How Does Six Sigma Green Belt Certification Help Professionals

22nd November 2019

How does six sigma Green belt certification help professionals?
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Seven Steps academy is offering Lean Six Sigma certification training on behalf of American Society of Quality – ASQ South Asia.  American Society for Quality (ASQ) is a worldwide globally recognized body, which has more than 85000 Quality professionals as members, who are experts from a wide spectrum of industries, educational institutions, medical colleges and hospitals etc., related to quality.

A Certification from ASQ is considered a mark of quality excellence and is recognized by more than 125 organizations worldwide. It helps in the advancement of professional development, builds credibility and recognition among peers as a part of the global community. A certification helps in career advancement and significantly helps the professional improve organizations bottom line through effective application of quality tools and methods.

Benefits of Six Sigma Green Belt Certification

 

  • For operational managers who have a day job to oversee line function(s) with teams reporting to them, a Green Belt certification is preferred.
  • Certified Six Sigma Green belts are expected to have application knowledge of Quality tools to drive process improvement like ability to analyse charts, use of cause effect diagram and basic data analysis. 

Related Article– Having right knowledge on Quality Tools enables effectiveness of solutions deployed

  • Green Belt certification is awarded to professionals who are operational managers and lead a small team of front-line employees. It is important to understand the larger organization need and then to guide a team while driving improvements.
  • A Green Belt certification helps Functional Leaders to drive change in smaller teams. This is the second level of certification in any professionals’ career progression which helps pave the path for higher certifications like Black Belts in the future.
  • Key expectation is to have atleast three years of full time work experience in one or more areas of the Six Sigma Green Belt Body of Knowledge (BoK) is necessary.

The BoK is available on ASQ India’s website (https://asq.org.in/certification). Once the experience requirement is met then Green belts need to appear for an assessment (exam online) based on the BoK. The exams are conducted at various centres throughout India. An online application form which is available on ASQ India website must be filled in with all details and submitted. There is an exam fees (INR) which has to be paid online. Once the application is reviewed and approved then the individual needs to schedule and take the exam. ASQ exams are delivered through a computer based testing. The exam consists of 100 multiple choice questions to be taken in four hours. All the questions are based on the ASQ GB BoK.

How ASQ certification differ from other certification bodies

 

  • The American Society for Quality (ASQ) is a global body of Quality professionals, with more than 150 years of history. ASQ  offers several quality certifications on various professions starting from Healthcare, Product Design, Reliability, Software development, Supply Chain, Pharmaceuticals etc.
  • It is the most reputed professional body and the largest and in the world, committed to raising the voice of quality led by global Quality thought leaders like Dr. Walter Shewhart, Dr. Edward Deming, Dr. J. Juran, Dr. Phil Crosby and Dr. Feigenbaum to name a few.
  • There are several organizations offering certificate courses on six sigma but ASQ offers professional six sigma certification. The certification is valid for a period of three years from the date of issue and needs to be kept current by either carrying out activities as prescribed by ASQ for recertification units or taking the exam again before expiry.
  • ASQ certifications are recognized and respected globally by leaders and organizations alike. A certification by ASQ is scientific way to measure an individual’s proficiency and knowledge about various tools and their effective application, analysis and synthesis to deal with practical business challenges.
  • The BOK and question bank for the exam are continuously enhanced by constantly seeking inputs from senior and experienced members of ASQ who are veteran quality professionals with decades of experience.
  • ASQ does salary surveys among various business sectors every year. It is an established fact that on an average an ASQ certified professional draws 15-20% CTC higher when compared to professionals without ASQ certification. ASQ certification is recognized worldwide and is considered as one of the most sought-after professionals across the globe.

Seven Steps Business Transformation Systems is a Bangalore based consulting company for manufacturing, services, retail, logistics, construction, Education, hospital, hospitality.  Kanban system implementation is done as a combination of other tools and methodogies such as 5S, Value Stream Mapping, Cellular Manufacturing, Total Productive Maintenance, Six Sigma etc., Through their group vertical – Seven Steps academy, various training programmes are also offered for both onsite and public programmes.

