What does executive leaders, champions, Master Black belt, green belts and black belts mean in Six Sigma?

SIX sigma is not only about techniques, tools and statistics, but the main thing depends upon people. In SIX sigma there five key players:-


· Executive leaders
· Champions
· Master black belt
· Black belts
· Green belts

Let’s try to understand all the role of players step by step.

Executive leaders : - They are the main person who actually decides that we need to do SIX sigma. They promote it throughout organization and ensure commitment of the organization in SIX sigma. Executive leaders are the guys who are mainly either CEO or from the board of directors. So in short they are the guys who fund the SIX sigma initiative. They should believe that SIX sigma will improve the organization process and that they will succeed. They should be determined that they ensure resources get proper training on SIX sigma, understand how it will benefit the organization and track the metrics.

Champions : - Champion is a normally a senior manager of the company. He promotes SIX sigma mainly between the business users. He understand SIX sigma thoroughly , serves as a coach and mentor , selects project , decides objectives , dedicates resource to black belts and removes obstacles which come across black belt players. Historically Champions always fight for a cause. In SIX sigma they fight to remove black belt hurdles.

Master Black-Belt: - This role requires highest level of technical capability in SIX sigma. Normally organizations that are just starting up with SIX sigma will not have the same. So normally outsiders are recruited for the same. The main role of Master Black belt is to train, mentor and guide. He helps the executive leaders in selecting candidates, right project, teach the basic and train resources. They regularly meet with black belt and green belt training and mentor them.

Black-Belt: - Black belt leads a team on a selected project which has to be show cased for SIX sigma. They are mainly responsible to find out variations and see how these variations can be minimized. Mast black belt basically selects a project and train resources, but black belt are the guys who actually implement it. Black belt normally
works in projects as team leads or project manager. They are central to SIX sigma as they are actually implementing SIX sigma in the organization.

Green Belt: - Green belt assist black belt in their functional areas. They are mainly in projects and work part time on SIX sigma implementation. They apply SIX sigma methodologies to solve problems and improve process at the bottom level. They have just enough knowledge of SIX sigma and they help to define the base of SIX sigma implementation in the organization. They assist black belt in SIX sigma implementation actually.

Players in six sigma

 

Related posts:

Six Sigma Certifications

Lean Glossary - Lean Terminology, Lean Definitions

6 Sigma: A scientific and data-driven approach for achieving 6 standard deviations between the mean and nearest specifications limit. Six Sigma methods can be applied to all aspects of manufacturing, transactional processes, and virtually any form of work or processing.

Andon: A system of flashing lights used to indicate production status and alerting team members to emerging problems in one or more work centers. The traditional colors and their meanings are:
green - no problems, yellow - situation requires attention, red - production stopped; attention urgently needed

Six Sigma Certifications

Six Sigma identifies several key roles for its successful implementation.

SIX SIGMA PHILOSOPHY

We don’t know what we don’t know.
  • If we can’t measure it, we really don’t know much about it.
  • If we don’t know much about it, we can’t control it.
  • If we can’t control it, we are at the mercy of chance.

Six Sigma Fundamentals

Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving towards six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process -- from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.

SIX SIGMA QUALITY LEVEL

 

Six Sigma is a quality discipline that focuses on product and service excellence to create a culture that demands perfection on target, every time. It is a mathematical term (Sigma is a Greek word) that represents a measure of standard deviation or variability within a given population around the mean. It represents population that falls within plus or minus six standard deviations. Six Sigma methodologies, provides the techniques and tools to improve the capability and reduce the defects in any process.

Why Six Sigma?


Six Sigma is not just a statistical approach to measure variance; it is a process and culture to achieve operational excellence. Following its success, particularly in Japan, Total Quality Management (TQM) seemed to be everywhere. Sayings synonymous with TQM, such as work smarter not harder, right first time and every time, zero defects, quality is free, fitness for purpose, and the customer is king, became so over-used as to become hackneyed clichés. Although TQM was the ‘in’ management tool in the 1980s, by the 1990s it was regarded by many (especially in the USA) as an embarrassing failure and was written off as a concept that promised much but failed to deliver. Some believe that TQM swung too far towards the ‘soft’ issues of culture, consensus and staff involvement – the ‘country club’ approach. In any event, research by Turner (1993) has shown that any quality initiative needs to be reinvented at regular intervals to keep the enthusiasm level high. Against this background, Six Sigma emerged to replace the ‘tired’ TQM philosophy.