Client Assessments
Assessments are designed to link key business opportunities and management objectives to actionable project work. Site assessments help us to develop a deeper understanding of the organizational needs, the nature of processes and products, potential candidates for training, and the organization's expectations. It also ensures program efforts are in direct alignment with management objectives and other corporate initiatives.
Additionally, site assessments provide us needed insights in order to customize and refine the training materials to best meet the needs of the individuals and the organization.
Leadership & Infrastructure Development
An integral factor in determining a program's success hinges on providing the management team with a solid understanding of Sigma Science. Our program includes training targeted for both senior level management and the mid-level managers (project managers) who will be sponsoring projects and selecting candidates for training.
The implementation of Six Sigma varies across organizations depending on organizational philosophy, strategy, and the nature of the processes. No matter what the implementation strategy is used, senior and mid-level leadership must be responsible for ensuring efforts are sustained and certain failure modes are addressed so knowledge gained can be effectively utilized in moving the organization into the future.
Executive Leadership Training (1-3 Days)
The senior executive course typically includes a conceptual overview, discussion of metrics, roles and responsibilities of the various levels of the organization, importance of integration of initiatives, examples of typical projects, common failure modes, and potential outcomes. The content clearly demonstrates the power of Sigma Science methodologies as applied to various aspects of the business.
The goal of this is to provide clear program leadership and support within the organization to drive sustainable results.
Project Management Training (3-5 Days)
Operations-level managers are primarily responsible for the selection of individuals to be trained and the projects to be worked. Project leaders and operations managers are positioned to ensure that the organization takes advantage of the process knowledge gained as a result of the project work.
This training provides an overview of the tools, but more importantly addresses issues such as project selection and candidate selection. It also includes a discussion of our training model and the role of managers during Sigma Science deployment. During the training, we address any business specific issues and discuss the behaviors and disciplines required of mid-level management to support long-term gains from the newly acquired knowledge. Only through the support at these levels will culture change be driven. This phase continues throughout the implementation process.
Because operations-level management is so critical we believe there should be at least one management class per four-week Blackbelt course. This course is taught prior to (approximately one month) the Blackbelt level training to optimize results of the project work.
Greybelt (2 week workshop over 2-3 months)
Greybelt Training is designed to equip a larger number of individuals in the organization with the basic Sigma Science tools. Greybelts apply their knowledge to develop initial understanding of processes, measurements systems and current data collection techniques. In addition, they develop a set of questions and theories about improving the processes.
All participants are required to bring a minimum of one project to class. Greybelt projects are smaller in scope than Blackbelt projects, and are often chosen to align directly with or provide the foundation for a Blackbelt project.
Greybelt training is delivered with a hands-on methodology to ensure rapid tool application and immediate generation of business results. Greybelt training may also be used to identify individuals that are willing/capable of continuing on to Blackbelt training.
Blackbelt (4 week workshop over 5 months)
The Blackbelt training is an advanced, more technical program ranging from four to five months in length (training elements). While this course does teach your people very advanced tools and techniques, the training is not tool driven. The appropriate application of any tool or method is preferable to the sequential, repetitive use of a standardized set of tools. Hence, an effective program develops the candidates' critical thinking skills while they build proficiency in the tools.
To successfully learn the methods, application of the thinking and tools is necessary. Therefore, the training is designed to facilitate the use of tools between training weeks (i.e., one week of training and project reviews followed by three weeks of project work). Project reviews and site visits (mentoring) are an integral part of the development of critical thinking and the appropriate application of concepts and methods. Especially for the first sets of individuals through the program, sitesupport is essential. The first few are pioneers of a sort--ambassadors of the new methodology. Their success is critical to the growth of the Sigma Science initiative.
The frequency and periodicity of site visits is based on the rate of project work and the needs of the individual candidates. Phone, e-mail and internet support is used appropriately between classes and site visits to provide a consistent communication between the instructors and the candidates. As Master Candidates (see next section) are developed, this aspect of the work becomes increasingly internal to the organization.
As previously stated, the specific contents are customized to the needs of the organization and its processes or products. However, the core methodologies are covered in most Six Sigma Associate's programs:
- Thought Maps (Critical Thinking)
- Scientific Method * Numerical Evaluation of Metrics (NEM)
- Measurement Systems Evaluation (MSE)
- Process Maps
- Sampling Strategies and Components of Variance (COV) Studies
- Sampling Trees and Factor Relation Diagrams (FRD's)
- Design of Experiments (DOE)
Our material is continually updated and is supported by papers we have written specifically designed to illuminate both fundamentals and advanced topics historically difficult to teach. In addition, we continually develop new modules and tools to support the business needs. Details of the tools and examples of crossindustry customization are provided elsewhere.
Short Course (specially designed support classes)
This course is not designed to replace the Blackbelt or the Greybelt training, but to investigate specific portions of processes to support aggressive organizational goals. It is a very intense course, perhaps more so than even the usual four-week course. Its primary objective is to provide individuals with the ability to critically assess the information available/not available in existing databases and to be able to better understand process variation via critical sampling and data collection.
Thus, the project goals should be directly aligned with this objective. It is expected that individuals in the classroom should be able to generate critical process questions via analysis of their existing data sets, to understand the nature of the variability of critical process parameters, and to strategically sample the process in order to be able to answer specific questions. Hence, typical project scope will include:
- Evaluating/developing new measurement processes;
- Developing thought maps for particular process areas (the analysis of historical data sets should generate better process questions that, in turn, provide guidance in new ways to collect data on the process);
- Process mapping areas of the process believed to be critical for obtaining output parameters;
- Development of sampling plans to understand dominant sources of variation;
- Collecting new data to confirm or invalidate current theories about causes of variation.
Development of Masters (12-18 month program)
An important component of the deployment strategy is the development of Masters. These are individuals who are capable of applying intensive and diversified process improvement techniques to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness no matter what the process type. Six Sigma Associates will provide technical modules, suggested readings, and evaluation of technical skills & teaching methods that potentially lead to recommendation of certification as a Master. The Master Candidate's (MC) organization will provide the opportunity for the MC to participate in the development process and evaluation of performance to include interaction with members of the organization and business results.
The MC will design, in conjunction with the Six Sigma Associates, a twelve to eighteen month development process and document that process in a Personal Development Plan. This plan may build on existing plans, must be detailed, measurable, contain milestones, and tentative schedule of key events.
Internally Sustainable Program & Beyond
Six Sigma Associates provides informal support to Blackbelts and Masters as long as requested at no cost to the organization. These long-term relationships with individuals provide guidance and assistance beyond the formal organizational engagement.
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