Some of the flagship training programmes conducted at Seven Steps Academy of Excellence are:

Six sigma Green Belt

Six Sigma Black Belt

Six Sigma Yellow Belt

Skill development programme – Campus to Corporate – Precision Engineering

Applied 5S

TPM

Lean Experimental Learning Programme

Read more >>
Kanban and supermarket system for Inventory optimisation

11th November 2019

How to implement Kanban and supermarket system for Inventory optimisation (Case study)
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Kanban and supermarket system for Inventory optimisation

  • ABC company is a home interior products manufacturing company located in Bangalore
  • Company produces for around 40 clients) in a month
  • Types of furniture manufactured are wardrobes, kitchen cabinets, TV cabinets etc.
  • Study was done to streamline material procurement, storage, issue procedure & inventory management
  • Number of vendors – Raw material ~ 25, Hardware~10
  • Lead time – imports ~ 4 weeks, local ~ 1 week
  • Total inventory was around Rs. 60 lakhs

Major operations are:

Head office

  • Client interaction & Design
  • Approval from client
  • BOQ (Bill of qty preparation)
  • Material Purchase
  • Preparation of CAD drawing

Factory

  • Receiving, storage & issue  of material
  • Production
  • Quality checking
  • Packing
  • Dispatch

Study was done to standardize/simplify material procurement, storage & issue system

 

Before implementation of Kanban system:

 

  • Main three types of raw materials are used – Boards, Laminates & Edge banding (around 250 types)
  • Laminates were stored in bundled form as it come which was occupying lot of space & also very difficult to retrieve.
  • Boards were store horizontally – which was leading high retrieval time
  • Edge banding – not stores colourwise/widthwise leading to high retrieval time and also using mismatch color many time.  For reordering, it was difficult to know the stock of different materials available
  • Without getting 100% material for client, there used be pressure to take it for production and many times there used to be two batch production for the same client leading to lot of confusion in the shop floor in locating items & they used to miss many items
  • In hardware store, there were three types of material, Common items (classified from used in more than 5 clients in a month), unique items for clients & non moving & slow moving items
  • Non moving items accumulated, because of purchase of items without proper planning
  • Total inventory was around INR 20 lakhs, out of which around INR 10 lakh was non moving
  • All items were mixed up in storage and no clear identification.  Only when items are required to dispatch during installations, they used to find out some items have not yet received & there used to be delay in installation
  • Once items become non moving, it is very difficult to use it.  Only if few items are left out, it cannot be used for other clients as client requirement qty & available qty may not match & difficult to use it.
  • Also these items are stored in factory & designers sit in office in a different location, very difficult to coordinate with designers to use these items & there is no compelling on them to use these items
  • Hardware & accessories are ordered once a month

Inventory classification is done through Kanban analysis:

Sample Analysis For Feb 2018

 

on analysis of the items, it was decided to group items in to three categories & arrange accordingly:Based on logic of items used for number of customers & taking items used for more than 5 customers as common items, it was found that 60% of unique material & 40% are common materials

Based on analysis of the items, it was decided to group items in to three categories & arrange accordingly:

  • Common items where Kanban can be implemented
  • Unique items which can be kept clientwise when received
  • Extra/non moving items which are leftover either from extra ordering or MOQ restrictions
  • Extra racks were procured and items are arranged accordingly.

Kanban is a Lean tool to

               – optimise inventory

               – prevent stock out situation

               – visual control for ordering

Above sample calculation for Hardware & Accessories shows it is possible to reduce inventory & easy procurement process for Common items

Hardware & accessories arrangement in stores :

Hardware & Accessories will be arranged in to three groups :

  1. Common items (around 50) will be arranged in to two bin Kanban system with each bin qty 15 days.
  2. Unique items will be arranged customer wise
  3. Leftover items (from MOQ ordering)

Material ordering :

  1. For common items, Two bin Kanban system is introduced. Each bin will have Kanban card & when items are over in one bin, Kanban card is placed in “For Ordering” box.  Order to be done for these items weekly twice/weekly once.  These items are not ordered along with other BOQ items.  This method will optimise inventory, ease of ordering & visual system.
  2. Presently all items ordered once a month.  In the new system, common items are ordered separately through card triggering mechanism.  Weekly bucket ordering system to be implemented.  For the ordered closed during the week, next week beginning order to be placed where production will be taken after 2 weeks.  Lead time for procurement taken as two weeks.

There are certain items because of MOQ, more than actual required for the customer order will be purchased.  The left out items to be kept separate so that they can be visually identified & while ordering items during next week for other customers, stock of these items to be seen & available items should not be ordered.

Kitting system is introduced:

Benefits:

  • Inventory was reduced from Rs.60 lakhs to Rs.40 lakhs  (33% reduction)
  • Retrieval time reduced drastically due to new arrangement
  • Future generation of non moving items reduced because of new system

 

Testimonial from customer:

 

“We  were very much happy to associate with Seven Steps for the implementation of Lean Project at our Factory.

The dedicated efforts by you and your team are very commendable and down to earth.

My Shop floor teams are well trained by you on 5S, Kaizen, Kanban, Error Free Delivery, Kitting,etc which helped us in improve On Time Delivery,Reduce Lead time,100% Fulfillment and tracking of inventory at different stages.”

