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Ask about Lean Six Sigma from SGS
If your question is not answered below please contact us directly and a member of our team will respond via email or phone to your inquiry.
- What is the Six Sigma Standard?
- Why do you need to use the Six Sigma Standard©?
- Who developed the Six Sigma Standard?
- Why the equity analysts?
- How does the Standard, audits and certification program work?
- What does it take to attain an SGS Six Sigma Program Certificate?
- Who are your auditors?
1. What is the Six Sigma Standard©?
The Six Sigma Standard is a formal set of over 60 objectively verifiable requirements and indicators that an organization should adopt if they want to ensure the Effectiveness, Sustainability and Transparency of their program.
2. Why do you need to use the Six Sigma Standard©?
The Standard is a set of auditable guidelines which are a synopsis of most of the literature available today on the topic of successful implementation of Six Sigma. You can either read and translate all of the dozens of books, articles, and white papers yourself or adopt the SGS Six Sigma Standard which has reduced this vast amount of material down to less than 20 pages which detail the nearly 70 individual requirements you will need incorporate into your deployment to virtually guarantee your success.
3. Who developed the Six Sigma Standard©?
SGS developed the Standard in collaboration with a diverse committee. Members of the committee include noted authors and recognized experts on the subject of Six Sigma, professors and academics from some of the world's most renowned business schools, leading Six Sigma consultancies, experienced practitioners and managers from many of the leading programs within Fortune 100 corporations and finally from equity analysts from most of the world's largest financial institutions.
4. Why the equity analysts?
The financial community is a critical external stakeholder for any public and most private companies. SGS conducted dozens of interviews with this constituency and validated 2 important criteria which were incorporated into the Six Sigma Standard©. Firstly, the analysts were very clear that Six Sigma programmes must ultimately deliver meaningful and tangible results in the form of increases in revenue, margins and capital utilization. Anything short of this level of impact is not strategic in scope and cannot be felt by stakeholders and shareholders. Secondly, the programme and it's results must be transparent. It is not enough for the Black Belts and Master Black Belts to claim large financial impact. These claims must be validated both internally by senior financial personnel and by an external auditor such as SGS. So, when SGS issues one of its Six Sigma Programme Certificates to a company it is seen as external validation of the programme's Effectiveness, Sustainability and Transparency.
5. How does the Standard, audits and certification program work?
Depending on where your program is in its evolution the Six Sigma Standard© and SGS audits are used to steer your program to include the necessary framework to ensure success.
- For clients who are new to Six Sigma, SGS works to help them select the right consultancy. Once that is done SGS works with the client and their chosen consultancy to draft a Six Sigma Deployment Plan. This plan and the Six Sigma Standard© are the basis for the audits which will take place periodically. By incorporating the requirements in the Standard from the beginning a program can ensure that it gains the initial success which is required to make the program sustainable.
- For clients who already have an existing Six Sigma program SGS is able to benchmark the performance of their program against the Standard. We provide you with a detailed score and rating on your performance as well as areas which are performing well and those which are need of improvement. When the minimum scores are achieved in relation to the requirements of the Standard, SGS is able to offer a globally recognized Six Sigma Programme Certificate.
6. What does it take to attain an SGS Six Sigma Program Certificate?
In order for your program to be certified it must demonstrate that it is Effective, Sustainable and Transparent. The Standard includes 4 major clauses each made up of multiple sub-clauses and individual requirements. The audited program receives a performance score on each individual requirement. Each of those scores contributes to the section score and the overall performance score. When the minimum thresholds are reached SGS is able to issue an SGS Certificate that the program is complies with the Standard.
7. Who are your auditors?
Although they come from diverse backgrounds and industries all SGS Six Sigma auditors share a deep understanding of the Six Sigma tools and how the use of those tools should be linked to business strategy.
