Lean Six Sigma Philippines

20/07/2022

What are the top 10 guidelines to select the right Six Sigma Candidate?

Six Sigma methods are instigated by robust, driven Green Belt and Black Belt candidates. It’s extremely important to make the right choice while selecting them. This helps in making the course better. There are some particular qualities that panel members expect to find in a Six Sigma candidate.

Following are the qualities selectors look for in a Six Sigma candidate:
The aspirant should first have faith in the Six Sigma model. He or she should possess a great love and passion for bringing a positive change in the workspace.
The candidate should be a visionary. He or she should focus on the complete procedure rather than focusing on his own expertise.
He or she should be motivated to devote time to understanding the equipment and practices required to implement the changes.
The six sigma candidate needs to have an aptitude for statistics and data analysis.

He or she should be open to learning and using that knowledge in making suitable changes to escalate client satisfaction.
The Six Sigma candidate should possess all the qualities of a leader.
The aspirant should have the ability to mentor and provide adept direction to the individuals working under them.
He or she needs to have a sturdy technical propensity with stronger practical expertise.

A prospective Six Sigma candidate needs to understand the existing corporate state of affairs as well as the general market.
He or she should be capable of putting forward his apparition. He or she should be able to persuade the shareholders about the necessity to bring change.

Pugh Matrix is used for making things easier. It creates an explicit gauge for assessment. The milieu is planned with the criteria as rows, and the budding candidates as columns.

The aspiring six sigma candidate is ranked for each specific criterion, and the summation of the rates assists in discovering the right six sigma candidate for the place of a Green or Black Belt.

Below-mentioned is the top ten guidelines that organizations must look for before selecting the right six sigma candidate:
1. Diverse Work Experience.
This will allow the Green Belt aspirant to grow in more than one facet of a business development project.

For instance, if Green Belt six sigma candidates have newly graduated out of a statistics seminary program, they are expected to primarily employ freshly learned abilities and tools.

The applicants with diverse experience can escalate plans and problems more holistically.

2. Personal Attributes
The key feature of a Green Belt six sigma candidate is being capable of encouraging others on the basics of a Six Sigma project. They should be enthusiastic, a go-getter with an optimistic temperament.

Occasionally they would be required to demonstrate willingness for initiating an assignment. They shall be often asked to be a leader and carry on with the tasks even in the face of adversities.

It is very important for a would-be Six Sigma candidate to be result oriented. Especially, Black Belts are anticipated to achieve noticeable monetary results for the business.

He or she needs to be hardworking and speedy to exhibit success.

3. Initiative
Applicants who are taking the initiative in understanding and acknowledging the organization’s problems, and attempt to play their part with passion, should be chosen for the program.

A common member of staff, who is content with his career, and perceives no necessity for change, is not the perfect six sigma candidate.

Instead, someone who has faith in the organization’s objectives and pursues each prospect to advance the system, to accomplish superior outcomes, is the right six sigma candidate.

4. Leadership skills
A Six Sigma candidate is expected to have innate leadership skills. It is crucial to have team-driven and motivated.

The candidate is expected to observe and yield the accountability of the team’s performance and keep the progress resourcefulness intact.

He must be a people person and team player and possess strong people skills. Taking an active part in a cross-functional conversation, letting the shareholders know the requirement for change, and putting the line-up together to accomplish it, needs professionals with solid administration skills.

5. Perseverance
The right Six Sigma candidate must be a change representative for the organization. Instigating change is tough and more or less continually embroils both methodological and social hurdles.

Some aspirants struggle with an incapability to bring change and are resistant to it. This proves to be discouraging.

Effective Green Belt applicants appreciate and understand that change is inevitable. They are visionaries and change-makers and face up to this resistance with grit.

It is imperative to keep in mind that a Green Belt candidate is not a reliable resource as a Black Belt candidate.

Both Green and Black Belts must be motivated and determined to make time from their regular professional duties to dedicate to their incessant expansion.

6. Strategist
Resilient Six Sigma candidates can blend a comprehensive understanding of value improvement with a knowledge of how Six Sigma schemes influence occupational processes.

The aptitude to elucidate how Six Sigma ingenuities craft a competitive advantage and advance monetary performance is important for ambitious Six Sigma candidates.

7. Consumer Advocacy
The aspirants must voluntarily project the notion that clienteles are always the receivers of procedures, and that consumers are always the ultimate critic of product or service.

Understanding client needs is crucial to method development.

Therefore, a six sigma candidate must communicate clearly about how eliminating method disparity is vital to industry development.

8. Communication.
The right six sigma candidates ought to be effective conversationalists. Being a phenomenal communicator is critical for lots of roles they take up be it coaches, instructors, or advisors.

The aspirant should be able to address all audiences. He or she must be an excellent storyteller.

Accepting the different wishes of the audience and modifying the memorandum to address their apprehensions is the character trait of an efficient communicator.

9. Business Acumen.
The perfect Six Sigma candidates are born leaders. They are natural front-runners and not the managers of the preceding times.

They must have the industry knowledge and the aptitude to show the relationship between plans and desired trade results.

They understand how a project can make the business stronger financially and commercially.

