Let’s Get Familiar with Lean Six-Sigma

This blog discusses some interesting historical facts about the Six-Sigma and also highlights the benefits of the most business-friendly Lean Six-Sigma concepts.

Sig-Sigma comprises techniques and tools that organizations use to identify and eliminate operational defects, to improve organization-wide processes, to assure quality outcome, and more.

The Evolution

Six-Sigma was first introduced in 1986 by Bill Smith, Engineer at Motorola, to help improve the quality of the company’s devices. The statistical and quality management methodologies of Walter Shewhart, Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, and Edwards Deming, are the fundamental basis of Bill’s Six-Sigma approach. 

• Walter Shewhart designed the Statistical Quality Control (SQC) concept and also developed the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) model or Shewhart Cycle.
• Edwards Deming has devised unique sampling techniques that are used by the Department of Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the USA. Edwards also helped in improving the quality control measures in Japanese manufacturing firms during the Second World War.
• Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, recognized as the single most important figure in 20th-century statistics, has developed various popular statistical techniques including, Student’s t-distribution, P-value, F-distribution, and others.

Who Implemented Six-Sigma First?

Six-Sigma strategy was first put into practice by the General Electric in the early 1990s. Since then, growth-focused organizations across numerous industries worldwide are implementing this clever quality management tactic to enhance their functionalities.

Six-Sigma Levels

Six-Sigma certification includes 5 (five) skill-levels, including White Belt, Yellow Belt, Green Belt, Black Belt, and Master Black Belt. These certifications are popular with quality control professionals, primarily associated with manufacturing domain.

Here are the certification levels for your quick note:

• Six-Sigma White Belt is the initial skill level that deals with the basic Six-Sigma concepts. Certified White Belts support their organizations’ change management and engage with problem-solving teams that assist projects. 
• Six-Sigma Yellow Belt enables learners to understand the specifics of Six-Sigma concepts, like how and where to apply those appropriately. Certified Yellow Belts support project teams on complex problem-solving tasks.
• Six-Sigma Green Belt provides understanding about advanced analysis to resolve concerns that affect the overall quality. Green Belts lead their organizations’ quality projects and assist black belts with data collection and analysis.
• Six-Sigma Black Belt certified professionals are expert agents of their organizations’ change management initiatives. They also provide quality management training in addition to their role of leading quality projects.
• Six-Sigma Master Black Belt is the top-most level of Six-Sigma certification. Master Black Belts will assist their organizations to design result-driven quality strategies, develop key quality metrics, or act as a consultant. They also help to coach the certified Black and Green Belts in the organization.

Wow! There is More!

• The Lean Six-Sigma Champion is the top-level manager who leads the organization’s Lean Six-Sigma (LSS) strategy and deployment. Aided by Six-Sigma Master Black Belts, a Lean Six-Sigma Champion mentors the leaders involved in LSS implementation and tracks their progress.

The Benefits –

How Six-Sigma Modules Help Businesses to Ascend

Adding Six-Sigma methodologies to the business strategy allows enterprises to scale-up all their business functionalities and ensure an organization-wide success.

Enhanced Production Processes

Enterprises learn to apply the correct data-driven quality concept, including DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) – that enables operation heads to manage and enhance the production processes, more efficiently.

Reduced Operational Costs

Organizations understand to proficiently implement the Defects-Per-Million-Opportunities (DPMO) strategy that allows them to minimize production wastes and ensure lower operating costs.

Boost in Customers’ Engagements

Businesses learn to effectively implement the Cross-Functional Process Mapping (CFPM) methodology that allows them to streamline their processes and ensure higher customer satisfaction.

Consistent Cash Flows

Companies discover ways to identify and eliminate variations in the financial processes that help them to improve their Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and ensure consistency in the cash flows.

Increased Stakeholders’ Confidence

Enterprises must make sure that a large count of the workforce is Six-Sigma certified, as it assures that the organization is quality-focused, and helps in winning the investor partners’ trust.

Improved Workforce Retention

Operation leads explore the business-relevant Six Sigma strategies to identify the workforce training needs and define their career growth path that help organizations to increase employees’ retention rate.

How Six-Sigma Certification Helps Aspiring Individuals to Propel their Professional Growth Chart

Six-Sigma certifications enable individuals to augment their career growth by strengthening their business acumen, analytical expertise, learning commitment, and work output.

Sustained Improvement in Business Processes

Six-Sigma certified individuals can cautiously analyze the performance of their organization’s business-functions and accordingly take corrective actions.

Reduced Business Risks by Eliminating Defects

Six-Sigma certifications allow individuals to become crucial to their organization’s ability to identify and eliminate any functional defects or errors.

Ensure Compliance

Professionals with Six-Sigma certification can assist their organization in maintaining lucrative business contracts, complying with necessary standards.

Bright Career Prospects

Six-Sigma certifications help professionals acquiring skills, primarily required at middle and top-level managerial roles that come with higher pay-packets.

About Janam Sandhu (JS)

JS is a qualified and globally renowned Lean Six-Sigma and Quality Management expert. JS strategically designs all her online Six-Sigma and Lean training sessions to ensure maximum understanding with ease. The smart learning content, including high-quality course videos, educational blogs, 1-to-1 live sessions, and more help learners to grasp and implement business-relevant Lean Six-Sigma techniques more efficiently.

JS encourages you to browse the in-depth Six Sigma training sessions on her YouTube Channel that has already crossed One Million+ views and 14K+ subscribers. You may also visit Janam Sandhu’s interactive web-portal www.JSixSigma.com to know more about her.