Every Six Sigma project requires Green Belts to act as the engine. They are Six Sigma leaders who identify and implement change on a part-time basis under the supervision of a Black Belt. They are deeply involved in the planning of Six Sigma projects in terms of decision making and building out the strategy.

A Green Belt’s training gives them extensive knowledge on how processes work (efficiently or otherwise) on a deeper level. Coupled with their leadership skills, they can effectively manage an entire team of Yellow Belts and drive improvement initiatives.

However, being a successful GB goes beyond education. There are qualities and traits that separate successful GB from the rest. Keep reading to discover the most important ones.

Basically, Six Sigma Green Belts:

• Are usually chosen by upper management in the organization for which they work.
• Compute Sigma values – both short-term and long-term – for the processes in a Six Sigma project, as well as the mean standard deviation.
• Get to the root cause of the problem using Six Sigma’s various tools, e,g. the fishbone (cause and effect) diagram.
• Know what resources can be used in order to make the Six Sigma project successful.
• Have a full-time job with the organization while 25-50% of their workload is devoted to the completion of Six Sigma projects.
• Control the data gathering procedures and come up with performance measures for effective analysis and informed decision making.
• Explain the relationship between customer service and the Kano model.
• Draw a SIPOC diagram for the project.
• Demonstrate the significance of y=f(x) to the project and the processes.
• Have a professional attitude that complements their ability to use Six Sigma’s data-driven methods and tools to improve processes.
• Know all the available resources in a Six Sigma project that will be utilized for its successful delivery.
• Can write a project charter.
• Use charts and graphs to visually represent data in a way that can be easily understood by peers and managers during process improvement.
• Prevent issues that strain peers and managers in order to increase support for Six Sigma within the organization.
• Believe in themselves and can motivate others to do the same.
• Involve their peers in the decision-making and idea generation process to come up with data-driven solutions and to prevent change resistance.
• Don’t manage broad-scale projects that are outside the scope of their expertise like Black Belts do.
• Consider Six Sigma to be an integral part of conducting business.
• Know what differentiates a Pareto chart from a histogram, as well as how to draw these charts.
• Plan, structure and lead brainstorming sessions for better success on root cause analysis.
• Use Minitab and other statistical software to perform basic analytical tests.
• Are passionate about leadership and inspire team members to do their best work in order to benefit customers and stakeholders of the organization.

While this is not an exhaustive list, at the minimum, all Six Sigma Green Belts should possess these traits and qualities. Completing the certification is just the first step. Green Belts must continually ensure they have what it takes beyond education to use Six Sigma to make their organization profitable and competitive.

You can find our Green Belt training program here.

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Today, many companies have managed to get the balancing act of getting costs down and handling manufacturing inefficiencies right. This can mostly be attributed to the adoption of Six Sigma methodologies. However, the level of discipline that is now commonplace with regard to the cost of doing business is sorely lacking when it comes to revenue management. The result is that many companies’ top lines suffer as a result of cash leaks from the revenue side.

1. Definition

Any Six Sigma project begins with the clarification of a problem within business processes and narrowing of the scope to produce measurable goals that can be achieved quickly. A team is then assembled in order to break down each process in minute detail, suggest what can be improved and lay down a plan to implement the improvements. Project managers alongside their sponsors will typically start by examining processes and defining defects in the process that allow salespeople to go against set guidelines laid down by pricing analysts.

2. Measurement

For the second step of the project, the team will gather data and make it ready for analysis. This starts by mapping the pricing process with the help of team members, who fill out the details in each step. In order to generate the necessary information and verify it, the project manager should hold formal and informal interviews with individuals from the major functional divisions, usually: marketing, IT, finance, sales and pricing. The exercise results in a high-level map of the pricing process from start to finish, showing how information flows from step to step.

3. Analysis

After mapping and documentation of the process, the Six Sigma team can start analyzing the data collected. The team will identify ways through which different people or roles do not act as required or fail to effectively control a stage within their area of responsibility. This analysis is aided by a Cause and Effect (C&E) Matrix, a Six Sigma tool which helps to identify and prioritize problems while listing the requirements of the customer from that particular process.

4. Improvement

The results from data analysis lead into the fourth step of the Six Sigma method, which is to recommend modifications of current processes. The aim is to reduce the occurrence of unapproved price quotes without the creation of a tedious approval process, since response speed is of the essence if salespeople are to act fast to close deals. However, this requirement comes with challenges for personnel in pricing. The Six Sigma team therefore needs to provide clear guidelines that help pricing to decide if they should approve larger-than-usual discounts when sales promise them to customers.

