Lean Six Sigma Yellow-belt Training: A Transformational Experience
For more than a decade the Council of Industry has been partnering with the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and area Community Colleges to present lean and lean six sigma training to our member firms. We have offered courses from the very basic “Intro to Lean” to very comprehensive “Green-Belt” training.
“Yellow-Belt” is a 3 day program that provides tools to take the concepts of lean and six sigma and apply them to real problems. Teams of 2 – 4 individuals from a company use the tools to address a problem from their facility. It might be a quality issue, a production bottleneck, a customer service problem or even maintenance issue.
Yesterday I was present for the presentations from out Yellow-Belt training at SUNY Ulster in Kingston and the work that was done by the students was tremendous and in some cases transformational. By applying the Lean Six Sigma techniques problems were identified using data not perceptions. Possible solutions were brainstormed and then thoroughly thought through. Fixes were prioritized based on costs and benefits.
To a person students agreed that at best they found viable solutions to difficult problems facing their firms and at worst they now have a thoughtful, practical problem solving approach to apply to future issues.
Each of these students will return to their companies armed with knowledge and skills to make them even more productive contributors.
