NIU

six sigma training

Posted by Stacy on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 8:33 PM

What is six sigma training?

It is an employee training program geared toward all types of businesses. It is a program geared toward achieving excellence and improving the profits of your business. It is considered a culture change for your business which can be felt throughout. Originally created by Bill Smith of Motorola in 1986, Six Sigma was heavily inspired by six preceding decades of quality improvement methodologies such as quality control, TQM, and zero defects.

How does it differ from other employee training programs?

The Six Sigma approach has a clear focus on measurable financial returns, an increased emphasis on strong passionate management, a multi tiered infrastructure and levels including yellow belts, green belts, black belts, master black belts, executive leadership and champions, and a clear commitment to making decisions based on verifiable data and not educated guesses.

What are the differences in the levels?

Executive Leadership - Usually the CEO, owner and others in the upper management tier. They are in charge of setting up the vision to for the Six Sigma implementation.

Champions - Those in charge of managing the Six Sigma implementation in the organization. They also act as mentors to Black Belts. These people are chosen by the executive leadership tier and are usually chosen from upper management.

Master Black Belts - These people are identified by Champions to oversee the Six Sigma implementation in all areas of the everyday business scheme. These employees spend 100% of their time in overseeing the Six Sigma flow in the company on a departmental level.

Black Belts - These employees work on applying Six Sigma to specific tasks and dedicate 100% of their time to the Six Sigma implementation as well.

Green Belts - These employees implement Six Sigma while still performing their regular job duties, they look to the Black Belts for guidance in achieving their overall objectives.

Yellow Belts - These employees have been trained in Six Sigma techniques as part of a corporate-wide initiative, but have not completed a Six Sigma project and are not expected to actively engage in quality improvement activities.

Does It work?

Well, since its development in 1986 many companies including Motorola, GE, Honeywell, in addition to many governmental agencies, health insurance companies, financial institutions and so on have been using these methodologies and have gotten some incredible results. They recommend this Six Sigma training for all employees across the board, from the smallest to the largest businesses. They feel that this is the wave of the future, and that in the future people will need to be armed with the Six Sigma certification in order to get the good jobs.