The panel must ask questions all through the interview to decide if the aspiring six sigma candidates have been successful in making this association in their previous roles.

The Six Sigma candidate must be a good Project Manager. Six Sigma is accomplished one task at a time.

The selectors shall not forget that these aspirants must manage assignments from opportunity, necessities, resources, timeline, and change perspectives.

Understanding project management nitty-gritty and familiarity with managing projects are important.

10. Technical Aptitude.
The Six Sigma candidate need not be an engineering or statistical graduate. However, it proves to be advantageous when combined with other qualities.

An aspirant is needed to gather and analyze data for defining an advancement plan.

This would not be a difficult task with some technical aptitude, especially some computer and software mastery as well as some analytical skills.

17/07/2022

The Value of Linking Six Sigma to Your Sales Process

Six Sigma is a recognized standard in the manufacturing world. Jack Welch, one of the world’s most renowned leaders, most notably in his role as chairman and CEO at General Electric, defines Six Sigma as “a quality program that, when all is said and done, improves your customer’s experience, lowers your costs, and builds better leaders.” Essentially, Six Sigma is a data-driven discipline that eliminates defects in any process to improve quality and profitability.

Six Sigma is a data-driven discipline that eliminates defects in any process to improve quality and profitability.
Organizations that want to enhance profitability or that already use Six Sigma elsewhere in the value chain often ask, “Can Six Sigma be applied to the sales process?” The answer is, “Yes!” It starts with minimizing defects and then cutting out unnecessary steps by identifying what to measure, assessing and augmenting your team, and converting best practices to common practices.

Cutting Unnecessary Steps

1. Identify the criteria to measure. A Six Sigma principle is to measure the inputs to any process and report on the outputs. In sales, the outputs are the results or orders. Identify the few vital (rather than the many trivial) key management inputs that are qualifying factors assigned to the opportunities in the pipeline. Examples include discount rates, proposals, mutual plans, and access to power decision-makers. Once you’ve identified them, manage these inputs to measure and report on actual business results.

Identify the few vital key management inputs that are qualifying factors assigned to the opportunities in the pipeline.
2. Assess your capabilities. The whole concept of Six Sigma in manufacturing is to reduce defects that drive costs – the cost of reworking, returns, poor quality – into the management process. Sales managers must focus on reducing defects that drive up costs, such as wasting time on unproductive sales calls, counterproductive conversations, and circling back to unqualified opportunities.

To limit a sales team’s exposure to these costs, establish a consistent methodology and sales process. Successful ex*****on requires diligent preparation for engaging, purposeful interaction in order to be more productive. This process helps to w**d out unqualified leads and minimize prospect variation. Remember, in Six Sigma, variation is the enemy.

Successful ex*****on requires diligent preparation for engaging, purposeful interaction in order to be more productive.
By consistently and rigorously qualifying prospects, you can minimize the variations in the pipeline and focus on qualified opportunities. Time and resources wasted on no-decision opportunities are unrecoverable costs to a sales organization.

3. Leverage best practices. A quality initiative in any process will incorporate best practices. Why reinvent the wheel? Converting best practices to common practices is key to a successful sales process.

Eliminating Variation

The recipe for success is making sure you are generating predictable outcomes. Just as all great chefs have their own recipes to eliminate the variation in their end products, leaders in world-class sales organizations rely on a sales process to reduce the variations in qualified prospecting and, thus, maximize their revenue and margins.

The recipe for success is making sure you are generating predictable outcomes.
A sales team is no different than a manufacturing organization. Think of sales as the manufacturing arm of any business that “manufacturers” customers from the “raw materials” of leads and prospects.

Think of sales as the manufacturing arm that “manufacturers” customers from the “raw materials” of leads and prospects.
Does your customer manufacturing process deliver the results you expect? Are you managing the vital few inputs that will maximize the quality of your results? To answer with an emphatic “Yes!”, implement a Six Sigma sales process that enables you to reach short-term goals as well as your long-term strategic imperatives.

A Six Sigma sales process enables you to reach short-term goals as well as your long-term strategic imperatives.

31/01/2017

Certification Belts

“Six Sigma” management has several levels of certification, they are: Champion, Yellow/Green Belt, Brown/Black Belt, and Master Black Belt. Each level of certification is described below.

A Six Sigma Champion is the most basic form of Six Sigma certification. A Champion understands the theory of Six Sigma management, but does not yet have the quantitative skills to function as an active Six Sigma project team member. However, executives in Six Sigma organizations function as champions of Six Sigma projects. As champions, executives take a very active sponsorship and leadership role in conducting and implementing Six Sigma projects. A Champion should be a member of the Executive Committee, or at least a trusted direct report of a member of the Executive Committee. She or he should have enough influence to remove obstacles or provide resources without having to go higher in the organization. They work closely with the executive committee, the project leader (called a black belt) assigned to their project, and the master black belt (supervisor of black belts) overseeing their project. Champions have the following responsibilities:

Identify their project on the organizational dashboard.

Develop and negotiate project objectives with top management.

Select a black belt (or a green belt for a simple project) to lead the project team.