Seven Steps Business Transformation Systems is a Bangalore based consulting company for manufacturing, services, retail, logistics, construction, Education, hospital, hospitality.  Kanban system implementation is done as a combination of other tools and methodogies such as 5S, Value Stream Mapping, Cellular Manufacturing, Total Productive Maintenance, Six Sigma etc., Through their group vertical – Seven Steps academy, various training programmes are also offered for both onsite and public programmes.

Some of the flagship training programmes conducted at Seven Steps Academy of Excellence are:

Six sigma Green Belt

Six Sigma Black Belt

Six Sigma Yellow Belt

Skill development programme – Campus to Corporate – Precision Engineering

Applied 5S

TPM

Lean Experimental Learning Programme

Read more >>
Basic Stability is essential for embarking on Operational Excellence

28th August 2019

Basic Stability is essential for embarking on Operational Excellence
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Basic Stability is essential for embarking on Operational Excellence

Many organisations work towards improvement in a big way with little success and rather with increased frustration.  Before even embarking on the Journey of excellence, there is need to evaluate if our processes are having initial process stability.  As high probability, many of the processes will be unstable and not capable of producing desired results.

Stability is defined as the capability to produce consistent results over time. Instability is the result of variability in the process.

For a process to function consistently, 4Ms Man (people), Machine, Method and Materials are some of the pre-requisites.  Let us look in to this further in to details.

1. Man:  

As per Toyota’s one of the statement, it mentions that their primary job is developing people. Cars are byproducts. You can see the importance given to the people side.  In most of the organisations, very little clarity is there on the manpower requirement. Some organisations have just head count on paper without the required skilled people on ground. Some other organisations have very low morale of the employees due to the fact that salaries are not paid on time, no skill development, no good working conditions etc.,

In lean organisations, high emphasis is given to the people development through organisation wide training needs such as 5S, Autonomous Maintenance, Quality at source, Quick Change-over, Problem solving tools and techniques, Team building.  Apart from this, concepts such as Training within Industry – TWI where key aspects such as Job relations, Job method, Job Safety and Job instruction is taught in systematic way. At Toyota, TWI is used for development of people.

2. Machine:

Many organisations still function in outdated fashion when it comes to machine availability.   Machines are attended only upon a breakdown. Just having a machine is not enough. Machine should be in a position to give consistent results in terms of performance.  Where the entire operations are highly dependent on machines, methodologies such as TPM has to be implemented in a structured way. Concepts such as MTBF, MTTR are to be in use and machine availability has to be ensured such that it helps in improving OEE.  In operations where dependency on manpower is high, having back-up machines also will be highly recommended. 

3. Method:  

For consistent performance, having standard work, and the amount of time it takes to perform a given process needs to maintained in such a way that variation from from person to person, across shifts, or over time is stable. 

4. Material: 

Having the right material – it could be raw material or consumable at the right quantity, at the right quality and at the right place is very essential.  The operator should be regarded as surgeon and as important. Required materials should be always available. Concepts such as mizusumashi or water spider is one of the concept applied for internal material flow. Just in time (JIT) and Jumbiki system (for automotive) is applied parallel to ensure material availability.

Some of the impacts of lack of 4Ms are:

 

1. A high degree of variation in performance measures—either pieces produced or pieces per labor hour.

2. Changing the “plan” often when a problem occurs. This includes relocating labor or leaving a position vacant when an absence occurs, moving product to another machine when a breakdown occurs (and thus not producing the planned product), and stopping work in the middle of an order to change to another order.

3. It is not possible to observe a consistent pattern or method to the work.

4. Batches or piles of work in process (WIP) that are random—sometimes
more, sometimes less.

5. Sequential operations that operate independently (island processes).

6. Inconsistent or nonexistent flow (also indicated by random WIP piles).

7. Frequent use of the words usually, basically, normally, typically, generally, most of the time, when describing the operation, followed by except when

8. Statements such as, “We trust the operators to make decisions about how the work is done” (It’s important to realize that no operation will ever achieve a perfect level of stability, and thus to some degree these conditions will always exist. In fact, stability is not only a requirement for flow, but developing flow helps motivate disciplined approaches to stability—they go hand in hand. The main consideration is how unstable the process is, and how stable it needs to become in order to move into the next phase of achieving some degree of flow.

Some of the Lean Tools that help in improving Stability of operations are

 

Seven Steps Academy is part of Seven Steps Group helping organisations in developing internal talent by conducting various public training programmes and in-house training programmes.

Some of the flagship training programmes conducted at Seven Steps Academy of Excellence are:

 

Six sigma Green Belt

Six Sigma Black Belt

Six Sigma Yellow Belt

Skill development programme – Campus to Corporate – Precision Engineering

Applied 5S

TPM

Lean Experimental Learning Programme

Read more >>