5. Control

Finally, the Six Sigma team sets up control measures to allow the company to maintain and add to the improvements in the pricing operations. If prices have been brought under control but a company loses its market share, the pricing guidelines may need to be reviewed further. Sales could also investigate cases where a particular representative is constantly making sales error transactions to find out how the individual is carrying out negotiations with customers.

6. Payoff

When examined from the organizational perspective, Six Sigma pricing has been proven to significantly reduce friction within the relationship between sales and pricing roles. By systematically collecting and analyzing transactions, pricing analysts obtain hard evidence that can counter claims that salespeople typically advance when negotiating discounts with customers.

Why Six Sigma Pricing Is Important

There is a host of challenges related to pricing processes within an organization which could lead to defects’ in the form of unusually high prices or excessive discounts. If discounts offered are excessive, they could directly affect a company’s top and bottom lines. Excessive prices could appear attractive to a company, but its customers will eventually find out that the seller has offered the same product or service at a higher discount to other customers.

The result is that such customers can affect revenues by leaving or reducing their business with the company. Profitability may also be affected because the customers may want to negotiate deeper discounts in the future. Any negative experiences will lead to a perception among customers that a company is an unsuitable or troublesome partner to work with.

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Before You Begin

Planning is integral to Six Sigma project work. Remember, if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Before you commence any project work, ensure you have a sufficient plan to guide you through it. This should include your itinerary, as well as the strategies, techniques, and solutions you intend to employ. When working within a short time frame (weeks or months), it’s important you push yourself to create an effective plan.

Shorter time frames may seem like the easier option, but a lot can go wrong in a short time. Whereas, long-term Six Sigma projects allow you more time to course-correct if something goes wrong. With short-term projects, it’s imperative you take a disciplined and thorough approach to planning will ensure you don’t go off track.

Planning your project properly is beneficial for numerous reasons. Namely, it enables you to determine scope and outcomes. It also allows you to predict any would-be road bumps, and to measure, test, and correct visible problems before you begin. We’ve seen highly promising projects fail due to minor oversights snowballing into massive problems without project leaders realizing. When it comes to Six Sigma project work, you can’t afford to wing it.

In the Thick of It

Learning to leverage your Six Sigma tools effectively hones your creativity, allowing you to develop innovative solutions to problems you encounter. As a Six Sigma professional, you should know how to use your selection and decision-making tools to identify viable solutions. Don’t let yourself fall prey to intellectual snobbery. The answer isn’t always obvious. In fact, it’s sometimes a case of the more creative your solutions, the better. But, on the other hand, complex solutions aren’t always appropriate. Don’t forget about Occam’s Razor, i.e., the simplest answer is most often the right one. Don’t jump on your first idea, as it’s not always the most optimal solution. You should always approach problems from multiple angles to determine how to proceed. Once you understand the problem, you have the best chance of finding the right solution. The most common mistakes made in this area are.

Helpful Tools

We recommend applying hypothesis testing beforehand, to decide how to proceed, and DMAIC once the project has commenced. Hypothesis testing, while relying on data to first suggest a hypothesis, is primarily speculation. It helps to give ideas a test-run first, as doing so draws attention to problems that may crop up later. DMAIC, on the other hand, produces a data-centric understanding of problems you discover, on which you can then act. It’s essential to act quickly on short-term Six Sigma projects, and DMAIC provides all the tools for you to make short work of difficulties as they arise.

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What Makes a Black Belt Project?

You make the project, not the other way around. A Six Sigma project with a Black Belt as project leader is automatically a Black Belt project. There are no special criteria for it to qualify. All you need worry about is the scope and project duration. Black Belts liaise with Master Black Belts, supervisors, and project champions and have a lot of influence over how the project goes forward. By ensuring unanimity among all those involved, you can rest assured you have a great Six Sigma Black Belt project.

Finding the Best Black Belt Project

Finding a top Six Sigma project for a Black Belt doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, you should be using a different approach altogether. Don’t ask: What’s the best Six Sigma project for Black Belts? Instead, ask: What makes the best Six Sigma project?