Remove any political barriers or resource constraints to their Six Sigma project.

Provide a communication link between project team(s) and top management.

Help team members manage their resources and stay within the budget.

Review each project’s timetable.

Keep the team focused on the project by providing direction and guidance.

Assure that Six Sigma methods and tools are being used in the project.

A Six Sigma Green Belt is an individual who works on projects part-time (25%), either as a team member for complex projects, or as a project leader for simpler projects. Green belts are the “work horses” of Six Sigma projects. Most managers in a mature Six Sigma organization are green belts. Green Belt certification is a critical prerequisite for advancement into upper management in a Six Sigma organization. Managers act as Green Belts for their entire careers, as their style of management. Green belts leading simpler projects have the following responsibilities:

Refine a project charter.

Review the project charter with the project’s champion.

Select the team members for the project.

Communicates with the champion, master black belt, black belt and process owner throughout all stages of the project.

Facilitate the team through all phases of the project.

Schedule meetings and coordinate logistics.

Analyze data through all phases of the project

Train team members in the basic tools and methods of Six Sigma.

In complicated Six Sigma projects, green belts work closely with the team leader (black belt) to keep the team functioning and progressing through the various stages of the Six Sigma project.

A Six Sigma Yellow Belt is an individual who has passed the Green Belt certification examination but has not yet completed a Six Sigma project.

A Six Sigma Black Belt is a full-time change agent and improvement leader who may not be an expert in the process under study. The ideal candidate for a black belt is an individual who posses the following characteristics:

Has technical and managerial process improvement / innovation skills.

Has a passion for Statistics and Systems Theory.

Understands the psychology of individuals and teams.

Understands process improvement tools and methods.

Has excellent communication and writing skills.

Works well in a team format.

Can manage meetings.

Has a pleasant personality and is fun to work with.

Communicates in the language of the client and does not use technical jargon.

Is not intimidated by upper management.

Has a customer focus.

The responsibilities of a black belt include:

Help to prepare a project charter.

Communicate with the champion and process owner about progress of the project.

Lead the project team.

Schedule meetings and coordinate logistics.

Help team members design experiments and analyze the data required for the project.

Provide training in tools and team functions to project team members.

Help team members prepare for reviews by the champion and executive committee.

Recommend additional Six Sigma projects.

Lead and coach Green Belts leading projects limited in scope.

A black belt is a full-time quality professional who is mentored by a master black belt, but may report to a manager, for his or her tour of duty as a black belt.

A Brown Belt is a Six Sigma Green Belt who has passed the Black Belt certification examination but has not yet completed their second Six Sigma project.

A Master Black Belt takes on a leadership roles as keeper of the Six Sigma process, advisor to executives or business unit managers, and leverages, his/her skills with projects that are led by black belts and green belts. Frequently, master black belts report directly to senior executives or business unit managers. A master black belt has successfully led ten or more teams through complex Six Sigma projects. He or she is a proven change agent, leader, facilitator, and technical expert in Six Sigma management. Master black belt is a career path. It is always best for an organization to grow its own master black belts. Unfortunately, sometimes it is impossible for an organization to grow its own master black belts due to the lead time required to become a master black belt. It takes years of study, practice, tutelage under a master, and project work.

Master Black Belts have the following responsibilities:

Counsel senior executives and business unit managers on Six Sigma management.

Help identify and prioritize key project areas in keeping with strategic initiatives

Continually improve and innovate the organization’s Six Sigma process.

Apply Six Sigma across both operations and transactions-based processes such as Sales, HR, IT, Facility Management, Call Centers, Finance, etc.

Coordinate Six Sigma projects from the dashboard.

Teach black belts and green belts Six Sigma theory, tools, and methods.

Mentor black belts and green belts.

16/11/2016

21/08/2015

Lean Six Sigma

18/08/2015

Lean Six Sigma: Strengthen Your Business with Confidence

How long have you been trying to find a way to improve the processes that you use to operate your business? As a CEO, you have been trying to eliminate the non-value added work, which wastes time and productivity. You thought you found a solution and “fixed” a problem or process, just to find you had slipped back and needed to “fix” it again. Then, to compound the problem, your employees end the workday knowing they spent too much time fixing mistakes redoing work. Now your business is in a downward spiral that you feel is getting out of control. In those difficult times, it’s hard to take a step back and systematically solve a problem or understand the root cause of an inefficient process. However, that is exactly what’s needed to achieve consistent process improvement.

Six Sigma is a methodology used to improve business processes by utilizing statistical analysis rather than guesswork. This proven approach has been implemented within a myriad of industries to achieve hard and soft money savings, while increasing customer satisfaction. The methodology combined with an empowered workforce is leading to improved customer service and business process. Six Sigma is a commitment to ongoing process management, systematic process improvement, and culture change. It needs to start at to the top of the enterprise. Senior leaders need to lead by example. The short and long-term benefits warrant the time and energy required to embrace this methodology.

Lean Six Sigma PH is at the forefront of Six Sigma certification and consulting services. We assist organizations with all aspects of the implementation process, from training Champions to certifying employees at various belt levels. We can help your company determine the right individuals for training and how to choose potential projects.