How Well Do You Know Your Black Belts?
Posted by: meikah | 25 September 2008 | 9:29 pm
Black Belts are important in a Six Sigma deployment. So it is important to choose them well, or choose your people to be Black Belts well.
How?
From iSixSigma:
The rigorous criteria can include:
- The expectations from the role.
- The opportunities and benefits from the role and the likely growth that the individual can expect on successful completion of the tenure.
- Superior past performance for several years.
- Prior experience with project activity.
- Minimum years of experience in the business.
The selection process must involve people from senior management, human resources and the Six Sigma deployment. Selection should not be compromised to accommodate the speed of implementation – taking time here, particularly in the initial years of deployment, sends the right message to the organization about the importance of the role. Of course, selecting the right people also ensures that the Six Sigma implementation is successful.
In other words, they must be able to lead the Six Sigma team. And in doing so, they must have the the ability to:
- Lead challenges from the front
- Listen and set the direction
- Manage change and mentor others
All these abilities are put to test during the tenure of a Black Belt. For example:
- Black Belts are assigned to challenging projects that do not have a known solution. Often, several teams have tried to work on such projects with little success.
- They lead cross-functional teams and are required to manage change issues without any real authority.
- During their tenure, they motivate and mentor Green Belts, who in turn juggle between working on projects and meeting the demands of their routine work.
- Black Belts engage with the leadership (Champions and executives) and also with peers and juniors to get their projects to succeed.
Filed under: Training, Deployment, Black Belt, Six Sigma
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Black Belt’s Balanced Project Portfolio
Posted by: meikah | 7 September 2008 | 9:47 pm
In martial arts, the general perception of a Black Belt is someone who has high degree of competence. The same is true for the Black Belts in Six Sigma. They are considered the most competent members of the Six Sigma team, and thus are expected to finish more projects.
To manage these projects effectively, Black Belts should know how to create a balanced project portfolio, which should contain a mix of projects.
Are you a Black Belt? Or are you on your road to becoming one?
This article on iSixSigma will be very useful for you. It discusses how Black Belts can start on their project portfolio.
Getting Started
When Black Belts are planning for projects to become part of a balanced portfolio, a number of questions may come to mind:
Question 1: Should I spend all my time working on projects that save money for my organization by reducing costs or expenses?
Answer: No. Your organization is only one of many customers you service as a Black Belt. Do not forget about external customers (those who supply you raw materials or those who buy your products and/or services).
Related posts:
Six Sigma Black Belt
Filed under: Training, Deployment, Black Belt, Six Sigma
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Six Sigma Project: Black Belts and Project Managers
Posted by: meikah | 2 September 2008 | 11:29 pm
They do seem to have the same roles. The Black Belt seem to have the right project management mindset. Yet when you look at each role closely, you’ll find the two have actually different roles.
iSixSigma has good discussion about the two. Click here to see the tables of comparison.
Both are important for the success of a project. While a Black Belt executes the project, the project manager ensures a well-run project and how it fits the organization’s strategic vision. The key is to successfully integrate Six Sigma methodologies and the project management tools and processes. The result would be a harmony of the two skill sets, thereby giving the project a level of success.
Filed under: Project Management, Black Belt, Six Sigma
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Ford Continues with Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 12 August 2008 | 10:34 pm
Despite economic crisis and dwindling sales, Ford Motor Co.’s VP for Global Quality, Bennie Fowler says, “we’re playing to win!”
How? By increasing their efforts on quality improvements.
Fowler said Ford was aiming for an average of 800 errors per 1,000 vehicles among its small cars launched in Europe, a rate better than Toyota’s in that class and 500 less than the industry average.
Fowler said each U.S. Ford plant will send 5 to 10 hourly workers to Wayne State University this fall to train for Six Sigma black belt certification.
In another story on Motor Trends, Ford plans to be global quality leader by 2010.
… to boost accountability, the automaker is implementing an intricate Early Claims Binning system that will help track quality issues straight to the source. Warranty claims are quickly sent to a car’s original assembly plant, where the problem is analyzed to see whether its cause is a manufacturing flaw or a problem with the overall design.
