Useful Sites

http://www.sixsigmaonline.org/index.html

This site will help you to determine if Six Sigma training is right for you. Do you require additional training for your job? Are you open minded to Six Sigma improving your overall quality of life? Do you think Six Sigma can help you better understand the operations and productions management improvement methodology? Does Six Sigma work? What exactly will change when you achieve Yellow Belt, White Belt, Green Belt or any Six Sigma certifications? These are all questions you should ask yourself and research before pursuing any type of Lean or Six Sigma training.

 http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/

The site above gives valuable information to show you what Six Sigma companies are out there and what the possibilities are. If you have any interest in Six Sigma and the implementations that are put in to a business, then this site would be good for you to look at. Awards, salaries, charts and statistics are all available on this site.

http://www.lean101.ca/

The Site above leads to 101 Lean online courses relating to Government, Engineering, Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing and more. This site will help you determine what steps are necessary to take when pursuing Lean qualifications in your field. It is a good insight to what your future career may hold for you and what the possibilities are for promotions.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Current-Trends-in-Six-Sigma-Projects&id=2564377

Certain Challenges and obstacles can get in the way of Six Sigma implementation. This is just another website to help figure out how Six Sigma can be used and when it should be used. It is also good Insight to the effects of Six Sigma implementation.

http://www.sixsigmasystems.com/faq.htm

There are many definitions regarding Six Sigma, Lean and all of the qualifications around them. They can be quite confusing and may take some research to figure it all out. Most questions you may have about Six Sigma and business can be answered by looking at this website. Questions like what is Six Sigma? and what size of business can it apply to? are asked and answered here. If you are unfamiliar with any type of certification then your inquiries can be fulfilled here as well.

References

Chalene Bursch. (August 12, 2010). Job Details. Sr Project Manager Six Sigma/ASQ. Retrieved August 12, 2010 from http://jobs.isixsigma.com/getjob.asp?ID=12737

Forrest Breyfogle. (August, 2005). 21 Common Six Sigma Problems (and What To do About them). Finally, the answers you’ve been looking for. Retrived August 11, 2010 from

http://www.smartersolutions.com/pdfs/articles/57WhatisMissinginSixSigma.pdf

greenbelt6sigma. (October, 2008). Six sigma green belt training. Retrieved August 11, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiJ3Bkz94WU&NR=1


Michele McDonough. (May, 2009). Top Six Questions About Six Sigma. What’s the difference between Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma?. Retrieved August 12, 2010 fromhttp://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/3417.aspx 

Robbins International. (2010). Romote/Online Yellow Belt Program. Business or Healthcare. Retrieved August 11, 2010 from http://www.lean2020.com/yel_blt.html

Coclusions

In conclusion the overall benefit of implementing a Six Sigma program in to an existing business far outweighs the problems.  As long as the right facilitator implements the right Six Sigma and Lean tools necessary for the task, then everything should go according to plan and improve the operations and productions.

Certificates with Six Sigma qualifications from the White Belt level to the Black Belt instructor level can be great and useful no matter what field of business and individual works in. Any knowledge gained from Six Sigma strategies can be useful even if no qualifications are earned. Simple knowledge of improvement methods and operations philosophies can prove to have benefit.

The career opportunities are all out there with many jobs and careers as Six Sigma facilitators and team members. Even the field you are interested in can use Six Sigma to better the flow of business, reduce waste and potentially produce more profits. Profits such as time, more material, supplies and of coarse money can all be achieved from correct Six Sigma implementations.

It is important to understand the difference between the two commonly used business solutions Lean and Six Sigma. Sometimes Lean is the only necessary implementation required and other times full Six Sigma programs are needed for even minor improvements.

Even though Six Sigma can be a great tool for improving business, profits and the operations and productions management and much more, there can still be flaw set in the system that could hinder a business plan and do the opposite of what is intended. This can happen with poor implementation skills coming from the Six Sigma associate or associates. This can also happen when the wrong Six Sigma solutions are set in place.

So all together Six Sigma is worth looking in to and doing research on to see if it can better your business, your work place or your life.  

