Advice on BB/MMB certification schemes

Hi

For the six sigma certification you can look into the body of knowledge by ASQ (American Society for Quality) and also try to certify your resources from this society as this is recognized across the globe for six sigma certification.

regards
Deepak Rustagi
ASQ-CSSBB

I would say this is typical. MBB seems to be less sought after IME, however any BB that we have had join the company we have re-certfied and by that i mean, take the internal test and complete 2 projects.

However, i passed through the same SSA course, and i have had no problem with that as they are a known company. If i were you, i would just keep to MBB on the CV as you used SSAs material under licence anyway.

Hope the job hunting goes well, you need to get out of there!!

One of the gentlemen that I work with claims to be a Six Sigma Black Belt: How can one be sure of such a claim? What steps has Six Sigma taken to ensure the integrity of their certification?

Certification value is in the eyes of the beholder. Because there is no international governing authority or agreement on the standards, curriculum, testing or requirements to demonstrate expertise in the world of Six Sigma and Lean and become "certified", a certification is somewhat of a misnomer. It's like the difference between a university degree from an accredited university, or some pay for the grade university. When companies have successfully adopted and applied the methodologies and have real and recognizable results, (GE, Motorola, etc), then their educational programs and the project work you would complete in helping to produce those results would tend to support value in being "certified" by that company. To participate in an externally developed course and pass a test, and perhaps show results of a one-off project is something quite different. I've hired "certified" and non-certified, internally grown and externally offered "BB's" and what I look for is experience in applying the methodologies, and an understanding that can only be developed through leading projects - whether they are certified or not is of less value.

If you get problems with your "internal" certification, then your prospective employers are missing the point and don't realise that the Six Sigma world is completely unregulated.

Currently, ANY organisation can offer and sell Six Sigma "Certification" services. You'll notice that the only common theme amongst them is that they will charge you money for it.

Organisations that rely on BB and GB "certifications" on employees CV's will eventually realise that they don't guarantee any level of understanding, because "Certification" services are rapidly becoming a commodity, where price rules and quality suffers.

For prospective employers, I would suggest that you present to them several examples of Six Sigma projects that you have delivered, and be prepared to talk about them in detail.
Hope that helps. Quentin Brook

I'm sorry I don't have an answer to your question. But I am looking for a piece of advice myself, and I wondered if you could give me some hints.
3 years ago I was a postgraduate intern at GE (France), and ran a quite big 6-Sigma DFSS project at Green Belt level there (but they didn't issue the certificate, as I was not a full time employee).
Now I work in London,UK (R&D electrical engineer/ Programme Manager), but my company will never implement 6-Sigma as I realised.
I would like to pass a Black Belt certification exam and go work somewhere else.
How could I become BB in a short time and minimum cost ?