Six Sigma - should i?

[Chucklehead]

I'm trying to increase my employability and think that this course would work well as an official qualification for something I've been doing for the last 6 years.

I've been working for the same company for the last 10 years and want to move on now and try new things. A 5 day green belt course is about £2500 and seems like it's probably a good use of my time and money - not that I'm looking for project management roles specifically.

What are your thoughts?

[jet_noise]

Dear C,

I've been on one of these run by my employer - large automotive electronics supplier. I'm a senior electronics eng.
Our course was 80% stats. and 20% project philosophy. We built a lego trebuchet (amongst other things).

I found the stats. a good advance over what I remember from uni. and have learnt over years in the job. The projecty stuff less useful. The employer will need to buy in to the philosophy to make it work. Mine tends to use the approach (the stats mostly) as a problem solving tool IMHO rather than a project structure.

Your course may be differently designed, check the prospectus/syllabus. As to whether the qualification will get you the next job and without knowing your industry I'd say save your money,

regards,
Jet

[Jonnas]

What kind of industry do you work in......?

[Chucklehead]

Right now I'm an area manager for a car rental company, so my next role will more than likely be a similar management role. My passion is for analysis, relationship management and customer experience process improvement. Automotive / tourism / hospitality.

[Keep it stiff]

I thought that part of the green belt process was application to actual projects and as such your employer would need to buy in to this to enable you to progress. Happy to be shot down in flames but I'm not sure that six-sigma still carries the clout that it once did.

[oldbanger]

I have no experience of six sigma so can't comment on that one, but Prince2 might be a possible alternative. You can do it through self study and take the tests online for a few hundred pounds which is a little cheaper.

[Chucklehead]

I suppose I'm really just trying to get a professional qualification for a role that I feel I've already done but would have difficulty in quantifying. I had thought black belt was application? Not sure

[Crafty_]

Keep it stiff said:

I thought that part of the green belt process was application to actual projects and as such your employer would need to buy in to this to enable you to progress. Happy to be shot down in flames but I'm not sure that six-sigma still carries the clout that it once did.

Thats my understanding too, my employer uses it and to finish the certification you have to implement it on a project to show you can apply the methods.

As far as how important it is, not really sure. My employer has more recently started using fastworks, from what I have read it is not a complete replacement there is overlap

[GT03ROB]

Six sigma lends itself best to a manufacturing environment. I did a fair bit of it & qualified as some belt or other. Not totally convinced of it application outside of manufacturing.

[Podie]

I have to agree with the others here.

1) to qualify as a Green Belt you need to do a project (I did)

2) it is of limited use outside manufacturing.


OP - what are you trying to achieve / work towards?

[torqueofthedevil]

We did a fair bit on 6S at uni. It's all about manufacturing processes. Can't see it helping with anything but the most specific of jobs. Also, seems very dated / 90's - in a world where trends and 'fashions' in management styles / business strategy changes so frequently, I'd be looking for something more current

[Chucklehead]

Has anyone got any other suggestions?

Short of spending 20k on an mba, I'm trying to find relevant qualifications for a mid-senior level management employee. 10 years with the same place feels like my CV lacks something.

[Chucklehead]

I meant to say, most of my experience is with turning around low performing operations, contract negotiations, employee development and customer experience process improvement

[evenflow]

I'm a Lean Six Sigma "Green Belt" and have also trained in Agile PM. Work in Aerospace. Have a background as a BA and before that as a software developer.

As stated above, I don't believe there is a one size fits all approach. All of the training and acronyms give you a tool box which you can dip into as appropriate. Certain projects - especially in my experience fast moving software development ones - don't fit into a DMAIC process but there are useful elements: gateway reviews, ishikawa diagrams, kaizen, 5S, 5Y, 8D etc etc

Any particular questions on Lean / Agile please feel free to post here or send a PM. Not that I'm professing to be an expert!

[rog007]

Chucklehead said:

I'm trying to increase my employability...

Assuming unlimited time and money, all training will have some intrinsic value. If however you are short of either or both, then targeted development is obviously the most efficient way.

To do this, you do need to have at least some idea of what you want to be and what the market is demanding for those roles. If you're missing anything from that list then that is what you should be looking at as a minimum.

If what you want to be has a requirement for 6 Sigma based upon you reviewing the job adverts, then do it.

Good luck!

[NBTBRV8]

I start my Green Belt next week and I am doing it on my own for future employment opportunities. I am looking forward to it. Like others have said, on doing the pre-reading for it, it is largely based for manufacturing where there are discrete variables, but they do say you can apply it to attributes and I think this will be the hard bit to get my head around.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[slimtater]

Chucklehead said:

Has anyone got any other suggestions?

Short of spending 20k on an mba, I'm trying to find relevant qualifications for a mid-senior level management employee. 10 years with the same place feels like my CV lacks something.

What about something via the CMI?

http://www.managers.org.uk/

[Chucklehead]

Appreciate all of the input so far. Still investigating what line of study to take at the moment. Initial responses to the CVs I've sent out have been good so may take the opportunity to do some interviews where I can ask them about qualifications too

[toon10]

It's still very big in the manufacturing arena. I'm in IT management and software development but I did the yellow belt course and lead a 6S team to ru a totally unrelated cusotmer services project. You learn a decent set of tools if nothing else. I'm doing the greenbelt training next year. I'm also going to learn SCRUM Agile which is a more software development focused project management philosophy. This is more relevant to me.

[mike9009]

I have been trained by GE in 1997 as a six sigma black belt. I spent a couple of years as a continuous improvement manager. I work in a manufacturing environment.

Six sigma is most popular in manufacturing industries but it can be applied to any industry (services, health care etc. etc) It is generally taught as a problem solving methodology for manufacturing issues, hence the mistaken idea that it only applies to manufacturing.

It does not 'really' cover project management, but does provide a framework for solving a pre-defined issue or problem. I associated Project management more with resource and time scale management - which six sigma touches on but not in any great depth.

I have discussed this with my Dad (senior bod within Social Services, although now retired) and he reckons the skills learnt could easily be applied into this arena.

So, basically it provides a framework to solve problems in a structured and quantified way. It is a package of tools (all pre existing) to aid the problem solving.

A 'green belt' qualification by it self may help within your current role, but without some experience of its use I would question the validity of the 'qualification'. You could do the qualification then apply the methodology at your current employer to make some saving. This would add a little weight to your CV.

It took me / our organisation a couple of years to really get our teeth into this. Many false starts and difficult learning experiences. Since that early stage of my career (since left that company too) - I have found the basis of six sigma extremely useful in various roles I have had.

I hope this helps?


Mike