Completing a Six Sigma or Lean project is an excellent way to test the principles, confirm your understanding of how to apply the techniques, and to deliver benefit to your employer or client. In addition, most certifying organizations (including CHC) will require evidence of a completed project before conferring any certification to students. Finally, your employer might require you to complete a project as a condition of participation in this program.
Obviously, the time it takes to compete any project is subject to a number of factors, in particular, how long you spend on the project each day or week, and how broad the project has been scoped. A properly scoped Six Sigma project in which the candidate spends several hours per week could take between 4-8 months to complete. A similarly scoped Lean project could range from a few weeks to a few months. Another important factor determining the length of time a project will take relates to the quality and availability of data. If new data must be collected because reliable data is not available, this can extend further the time necessary to complete the project.
Hopefully, you already have some ideas of good projects to consider for your Six Sigma and/or Lean training. If not, speak to your peers and managers and begin collecting some ideas. The Continuous Learning Lab program includes a "Project Selection Matrix" that you can use to prioritize some ideas. Your CHC coach can also help either in the classroom or during periodic contacts to validate some good project concepts. Some indications of a good project are those that are:
CHC can advise on whether you project concept meets the general criteria for a good project, however, your employer must ultimately determine whether or not it will support your work on a project that you recommend.
The sooner you can identify a valid project, the better. Generally we like students to come to their initial classroom session (if applicable) with a project concept, so that this can be discussed with the CHC instructor. This will save time and allow you to immediately apply the topics discussed in the classroom to your proposed project. After the initial classroom session, all proposed Project Charters are sent to management for approval.
If you are not participating in a program that includes a classroom component, you should attempt to have a project identified no later than completion of the initial "Define" phase of the online training.
The amount of time it will take to complete this course will depend on your own speed of comprehension, and whether you use the text, audio or combination to drive your learning of the material. Most students report completion of the program within 80 to 120 hours. A simple tool is available in the Tools section of the program to plan your own progress, which will also project for you the dates that you can expect to complete each phase of the program.
If you are unable to access our online training from work, it may be due to an internal firewall at your organization. Also, this may make it difficult for you to download SigmaXL. If this is the case, please bring this to your IT department’s attention immediately. We also encourage you to sign on at home, if you have internet access, as a way of augmenting the training that you do during your office hours.
You will see that each page of the course has a "feedback" link in the bottom left corner. You can use this link to let us know of any technical difficulties you experience, or if you find areas of the course you think we can improve. When contacting us, be sure to reference the slide number you wish to discuss, located in the bottom right corner of each page.
CHC provides a coach to every student in its Lean and Six Sigma programs. This information is provided to you in the initial email supplied to you providing the logon instructions for the course.
A coach is supplied to each student to help you with understanding any concepts in the classroom or online training that are not clear to you, and to discuss the application of this material in a project setting. A coach is not a resource to do project work for you, as this would preclude you from learning the material and how to apply it yourself.
You and your coach should set a protocol in place for periodic contact. We recommend a telephone call be scheduled about twice a month to check in with each other and to discuss any questions you may have about the online material or its application.
Please remember to let your coach know in advance if a scheduled call must be canceled. Also, since email is such a prevalent form of communication today, feel free to use this in lieu of a telephone call, when appropriate.
It is possible that your employer has in place, or intends to offer, additional project support. Please consult with your employer so that you are aware of any internal infrastructure in place to assist you in your project work. For many CHC clients, this infrastructure will evolve out of your own pioneering work on behalf of your employer.
Each CHC clients contracts for a different quantity of classroom sessions. Since the entire "body of knowledge" is available online, these classroom sessions are for review only, and do not offer material that you would miss if you were only using the online program. Consult with your employer so that you understand any scheduled classroom sessions and so that you can plan in advance to participate in them.
We encourage you to explore complementary resources to enhance your understanding of this material. The Reference section of the online training includes a bibliography containing many useful texts and resources.
Six Sigma and Lean both rely on the use of data for analysis. This analysis runs from the creation of simple graphs and charts, to statistical analysis such as hypothesis testing, regression, and analysis of variance. These concepts are all discussed in the online material, but some working knowledge of computer applications is necessary to pull all information together during project work. For this reason, it is highly recommended that participants demonstrate basic competencies in Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint before initiating their training in Six Sigma or Lean.
Included in this program is a statistical analysis application called SigmaXL, which resides on an Excel platform. A tutorial is available online for SigmaXL, and many practice routines are included in the program. Again, working knowledge of Excel is expected of all students taking this course.
As you can tell from other answers provided in this FAQ document, each sponsoring company will establish its own infrastructure and protocols for managing their Six Sigma or Lean program. Most companies will create some form of "governance" for the program, such as a steering committee, to review projects, progress and results. In addition, you will be expected to present your progress to this committee and/or your peers as evidence that your project is proceeding, and that you are developing sufficient mastery of the skills necessary to apply these techniques in the organization. These meetings are often called "tollgate sessions," indicating you are to pass through a stage in your project that demonstrates the "deliverables" for each stage. A list of deliverables can be found in the Tools section of this program, and they are also repeated at the beginning of each major module.
It is important to form a project team for any Six Sigma or Lean project, even though you will be essentially leading the performance improvement efforts for your project. A team can serve as a useful "sounding board," a source for input and direction, and a source of motivation and inspiration. But more than anything else, the project team will also include people that you will depend on to implement improvements, and its essential to involve them in the process of discovery leading to the identification of improvements, otherwise, they may resist implementation. It will likely be obvious to you who should be on this team, but plan to include about 6-8 people, including a supervisor of the process, those working in it, and a member of administration or other departments you will depend upon for information and support.
It is quite possible there will be other participants in this program that you will want to have on your project team. This can be useful and constructive so long as all the company’s resources are not tied up on projects. In addition, you can learn a lot from your peers on this program that may have advanced beyond you in their own project. Consult with them as another form of support. Six Sigma and Lean can be fun and exciting when everyone takes part in their new ability to improve the organization.
To complete your training and project, you must meet all the "deliverables" listed in the CBT and present these as they are completed to CHC and your employer. Additionally, you must complete the quiz material at the end of each module and achieve an aggregate score of 75% or higher. You are allowed to retake any quiz you wish in order to boost your score. Upon satisfactory completion of these activities, CHC will issue a diploma and affidavit to your employer for presentation to you, or to you directly (if you are not in a sponsored program). The affidavit will set forth the competencies you gained from this program and can be useful as you seek out new career opportunities with the strength of the Six Sigma or Lean credential behind you.