The Six Sigma improvement methodology has received considerable attention recently, not only in the statistical and quality literature, but also within general business literature. In published discussions, terms such as "Black Belt"(BB), "Master Black Belt," and "Green Belt" have frequently been used indiscriminately, without any operational definitions provided. It may not be clear to readers exactly what a "Black Belt" is, what training he/she should have, and what skills he/she should possess. Those hiring "Black Belts" may also be confused. The discussants and I have a significant opportunity to clarify how statisticians, quality professionals, and business leaders think about Six Sigma, and quality improvement in general. The specific purpose of this article is to provide a context and forum for discussion of the technical skills required by Six Sigma BBs, with the hope of reaching a general consensus. I focus on BBs since they are typically the backbone of Six Sigma initiatives. Some previously published examples of BB curricula will be referenced, while additional input will come from my experience in various areas of GE, as well as recent general trends in applied statistics. I then present a recommended BB curriculum, and compare it to the Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) criteria. Other relevant issues in developing BBs are also discussed.

CQE Body of Knowledge.
Continued.

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... Six Sigma provided a problem-solving process for Motorola known as MAIC, which stood for Measure,Analyze,Improve,andControl.AsMAICmethodologyeffectivelylinkedandintegrated theindividualtools,employeescouldbetrainedinthisoneapproachthatwasgenericenoughtobe appliedtoawidevarietyofproblems,eliminatingtheneedtoreinventthewheelwitheachnewproject (Antonyetal.,2017).ApartfromMotorola,GEalsoplayedaverysignificantroleinthedevelopment ofSixSigmaasamethodology.AssomeprojectsofGEstalledbecauseofalackofclarityonthe specificproblembeingaddressed,andontheoverallobjectives,GEdecidedtoadda"Define"step atthebeginningoftheMAICprocess,createdtheprocesscommonlyknownasDMAIC (Hoerl, 2001).Theneedforcarefulproblemdefinitioniscriticalasdefinestep-amakeorbreakstepthat often-determinedlong-termsuccessoftheproject. ...

  • Dr. Pankaj M. Madhani Dr. Pankaj M. Madhani

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) enables supply chains to become more efficient and effective in sustaining continuous improvement. The speed, service quality, and the cost of operations impact the supply chain performance. One most popular approach for providing faster responses, improving quality and reducing cost in SCM, is LSS as it combines strengths of both Lean and Six Sigma. LSS is not just about doing things better, it is a way of doing better things. Research establishes complementary relationship of Lean and Six Sigma; summarizes benefits of LSS in SCM and develops various frameworks such as S-V framework and O-T-S framework to emphasize the role of LSS in enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of SCM processes. As a strategic management tool, LSS deployment in SCM is considered to be an important management philosophy, supporting organizations in their efforts to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of operations, satisfy customers and enhance competitive advantages.

... Motorola estimated a reduction in the defects by 94% on semiconductor products in six years from 1987 [14]. Later, Jack Welch adopted the Six Sigma program at General Electric and added one stage as Define (D) in the approach made it as DMAIC [15]. Since its inception, the Six Sigma methodology has been widely adopted in industries with broader application areas. ...

  • Anand Somabhai Patel Anand Somabhai Patel
  • Kaushik M. Patel

In the era of Globalization and technological intervention, organizations are forced to innovate the product and deliverer at a competitive price in the shortest possible time. Hence the organizations have to adopt drastic and quick changes to improve productivity at optimum resources by adopting emerging strategies. Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has grown as one of the continuous improvement strategies in the recent past, evolving from the merger of Lean philosophy and Six Sigma methodology. Lean aims to reduce waste, whereas Six Sigma mainly focuses to reduce the variation. However, the implementation of LSS and sustenance of it is a massive challenge for the organizations. Therefore, this paper aims to understand and to explore the factors responsible for successful implementation of LSS from the literature. The eleven success factors are prioritized as vital few through Pareto analysis. Top Management commitment and involvement, Training and Education, Cultural change, Project Management skills, and link LSS with the business strategy analyzed as the five most significant factors in implementing LSS. This study will help the academicians, researchers, and professionals explore the factors as a research domain and implement LSS more smoothly.

... This MAIC process effectively integrated and linked the different tools to be used at each phase. General Electric GE also played a very important role in the development of the Six Sigma methodology where it added a "Define" step at the beginning of the MAIC process to have the present famous DMAIC approach [41]; this added phase gave stability to the other steps and can be considered as a directive phase of MAIC since the team defined all the essential resources in the project, the objectives and especially having a good definition of the problem and the critical quality. ...

... A major component of 6S is the belt system mentioned previously, which includes the green belts and black belts for typical project leaders and yellow belts for project members (Antony & Karaminas, 2016;Hoerl, 2001). When integrating PM into the 6S method, organisations will need to determine who will analyse the PM data. ...

