Do I need a Six Sigma Certification?
This is a certification crazy world, everyone wants to be different everyone wants to climb up the ladder, its’ a rat race and there is only one that can be crowned. But before you decide on Six Sigma I would plead you to set your basics right about this certification program. Six sigma is an enabler, for the managers it will enable you to take additional responsibility and prove yourself to the rest that you are the one. For the newbies who are searching for a place in the industry, Six Sigma learning’s you get will add to your knowledge and thecertification phrase in your will resume will be your point of differentiation.
Choosing the right place for certification
The best part about “Six Sigma†is that there are no governing bodies to decide on the certification. So there are many avenues to choose from i.e. companies like GE and Motorola providing certification, then there are the consultants and then various institutes. There are a few questions that I think (which are from my personal experience) you need to ask before deciding on an avenue, the answers to which would bring about clarity in your thought.
i. The first and the foremost being, what about the development in terms of value addition that you can achieve by going for the certification,
ii. Second important thing is alignment i.e. will you be able to fulfill your organizational goals and needs/individual goals if you undergo training at some place (since, the course outline is generally different for different facilitators) and then,
iii. The third important point to be kept in mind is will the facilitator strike a balance between theory, practical, case study and assessment
Roles and Responsibility after Six Sigma Green belt
As a green belt holder in Six Sigma, you would have a part time responsibility of leading the six sigma projects
Though a green belt improves the scope of roles and responsibility, the green belt holder performs all acts in her domain i.e. the cross functional aspect stands reserved for the black belt ones
The green belt holder is responsible for defining, measuring, analyzing, improving and control of Six Sigma projects
The green belt will have to often do the cause and affect analysis for any failures in the define phase of the Six Sigma project
Implementing six sigma as a way of doing business for a green belt
Green belts should be able to answer the questions on dependent variable values from historical data by analyzing the value of independent variable
Green belts are responsible for making the organisation a data driven one
Green belt holder is responsible to manage human resource and gain from their experience to develop in-house solution
Green belt holder would be responsible for enabling brain storming sessions which would contribute to solve a problem or bring about innovation in the organisation
Green belt would be responsible for continuous process improvisation
Green belt must act towards more acceptability of co-workers and set the pace of change in the organisation
Green belt should act towards adding value to shareholder as well as the welfare of her peer
Job Prospects
A fresher’s prospective
The world has seen a steady increase in the demand of professionals who have proved their mettle implementing Six Sigma but for a fresher it might be a difficult thing to prove. A six sigma green belt certification for a fresher would imply a resume point which can help her get an edge over the others and cut the crowd with this differentiation at hand. So Six Sigma, is a skill set and a certification which is a definite plus to your credentials and your resume.
A professional prospective
There is a great demand for Six Sigma professionals who have had prior implementation experience in any industry. The demand for Six Sigma professionals is high in the middle management level where the importance of implementation is based on the green belt certification whereas as we go higher up the ladder, for positions in top management requires a black belt with cross functional diversity and experience in implementation, planning and delegation.
Overall, there has always been a demand for Six Sigma professionals who are well equipped with the basic knowledge and have some amount of experience with them to handle complicacies at the process and the human resource management levels.
Career Growth Prospect
The best way to grow in any organisation is by taking additional responsibility, implementing projects and in a way making your efforts and mettle visible to the top management. A Six Sigma certificate will not really fill you with wisdom once you finish the course, even the management understands that. So the credentials that get attached are of little significance unless you are able to implement the same at the grass root level.
There are instances when the middle level managers with green belt certification are preferred for implementing six sigma methodologies over those without certification and once they are able to prove themselves there is no looking back.
Organizational Prospect
Companies are now moving towards in-house development of skills i.e. Six Sigma implementation skills, since they are finding it more and more difficult in hiring consultants who usually charge a hefty amount for their service. As a cost cutting measure, this is a good move but the results though stable are not instantaneous.
There are many reasons to be disheartened but the real return on the course is when you start implementing Six Sigma based projects along your career path. It is normally observed that people with 2 to 3 years experience should mainly opt for the process since the opportunity they get is more compared to a fresher.
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