Six Sigma Black Belts and Associations
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Have you heard about Six Sigma Black Belts? If
not, you may wonder what they are all about and if there is a
need for them in associations. While this terminology may be new
to some, it is becoming part of every day language in Top 100
organizations.
Several months ago I was reviewing the resumes of 170 candidates
for a President and CEO position with a not-for-profit organization.
As I did, I noticed a considerable number of candidates were from
the for-profit sector. At least one out of every five of the stronger
candidates from the for-profit sector referred to Six Sigma in
their resumes. I saw this as an interesting trend.
Six Sigma has been in the for-profit sector for some time. In
fact, Motorola claims credit for introducing the concept of Six
Sigma back in 1986. It was developed in response to increasing
complaints from the field sales force about warranty claims. As
a result, an ever increasing quest for quality has created another
growing movement.
Six Sigma was originally created as a continuous quality improvement
technique that is changing direction from counting defects to
dealing with strategy, processes and performance. Others, like
GE, have contributed to the development of today's concept.
What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a rigorous, focused and highly effective implementation
of proven quality principles and techniques. It supports an aggressive
continuous improvement strategy and process. It incorporates elements
from many quality programs but goes to the next level. It uses
a structured systems approach to problem solving and strongly
links initial improvement goal targets to bottom-line results.
The approach involves measuring defects to the Six Sigma standard
of 3.4 problems per million which is lower than the norm but closer
to customer expectations. Sigma, is a letter in the Greek alphabet
used by statisticians to measure the variability in any process.
Six Sigma aims for virtually error free business performance.
The measurement and related methods rely on a handful of tried
and true tools and techniques that have been around for decades.
On the other hand, it is has been reported that TQM has close
to 400 tools and techniques.
Six Sigma methodology is becoming popular because it has proven
to be successful. Six Sigma allows businesses to make intelligent
decisions about where and how to incorporate improvements whether
in manufacturing and/or service-related transactions. Some spectacular
Six Sigma "success stories" at large corporations have
been widely publicized and capture the imagination of many business
leaders.
Most notable is Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric who said,
"Six Sigma is the most important initiative GE has ever
undertaken--it is part of the genetic code of our future leadership."
GE has documented about $700 million in benefits from increased
productivity and decreased waste. Motorola claims $16 billion
in savings.
Six Sigma requires total commitment and is an expensive investment.
Senior management must buy in. This type of return creates buy-in
– it is why investing in Six Sigma programs is increasingly
considered a mission-critical best practice, even among mid-sized
and smaller firms.
BENEFITS OF SIX SIGMA: Increased productivity,
cycle time reduction, higher throughput, reduced defects, high
levels of outgoing quality, standardized improvement methodology
across the organization, a set of techniques and tools to simplify
improvement efforts, greater customer satisfaction, and, dramatic
improvement in the "bottom-line".
The basic approach is to measure performance on an existing process,
compare it with a statistically valid ideal and figure out how
to eliminate any variation. There are five steps: define, measure,
analyze, improve and control. Once you have identified a problem
and formed a team, the following stages in a Six Sigma Project
are followed:
Define
What are the project goals and boundaries? What are the issues
that need to be addressed to achieve the higher (better) sigma
level?
Measure
What is the current situation? What is the data on current process
performance? What is the acceptable range? What are the problem
areas?
Analyze
What are the root cause(s) of quality problems? Do the data analysis
tools confirm the causes?
Improve
What solutions need to be implemented to that address the root
cause(s)?
Control
How are things going with the solutions? What does our evaluation
tell us?
A Black Belt usually leads a team through the stages.
Black Belts and Green Belts
Six Sigma takes a handful of proven methods and trains a small
cadre of in-house leaders, known as Six Sigma Black Belts, to
a high level of proficiency in the application of the tools, techniques
and technology. They are not Judo experts - they are managers
and employees responsible for implementing process improvement
projects. The belts refer to different roles of six sigma personnel
within an organization.
Green Belts are employees that learn a subset of the Black Belt
program with emphasis on methodology and intermediate-level quality
tools. They serve as team leaders for process improvements as
part of their full time job.
The teams use extremely rigorous data collection and statistical
analysis to seek out sources of errors and to find ways to eliminate
them. Their aim is to achieve higher levels of satisfaction and
reduce operating costs. Being an expert in statistics is not necessary
to get a belt.
There is, of course, a Master Black Belt who acts as the organization-wide
Six Sigma program manager. This manager oversees Black Belts,
process improvement projects, provides guidance and teaches members
of the team.
Like most quality and improvement initiatives there are things
to do and not do to successfully implement a Six Sigma Project.
The experts suggest you start small and keep things simple. Focus
on savings and product quality or service improvements. Support
people as needed. Measure progress and reward and promote success.
Companies are now predisposed toward hiring and promoting employees
fluent in Six Sigma language and adept at its methodology. Six
Sigma knowledge is imperative for executive level promotions and
Green Belt training is required for a management position. Compensation
is often linked to Six Sigma. Hence, the reference to Six Sigma
in resumes.
Associations and Six Sigma
Can associations benefit from Six Sigma? Do you need a Six Sigma
Black Belt in your association?
There is always a need to reduce defects and improve member services.
Need is offset by the investment required and resources available.
If you are a larger association and want to remove product or
program defects and increase efficiency, Six Sigma may be for
you. If your association is small and/or primarily provides services
which are difficult to subject to statistical analysis, then Six
Sigma may not be for you. However, the stages in the Six Sigma
approach do work and could be applied to assist with some of your
continuous improvement efforts.
Association managers often operate with limited resources and
while they don't need to be Six Sigma Black Belts, they do need
to subscribe to similar practices to support ongoing quality improvements
for members. An important element in improvement activity is having
a reliable knowledge gathering processes and databases to support
decisions. Perhaps this is a good first step on the road to Six
Sigma.
Should you find out more about this flavour of the decade? The
response to this may depend on your capacity and interest to commit
to continuous improvements and quality for members.
This column features innovation and practical solutions applied
to challenges, trends, issue and opportunities for the association
community. Column editor Jim Pealow, MBA, CMA, CAE is a consultant
and the Association Management Education Program Lead Instructor/Coach
for CSAE. He can be reached at jim@amces.com.
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