You can do just about anything as a Black Belt. Your skillset is fluid and extensive, which is why you should make the most of it. But such a wide range of options can sometimes become overwhelming, not to mention paralyzing. The solution is to search for projects that aren’t too trivial or complicated, that provide sufficient room to flex your muscles. Apply your skills to the project. Searching for the ideal project with the perfect problem will undoubtedly prove fruitless. Black Belts are highly flexible, and you shouldn’t confine yourself to anyone type of project. Not when there are so many options available to you.

Always look at the contents. What problems does your potential project deal with? If a problem can’t be quantified or measured, it doesn’t exist. Great Six Sigma projects allow you to measure the friction and losses that result from problems, whether they arise on the manufacturing floor or in administration. While some short-term projects have immediate financial benefits, we recommend projects likely to benefit you in the long-term.

What to Look Out For

Ensure your Black Belt project has a well-defined goal and an achievable timeframe. We’ve seen Six Sigma students take on more than they can handle, which puts a major damper on productivity. Reducing scope leads to wasted time, work, and funding. You can avoid losses like these by selecting the best project in the first place. Here are some key features of great Black Belt projects:

• Deals with advanced process issues, like variation and waste.

• Deals with issues for which you have received an audit or citation.

• Potential for advanced Six Sigma techniques: benchmarking, DMAIC, Design of Experiments, Minitab software, poka-yoke.

• Implements Lean and Kaizen.

• Potential to improve leadership protocols.

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How Do We Use Machine Data Capture?

The types of machine data your computer systems collect will vary. It can range from the volume of satisfactory products to sell vs. rejected sub-standard ones to machine capacity effectiveness and utilization. Additionally, your systems should also monitor factors like machine cycles, production time, availability and reliability. Machine status is an equally critical component of MDC and denotes a whole spectrum of important production factors. These factors include primary and secondary time, breakdowns and maintenance, as well as service requirements.

But what happens to all this data? How do businesses use it? It’s simple. All your captured data travels through interfaces where your manufacturing execution system (MES) collects and collates it. Think of your MDC as the gold miner and the MES as the sieve through which they filter all the information they collect. The combined MDC data and MES findings allow you to use data effectively. Furthermore, your goal is to use your data to plan and push production in the direction you want it to go. That is, toward achieving optimum conditions. This allows for increased productivity and better results.

How Can Six Sigma Improve Data Collection?

You’re probably wondering, how does Six Sigma fit into the equation? Six Sigma improvement projects are an extremely reliable method for process improvement. It allows you to make the changes necessary for a strong data collection plan. Moreover, Six Sigma project leaders, usually Black Belts, employ DMAIC to define, measure, analyze, improve, and control data collection processes. There are several prerequisites you must meet for an effective data collection plan.

First, we have the pre-data collection steps. Ensure your project team defines your data collection goals. What data do you need? Equally, for what purpose will you use it? What insight will it offer and what do you wish to achieve through collecting it? Using tools like brainstorming, affinity diagrams, and root cause analysis can help generate answers to these questions.

The project team should then be able to agree on your plan’s methodology and operational definitions. Teamwork is always most effective here, and we recommend examining previous data to compare to the current. It’s essential that you determine whether past, present, and future data will factor into the data collection plan, plus what methodologies you are likely to use. Skipping this step will certainly deliver insufficient, if not deceptive, results. Finally, it is essential you ensure the repeatability, accuracy, stability, and reproducibility of your data collection and measurement. Once you have defined and planned your data collection process using the above data, you can then move forward. Black Belts can oversee implementation and to nudge it in the right direction, should you run into any obstacles.

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Green Belt Training: Week 1

Green Belt Training: Week 2

Exclusive Benefits of Our Six Sigma Green Belt Training

• Green Belt students benefit from our Master Black Belt instructors whose extensive knowledge and experience enable them to offer support and project consultation. We also offer project review and certification.

• Furthermore, 6Sigma.us provides invaluable data files and templates you can use for future certification and professional projects. We also provide samples of basic projects and generic Project Charters, and up to 3 hours of remote support. (For up to 6 months after training or project completion.)

• Additionally, on-site Consulting services are available at a special rate for our Green Belt students. These services are also available for other Belt levels.

• Moreover, as an IACETand PMI®* accredited provider, there are CEUs and PDUs available for each Belt level, including Green Belt.

• Our aim is to include more Green Belt-appropriate Lean tools and techniques as time passes. That way, you’ll get the best of both worlds!

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