First of all, I am happy to tell you that I have passed the green belt exam last week. The exam was tough but with a good preparation you are able to pass it. The course was very fruitful, enjoyable, interesting and challenging. In this article I will briefly tell you about my experiences in the last two training sessions.
Week 5 – Putting Six Sigma into practice
The fifth week included a nice experiment. The experiment itself was very simple, using a catapult to shoot a ball in a small trash can. There were two different balls (weight) that could be used, and the catapult could be adjusted. Thus, the thing many people would do/and did, is just start shooting and use trial and error to understand and fix the problem. However, during this training we learned that you have to approach a problem in a more structured way and apply statistical methods to solve it. To do this, I had to force myself to follow a plan and execute the process step by step. This was quite hard to do and goes against your normal way working.
Week 6 – Lean management
In the sixth week applied lean management. The lean management philosophy is another method of quality management. However, lean management should not be seen as project, it is a way to continuously learn how to solve problems and improve the process. Lean management is about eliminating waste, creating flexibility and overall process improvement based on customer requirements. Waste plays an important aspect in the lean methodology, since waste can occur in various forms ranging from defects to waste of talent. In order to improve the process, lean management applies the 5s explanation, meaning: sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain. These measures have to be planned, executed and sustained. Thus, lean management can be described as chasing the perfect process.
During the second part of the lecture we received additional practical challenges. All participants were assigned to a specific position within a company (represented by tables in the classroom). The company received orders and had to process these through their system (value chain). A customer order included instructions on how to build a small Lego piece and a variety of versions could be created. At first, the system was very bureaucratic and unpractical and we were allowed to improve the process during the session. This resulted in the cutting of several jobs and reduced the required space by 50%. Eventually we managed to reduce the process speed from 5 minutes to 30 seconds. It was a nice way to immediately put your novel knowledge into action. The exercise also forced you to look at the problem from different perspectives, which is very useful for many potential managers.
Conclusion of the course
In the past two months, I have learned a lot about the Lean Six Sigma methodology. The course followed a practical mind set which I highly appreciated. After all, process improvement is something that happens in practice as you have to convince people to change. In reality employees will not change if you show them some nice APA references, you simply have to prove it. Therefore, I would conclude that this course is very useful for both Supply Chain Management and Strategic Management students. This course is more than a nice addition to your resume, it enables you to think differently and put theory into practice.
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