Black Belt Training - My current BB journey

[Casana]

I thought I'd share with the group my current bb journey...

My company CEO has decided we MUST become a "Black Belt" company so it was decreed that some of us attend black belt training and start using this training immediately.

The trainers were very good (had lots of previous experience training BB with Motorola), but the first week at least felt like a very basic review of some basic quality tools like histograms, fishbone diagrams, cpk's, etc. I've been to tons of TQM training of all types, plus I passed the CQE exam, so none of this is news to me , to be honest it almost felt like a waste of time aside from the fact that we got to play a bit with the Minitab software.

So far I'm not impressed... I guess the proof will be whether management actually gives us the resources to conduct the improvement projects we've been assigned.

Anyone else out there on a similar "journey"? If so what have been your experiences so far?

 

[Denis]

Hi, I'm about to start attending a Black Belt training course here in the Uk. I have looked at the programme and over the next few months will complete the training. The training is split into 5 seperate weeks approx one month apart. the agenda looks much as the previous post outlines. the initial week 1 is fairly basic stuff, but then moves onto the more complex ideas.

I will try to keep you posted, but this looks like being the right direction to be going, continuous improvement by any name is a good thing.

 

[M Greenaway]

I'd be interested to know if there was really anything new in it, or if it is just a load of old theories re-packaged with a load of new jargon.

 

[Al Dyer]

Re: Black Belt Training

Originally posted by Casana
...trainers were very good (had lots of previous experience training BB with Motorola), but the first week at least felt like a very basic review of some basic quality tools like histograms, fishbone diagrams, cpk's, etc...., to be honest it almost felt like a waste of time...So far I'm not impressed....

Welcome to the world of 6S (Continuous Improvement). Sounds like the boss/owner has had the 6S fairy whispering in his/her ear and wants to spend some money on the fad of the day.

Look around in to Cove and you will find a wealth of information concerning 6S. Don't be surprised if you find it mostly negative. (especially from me!)

 

[gpainter]

Looked at GE's sick sigma training and it is basically old sound quality tools packaged in a new wrap

 

[Denis]

Hi,
Well I've just finished my first week of Black belt training on 6 Sigma. My initial thoughts are that there isn't anything new here either, but even the people who are running the course admit to that!

Where the emphasis seems to lie (IMO) is that you use all the tools available to hopefully resolve the problem.

The only new thing (to me) was the creative thinking aspect, Six hats by Edward De Bono, now I found the human approach and understanding to be very interesting.

Keep you posted.

 

[Al Dyer]

What's happening to 6 sigma Motorola, the stock has dropped from 25 to 15 in the last year? I thought they were the benchmark for this earth shattering new program.

No snide comments, just an "observation" from someone who cares about 6 sigma!

A quote from Implementing Six Sigma, Forrest Breyfogle, 1999, page 32 of preface:

"Six sigma can be very beneficial to improving the bottom line - if implemented correctly.":ca:

 

[Unregistered]

Motorola's current problems arose from the crash in the mobile phone market did it not ?

I guess even a quality product will fail if there is no market for it. Does six sigma address this issue at all ?

 

[Rick Goodson]

Al,

I think you might find this interesting. David Schwinn has 'developed' Six Sigma Simplified (S3). In fact, it is so simplified it has boiled down to PDCA.

How about that, Dr. Deming simply didn't live long enough.

Rick

 

[Casana]

Week 2 of 6sigma training

Well, I finished week 2 of my black belt training last Friday. This time we just reviewed for 4 1/2 days several basic stat tools, like chi2, anova, T-test, F test, etc. For me it was a good, painful review of the stats I had to study for the CQE... Good because I really haven't used any of the tools learned for the CQE and was beginning to forget them... Painful because I can only take stats for so long before my mind gets *fried*.

Again, the most useful thing I got out of the training is learning more of how to use Minitab to do all the number crunching. Still feels like the flavor of the month... since we *can't* do continous improvement unless its thru some fancy program with a fancy name and pedigree of course...

Frankly I'm still cynical about it, mostly because to do anything we'll need resources (for me its TIME resources that I'm worried about) and managers usually just pay lip service to the granting of resources...

LOL, Rick, I like that... PDCA!! What a concept!!!

Next report in a month or so....