Six Sigma Black Belt Training

Black belts are to Six Sigma what main masts are to ships. Both are prime movers in their own respects. The fundamental and distinguishing personality traits of a black belt candidate are their leadership skills and brilliant overall ability. Personality traits of these candidates usually overlap the A and B types. What is more, these are devoted individuals whose pleasurable moments intersect with the success of tasks on hand.

Black Belt Training For Candidates

Typically, Six Sigma Black Belt training is given over 24 days and spread over 5 months. The full course training costs up to $14,950. The objective of Black Belt training is to develop data driven and competent Six Sigma practitioners who can lead from the front. However, it goes without saying that the training can be effective for those students who are already exposed to Six Sigma environments in their work places.

Objectives Of The Training Course

The objectives of Six Sigma black belt training are to present the principles that are essential for Six Sigma implementation methodology to professionals. The training also focuses on familiarizing the participants with the tools and techniques to independently select and implement Six Sigma in their organizations. The participants are trained to be able to identify potential for improvements in terms of financial returns as a result of implementing Six Sigma.

Six Sigma Black Belt training can be more meaningful provided it helps to develop leadership and communication skills, which are essential for the success of Six Sigma. This is ensured by facilitating collaboration and communication channels between practicing Six Sigma organizations and professionals across industries for instantaneous and consultative sharing of viewpoints.

Tips to Black Belt Candidates

When choosing institutes, look closely at their reputations. It is a better idea to consult known persons or organizations that have undergone training there. Some of the institutes, in order that they attract more students, cut down fees drastically and consequently reduce the duration of training. What is even worse, some instructors are themselves are unexposed to practical aspects of projects. An institute with a good reputation takes care of such issues and in addition, insists on at least one complete implementation within your organization.

Eligible Candidates for Black Belt Training

The Black Belt program is suitable for those candidates who are working in manufacturing, business processes or designing activities. The most appropriate participants would be managers or key executives and including line supervisors and constitute representation from all spheres of business activities that can potentially contribute to improving the bottom line of the organization.

Black Belt Certification

The training methodology employed by reputable institutes provide for certification only upon fulfilling certain criteria such as the candidate's ability to present a concrete report of what she has observed during her parallel working sessions. The presentation and recommendations must be fit for implementation by her organization. Those wishing to go for ASQ certifications must pass the ASQ exam and complete at least 2 projects as a Prerequisite.

Black Belt training may produce high quality professionals equipped with decision making tools and techniques; however, the crux of the matter still lies with each individual.

By Tony Jacowski
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/six-sigma-black-belt-training-31409.html

How to Choose a Six Sigma Black Belt Project

Selecting the most appropriate Six Sigma Black Belt project is the most common problem faced by students who enroll themselves in a Six Sigma training course. The project is necessary as it helps students learn the practical aspects of Six Sigma implementation programs. The project is conducted either before the commencement of the training program or during the first week.

Identifying A Problem

Before starting a project, students first need to identify a problem, similar to real life implementation problems faced by business organizations. The problem that is identified and its possible solutions form the base of the project. For ensuring the successful completion of the project, students need to select a problem about which they have a basic level of understanding. Selecting a complex problem based on a case study published in a management journal is not recommended, as the project requires students to practically solve a given problem.

The information given in the management journal will only help students in preparing the project report and not in evolving practical solutions to the problem, which students will have to do on their own. The main reason why use of case studies are not recommended is that the resources that might have been used in solving the real life problem may not be the same as provided by the organization where students are receiving their training. Training instructors also encourage students to opt for a project that is relevant to their domain or qualifications.

Select Manageable Projects

Every Six Sigma Black Belt project needs to have a defined objective. Many students make the mistake of opting for a project having multiple objectives, which is often not achievable within the stipulated timeframe. Even after giving it their best shot, most of these students are often unable to make progress in their quality improvement projects. The only option left for these students is to either reduce the scope of their project objectives or opt for a completely new project, which will mean more hard work and time. In most cases, these students opt for the first alternative in order to allot adequate time to theoretical training as well.

No doubt, there are students who have completed even the most complex projects, but going by statistics, the number of failed attempts is a lot higher than the number of successful attempts. Students who are not sure of their abilities should not try to achieve everything at the first go. Instead, they should try to concentrate more on learning the basics involved in Six Sigma programs. There will be plenty of time in their professional career for solving the most complex of Six Sigma implementation problems in an organization.

During the course of the project, the primary objective of students should be to develop insights, which will help them a lot when they become true professional after the completion of the training program. Concentrating their efforts just on achieving the objectives may not help them, as by doing so, they are most likely to miss the basics of Six Sigma. The scope of objectives in a Six Sigma Black Belt project does not matter as long as students are able to develop a thorough understanding of their individual projects and are able to assess the impact it will have on the quality of the outcome.

By Tony Jacowski
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/how-to-choose-a-six-sigma-black-belt-project-71313.html

Selecting The Right Black Belt

If businesses ignore this and select a Black Belt without evaluating their skills, experience, and aptitude, it's highly unlike that they will be able to do proper justice to the implementations, let alone derive any real-time benefits from the implementations.

So, what exactly can businesses do to select the right Black Belt? Well, they just need to follow the standard evaluation and selection process as described in the following paragraphs.

Evaluating Behavioral Traits

Since Six Sigma implementations are quite complex and require a lot more than just the knowledge of Six Sigma concepts, tools, techniques and methodologies, businesses need to concentrate more on evaluating the behavioral traits of Black Belt candidates. While doing so, businesses need to consider all the various behavioral issues such as problem solving abilities, ability to generate new ideas, self-motivation, and ability to overcome barriers.

These are some of the special qualities that define the basic characteristics of the right Black Belt. Only those candidates, who prove their mettle in these areas, should be hired to carry out the Six Sigma implementations.

Evaluating Leadership and Communication Skills

Since Black Belts are required to provide continuous support and guidance to implementation team members and since they are also required to act as the main communication link between the team and top management, businesses need to select only those candidates who are proficient in these matters.

However, since making assessments of such complex skills cannot be done properly in a single session, candidates should be put through multiple evaluation sessions and judged accordingly. This will help in eliminating candidates who might just be having a lucky day and selecting the really deserving candidates whose overall performance is almost always better than the rest.

Evaluating Domain Experience

Since no two Six Sigma implementation projects are exactly the same, businesses need to be quite specific while evaluating domain experience of the Black Belt candidates. Preference should be given to candidates who might have implementation experience in the same domain as the business might currently be in.

If businesses really want to reduce implementation risks, they should never make the mistake of choosing candidates who might only have years of experience to brag about.

Evaluating Past Performance

Although not mandatory, businesses need to give preference to Black Belts who have successfully completed Six Sigma implementations in their careers. However, since there are often just too many variables that determine the success of Six Sigma implementation projects, businesses should not make this the sole criterion for selection. In effect, past performance should be given the same treatment as other factors described above.

Businesses that sincerely follow the evaluation and selection process described above, will have no problems whatsoever in selecting the right Black Belt. This would help because ensuring the success of Six Sigma implementation projects will then no longer be an issue for these businesses.

Power By Tony Jacowski