Various Levels Of Six Sigma Certification

Six Sigma is a methodological strategy by which errors in a company's current processes and plans are identified and strategies to rectify the same are formulated. It is fact-based technique, involving a lot of data handling, which provides scientific results for cost cutting and reduction in waste of resources. Today, many organizations, large and small scale, are applying Six Sigma to ensure improved, faster and cheaper services to their consumers without compromising on the quality quotient.

Various Levels

Implementation of Six Sigma requires professionals who have been trained in the program and have had exposure to practically applying the concepts in different organizations across industries to know how to go about its application on the job. There is a Six Sigma certification program that has to be undertaken for gaining knowledge about this particular quality measurement practice. Six Sigma certification is similar to other professional courses in that after having cleared specified guidelines and followed the required procedure, individuals are certified as capable of employing the gained knowledge in their respective field. There are several stages of the program and with each qualifying level, certain tests that have to be cleared. These levels are labeled in the same manner as a martial arts certification grade. There are various belts such as green belt, black belt and master black belt awarded to professionals who complete corresponding stages of the course.

Green Belt

The first level is completed when an individual finishes two weeks of training and passes the qualifying exam. This level is termed Green Belt, which teaches all the essential methodologies. The curriculum for the Green Belt involves DMAIC, which stands for five interrelated phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. It defines customers, their needs, recommended products and services, the assignment limits and plotting process flow to improve current methods. It measures performance by developing and collecting data from numerous sources and scrutinizing it for flaws by comparing it with surveys. The Analyzing phase bridges the rift between present methods and targeted results. Improving stage works out various solutions to redefine the earlier processes and deploys implementation plans. The Control stage teaches how to maintain the new changes that have been introduced and maintain the documentation and contemporary systems in accordance with the goals.

Black Belt

The Black Belt is awarded to a professional who completes four weeks of training, which involves Green Belt curriculum as well. This phase's curriculum covers Green Belt subject matter as well. Black belt certified personnel usually train other Six Sigma aspirants and Green Belt holders, and in the process improve their abilities and skills as well. The Black Belt level enables individuals to master the Six Sigma roadmaps, extensive arithmetical methodologies and cross-functional process improvement. Black belts usually take up responsibility as Six Sigma team leads.

Master Black Belt

A person who has undertaken more than the required four weeks training and implements it in an organization as a Six Sigma program manager is awarded the Master Black Belt. These personnel are responsible for imparting knowledge to help Green Belt level and Black Belt level learners in improvising on their projects. They apply their skills in an organization by coaching other employees and helping them achieve the Green Belt and Black Belt certification without the company having to spend on training separately.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sixsigmaonline.org">six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Six Sigma Training - An Overview

The unbelievable results achieved by the pioneers of the Six Sigma management methodology and implementation were not realized overnight. Concerted efforts of by the entire organization and unwavering support by top management over a long period of time are what it takes to see results. The employees of an organization, through specialized Six Sigma training, play key roles through 6 sigma implementation. The key players in 6 sigma implementation not only need specialized Six Sigma training, they also need a different mindset and dedication to the process.

Six Sigma Training - What Is It?

Six Sigma training is available from various institutes certified to provide the training using either offline or online delivery methods. Six Sigma training is aimed at providing comprehensive and rational methodology and techniques. Six Sigma training courses normally cover process improvement techniques as stepping stones for students and lead to either green belt or black belt certifications.

Six Sigma training course fees normally vary from $450 for a one-day course, up to $6000 for a two-week lean 6 Sigma program. The Champion's Leadership Program is conducted onsite only. Still, there are some other institutes that combine the black belt and green belt Six Sigma Training into what is known as the 2+2 format. Attending this dual Six Sigma training helps improve internal company synergy in addition to giving the organization greater flexibility.

What Do Six Sigma Training Courses Cover?

Six Sigma training courses leading to certifications in green belt and black belt are usually designed to cover one module at a time. One such module is the control module, for example. The Six Sigma training course places emphasis on the statistical aspects of process capabilities and process control.

