Six Sigma

[cryingmime]

Is anyone on the list six sigma certified, either as a Green Belt, Black Belt or Master black belt? If so, has it helped your career at all/are you in a position solely as an analyst, or was it just a certification that you got just to have it?

r

[jread]

What?

[last_caress]

What?

It's like five sigma but one higher.

[cryingmime]

A Quick Synopsis:

Six Sigma is a method of analyzing statistical data to improve performance and correct defects. it's goal is to have only 3.4 defects out of 1 million of whatever it is you do. it's very involved and nearly impossible to attain. few companys can perform at this level in everything that they do. Big companies that use it: Motorola, GE, 3m, Ford, PepsiCo, Dow Chemical.

Example: a company makes widgets. they make a million a day. of those million, 10 are labelled as "defective" and disposed of. Six Sigma would analyze all the steps/processes/machines/etc. that go into making the widget and would create a process by which the amount of defects can be reduced to fewer than 3.4/day.

EDIT: The Definition of Six Sigma (http://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/Six_Sigma-85.htm)

[Johnny]

It's Dow Chemical, not Dow chemicals.

I blame six sigma

No that's a lie. If it took a six sigma project to offer this correction to you, we'd be bogged down in the six sigma process for six months before this correction could be mentioned in public.

Six Sigma really doesn't work very well as a solutions tool. It works best as a comprehensive evaluation tool for problems out there in the world, to guide people who have no idea what's going on and don't have a clue what to do about anything.

Me, I approach problems because I recognize them and see them already. I'm not searching for problems that may or may not be in my field of vision. And for me, by the time I've issued a problem for public scrutiny I already have at least one solution to propose that I think has a chance of working.

So I don't have a whole lot of respect for six sigma. It just gets in the way of getting things done for me. But if I was a high ranking manager who was used to only making sure people were doing something productive but didn't really have a clue what that was (LOL), then I would see great value in it.

Stockholders are another group that rightly sees value in six sigma...

[cryingmime]

Actually, there's a way to rush six sigma...not by much...but it would make it only take 5 months. woo hoo! one month to work on the next initiative!

r

[eyebyte_atWork]

Six Sigma trained - but not certified.

being a programmer - I am not sure how it could ever help. I am always told what to do.

[Hustler]

The whole premise smacks of buzz wordism. What's more, it seems sort of retarded. For a given business, there is going to be a rate of defects per total units produced/shipped/whatevered beyond which it is economically unviable to improve. Is this at the six sigma mark? Maybe, but it could just as well be at the 3 sigma mark or 10 sigma mark, depending on the business.

[jread]

I think I'm too dumb to understand this. Maybe I'll come back later this summer after I finish my statistics class.

[eyebyte_atWork]

The whole premise smacks of buzz wordism. What's more, it seems sort of retarded. For a given business, there is going to be a rate of defects per total units produced/shipped/whatevered beyond which it is economically unviable to improve. Is this at the six sigma mark? Maybe, but it could just as well be at the 3 sigma mark or 10 sigma mark, depending on the business.


It is retarded - it's what manager hinge on to give promotions to other managers.

I tried to understand it once - my eyes glazed over like an over worked hooker. It is, from what I can tell, crap.

Ofcourse if I was sigma six certified I am sure I would have a different opinion.

[mgb]

This is our most ESTJ thread ever.

I feel like someone is sitting at the front of a long table in a meeting room telling us how Six Sigma is going to make our lives so much better. I mean SO MUCH BETTER!!!!

[coffeezombie]

It sounds like another corporate fad. I remember learning about "kaizen" at an old job that I had.

[Tolbruk]

Its not really a fad, its been around since the early '90s.

I have a Green Belt. I've led 1 project (it was cancelled on further analysis), and particpated on 2 others. DMAIC is a good methodology, but it drives me nuts when companies look at it like its the end all and everyone should do a Six Sigma Project regardless of there function. Usually they wisen up after awhile.

DMAIC: http://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/DMAIC-57.htm

EDIT: I forgot to answer your other questions..
...if so, has it helped your career at all.... marginally. Black Belts seem to have the best career enhancement from Six Sigma.

/are you in a position solely as an analyst.... yes...was Systems Analyst, now Business Analyst.

or was it just a certification that you got just to have it? ....yes..that too. We were told we had to be Green Belt trained.

[Tolbruk]

Ok, so I lied...its been around since the mid-80's...but didn't get popularized until Jack Welsh used it at GE in the '90s.

http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020815a.asp

[eyebyte_atWork]

It sounds like another corporate fad. I remember learning about "kaizen" at an old job that I had.


Funny - I remember that stuff too. From a little consulting company known simply as AC.

[kendoiwan]

Six Sigma... they come, everybody shapes up... they leave everyone goes back to doing things however they did it before those guys showed up.

The End

[eyebyte_atWork]

Six Sigma... they come, everybody shapes up... they leave everyone goes back to doing things however they did it before those guys showed up.

The End


More like everybody learns the new talk - but still does things all messed up - so things are not efficient - so a new paradigm needs to be played out.

[kendoiwan]

More like everybody learns the new talk - but still does things all messed up - so things are not efficient - so a new paradigm needs to be played out.

Maybe at your job, but at my job, my original post stands

[Xenophon]

Six Sigma means that the tolerable limits of your production are six standard deviations from the mean. From a purely statistical standpoint, there are two ways to achieve this, 1) make your production process better, therefore decreasing the standard deviation in your products, or 2) Relaxing the tolerable error specifications on your product.

I don't really understand how this concept has become a managerial tool, as everybody else has been saying, I think it is just a buzzword.

I have a second dan black belt (what the hell is a master black belt?) and I have it on my resume. I don't know if it has ever helped me find a job, but I know that it has definately helped me with things like confidence and leadership, which make me better at the jobs that I do.

[eyebyte_atWork]

Six Sigma means that the tolerable limits of your production are six standard deviations from the mean. From a purely statistical standpoint, there are two ways to achieve this, 1) make your production process better, therefore decreasing the standard deviation in your products, or 2) Relaxing the tolerable error specifications on your product.

I don't really understand how this concept has become a managerial tool, as everybody else has been saying, I think it is just a buzzword.

I have a second dan black belt (what the hell is a master black belt?) and I have it on my resume. I don't know if it has ever helped me find a job, but I know that it has definately helped me with things like confidence and leadership, which make me better at the jobs that I do.


The belts discussed are six-sigma belts - which I always found funny as a former martial artist.

[Nighthawk]

I'm also six sigma trained, but not certified. It is a huge thorn in my side. I consider it, as Hustler stated, to be "retarded" when applied to the software industry. It is trying to apply a manufacturing, assembly-line mentality to something where no assembly line exists. It is hard to apply six sigma to a fluid, creative process. In its current form, where I work, it is mostly a hindrance to my job.

We have a group of green belt and black belt SJs here at work, flaunting their diplomas on their desks and bookshelves, yet having no idea what is involved in creating software. They can make decent project plans though.

As an aside, most of the defect tracking data we provide to our bosses is bogus and massaged to obtain the desired end result. For example, we count comments and white space in code to provide more lines as the denominator with which to divide total number of defects. Personally, I think the entire concept of using lines of code as a metric is stupid, but what do I know ... I don't have a belt.

[eyebyte_atWork]

... but what do I know ... I don't have a belt.


Yeah - you are a level 2 padowan learner.

[LuridLemur]

So, uh, we're not talking about martial arts?