Will having a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt allow you to break bricks and beat up other people? Probably not, but it will help you remove waste, analyze data and improve processes in your organization. Let’s see what a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt does and how you can become one.

Role of the Black Belt

Being a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Black Belt (BB) is typically a full-time process improvement role in organizations implementing an LSS effort. The term BB comes from the martial arts, where the BB is considered an expert who trains and coaches others. To achieve that level you must demonstrate a mastery of required skills. 

Similarly, LSSBBs are individuals who have studied and demonstrated skill in the implementation of the principles, practices, and techniques of LSS. Their goal is to reduce waste, reduce costs, improve throughput, reduce variation, and have a significant financial and operational impact on your organization. BBs are utilized as team leaders responsible for measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling key processes which impact customer satisfaction and/or productivity growth.

BBs can act as internal consultants, working with improvement teams and providing support of your organization’s leadership. They may also be used as instructors for educating LSS Green Belts (GB), Yellow Belts (YB) or White Belts (WB). In addition to leading their own project improvement teams, BBs will also mentor GBs in the completion of their projects. BBs often receive coaching from a Master Black Belt (MBB) to guide them through their projects.

BBs can perform these duties in your organization:

  • Mentor a wide array of organization employees
  • Train internal personnel as well as customers and suppliers
  • Provide coaching support to others working on their projects
  • Discover opportunities for continuous improvement
  • Be an advocate and change agent for creating an LSS culture

How can you get trained and certified?

To be known as a certified LSSBB, there are a set of common requirements you must meet. Unfortunately, there is no centralized or recognized accreditation organization. Therefore, requirements for attaining a BB will vary depending on where you get your training, certification, and experience. 

Currently, you can be certified as a BB internally within your own organization, external consultants, professional organizations, or even educational facilities such as universities or colleges. Your training can be accomplished in the classroom, online (instructor-led or self-paced), or through a hybrid of both online and classroom. 

While you may not totally agree, here is a set of requirements that many successful organizations implementing a LSS program have used for certifying their BBs. These are presented as guidelines and not absolutes.

  • Training
  • Testing
    • It is recommended testing and/or assessment be done multiple times during training to assess and monitor the candidate’s understanding and progress.
    • At a minimum, candidates must pass a cumulative final exam to receive a certificate of training. This exam should include both acquired conceptual knowledge as well as a demonstration of statistical and analytical skills.
  • Project
    • It is recommended that a minimum of two projects be completed that demonstrate a broad application of LSS methodology and tools, including statistical analysis. 
    • These projects should have a significant financial or operational impact on your organization.
  • Software
    • BB candidates need to learn to use an appropriate statistical software package as part of their training program. Curriculum and instruction must include teaching candidates how to use the statistical software package to create graphs and do statistical data analysis. It is not sufficient to just teach interpretation.
    • It is also recommended that the BB candidate be proficient in additional software including Office Suite, Visio, and an appropriate program for project tracking.
  • Mentoring
    • A BB candidate should mentor a minimum of 2 GB candidates to complete their LSS projects.
  • Teaching
    • It is expected that a BB candidate teaches, along with an MBB instructor, a minimum of 5 BOK modules to classes of lower rank, preferably GB classes. 

Here is an example of a BB training option done in a virtual live instructor-led format totaling 134 hours. This course is conducted in four five-day sessions with four weeks between sessions. The prerequisites for this program are:

  • A real business environment improvement project with a business impact of $100,000 or greater 
  • The knowledge and skills learned in this training course will be applied to your project
  • Good understanding of basic statistical concepts and tools
  • An installed statistical software package
  • Be able to devote at least 40 percent of your time at work to work on your project

Below is a list of typical topics covered in BB training:

FAQs: Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training and certification

How long does it take to become a certified LSSBB?

The time to get certified will vary depending on the specific requirements of whoever is doing your training and certification and that of your organization.. The training component is typically a minimum of four weeks. Usually there is a period of time between each training week. Since certification requires the completion of at least two significant projects, it could take 4-6 months — or up to a year — to complete and implement those. During that time, the BB should be developing their mentoring and teaching skills. 

Is the role of a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt considered a full-time professional position?

In most organizations who hire LSSBBs, the role is considered a full-time professional position that could conceivably be your final career path, should you choose. You will see specific job postings for Black Belts whereas the belts below (Green Belt, Yellow Belt and White Belt) are part-time and complementary to your specific job responsibility.

Will I need to learn a lot of statistics to be a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt?

One of the foundational concepts of Lean Six Sigma is making data driven decisions. Therefore, as a LSSBB, you will need to not only understand many statistical concepts, but be able to apply them to analyzing and making decisions and recommendations about your organization’s data.

Wrapping up the topic

A Lean Six Sigma Black Belt is a full-time professional position in organizations deploying a Lean Six Sigma effort. BBs play an integral role in organizations by identifying and working on continuous improvement projects, training, and mentoring lower belt levels, providing support to upper levels of leadership for the analysis of data and being a change agent for improving everything your organization does.     

 

About the Author

Ken Feldman

Ken Feldman, PhD, is a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Master Black Belt and Principal Consultant at Optec Consulting. He has more than 50 years of experience helping organizations improve quality and performance in a wide variety of diverse industries.

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