In addition Fowler says Dearborn is training an “army of problem solvers” throughout the company, using the Six Sigma management strategy originally pioneered by Motorola to improve quality. The automaker currently has 60,000 Six Sigma “green belts,” more than 7000 “black belts,” and 400 “master black belts working around the world,” and will also offer a course this fall through Wayne State University to help UAW workers get certified for Six Sigma black belt status.
If you see a company embarking on efforts like these, it’s hard not to take notice and give support. Way to go, Ford!
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Manufacturing, Six Sigma Organizations, Training, Black Belt, Quality, Six Sigma, Ford Motor Co.
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U.S. Army Continues Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 27 July 2008 | 8:53 pm
iSixSigma News reports:
The U.S. Army, in keeping with its long-term strategy to become a self-sustaining Lean Six Sigma/Continuous Process Improvement (LSS/CPI) organization, graduated its fifth LSS Master Black Belt (MBB) class. The class, MBB08-03, graduated six Army officers and five Department of the Army civilians. 62 Master Black Belt Candidates have graduated from this course since the first class graduated in August 2007.
Way to go U.S. Army! Despite what the naysayers are saying, you’re still at it!
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Training, Military, US Army, Black Belt
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What are the Qualities of a Six Sigma Black Belt Candidate?
Posted by: meikah | 30 June 2008 | 11:46 pm
If you’re asking the same question, then check out Tony Jacowski’s article on content4reprint.com.
- Appreciates customer promotion - He must know the value of customer in the business equation.
- Has the right personal attributes - He must be the positive influence that motivate others; self-motivated, and I think should also be a self-starter.
- Displays some leadership qualities - He must be the change agent, and thus an initiator.
- Possesses good communication skills - He must be able to convey messages well, and act as an effective mediator between employees and management, a coach and trainor.
- Has the technical aptitude - Though not necessary, he must have some background in engineering, statistics, and computers.
Choosing candidates for Six Sigma Black Belt is crucial in your Six Sigma deployment because from them, a good change agent leader must emerge. It goes without saying that a Six Sigma initiative is nothing without the right people in the team.
Filed under: Training, Deployment, Black Belt, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Jobs
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Six Sigma Black Belts at US Forces Korea
Posted by: meikah | 27 April 2008 | 7:47 pm
About a week ago, Stars and Stripes reported that 19 members of the 8th US Army Korea became Black Belts. The new Black Belts would be part of Lean Six Sigma, now in its third year at U.S. Forces Korea.
So far the the 8th Army has completed 51 Lean Six Sigma projects, saving about $51 million. According to Ron Rezek, a special assistant to the Secretary of the Army who works in business transformation, U.S. Forces Korea’s Lean Six Sigma program is ‘at the front of the pack’ Army-wide, and students get an unusually high amount of support from their commanders. Read more…
It seems that US Army is also getting its other bases outside of the U.S. into Lean Six Sigma. This should be a good thing.
Source:
iSixSigma News
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, US Army, Black Belt, US Forces Korea
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How are your Black Belts Performing?
Posted by: meikah | 6 September 2007 | 12:30 am
In your team, you will always have high-performing and low-performing individuals. Like a Six Sigma team, there are also high- and low- performing Black Belts, and usually you measure performance by the success of their projects.
While this may be true, project success can be attributed to so many factors. So, how do you assess the performance of your BBs or at the very least know if they have reached the peak of their performance?
Edoardo Monopoli and Arne Buthmann, writing for iSixSigma, outline a more comprehensive picture of Black Belt performance and its drivers.
The article starts with a definition of performance, which goes: Performance is the value added to the organization that the person and/or the group can give with reference to the achievement of organizationally relevant objectives.
Conducting a great data analysis during a Six Sigma project is only perceived as high performance behavior if the results of this analysis help achieve a project goal that at the same time contributes to the overall Six Sigma deployment objectives and the organization’s strategy.
On the “how” side, performance-driving behaviors can be seen in four major areas:
- Task performance
- Leadership performance
- Interpersonal performance
- Ethical performance
Source:
iSixSigma: Reaching Excellence in Black Belt Performance