Six Sigma is one of the most successful quality management philosophies of the past 20 years. However, the current challenges facing companies, such as rising process and supply chain complexity, as well as high volumes of unstructured data, cannot easily be answered by relying on traditional Six Sigma tools. Instead, the Process Mining (PM) technology using big data analytics promises valuable support for 6S and its data analysis capabilities. The article presents a design science research project in which a method for the integration of PM in Six Sigma's DMAIC project structure was developed. This method could be extended, refined and tested during three evaluation cycles: an expert evaluation with Six Sigma professionals, a technical experiment and finally a multi case study in a company. The method therefore was eventually endorsed by 6S experts and successfully applied in a first pilot setting. This article presents the first developed method for the integration of PM and Six Sigma. It follows the recommendations of many researchers to test Six Sigma as an application field of PM as well as using the potential of big data analytics. The method can be used by researchers and practitioners alike to implement, test and verify its design in organisations.

... Customer satisfaction and organizational competitive advantage prowess through service/product quality of Six Sigma strategy exclusively depend on employees' competency of knowledge management and capability development regarding statistical and non-statistical tools. Employees' training and development on customers' knowledge management are vital in collecting, combining, and synthesizing organizational and individuals' knowledge for resourceful management and quality improvement process (Hoerl, 2001). The success of organizational quality improvement strategies requires the use of tacit knowledge through knowledge creation and utilization. ...

The competitive strategies for the survival of local banks and changes in customers' taste for financial products/services have geometrically increased for the Nigerian banks. The banking system is traditionally a service provider. Progressively customers are becoming quality conscious. Six Sigma is a consumer-centric business strategy based on facts and data to satisfy, retained customers, ensure loyalty and profitability. Six Sigma implementation without knowledge management, alignment diminishes profitability, through customer satisfaction, and competitive advantage prowess of the bank. This study examines customer knowledge management and six-sigma as quality assurance practices for the financial sector in Nigeria. Findings show Six Sigma quality assurance practice is still novel in the sector and Nigeria. Six-Sigma Model and the Growth of the Banking Sector in Nigeria

  • Dr. Pankaj M. Madhani Dr. Pankaj M. Madhani

Lean Six Sigma leads to greater efficiency and better quality in the finance and accounting process. Lean Six Sigma helps in solving various issues faced by finance and accounting processes. Applying the principles and discipline of Lean Six Sigma in finance and accounting provides the tools and discipline to strengthen the internal control environment while at the same time ensuring that the information flows are efficient. Lean Six Sigma is the predominant process management methodology for finance and accounting services as it is rapidly transforming how finance and accounting functions are managed. Research provides a set of guidelines in the form of the smooth deployment of Lean Six Sigma in finance and accounting services and develops various frameworks for emphasizing its operational, tactical, and strategic benefits. Research also provides various illustrations of successful Lean Six Sigma deployment in finance and accounting.

  • Anand Somabhai Patel Anand Somabhai Patel
  • Kaushik M. Patel

Purpose This paper aims to develop an initial understanding of the Lean Six Sigma methodology since its inception and examine the few Lean Six Sigma dimensions as a research domain through a critical review of the literature. Design/methodology/approach The paper is structured in two-part. The first part of the paper attempts to dwell on the evolution of the Lean Philosophy and Six Sigma methodology individually and the emergence of Lean Six Sigma methodology, covered under the Lean Six Sigma: a historical outline section. The second part of the study examines the dimensions associated with Lean Six Sigma such as frameworks, critical success factors, critical failure factors, type of industry, performance metric, year, publisher and journal, based on a total of 223 articles published in 72 reputed journals from the year 2000 to 2019 as a literature review. Findings The adoption of Lean Six Sigma, as a continuous improvement methodology, has grown enormously in the manufacturing and few service sectors such as health care and higher education during the past decade. The study revealed that researchers came out with conceptual frameworks for the implementation of Lean Six Sigma, whereas the validation through case studies seems to be lacking. The integration of Lean Six Sigma and other approaches with a focus on sustainability and the environment has emerged as a research field. A few of the most common critical success and failure factors were identified from the articles studied during the study. Research limitations/implications This paper may not have included some of the studies due to the inaccessibility and selection criteria followed for the study. Originality/value This paper will provide an initial introduction on Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma and research insights Lean Six Sigma to beginners such as students, researchers and entry-level professionals.

This chapter provides an overview of Lean Six Sigma discussing - History of Lean Six Sigma - History of Lean - Integration of Lean and Six Sigma - Lean Six Sigma and Innovation - Future of Lean Six Sigma - Holistic Improvement - Big Data This overview helps set the stage for discussing the use of Lean Six Sigma in higher education

Six Sigma is a phenomenon that is gaining wide acceptance in industry, but lacks a theoretical underpinning and a basis for research other than "best practice" studies. Rigorous academic research of Six Sigma requires the formulation and identification of useful theories related to the phenomenon. Accordingly, this paper develops an understanding of the Six Sigma phenomena from a goal theoretic perspective. After reviewing the goal theory literature, these concepts, when applied to Six Sigma, suggest some propositions for future research. This paper can help serve as a foundation for developing scientific knowledge about Six Sigma.

  • R.A. Munro

Auto industry adds new tool for quality improvement.