Problems with Six Sigma

Unfortunately there is no real problem solving method that can be fitted to any business and/or business situation. Every problem in the business world is different and requires a different approach to finding a solution. Often time corporations run in to these problems with Six Sigma because the right tools and facilitators are not being used. Sometimes the problem may be so far down the management chain that communication between higher level employees and lower level employees is not clear enough to solve the problems effectively and immediately. The right skill sets may not even have been learned from a Six Sigma consultant either. A Green Belt Six Sigma coordinator may be attempting to solve a problem that could be more suited for a person with Black Belt Qualifications. Smartersolutions.com has a list of twenty one problems with Six Sigma. One of which relates to this post.

http://www.smartersolutions.com/pdfs/articles/57WhatisMissinginSixSigma.pdf. This URL leads to the Smart Solutions website and describes all of the twenty one problems with Six Sigma that have been found in certain businesses. 
"Our team is having difficulty determining which tool to use when. Tool selection is important but can be confusing to novices. It is important to have and use Six Sigma project execution roadmaps combined with 

effective coaching. This will help a team choose the right tool for the situation at hand." (Forrest Breyfogle III, 2005)

The difference between Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma

"Lean Six Sigma is a melding of Six Sigma components with those from Lean Manufacturing. While Six Sigma focuses on the quality of the final product or service, Lean is primarily concerned with speed and the elimination of waste and unnecessary steps. In Lean Six Sigma, these two approaches are consolidated in recognition that both speed and quality are important." (Michele McDonough, 2009)

This quote comes from the Bright Hub website (http://www.brighthub.com/) and can be found in the Business section. The article is answering the top six questions about Six Sigma and one of the questions is what's the difference between Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma?
Basically the most common answer is that Lean focuses on the production of a product or service and Six Sigma works on the production as well as the final product/service itself. Whatever is going to be in the customer's hands is what Six Sigma tries to improve. This answer can be compared to the answer above.

Six Sigma - Career Opportunities

There are many opportunities build a career using Six Sigma. An individual can train others, implement Six Sigma in to a business or work inside or outside an organization that employs you. If anybody feels they have enough Six Sigma training, knowledge and business background then they start an organization themselves presenting all the qualifications clients will want to see. Any member of an existing organization can simply upgrade skills and learn more to benefit their current employer. This can be done by achieving Six Sigma qualifications such as White, Yellow, Green or even Black Belts in Six Sigma qualifications. These qualifications are knowledge recognition to any holder. Any holder of these types of qualifications can use the knowledge gained to benefit their job environment. Process control, process management skills, team work improvement and waste reduction are all valuable skill sets that can be contributed by one person with Six Sigma training. The Job Shop or http://www.isixsigma.com/ has job postings that can give a very good idea of what a Black Belt Six Sigma job posting looks like. This information is also useful for identifying what skill sets are required, what the job itself entails and what a person with Six Sigma qualifications will be doing the real world of business. This link will lead to a job posting found on http://www.isixsigma.com/ and is a good insight to Six Sigma qualifications. http://jobs.isixsigma.com/getjob.asp?ID=12737

Certifications with Six Sigma

There are a number of certifications with Six Sigma that can help anybody gain better experience and knowledge of process reengineering. All of the Six Sigma and Lean certifications are attainable through courses and different schools and are all recognized in the business world, particularly in any Human Resources department. Some certificates, such as a White Belt certification, can be as inexpensive as $20 CAD. This small and easy to attain certification can be stamped on your resume and remain there forever for a small price. Having such certifications can show any potential employer, business colleague or any person for that matter that you have decided to take the first step in Six Sigma certification and are beginning to learn about process management and control measures. Yellow Belts can be attained after earning a White Belt and then after that a Green Belt can be earned to promote your Six Sigma and Lean understanding. Many companies refer to Six Sigma knowledge and certifications as a "tool box" which can be opened anytime to help solve problems. Robbins International is a site that has useful information regarding certifications in Six Sigma. Robbins International even had online multiple-choice tests that will grant anybody White, Yellow and Green Belt certifications providing the right test scores have been achieved. There are demonstrative videos to help prepare for the online Tests as well. Robbins International information on Yellow Belt certification can be found at the following link.
http://www.lean2020.com/yel_blt.html.
More information about Six Sigma certifications can be found at the Villanova University website. Villanova University also has Six Sigma credentials available as well. Rather than a quick test, there is more education behind the Certifications. More information is available at http://www1.villanova.edu/.

In depth look at what Six Sigma is.

Six Sigma - to better business. There is always a way to make an improvement in a business. It can be in the supply chain of the business, the management and management levels and even the product or service being sold itself. As newer technologies and new theories in business arise as time goes on, more and more modern ways of improving systems become more abundant. The Greek letter sigma means performing defect free work.
If a company or organization has a high sigma value, then that indicates there are fewer errors in attaining the sigma score. A video that better explains this theory can be viewed by folloing the link in this post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiJ3Bkz94WU&NR=1.

The ultimate goal of Six Sigma is to reduce the DPMO (Defects Per Million Opportunities).

What is Six Sigma?

What is Six Sigma? How can it help me in my career? Does it make a large impact? Data and statistical analysis is used to find "problems" or "inefficiencies" within almost any business and with discipline can fix what needs improvement or is unwanted. It is an improvement methodology and management philosaphy. Six Sigma is used by many companies all over the world and is constantly improving the way these companies operate and are overall managed.