Objectives Of Six Sigma Training

In brief, Six Sigma training introduces students to both the DMAIC and DMADV methodologies. The core concepts of these techniques, quality standards, charts, plans and analytical techniques are also covered in the course.

Who Is Eligible To Take The Six Sigma Training Course?

Any member of an organization who is a manager, technician, operator, teacher or engineer, regardless of where he or she is working, can take a Six Sigma training course. Employees may work in industries such as education, IT, and government, provided they have demonstrated an aptitude for learning complex DMAIC techniques.

Up The Rung Six Sigma Training

Master Black Belt and Champion Six Sigma training is utilized for producing coordinators and decision-makers who will play key roles in the implementation and success of Six Sigma across the organization. The focus of the Six Sigma training will be to prepare Champions to identify the elements of critical business processes. Students will, upon certification, be able to bring about the changes necessary to their organizations both during and after the implementation of 6 sigma. Unlike the Green Belt and Black Belt trainees, who are required to devote 75% of their time for Six Sigma implementation, Master Black Belts and Champions dedicate 100% of their time to successful implementation of the program.

What these Six Sigma Training courses don't teach you are not taught anywhere else, either. Future vision, ability to lead, and the skills to motivate the organization also must be mastered in addition to the formal Six Sigma training process.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts

Six Sigma Black Belts - What should they know?

Six Sigma Black Belts are fourth in the chain of personnel that play a key role in six sigma implementation. Six Sigma Black Belts form the critical link between the Master Black Belts who are higher up the chain and the Green Belts, lower in the chain. Six Sigma Black Belts need to devote 100% of their time to the implementation, with their primary focus on execution. Six Sigma Black Belts dealing mainly with day to day activities rather than generalities of the program. The role of Six Sigma Black Belts as frontline executives of the program is critical to the success of the organization.

Although Six Sigma demands high value personnel, not all of them are equally trained or talented. While causes for this disparity often causes loss of time and resources, it is important to implement standardization on what they should know as Six Sigma Black Belts, because they are essential for the fulfillment of program objectives. Here are the fundamental things Six Sigma Black Belts are expected to know:

Comprehensive Knowledge Of DMAIC Processes:

A Six Sigma Black Belt is expected to know the five basic principles of Six Sigma methodology as described by DMAIC. A deeper understanding of these five principles, to the core, is essential as a first step. The acronym DMAIC stands for defining the process, measuring the current process baseline, analyzing causality factors, improving the process by optimization and finally controlling the process flow and transition to production.

Thorough Knowledge Of Processes:

A thorough understanding of the processes, acquired by having worked on them as a full- time employee, is essential. The Six Sigma Black Belt should have substantial knowledge with hands on experience as the basis for identifying problem areas. Technical skills and active involvement in day to day activities are also paramount.

Familiarity With Tools And Techniques:

The implementation of Six Sigma methodologies is made possible through the use of various tools and techniques of measurement that help the decision making process. Familiarity with technical statistical tools is a must for Six Sigma Black Belts for effective 6 sigma implementation. Although formal training in statistics and analysis is not essential, Six Sigma Black Belts are expected to pick up this subject with relative ease.

Ability To Formulate Projects & Plans:

A Six Sigma Black Belt should able to make business plans and execute them in order to make sure that defined goals are achieved. Along the way, Six Sigma Black Belts are responsible for measurement of progress and the ability to articulate them in meaningful terms. Six Sigma Black Belts are expected to control the course of 6 sigma implementation for maximum gains.

Knowledge Of Customer Base:

A Six Sigma Black Belt should be aware of the roles of each key person and be independently able to devise, test and conduct customer surveys. He/she should also know how to interpret and validate the results, identify differences, and report and incorporate the results of the survey.

Role of Six Sigma Black Belts

Six Sigma Black Belts play the role of change agent. Their role is a position of leadership. They must possess the sharpest business acumen, strong communication skills, customer advocacy knowledge, leadership qualities, technical aptitude and most of all, patience.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Six Sigma can Improve Government Practices

Government bodies at any level, local, state, and Federal, can implement Six Sigma to improve customer service and increase the effectiveness of government. Although Six Sigma has its roots in private-sector manufacturing, it works just as effectively in governmental organizations and government will reap the same benefits as corporations.

