What Is Lean Six Sigma Certification?

Overview

Lean Six Sigma helps companies measure and improve the quality of their products, services, and processes.

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Lean Six Sigma is a business management architecture that combines the Six Sigma quality improvement methodologies with the cost control and reduction techniques of Lean Production. Individuals can obtain Lean Six Sigma certification from various educational institutions and management training companies by satisfying the requisite qualifications established by the particular organization.
Benefits

Obtaining the requisite training for certification in Lean Six Sigma can be a valuable addition to a person's résumé and job skills. Certification provides third-party confirmation of a person's knowledge of the business management methodologies and techniques of Lean Six Sigma. Because there is no industry standard for certification qualification, the value of a particular certification depends upon the quality and reputation of the training program of the institution from which certification is obtained.

History

Six Sigma was developed by Motorola, Inc. in 1986 as a management methodology for detecting and assessing defective products and business processes, as well as for improving the quality of an organization's products, services, and business practices. Lean Production collectively refers to a variety of efficient manufacturing techniques developed by Toyota Motor Corporation and other large Japanese manufacturers in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Function

The methodologies of Lean Six Sigma focus on business analysis, customer requirements, process integration and alignment, management metrics, quality improvement and just-in-time production. Lean Six Sigma uses a team-based, cross-trained organizational model to achieve the adaptability and high quality of craftsmanship with the low costs of mass production methods.
Significance

A sigma level is a metric that counts the number of defects per million opportunities (or DPMO). A metric of Six Sigma is equal to 3.4 DPMO.
Types

Lean Six Sigma borrows a martial arts naming convention for ranking individuals' expertise and mentoring capabilities---green belt, black belt and master black belt. Certifying organizations typically require individuals to be certified as a lower rank before they are qualified for training and certification in the next higher rank.

Overview