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It's very beneficial to have on your resume if you're pursuing Manufacturing/Quality Engineering positions in high volume production, for the most part. The thought process is solid, but a lot can already be done without the formal training - simply take a step back when solving a production problem and think through it. However, it is useless and detrimental when companies start forcing it where unnecessary, bogging down engineers and other support staff with sometimes over-complicated forms/meetings to fill out even for the simplest actions.
Go for it, especially if the company is paying for it and the training is happening on their time. It definitely won't hurt your resume.
Like so many other management fads, the problem isn't with the concept, but with applying it outside where it's intended to work. It's possible in manufacturing for example to measure and machine a part to exacting levels of tolerance. But many management processes are more of a wet finger in the wind measurement. Hence why "metrics" has become a nonsense word in many offices -- management puts inordinate time into measuring what they can measure, usually nonsense, because they can't measure those things that actually matter.
^This.
The higher-ups at my employer brought six sigma to the organization years ago. I work in an in-house legal department of a large financial company. What we do is not quantifiable by statistical standards, such as how many widgets one can turn out in a day. As such, in my opinion, six sigma doesn't do a whole hell of a lot for us except create busy work for those who employ it as part of their day-to-day jobs.
Let's bring it down to brass tacks and the OP: any industrial-level management improvement system that ranks its practitioners with belt colors is an inherently self-serving, juvenile construct, created by experts who are experts at telling everyone how to be an expert.
The higher-ups at my employer brought six sigma to the organization years ago. I work in an in-house legal department of a large financial company. What we do is not quantifiable by statistical standards, such as how many widgets one can turn out in a day. As such, in my opinion, six sigma doesn't do a whole hell of a lot for us except create busy work for those who employ it as part of their day-to-day jobs.
Do you perform any processes? Even the process of how to file a document or track a legal matter can be quantifiable.
I have my Black belt. I'm an engineer that works in NPD and manufacturing. My employer offered the training, and wanted me to take it...so I did. Some of the course work was quite helpful such as DOE and FMEA's and such. Was quite a bit of time invested for sure, but it's what my employer wanted.
Six Sigma Green Belt here. Management tagged me to participate in the corporate sponsored class and complete a project to earn my belt. That was my first certification. Then it was on to a quality certification (which tested on some elements of six sigma) and then to PMP (which has a Project Quality Management process group that tested on elements of both). So all of these built on one another and gave a knowledge base for the other certifications. Did it help me in my career? I would say so. It made me more marketable for process related positions within my work area.
The black belt requires a lot of testing and specific courses. The green belt is led by a black belt and the responsibility is on the black belt to get you certified. Green belt is good for those who don't like to bury themselves in study and testing.
If you don't keep doing projects you fade into a yellow belt. I am actually a yellow belt now.
I went back to your original post. This is through ASQ. Their Black Belt (CSSBB) is a very difficult test. I received my Quality Certification through ASQ and would read the Black Belt forums on there. They also have a green belt that is less intense that you can test for. There are no projects (at least at the time I looked years ago) required for the ASQ green belt. I can't remember if you have to re test or if that is a permanent cert. Many of ASQ's certs require retesting.
A corporate sponsored program is different - it is one that is taken with a series of classes and you complete a project - not a certification exam. Usually a master black belt from corporate headquarters comes onsite and teaches a class and produces green and black belts for the company.
Our higher ups ran the entire IT Organization through Six Sigma Green Belt training back in 2005. Everyone had to complete a process improvement project in order to earn their Green Belt (so there were lots of contrived improvements to tick the box). A few people went on to attempt to earn a black belt, but not sure anyone other than the core group espousing the methodology actually earned one. Most of the learnings were common sense and if you don't already understand process improvement processes it could be useful. If they are paying for it, then no harm in getting it.
Since then we have gone through Lean Sigma, ADP and are now in the middle of switching to Agile/SAFe (probably missed one of the buzzword ones in my list).
Our higher ups ran the entire IT Organization through Six Sigma Green Belt training back in 2005. Everyone had to complete a process improvement project in order to earn their Green Belt (so there were lots of contrived improvements to tick the box). A few people went on to attempt to earn a black belt, but not sure anyone other than the core group espousing the methodology actually earned one. Most of the learnings were common sense and if you don't already understand process improvement processes it could be useful. If they are paying for it, then no harm in getting it.
Since then we have gone through Lean Sigma, ADP and are now in the middle of switching to Agile/SAFe (probably missed one of the buzzword ones in my list).
Six Sigma and Agile/SAFe aren't really in the same area. One is process improvement and the other is project management. I guess a less sophisticated company could get them confused.
Do you perform any processes? Even the process of how to file a document or track a legal matter can be quantifiable.
Not every processes needs to be quantified. Not everything that is quantifiable matters and not everything that matters is quantifiable.
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