Many top companies have produced outstanding results with Six Sigma, dramatically cutting costs, increasing profits, and improving customer service. Governments arent looking for profits, but they still have motivation to reduce their costs and reduce the inefficiency and waste that causes cost overruns. The reduction of variation and defects within processes is the goal of Six Sigma and that goal is just as valid in government as in any other industry.

Any government institution is a service organization and its customers are the citizens it serves. Like a private sector service business, a government benefits when it learns how to serve their customers better by increasing quality and efficiency. In any service organization, the critical factors in quality and efficiency are the flow of information and interaction between people, especially interactions with customers. Transforming the process of these flows will yield quality results. At the heart of every service business are the opinions, behaviors and decisions made by people. Analyzing and modifying human performance in service environments is as complex as any manufacturing situation. Six Sigma achieves documented bottom-line strategic business results by initiating an organization-wide culture shift.

The governmental institution must understand that it needs to redesign its processes from the ground up to be as efficient as Six Sigma enables. No more business as usual. Until a process focusrather than a task focusis developed, the scope and endurance of improvements will be limited. Analyzing and modifying human performance in these environments is complex, but Six Sigma provides the tools and methodology required to achieve significant long-term improvements.

Six Sigma will help government operations groups, such as public works, law enforcement, and sanitation improve their processes to deliver services more efficiently. It will help departments that handle transactions, such as finance, libraries, and human resources, improve their processes to reduce waste and save money. It will help relationships with contractors and assure that contractors apply best practices to their own programs. Six Sigma will also instill a new attitude of efficiency and responsibility from governmental employees. The organization-wide culture shift comes from Six Sigmas recognition of meeting the needs of customers and the value of lower-defect business processes.

Six Sigma is still new to government. Fort Wayne, Indiana may be the first City in the country to implement Six Sigma. The City of Fort Wayne is using Six Sigma to initiate improvements in a number of different departments, including fire, community development, water pollution control, right of way, human resources, street, transportation engineering services and solid waste. Six Sigma has decreased costs, improved customer service and increased productivity throughout city government. Projects have resulted in over $3 million of savings or cost avoidance for the City.

The use of Six Sigma demonstrates a governments commitment to innovation and continuous improvement. Leaders in government will find many benefits to adopting Six Sigma methodologies and training their employees in Six Sigma.
Peter Peterka is President of Six Sigma.us and has over 15 years experience including implementation of Six Sigma in Government with a variety of organizations. For additional information please contact Peter Peterka at 6Sigma.us
 

Six Sigma Theory of

Six Sigma is a management methodology for accuracy in manufacturing, etc. to make sure things are done right the first time and with that comes increases of economies of scale-fewer returns, etc. Such processes are especially important in Military, Health Care, manufacturing, transportation and computer industries.

When every thing is right with fewer returns, less time is spent fixing your mistakes, thus higher profits. Some of this could be classified as Micro-management of little details which goes against the theories of Fly by the seat of your pants, entrepreneurs, yet when working on lower margins in low cost high volume matured industry sectors, if you cannot do it the Six Sigma way, you will be passed and put out of business by someone who is.

So I would say to those in any industry that the devil is in the details and Six Sigma is worth a read. You should start with Jack Welch's Biography and then go pick up a Six Sigma management book, yes you should be aware of this. I would also recommend that entrepreneurs also respect those resumes, which contain Six Sigma Black Belt in them. Although as I study this stuff I can tell you that you still need an entrepreneur and visionary out front and most are from the gut and few can do both.

So companies should be careful if they are looking for a problem solver or General Patton hard charger when you have a perfection systems guy of Six Sigma, most likely they are NOT the same animal and many times they will not even get along personally. Just make sure there is mutual respect and admiration for each of the others abilities. Too often Sign Sigma's think they know it all and forget the reality of the market or the customer. The sales teams or counter person is gold for information. Six Sigma black belts or whatever cool titles they give them now a days need to be full spectrum to work. Consider this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington