Lean Six Sigma - Yellow Belt

[MUSIC] In this video we're gonna take a look at the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification, and more importantly, we're gonna look at how it applies to IT professionals in the IT world, because a lot of you guys have probably heard of six sigma or heard of lean or heard of Lean Six sigma, but heard of it in production floor or factory type environments. And applying it in IT is actually a very beneficial thing that a lot of people just either haven't thought of or haven't heard of. So we're gonna take a look at that and kind of set you up for what our video series is about to be that covers well, Lean Six Sigma. Dr. Stern, if you could help me, let's start off with kind of an overview for people who don't know. What is Lean Six Sigma? >> Lean Six Sigma takes two methodologies, lean thinking and Six Sigma, and it blends them together to help enhance our critical thinking skills. And it is comprised of a methodology and a tool set that can actually partner with just about anything you can think of in IT. >> Now, one of the things I like about Lean Six Sigma is it takes a lot of stuff that really would be difficult. Six Sigma really focuses in on statistics quite a bit. A lot of math and Lean Six Sigma makes it a lot more simple, a lot more easy and approachable. So I think it's a great way to implement process improvement in your environment, and kind of tears down a lot of the barriers of entry for it. Now if somebody is going to be working towards this, who would that somebody be. What kind of person, what kind of IT worker would be interested in pursuing the Lean Six Sigma yellow belt? >> Well that's kind of an interesting question because the yellow belt actually benefits everyone, not just the IT professional. But the way it works with IT is that no matter what level of IT you're at, the tools that help you reason through problem solving just make it easier. And they partner, like I said, very well, with already existing IT methodologies. For example, it works well with Agile. It works well with ITIL, or ITIL, which is what we say a lot here. It works even with CMN, the capability maturity and so even just getting familiar with the basic terms and the terminology and the methodology is the benefit to the IT profession. >> All right now, our series that we're about to film here we're gonna cover a lot of different concepts that serves as an introduction for people to get their feet wet. Do we need to have a lot of experience before we jump into this? Or you said it, it helps everybody. >> It does help everyone and I think one of the things that >> people are excited about is that once they get involved in the program there's a lot about Lean Six Sigma that everyone already knows. They just didn't realize there was a term for it. Or they didn't realize that wasn't something you just did in your head. And when you're trying to explain how you think through things, having these models are just really very helpful. So to answer that question Don, you can start from zero and in just a couple of days, you can go out and use Lean Six Sigma tools to your advantage. >> You know we had a funny conversation before filming this where, Dr. Sternon asked me how much I knew about Six Sigma. And I said, I've worked in a lot of environments. I'm a pmp certified project manager, so I worked in a project management environment. I said I haven't really used a lot of tools and production. I've read the books, but I haven't actually implemented any. And she said actually you have. A lot of this stuff snaps right together with the systems we already have in place. And it's pretty neat to see that. You'll see that as we watch this series. You'll notice this kind of snapping together. And one of the things that Lean Six sigma is built around is the idea of process improvement and the disconnect that I had, the reason that I didn't see that connection was I was always thinking of it in terms of manufacturing. If I make 100 vehicles, like a car, how many defects do we have and how can we reduce those defects? But if you apply it to IT, it can be something like help desk support tickets. What's your average close time for a help desk support ticket? Six hours, all right. Well, what if we could get that down to five hours. That's process improvement, if we can make that better. How long does it take to deploy a new server in the environment? Three days. Could we get that down to two days? That's process improvement. So its not necessarily manufacturing, we can use these technologies in IT, and I know you're a proponent of this, we can use it not just in our work but in our personal lives. It's really diverse. >> Oh, absolutely. Many of the Lean Six sigma tools can be used as meeting management tools as well. I think the key thing for IT professionals to remember is that process improvement is designed to look at an activity you already in place and how can we make that activity better, faster or more cost effective. Lean Six Sigma partners with all those other methodologies and you can use it in software development or data entry or just about anywhere anytime that you have an activity that has more than one step that's a process. >> All right, now throughout our