Should Fresh MBA's/Engineers opt for Green Belt Training?

In the last one year, more than 500 freshers have gone through Benchmark Six Sigma Green Belt program. A fresher shall have a better career path after

training for two reasons.

1. Many of the leading organizations prefer Six Sigma competence.

2. Irrespective of point 1 above, the individual's ability to generate results

increases many fold if he knows Six Sigma methodology. This means even if the organization is not utilizing Six Sigma, the person is likely to generate better results leading to better career path. There are a good number of senior people who (after participating in training) provide the feedback " I could have benefited a lot if I had gone through this program right at the beginning of their career."

The few important advantages for students when they attend Benchmark Six Sigma Green Belt training are - 

1.     Recognition of certificate (the certification is well accepted and respected in industry

2.     Industry interface (students learn best when they attend along with working professionals)

3.     Life-long membership of an active Six Sigma network having thousands of past participants (students should be able to get their doubts clarified when they face real life problems while implementing)

4.     Attractive pricing (students get special discounts)

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 Source: http://www.benchmarksixsigmaforum.com

Who can benefit by Green Belt training?

A very common question is How will Six Sigma help me

in my job/profile? OR Will it be useful in such and such profile?

The answer is -" If you consider yourself as an improvement oriented
person, Six Sigma is for you. Interestingly, this holds true irrespective of
your job profile"

Let us try to understand this better.

Each job profile has its challenges (more commonly called

"problems"). Most of these problems or challenges can be addressed

if world best techniques are used. Techniques that are timeless,

universally applicable, logically sound, and conceptually very

powerful.

These techniques can solve small and big problems in a job profile,
can address improvements in a department, and have a potential of
turning around a company from brink of closure to epitome of success.

You can visualize that these techniques can not be the
outcome of special effort of an individual, or a department or an
organization, or even an era of global development. These
techniques are compiled from global wisdom across industries,
across centuries, across continents. When such classic approaches
come together in a single roadmap, no problem remains too big, no
challenge is insurmountable.

These improvement techniques are covered in three levels of courses

conducted by Benchmark Six Sigma - Green Belt, Black Belt and

Master Black Belt.

As in Karate, the belts relate to levels of mastery achieved in

understanding and application of Six Sigma.

Now coming back to the question -

How will Six Sigma help me in my job/profile?

Here are some questions to help you answer your question -

1. Do you face problems and challenges in you profile? If not, do
you wish to ensure that your way of doing things is "the best
practice"?

2. Do you have an opportunity of leading/ initiating/ recommending
changes that would deliver results, results that are more
consistent and better than ever before?

3. In your profile, do you think involving others in an improvement
journey shall require a structured approach?

4. Do you want to learn techniques that you can apply yourself in
the current profile to measure, analyze and improve processes?

5. Do you think you would like to be referred as a "positive change
agent" or an "improvement oriented person" or may be "an
improvement expert"?

If the answer to all the above is yes, you can surely benefit by

applying Six Sigma in your current profile.

To make it all simpler, there are two types of people who can not

benefit from Six Sigma -

1. Those who do not find any "problems" or "opportunities for improvement" and

2. Those who do not wish to take up the best available approaches to tackle them.

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             Source: http://www.benchmarksixsigmaforum.com

What is the difference between Green Belt & Black Belt?

Six Sigma has a hierarchical structure similar to Martial arts. There are white belts, green belts, black belts, and master black belts.

The white belts go through a very high level overview training about Six Sigma (typically 4 hours) so they understand some basic terminology about Six Sigma. All employees in the company are usually trained as white belts. White belts may help Green Belts or Black Belts with some data collection etc.

The next level is the Green Belts who go through the Six Sigma training at the next level of details. Green Belts may go through few days to up to two weeks worth of Six Sigma training. Green Belts are expected to work on projects within their own functional areas. Green Belts are usually not exposed to advanced Six Sigma concepts, so they are not equipped to solve really tough problems.

The third level is Black Belts who go through a more detailed version of the Six Sigma training. The typical duration of training varies from a week to four weeks worth of training. Black Belts are expected to work on more complex cross-functional projects that are strategically important for the company.

Finally, the last level is the Master Black Belts. The Master Black Belts are responsible for coaching and training Green Belts and Black Belts. They may also work on large company wide projects.

Sometimes people ask us if there is any minimum financial benefits that Green Belt and Black Belt projects need to deliver. There is no hard and fast rule about minimum savings that these projects need to deliver. The amount of benefits will also depend on the size of the company turnover, number of employees, opportunities for improvements etc. Some companies may have a target for Green Belt and Black Belt savings - but these are usually applied as an average across several projects rather than for individual projects.

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 Source: http://www.benchmarksixsigmaforum.com