Six Sigma green belt or BA?

[z31maniac]

Get your degree.

No one will care about your Six Sigma without one. And they likely won't care much unless you also have a ton of experience or a graduate-level degree to go with it.

[Thizzelle]

lol at the whole six sigma bullshit.

What in the fuck does six sigma have to do with VSM maps and spaghetti charts?

I dare someone to explain that to me. BTW, don't try. I actually know personally one of the 3 gentleman that developed the six sigma theory.

OP, ignore my rant. Like others have said, finish your BS first. BS degrees are the new AS degrees.

I have a green belt, let me explain.
six sigma is different than the vsm maps, spaghetti, 5S stuff.
six sigma is statistics with data (DMAIC)
while your charts and pictures are lean manufacturing ie, systematic approach eliminating waste.
They combine the two into one class calling it lean six sigma because they compliment each other.

If I were you I'd finish school because like others have said it's a bunch of BS and it's hard to get anyone to change for your projects. Why? because employees don't give a shit and most of the time you're giving them more work to do to collect data and they hate it. Because without current data you can't prove you made a difference. It's a circle of hell. I'm a ME and I went to school to design stuff, so I might also be bias as they are trying to get me to do this lean stuff, but I don't really want to.

[butters]

I have a green belt, let me explain.
six sigma is different than the vsm maps, spaghetti, 5S stuff.
six sigma is statistics with data (DMAIC)
while your charts and pictures are lean manufacturing ie, systematic approach eliminating waste.
They combine the two into one class calling it lean six sigma because they compliment each other.

If I were you I'd finish school because like others have said it's a bunch of BS and it's hard to get anyone to change for your projects. Why? because employees don't give a shit and most of the time you're giving them more work to do to collect data and they hate it. Because without current data you can't prove you made a difference. It's a circle of hell. I'm a ME and I went to school to design stuff, so I might also be bias as they are trying to get me to do this lean stuff, but I don't really want to.

I'm an ME in a similar boat. I work in aerospace manufacturing, my employer paid for my course work from green to black belt. I'm not going to sit for certification, it only has value if you can apply it to your job which of course doesn't require certification.

I would disagree that it's a "trend," considering we're approaching 30 years since its inception with a multitude of impressive success stories. I would suggest to the naysayers that it's more of a mindset and an approach to problems, if you lack the mindset (or more critically your managers lack the mindset) it won't work or be worthwhile.

To the OP, get your degree first, if that isn't obvious by now.

[freeride53]

Same here. Degree 1st! If the company you work for needs LSS or wants it, they may already have the classes in place for you to do it on their dime...such as I did.

Where do you work? I would lol if we worked for the same corporation.

[Skafrog]

I run the process research and innovation department at the company I work for, and my boss is a master black belt in six sigma. We get into arguments all the time, since a six sigma is a seriously limiting factor in R&D. You get to design all the fancy experiments you want, but when it comes to radical, out of the box thinking, if you cant run the DMAIC system on a previous iteration of a process, your entire way of thinking falls apart. I got half way through a black belt program before I quit and decided it was toxic to R&D style of thinking.