series we're going to be talking about a number of different tools that are available and methods that you can apply to take existing processes. >> And improve them to make them better. Or even processes that don't quite exist yet and start to design. I know, I hate to use that term, design, because we do start to blend into some of the other methodologies that are out there, but you'll find that Lean Six Sigma is pretty diverse with that, too. Now, if we've watch the series, we've learned the content, you'll have valuable information that's ready to be applied in the workplace right then, but I know a lot of you guys are interested in getting certifications. You wanna show that you are Lean Six sigma yellow belt certified. So, Dr. Stern if I want to get certified, what's the process for that? >> Well we've made a very simple process at the end of the program. You can just go to my website, which is ssdglobal. We own kind of the most of the endings, so if you just key in ssdglobal into the browser, you'll come to the website. And you apply for the test. Now one of the things that the test is one of things that's going to be asked is, if you already have some formal training. This would constitute as the formal training. So that qualifies you to sit for the exam. It's a, just like most quality exams, it is open book. It's online, it is timed and you do have to study but we provide you a study guide and if you listen to all the videos, the study guide just sort of reiterates what you've all ready learned. >> Yeah. You might be wondering about that out there in TV land. We said it's an open book exam, but here you are watching a video. It's open video too, [LAUGH] but you won't have time for that. So the study guide is really handy for that. You pay a nominal fee for the exam, if you do want to get certified. You don't have to get certified, the information is very valuable and useable the way that it is. But if you want something to put on your resume, it's a nice thing to do. You do get a certificate that shows that you completed it and now you're yellow belt certified. And that's important, especially if you want to move beyond that to green belt and higher. This is that first stepping stone. It's really nice, because it's a low barrier to entry. You can take the exam in the comfort of you own home. It's an online exam, it's open book so it's not a ton of pressure but you do need to study and be prepared. And then you can jump in and knock that one out. It's a great one. I just like that you don't have to have a lot of experience to go into this. It's very valuable. >> And I think one of the benefits that my company gives is that you can take the exam once you've paid that nominal fee. If for some reason you don't score 75 percent or higher, you can take the exam. The only thing is that we ask you to wait a week in between and go back and study. Now when you get that exam the second time, it's going to be covering the same content, but it is a different set of questions. So I know a couple of people think wow I'll just take it and I'll just take it again next week cuz I will have memorized the question. There's definitely going to be different questions over the same content. But we allow you to do that until you pass the exam. Another thing that I think is interesting about the yellow belt certification is that I work with a couple of companies that require you to be yellow belt certified for them to consider you for a promotion and sometimes even to be interviewed for the company. It gives you an edge. So, being yellow belt certified tells the employer, hey I'm at least based. I'm at least aware of the basic information in Lean Six Sigma. Because what this course does is it covers of course training and certification in how that works. But it also covers the Lean Six Sigma terminology. It covers all the tools. It covers the core Methodology, PDCA, and the model. It talks about how it impacts the IT professionals, that we draw those connections between that and say things like the CNN and ITEL so that you can have intelligent conversations about that. Since we're all working from the same models, what it also affords the yellow belt professional is to be able to feel confident that they are talking to a green belt, black belt or master white belt. >> Yeah, now I'm gonna steal one of your phrases here and that, basically when we apply Lean Six Sigma methodology to our environment, to our processes, it's a great way to make things better, faster and more cost effective. And so it's definitely something that benefits you and your company. It really is a great resource. So, if that sounds exciting to you and it interesting and you want to jump in, I encourage you to do it. Stay tuned, we've got episodes for Lean Six sigma coming up next. If that doesn't sound like the right fit for you, well, no hard feelings there we've got plenty of content available in the content library so be sure to check out the other shows that are available. Lots of stuff there in project management, and other IT concepts that are just as important for most workers. But Lean Six Sigma, especially the Yellow Belt Level, really does apply to everybody. So I hope to see you guys in our episodes coming up next. [MUSIC]