Introduction to Six Sigma for Champions

Overview/Description
When launching General Electric's quality effort in 1995, Jack Welch, the then chairman and legendary champion for the cause of Six Sigma, strongly encouraged his chief employees to become "passionate lunatics" about Six Sigma. Welch's adoption of Six Sigma, and General Electric's ensuing success, greatly contributed to Six Sigma's recognition as a powerful method for business improvement in organizations. So, what is Six Sigma and why do so many successful organizations attribute their success to it? This course largely deals with answering these questions. The course traces Six Sigma's roots in traditional quality concepts, but also shows that it is not just about quality; it is also a metric, a philosophy, a balanced scorecard, and a quality management system. This course demonstrates how to estimate Sigma level and how Six Sigma methodologies are strategically applied to a broad array of manufacturing and service organizations. The course also explores Six Sigma business goals and the mission critical role of Champions for achieving these goals.

Target Audience
Members of top management, vice-presidents, directors, divisional managers and senior functional managers selected to work directly as champions or potential champions. Champions include those people who own the processes to be improved, make resources available, evaluate financial cost justifications, and supervise the individuals selected as Black Belts and Green Belts.

Expected Duration (hours)
3.0

Lesson Objectives

Introduction to Six Sigma for Champions

recognize the benefits of implementing Six Sigma

match Six Sigma goals to examples of how those goals are achieved in a company

match Six Sigma methodologies for business improvement to examples of situations in which they can be used

recognize why Six Sigma is favored over other quality tools

identify the common objectives of Six Sigma and other quality tools

identify what makes Six Sigma a more all-encompassing process-improvement technique than TQM

match the elements of BSC and Six Sigma to examples of their implementation in a business improvement system

recognize the key elements Six Sigma draws from the BSC approach

recognize the importance of understanding the roles of other players in a Six Sigma organization

analyze a RACI model implementation in a Six Sigma scenario

match Six Sigma roles with examples of the responsibilities each role entails

determine the appropriate role a Champion should play at various stages of a Six Sigma program