Saturday, November 15, 2008

Six Sigma Green Belt

Are you ready to become a six sigma green belt ? Do you think you have what it takes to pursue your dream of becoming a six sigma green belt? Are you committed in continuous learning and improvement?

Wanting to be a Six Sigma Green Belt

If it is indeed your dream to become a six sigma green belt - you must have the passion and commitment for it. You must seek to become a six sigma green belt for the right reasons. If you are only after the prestige of having a six sigma green belt certification - you have it all wrong to start with.

Passion for Learning

One must have the passion for learning - the goal to improve himself and eventually use these new capabilities in the course of work. Becoming a six sigma green belt requires continuous learning - as you must equip yourself with knowledge on problem solving tools, statistical techniques, leading teams, project management and many more.

Without the true passion for learning - you may just end up frustrated. But if you are truly interested, you will ride the waves of difficulty that arises - and you will respond by learning more of your weak points. With this, you have to read a lot - and learn to apply this.

Six Sigma Green Belt Learning

There will be a lot of material available for you out there - you need to learn as well to not allow these to lead you to inaction. You should know how to pace yourself and learn only those that are relevant to your current undertaking.

There are a lot of good books to learn from. For a general approach about systems, read the works of Deming. You will find his books to be profound. Reading his books will lead you to discussions on variation. Learning variation will bring you to the concept of SPC or statistical process control. The best books on SPC for me are those of Donald Wheeler.

You may also want to strengthen your statistics and you may need to review on the basics. Get yourself Introductory Books on Statistics - and learn from it. Along the way, you may want some advanced stuff as EDA or Exploratory Data Analysis which originated from the works of John Tukey.

Becoming a Six Sigma Green Belt is also about Project Management. As you may know, your approach will be guided by the DMAIC model. At each stage will be deliverables, and without the correct project management skills - you will find it difficult to complete these.

You also need to work on your leadership skills since the six sigma undertaking is a team approach. You must know how to direct the focus of the team and get their support. You must know how to engage them fully for your team to become effective in coming up with the right solutions.

Six Sigma Green Belt Challenge

Becoming a six sigma green belt is indeed a challenge. Are you up to it? For my case, I'm still working at my six sigma green belt project. I still have a lot to learn - but I am doing my best. I'm continuously reading books to further my knowledge.

For your case, if you are serious about becoming a six sigma green belt then you should know what it requires. If you are up to it, then by all means, take the six sigma green belt challenge.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Learn 6sigma

Learn 6sigma - and be competitive.

To learn 6sigma will indeed be challenging. You will be introduced to the 6sigma DMAIC approach and all the 6sigma qualitative and quantitative tools with it. It will be filled with statistical stuff - but an enjoyable one - since you will be learning how to apply it in the real world.

To learn 6sigma - you have to be interested about it - and you should have the discipline of continuous improvement. Having the right mindset to learn 6sigma will be easier for you to absorb all the new information introduced.

There will usually be classroom lectures in order to learn 6sigma - one conducted by 6sigma master blackbelts. Main emphasis will be the DMAIC approach in problem solving. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control Phases or stages. At each stage, there will be tools you can use to be more effective in your problem solving.

To truly learn 6sigma, you must also continually come up with projects so that you will not forget the theories discussed in the classroom setting. You will also learn to analyze which statistical tools or qualitative tools you can use at each stage of your 6sigma problem solving activity.

Your 6sigma blackbelts will be there to help you and guide you as you make your very first 6sigma project. Especially involving statistical tools, you are better off asking your 6sigma blackbelts if you are doing it right. Much is still to be learned of statistics - and only the initiated (your blackbelts) are in the better position to help you out.

It wouldn’t hurt much if you could also do your own research in order to learn 6sigma better. In this way, you will be able to deepen your knowledge of the 6sigma approach. There are a lot of good books out there that you can use as references. For me these includes, Understanding SPC by Donald Wheeler (also his book on Understanding Variation), DOE & SQC by Douglas Montgomery, Improving Quality Through Planned Experimentation by Ronald Moen, Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbox by Michael L. George and many more.

To learn 6sigma is indeed a challenge - yet if you are up to it, you will grow fonder with the scientific approach it uses; you will also see how effective it is in solving your problems. Learn 6sigma - and get that edge.

