The value of Six Sigma skills for enterprises is clear. From helping in the successful completion of projects and in improving productivity, to waste and cost reductions in businesses, Six Sigma practices have benefited organizations. 3M, Amazon.com, Boeing, Dell, and Wipro are few of the top enterprise organizations benefiting from Six Sigma practices.
The demand for qualified and certified professionals has also been on the increase. It is estimated that certified Six Sigma professionals have an advantage of more than $ 15,000 hike in their salary when compared to their non-certified peers. On an annual basis, this amounts to over $ 165,000!
If you are making decisions about Six Sigma, we hope this article helps you make the right decisions in terms of investing on the more-suited Six Sigma certification and the right training partner.
If you wish to be validated for your skills in deploying Six Sigma tools and techniques effectively in your organization, then this is the right certification for you. The certification has become a mandate for Quality Specialists who wish to advance in their career in Quality Management. The certification journey is quite a rigorous one that aims at training professionals in advanced skillsets through its different levels of certifications. It is also a booster that helps you with hikes in your salary.
If you’re already in Quality Domain, you’ll be aware of certain important factors like: the industry needs, the level of knowledge expected of professionals at the different rungs in the processes in your organization, the available resources in this domain in your organization, the kind of Six Sigma tools and techniques that your organization uses and so on. With this knowledge, you can cross-check the course content with the requirements, before making the final choice.
On the other hand, if you are new to the arena, researching on certain basic industry requirements and qualifying yourself in the foundational levels should help you edge ahead.
There is no single body of accreditation to certify from in Six Sigma. While some organizations, like Motorola and GE, take the initiative to train professionals by themselves, there are also training providers who offer training and certification in Six Sigma level of certifications.
First-party certification denotes self-declaration in the part of professionals who declare to have met the criteria of Six Sigma certifications.
Second-party certification is when a company or a training partner create their own certification program with their own set of validators.
Third-party certifications, refer to those that identify and validate that product, process or service meets standards and criteria that are independent of any industry. These are reviewed by independent, impartial associations that maintain the industry standards. American Society for Quality (ASQ) and International Association of Six Sigma Certification (IASSC) are some standard third-party accreditations.
Second-party certification has become the norm in Six Sigma levels of certifications. This way, you can choose the training provider based on your needs.
With good research, you can compare and contrast organizational/professional needs with the course content of different training providers and choose that which suits your needs best.
One thing to note here is that, just as course contents differ from each of the second-party certification providers, so does the demarcation of content that goes into the different levels/ belts of the certifications.
So, ‘needs’ of the professional, is the core criterion to be kept in mind while deciding on the training provider.
Six Sigma, as a customer-driven quality-control program, is advantageous in plenty of ways. From retaining customers, helping employees effectively in time management, reducing cycle time in processes, to effective strategic planning and supply chain management, Six Sigma abounds in benefits to organizations. However, there is a flip side to the coin.
As a vigorous program that has a “defined limit of about 3.4 defects per million products or service processes”, it can create rigidity in its deployment, thereby delaying processes. Also, with greater emphasis on customer satisfaction, it may underplay the value of internal quality-control measures of a company.
Further, this is a program that can only be conducted by employees who are trained in Six Sigma. For smaller businesses, this is a pricey expenditure, as providing Six Sigma training for employees or employing Six Sigma certified employees is expensive.
But the benefits are immense and as more and more organizations are coming to adopt Six Sigma in their processes, particularly those involved in manufacturing, the demands for certified professionals is on a steep increase.
No comments:
Post a Comment