Six Sigma Black Belts

On 12 March, 1997, Jack Welch sent an e-mail message to every General Electric manager throughout the world, stating that anyone interested in being promoted to a senior management position within GE must start Black Belt or Green Belt training by 1 January, 1998, and complete the training by 1 July 1998.  Until that message, many employees regarded Six Sigma as another “flavour of the month” initiative, despite the fact that Welch had never let up chanting the mantra of achieving Six Sigma by 2000.

Effective 1997, although GE had launched a series of professional development programmes over the years, training in GE’s Six Sigma quality initiative took precedence over every other training programme.  GE currently trains its employees in-house in the Six Sigma methodology.  Welch, during his term, used to be a regular participant at GE’s senior-level Six Sigma courses, which outstanding managers could attend by invitation only.

Fundamentally, Six Sigma is a methodology for disciplined quality improvement.  Because this quality improvement is a prime ingredient of total quality management (TQM), many companies find adding a Six Sigma programme to their current business system gives them all or almost all the elements of TQM.  Dr Joseph M Juran’s statement that “all quality improvement occurs on a project-by-project basis and in no other way” can be considered an essential element in the foundation of Six Sigma, though you seldom see this statement credited in Six Sigma literature.

Black Belts tackle the mathematical relationship of Y = f (X), with Y (the problem) being a function of X (the cause of the problem).  Project-by-project, companies reduce costs, cycle time, late deliveries, and customer complaints to limit defects and improve their overall productivity and efficiency.  In the US, companies can expect to reap at least $150,000 per Black Belt project.  A fully trained Black Belt delivers a minimum of $600,000 in direct cost savings each year by completing, in succession, an average of four to six projects annually.

Azim Premji, Qimpro Platinum Standard 2001, has stated in his Wipro annual report: “Today we have over 3,500 members working in team sizes of five and six on 292 Six Sigma projects and 344 turbo projects facilitated by 74 Black Belts.  We have realized Rs 315 million in savings using the Six Sigma projects.”  This estimate of savings appears conservative.  Very conservative.  I firmly believe that the Six Sigma process is The Juran Trilogy (quality planning, quality control, quality improvement) on steroids!!  Several authorities believe in the same, internationally.  Therefore, Premji’s claimed savings should be at least threefold more, if not fivefold.

Identifying and selecting Black Belts is a challenging process.  Several candidates are unable to perform at the level of intensity necessary for the Black Belt role.  Managers and technically oriented people who understand the potential of Six Sigma, and are frustrated by past management practices, may be good candidates for Black Belt training.  In general, the best Black Belt candidates are those already oriented in their organization’s products, services, and processes.

A benchmark syllabus for professional certification as a Six Sigma Black Belt is offered by the American Society for Quality.  It requires an investment in training of 16 man-days per candidate, spread over four months.  Over this period, each candidate completes two Six Sigma projects.  By Premji’s conservative estimate, each candidate should save the organization Rs 2 million during the four month Black Belt training; and have a capability to save substantially in excess of Rs 6 million per Black Belt per annum.  That translates to a 5,000 per cent return on tuition fee in the first year.  What better return on investment (or is it individual?) can an organization have?

As will be obvious, a company’s financial goals influence the number of Black Belts needed.  The greater the stretch, the higher the number.  After all, the costs of poor quality in any organization are approximately 30 per cent of total costs.  This is a Six Sigma gold mine.  However, a practical rule of thumb is roughly one Black Belt per one hundred employees in the manufacturing sector, and one Black Belt per fifty employees in the service sector.

Today, more than 50 per cent of the Indian workforce is employed in the service sector, and well over 50 per cent of those employed in manufacturing are actually doing service work, such as finance, IT, marketing, sales, distribution and purchasing.  Despite the high number of service employees, some companies still believe that improving service processes is less important than improving manufacturing processes.  Based on my exposure to the service sector, I can confidently state that the costs of poor quality in the service sector exceed those in the manufacturing sector by a high order of magnitude.  Probably, the service sector nurses costs of poor quality of the order of 40 per cent of total costs!  Imagine the implications at the national level!

It’s time for a population explosion of Certified Six Sigma Black Belts In India.