Learn 6 sigma - it is your key to success.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Six Sigma Execution and Learning

If there is one book that I would recommend to read first - it would be George Eckes' Six Sigma Execution. I find it easier to read - and will not bog you down with lots of statistics stuff. Don't get me wrong, I like statistics - though I still have to learn a lot - but with his book, I found to be practical.

For an appreciation of the DMAIC approach, this book worked for me. And if you need quick results, I would suggest Six Sigma Execution. However, when you do have the time - strengthen your statistics knowledge. This will improve your data analysis skills.

Everyday, I'm trying to find the time to study statistics. The irony of it though - is that the more I study statistics - the more I know that there are lots of things I do not know about it. And thus my passion for getting my hands on various statistics books - both classical and contemporary ones.

The beauty of this though - is that I am continuously learning. And if you love to learn, you will study for the pure joy of it - at least I do.

Lean Manufacturing, VSM and more...

Lean manufacturing is all about eliminating waste in the process - that is whether you are in the service sector or in a manufacturing environment. Lean Manufacturing books actually point out 7 wastes - and these can be broadly categorized as non-value adding activities.

A common way of approaching lean is with the use of VSM (Value Stream Mapping). A good book to study is Learning To See. In essence, VSM documents both information and the physical flow. Then you can put in the details that will be considered when you do an analysis of your existing situation.

When doing the VSM, you first do the current state - and after analysis - you should come up with the future state. In your current state, you place inside kaizen bursts, your opportunity for improvements. Remember though that this is a team approach - so you are actually working this out with your members or teammates. Such events are usually called kaizen events.

Different companies employ kaizen events differently. As can be read in books as well, there is no one correct formula. The key is always in finding one that will fit your case. Blindly following a technique or a formula will not ensure success - it will all depend on your circumstance.

As I've read also, different Toyota Plants have different ways of implementing the concepts of lean manufacturing. So this would mean that if you go to these different plants, you will find that these are not exactly alike. The guiding principles however - I am sure is the same.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Starting with the Basics - Statistics for Six Sigma

While some will downplay the need for statistical knowledge- I am more inclined to believe that this is where the fun really is. Depending though on whether you are a green belt or a black belt - the level of knowledge required may differ. But whatever belt you may be aiming for, it is still a good idea that one has a good grasp of statistics.

With statistics, you will be able to predict, with some degree of confidence - that your solutions will work now and in the future. As is said, one must first understand that the aim of statistics is prediction.

Also, there is more to statistics than what our schools have been used to teaching students. If one doesn't have a statistics or mathematics background - one may never hear of the famous names as John Tukey- the great statistician who invented the box plot, stem and leaf plot and many more. Tukey's famous Exploratory Data Analysis will prove to be useful in one's six sigma undertaking.

Indeed, a lot still has to be learned about statistics. We may not be able to master all the statistical concepts - but at least we know of the existence of the important theories and how we may apply these.

Our aim is not to become statisticians, but continuous improvement pragmatists.

Learn Lean Sigma

How serious are you in learning lean or six sigma?

This is a question only you can answer honestly.
For me, my starting this blog shows how serious I am in learning about lean manufacturing and six sigma.
Lean Manufacturingor what is originally called "Toyota Production System" has sparked my interest on Toyota's way of doing business. A good number of books have been written about TPS (Toyota Production System) - most by consultants and some by those with academic backgrounds. You may be familiar with books as Toyota Way and Toyota Way Fieldbook - both by J. Liker - and are very good books at that. There are also those by Monden, Taichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo and many more.

Six sigmahas also been associated with the companies Motorola and GE. With six sigma, the DMAIC approach came about. Concentrating mostly in reducing variation in a process, six sigma is effective in improving processes. There are many tools in the six sigma package - and this makes it interesting for those individuals pursuing their belts - Yellow, Green, Black and Master Black Belts.

Lean or TPS has their own fanatics - so does Six Sigma. Others prefer using one over the other - and sometimes unnecessarily dismissing the other to be second rate. The challenge however, is to be able to find that right combination so that you get both the benefits of Lean and that of Six Sigma. And this is the very reason why, there are many literature around about Lean Six Sigma- a marriage that has been waiting to happen.

Again, Lean and Six Sigma are not contrary and opposing approaches. To the fanatics, maybe they are - but then, it will all boil down to how you are going to use these. To quote from Deming: "No theory is right or wrong; each can give you a perspective of this world or others. Some perspectives however, are more useful than others.."