and obligations;
- Agent security and governance;
- Anatomy of a workflow: triggers, actions, conditions and loops;
- Tools: comparing n8n, Make and Zapier;
- Guided exercise: building an autonomous workflow together;
- RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation): demo with NotebookLM and Projects in Claude and ChatGPT
- Roadmap and implementation stages of a Lean & AI Digital Office project;
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) and connectors: the standard that enables agents to connect to business management software, CRM systems, calendars, shared folders and enterprise systems;
- Overview of ready-to-use agentic tools;
- A 5-step method for designing a new agent;
- Developing a practical case based on participants’ processes;
- Ready-to-use AI applications to optimise business processes.
Learning approach
- Lectures and workshops based on participants’ practical cases
- Case studies on the application of Lean & AI Digital Office
- Guided exercises: building automated workflows and AI agents in class
- Facilitation and support in developing a company implementation plan
Faculty
Faculty members at Bologna Business School work together offering outstanding teaching standards. An international and interdisciplinary approach is guaranteed by a joint team of distinguished national core professors, adjunct, visiting professors, guest speakers and top managers.
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Claudio Zanelli
Industrial Advisor & Innovation Manager
Faentia Group
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Silvia Todde
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Emanuele Borasio
Science Communicator
Networking
Networking takes place among the students of the same class, between participants and faculty, and also with students from other programs or previous editions of the same course.
COMPANIES
Over the years, our partners have been consistently involved in the various activities that make up the structure of our programs. Companies within our network take part in project work and master classes; they actively contribute by introducing guest speakers and organizing company visits.
Our partners are our strongest supporters: they sponsor various scholarships, host student internships, and provide professional opportunities for graduates.
The partner companies of Bologna Business School are:
AEROPORTO G. MARCONI ASSICOOP BOLOGNA METROPOLITANA AUTOMOBILI LAMBORGHINI BOLOGNA FIERE BREVINI POWER TRANSMISSION CAMERA DI COMMERCIO DI BOLOGNA CAMERA DI COMMERCIO DI FERRARA CAMERA DI COMMERCIO DI FORLÌ-CESENA CAMERA DI COMMERCIO DI MODENA CAMERA DI COMMERCIO DI RIMINI CAMST CARPIGIANI GROUP CASSA DI RISPARMIO IN BOLOGNA CONFCOMMERCIO EMILIA ROMAGNA CONFINDUSTRIA EMILIA ROMAGNA COSWELL DATALOGIC DUCATI MOTOR HOLDING ENEL ENGINEERING INGEGNERIA INFORMATICA EXPERT SYSTEM FALORNI FASTWEB FERRARELLE FERRARI FERRETTI GROUP FINALMA FONDAZIONE CARISBO FONDAZIONE CASSA RISPARMIO CESENA FONDAZIONE CASSA RISPARMIO DI CENTO FONDAZIONE CASSA RISPARMIO DI IMOLA FONDAZIONE CASSA DI RISPARMIO DI CARPI FONDAZIONE CASSA DI RISPARMIO DI FERRARA FONDAZIONE CASSA DI RISPARMIO DI PADOVA E ROVIGO FONDAZIONE G. MARCONI FONDAZIONE IBM ITALIA FONDAZIONE ISABELLA SERÀGNOLI FONDAZIONE DEL MONTE DI BOLOGNA E RAVENNA FONDAZIONE PER LA COLLABORAZIONE TRA I POPOLI FOOD TREND FOUNDATION FURLA GOOGLE ITALIA GRANAROLO GROUPM GRUPPO COESIA GRUPPO SISTEMA H-ART HSPI HAWORTH HERA HORSA IBM ITALIA IMA ICONSULTING INTESA SAN PAOLO KPMG ADVISORY LABORATORI GUGLIELMO MARCONI LANDI RENZO LEGACOOP BOLOGNA LIGHTHOUSE MANUTENCOOP MAPE MAPS MASAI ITALIA MASERATI MICROSOFT ITALIA MONTENEGRO N.C.H. NUOVI CANTIERI APUANIA OLIDATA ONIT GROUP OPERA SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE PHILIP MORRIS ITALIA POLTRONESOFÀ REGIONE EMILIA-ROMAGNA RICOH S.E.C.I. GRUPPO INDUSTRIALE MACCAFERRI SAP SCS CONSULTING STMICROELECTRONICS SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC SEPS TECHNOGYM TEUCO THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP TOYOTA MATERIAL HANDLING ITALIA TREVI GROUP UMBERTO CESARI UNICREDIT UNIEURO UNINDUSTRIA BOLOGNA UNIPOL VEM SISTEMI VERONESI VIABIZZUNO VIDEOWORKS VOLVO CAR ITALIA WPP ITALIA YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP
FEES
The enrollment fee for the course is:
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€2,500 (+ VAT) for registrations from companies and institutions
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€2,000 (+ VAT) for individual registrations
Discounted rates are available for early registrations.
The fee includes attendance of the program, all study materials available through the online platform, and access to Bologna Business School services, which include: a personal Alma Wi-Fi account and use of the study areas.
The following discounts are available:
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for early registrations;
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for companies belonging to the Business Network;
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for Alma/BBS and Profingest Alumni;
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for groups of at least three participants.
INTERPROFESSIONAL FUNDS
Alumni and companies can check voucher availability with their relevant Interprofessional Training Fund, including:
Fondimpresa – for middle managers
Fonditalia
Fondirigenti – for executives
Fon.Coop – for cooperative enterprises
REQUIREMENTS
The course is limited to a maximum of 20–25 participants.
APPLICATION PROCESS
To enroll, you must request the registration form by sending an email to openprograms@bbs.unibo.it.
FAQs
The majority of participants have degrees. A quota of applicants who do not hold a three year degree and with a minimum 8 years of professional experience can be admitted, up to 20%.
The documents used in the classroom and any further reading or exercises will be uploaded to our platform, whose credentials will be delivered in the classroom.
Should a group of colleagues wish to participate in the program, it is possible to contact the Program Manager to evaluate an ad hoc participation price.
Yes, there is a certificate upon successful completion of all courses, the final examination and 70% attendance. The certificate will attest to successful completion of the courses and will award 60 university credits (CFU).
CONTACT US
DOWNLOAD BROCHURE
Book an appointment
Telefono: 0512090129
Email: elisa.lorenzi@bbs.unibo.it
