Selecting a Six Sigma or a Lean Six Sigma Certification Program: “Questions to Answer” and Webinar

When selecting a Six Sigma or a lean Six Sigma certification program, several questions need to be addressed. In addition to the following discussion, the recorded webinar link below addresses many of these questions.

This webinar is titled “A Mini Kaizen Event – Selecting a Provider: Not All Black Belt Training is Created Equal”. Focus in this recording is given to lean Six Sigma Black certification; however, the concepts apply to other lean Six Sigma certifications as well. When selecting a Six Sigma or a lean Six Sigma certification program the following should be addressed for individuals and organizations:

Individuals: Selecting a Six Sigma or a Lean Six Sigma Certification Program

Question 1: Do I simply want a “certification stamp” for my resume or the understanding of concepts and a road map that I can use effectively in my currently employment or future undertakings?

If one wants a simple certification stamp, one could study Indiana Quality Council material and take an ASQ certification exam.  One or more improvement projects (depending upon certification desired) are to have been completed before taking the ASQ certification exam.  One can check the ASQ requirements to see if their previous work experience is sufficient for them to take the test.  No statistical software is to be used during the test.

Question 2: If an individual wants to undertake training so that they better understand how to effectively apply lean Six Sigma process improvement techniques, there are a couple of question to address; i.e., when selecting a Six Sigma or lean Six Sigma certification program.

  • On-line versus classroom training: Each of these two options has benefits. Logistically on-line training has advantages; however, one can experience more discussion in classroom training.  This additional dialog can be helpful in learning how to apply lean Six Sigma concepts to one’s work environment. Also, some people have difficult completing on-line training, since other tasks can easily affect how rigorously they study and apply taught concepts.
  • Real improvement certification project or fabricated course project: In selecting a Six Sigma or lean Six Sigma certification program one should decide what is desired from the training.  If only tools training is desired, a no-real-project lean Six Sigma course could be adequate.  However, if one desires to learn how to apply the concepts to their real-world-work environment, than a fabricated project approach not desirable.

Organizational Deployment: Selecting a Six Sigma or a Lean Six Sigma Certification Program

Question 1: How to deploy? Organizations should consider the following when initiating a lean Six Sigma deployment:

  • Real improvement projects in lean Six Sigma training: Workshop improvement efforts can provide reported financial savings or statistically demonstrated enhancement of a key performance indicators (KPIs), which are important to the business.  Traditional Lean Six Sigma deployments give focus to the amount of money saved from improvement projects.  However, often this approach for Lean Six Sigma deployments lead to playing games with the numbers and a statement like “100 million dollars has been saved” – but nobody can find the money. Often a hunt-for-improvement-project lean Six Sigma deployment does not withstand the test of time and gets downsized or eliminated when financial times get tough for an organization.
  • An Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) approach decision (when selecting a Six Sigma or a lean Six Sigma certification program) gives focus to what key performance metric (KPI) are to be improved. This KPI improvement is to benefit the business as a whole. With this approach, there is an owner requesting/demanding timely completion of improvement efforts so that their metric is enhanced. This type of complete-the-improvement-project action is amplified when a process owner is to report their strategic metric’s improvement status to executive leadership in a timely manner.  An easy-to-use 30,000-foot-level reporting format is taught in the IEE Lean Six Sigma training that demonstrates and quantifies metrics to improve so that everyone can see the project’s benefit.

Selecting a Six Sigma or a Lean Six Sigma Certification Program

Question 2: How does an organization select improvement projects?  The following should be considered:

  • Traditionally lean Six Sigma project selection is based on an opinion or a ranking of opinions in what area of the business should be improved. However, often these type of projects do not get completed. When this type of project does get completed, report financial savings can be questionable, and/or do not benefit the enterprise as a whole.
  • Organizations benefit when they use and IEE operational excellence approach for project selection where KPIs to improve are selected analytically. With this IEE 9-step operational excellence approach, silo projects that don’t benefit the big picture strategically are avoided.

Question 3: How does an organization (or their suppliers) report their performance metrics?

Selecting a Six Sigma or a Lean Six Sigma Certification Program: Webinar

The recorded webinar link below “A Mini Kaizen Event – Selecting a Provider: Not All Black Belt Training is Created Equal” provides more insight into selecting a Six Sigma or a lean Six Sigma certification program.

 

 

 

Additional Information about the IEE enhanced approach for Lean Six Sigma Training

Details about an IEE enhanced approach for Lean Six Sigma training is available through the LINK:

 

Selecting A Six Sigma Or A Lean Six Sigma Certification Program, an IEE training exercise

 

 

Contact Us to set up a time to discuss with Forrest Breyfogle how your organization might gain much from an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) Business Process Management System and its enhanced approach for Lean Six Sigma training and an organizational implementation.