What are the roles of Six Sigma Belts ?

Just decided to share an article regarding the meaning and importance of Six Sigma Belts, roles and responsibilities of Six Sigma specialists and importance of them in process efficiency and to critical to quality issues within service delivery.

What is “Six Sigma”? Six Sigma at many organizations only means a measure of quality that aims for near perfection. By other words, we can say that it is only three defects per million opportunities (products, processes, transactions etc..) But the statistical implications of a Six Sigma program go further addition the qualitative eradication of customer-perceptible defects. It is a methodology that is well rooted in statistics and mathematics.

The role of Six Sigma defines for the professionals that are in charge of its implementation. Their mastery of the Six Sigma methodology is signified by belt colors, which was adopted from the belt system used in martial arts.   

There are mainly three belt colors:

• Yellow Belt
• Green Belt
• Black Belt

Additionally, the Master Black Belt also being used to a varying extent.

Six Sigma Black Belts

Six Sigma Black Belt Certified professionals are qualified to lead Six Sigma improvement projects usually in a full-time position. Black Belt certified professionalshave an absolute understating of the Six Sigma methodology and have necessary experience and skills to implement the DMAIC process improvement strategy with all its steps. Black Belts need to be familiar with both the underlying philosophy and principles of Six Sigma and all of its statistical tools and support systems. Certified Black Belt is necessary for proper Six Sigma implementation. Black Belts show, work with management on the deployment strategy and help Green Belts complete their projects.

Six Sigma Green Belts

Certified Six Sigma Green Belts are professionals who understand the Six Sigma methodology and all methods and principles, but unlike Black Belts, are not full-time change agents in their organizations. Most managers in a Six Sigma organization tend to be Green Belts because they have other responsibilities for improvement projects, but their understanding of the methodology still needs to be thorough. The main difference lies in the time they devote to it. Green Belts are normally team members in larger projects directed by Black Belts, but can also lead projects of their own if the size of the particular project does not require full-time engagement, or the expected completion time frame is allowed to exceed six months or more.

Six Sigma Yellow Belts

 Six Sigma Yellow Belt professionals are not demanded to have the same depth of experience about the Six Sigma methodology as Green and Black Belts, but they still have some level of knowledge and understanding of all Six Sigma concepts. Yellow Belts are participants who understand the basics of the methodology, and can serve as team members on improvement projects, but aren’t experienced sufficient to lead significant projects of their own.

Six Sigma Master Black Belts

Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belts are highly qualified Six Sigma professionals whose main role is to instruct Black Belts and Green Belts. A Master Black Belt is highly experienced in implementing the Six Sigma methodology, and has a thorough knowledge of the methodology as the whole, and how to implement it at a scale that goes beyond a single improvement project. Master Black Belts are leaders in Six Sigma that devote all their time to supervising all the Six Sigma projects, ensuring consistency and control. Their thorough understating of the statistical tools used by the methodology might have them devote time to significant statistical analysis as well. They have to carry out two distinct and different skills: presenting strong technical and statistical knowledge and coaching and mentoring executive leadership.

The Importance of Six Sigma Certifications

The Six Sigma methodology has stringent certification standards, which mean that certified Six Sigma professional with particular belts colors are the only ones that should perform important improvement projects. This means that when Six Sigma implements in organizations, they can give reliable results and consistency can be maintained at a very high level. This makes Six Sigma experience transferable between organizations of different kinds.