Back in the late 90's, before Lean Guy and Money Girl were on the team, you may have worked in a factory with someone who said they were a Green Belt or Black Belt. I'm sure you responded with some kind of Bruce Lee move or a Chuck Norris fact. The Belt probably mentioned the F-Test, and you giggled, or talked about your misapplication of ANOVA because your data is obviously exhibiting a Weibull distribution. You probably rolled your eyes and walked away shaking your head.
In today's environment the Belt is required to be more than a DOE expert. The type of Belts you have should drive the activities being pursued. The American Society for Quality may hold a standard for Green Belts and Black Belts, but many companies have developed their own standards for their own needs at the the amount of money they want to spend.
So what are these different Belts and what can they do for you and your operations?
Looking across the organization at external suppliers and customers are Master Black Belts or experienced Black Belts. These people work with executive leadership and management to help identify and prioritize opportunities to improve flow, cycle time, quality, customer satisfaction, or other Voice of the Customer. Their tool boxes may contain Learning to See Value Stream Maps, House of Quality or Lean Function Deployment, and have the ability to lead any team through any problem no matter where it exists in the organization. Master Black Belts also develop training, and teach and mentor Black Belts.
Black Belts are equipped to solve problems across organizations in one site. They can lead projects or 3P events that are larger in scope from a VSM, teach and mentor Green Belts, execute design of experiments, and design processes with less waste and variation. Properly motivated Black Belts may be the best choice to fill Leadership positions since they are not afraid of metrics.
Green Belts can be thought of as people in the best position to learn about the operations. They can handle small scope problems like quality defects or long cycle times on the operations. Any of the statistical tests can be executed in a well-known spreadsheet and process flows can be analyzed on the wall. High-powered statistical and simulation software is not required for Green Belts.
The Belts are simply people with the skills and knowledge to make good change. The difference is in the scope and tools. Think golf ball size scope & tools for Green Belts, beach ball size for Black Belts, and a row of beach balls for Master Black Belts.
Important message to Leadership!
Pulling the Belts into action requires Vision and Direction, two products Leaders need to have in their pockets at all times. Unless you have some sick addiction to being the best fire-fighter, you should know where you are leading the organization. This is a plan that can be monitored visually. As problems are eliminated, record them on an A3 and reward good behavior.
These important skills and knowledge are being paid for and many Belts are standing by and ready to be put in the game. Leadership's task is to have a well defined problem statement and SMART goals.
What has been your experience in getting pulled into the flow to make good change?
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