The International Six Sigma Council (ISSC) is a non-profit organisation that provides examination and registration of Six Sigma professionals. We spoke with Dr Rita Wan, Chairperson of ISSC, to find out more about the work of the Council and the importance of Six Sigma certification.
Six Sigma philosophy
Dr Wan began by explaining the ethos behind Six Sigma. She explained, “It is a management philosophy which trains managers to equip them with the skills to manage a team and provides them with certification.” Dr Wan believes that with the Six Sigma certification managers are better able to deal with the multifarious challenges that they are faced with everyday. Challenges that include increasing staff retention; boosting sales; and ensuring they have a fully functioning, efficient and effective team.
The role of ISSC
The ISSC is a non-profit making organisation of quality practitioners and subject matter experts who saw the need for standardisation and promotion of best practices in the Six Sigma field. Through examination and registration of Six Sigma Quality professionals, ISSC helps to assure the standard of Six Sigma qualifications and helps organisations, from both the private and public sectors, employ qualified Six Sigma staff. Governed by the Examination Board and the Executive Committee, the ISSC is supported by an advisory board comprising Six Sigma companies and University professors majoring in the Six Sigma field.
Around 300 members have joined ISSC since 2007, and Dr Co Chan, Vice President of the Examination Board at the Council pointed out that in a recent survey they conducted the organisation was ranked as the most trustworthy certifying agent among the 50 companies that implement Six Sigma. Dr Wan offered an explanation for the success of the ISSC, “This is probably due to the fact that ISSC are an independent certifying agent that don’t offer training—so avoiding any conflict of interest.” In Hong Kong, the ISSC is the only non-profit Six Sigma examination and registration company that does not provide training and so can be entirely objective.
What can HR get out of Six Sigma?
On the subject of how Six Sigma could help HR functions, Dr Wan replied that the key function of HR is organisational development and developing staff members and Six Sigma training provides this training and development. She added, “It is necessary that HR managers themselves be trained, especially if the company wishes to develop their own in-house trainers. Six Sigma helps test management trainees and personnel to see whether they have these capabilities and Six Sigma sets the standard.” The Six Sigma qualification can be sued to ‘prove’ that managers have achieved a certain level because, as part of their assessment, they have to run and complete a real project and then present it to the satisfaction of the examination board in front of two Master Black Belts.
ISSC guarantees Continuous Professional Development (CPD) because every year Six Sigma professionals have to be re-certified. Re-certification is a metric, to measure how effective the Six Sigma training was, and if candidates do not complete this they lose their certification.
Who is Six Sigma aimed at?
Dr Wan believes that the Six Sigma is relevant to all grades of professionals, however, senior managers and supervisors make up the majority of candidates. She divided the function of managers into three broad categories: people, sales and team, and explained, “The difference between team and people is people are the individuals within a company while the team is the processes. An efficient and effective team will carry out the processes well.” Dr Wan then elaborated on processes such as IT, HR and operations pointing out that they ‘combine with people’ so that managers have a huge range of duties under their remit from managing sales, to managing staff, to ensuring processes are stable and efficient. Six Sigma trains people how to handle such processes, and Dr Wan pointed out that people with qualifications tend to handle processes better.
Setting standards
Dr Wan also stressed the importance of setting standards, as managers have to operate on different levels from handling small processes, to dealing with numerous tasks at the same time, to managing entire organisations. The different levels of Six Sigma qualifications mirror these different levels. There six levels of certification issued by the ISSC from Yellow Belts who may not lead projects on their own, but participate as a core team member or subject matter expert on projects to Six Sigma Champions who are able to identify potential projects and select the best ones, foresee potential obstacles, and set realistic expectations that ultimately drive financial results.
Demonstrating ROI
Dr Wan and Dr Chan pointed out that Six Sigma training not only helps engage staff and increase loyalty, but also helps organisations improve processes, productivity and reduce wastage of time and resources. Dr Wan explained, “Six Sigma focuses on eliminating non-valuable activities, shortening turnaround and achieving near-perfect quality, all at a lower cost.” The objective of managers is achieved through two sub-methodologies DMAIC: define, measure, analyse, improve and control; and DMADV: define, measure, analyse, design and verify.
With HR needing to maximise the company’s efficiency, investing in training is key, and Six Sigma is one such method which can act as a tool to help enhance productivity. HR can measure effectiveness of Six Sigma training by quantifying the savings it brings. For example, Master Black Belt candidates need to save their company up to HK$1 million before they can qualify—and candidates must show how they achieved it using Six Sigma methodologies. Dr Wan concluded, “Many companies in the Fortune 500 send staff for Six Sigma training because they can see the metrics of how much they save each year.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
