Boost Your Manufacturing Career with Lean Six Sigma Certification

This unique certificate focuses on building your capability in Lean Six Sigma, Change Management and Project Management and will empower you to bring meaningful changes to your organization.

Manufacturing professionals help improve their companies’ production processes by learning Six Sigma strategies. By earning a Green Belt or a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, you can boost your improve your company’s performance and your own value as an employee. Originally developed by Motorola in 1986, Lean Six Sigma is a set of tools and strategies for process improvement that is now used in different sectors of industry.

While colleges and universities don’t offer bachelor’s or master’s degrees in Lean Six Sigma, many do offer post-graduate certificate programs. These specialized programs are less extensive than a master’s or other post-graduate degree, but they show that an individual has completed coursework related to Six Sigma strategies. Some institutions offer Six Sigma classes as part of a master’s degree curriculum.

Earning a certificate in Lean Six Sigma prepares you to eliminate waste or inefficiency in your workplace. When you complete a Six Sigma certificate program, you’ll learn how managerial employees can rid their systems of defects, overproduction, transportation, waiting, inventory, motion and over processing, as they apply to engineering concepts.

Lean Six Sigma certificate programs are particularly helpful for professionals working in a hospital, a manufacturing facility, or any service industry. The training involved helps professionals learn the tools necessary to undertake continuous improvement projects aimed at reducing and eliminating waste, reducing project variations, improving customer satisfaction, and increasing your organization’s bottom line.

Choosing a Program

There are three basic certificates offered in Lean Six Sigma: the Yellow Belt, Green Belt and Black Belt. In the Yellow Belt program, you’ll learn about mistake proofing, continuous improvement quality systems, ISO and the steps to ISO certification, among other topics.

The Green Belt program is usually only offered to those who have completed the Yellow Belt program. It is a longer program and students learn DMAIC methodology (define, measure, analyze, improve and control), as well as the tools that can be applied in each phase. Participants are usually required to complete a small project and present the project findings to a panel of judges in order to obtain a Six Sigma Green Belt.

After earning a Green Belt, you can participate in a Black Belt program, which includes a DMAIC overview, soft skills, and an array of other process improvement topics and methods.

Career Outlook

Those who earn Six Sigma certification often work as industrial production managers who oversee the daily operations of manufacturing and related plants. They coordinate, plan, and direct the activities used to create a wide range of goods, such as cars, computer equipment, or paper products. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 80 percent of industrial production managers work in manufacturing industries.

The median annual wage of industrial production managers was $87,160 in 2010. As foreign competition and increased automation lead to a decline in manufacturing industries, the field of industrial production management is projected to grow just 9 percent from 2010 to 2020, slower than the average of all occupations. However, industrial production managers who have earned Lean Six Sigma certification are more marketable than those who have not.

Source: http://www.myeducation.com/ web.28.04.15