How Lean Six Sigma Black Belts are saving thousands

A major component for the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate Program is that each student's project must be formulated to save his or her company at least $100K. Ric Van Der Linden, instructor of UC San Diego’s Six Sigma Black Belt program, explained in an earlier blog post how students of Lean and Six Sigma are bringing speed and accuracy to process improvement at many companies today.

Students in Ric’s classes are bringing significant savings to their companies as well. This is why students—and their bosses—are loving the program.

We talked to a recent Lean Six Sigma Black Belt graduate, Anthony Stephenson, about how the program has helped him and his company save a projected one million dollars.

Why did you enroll in the Lean Six Sigma Program?
For about four years, I was managing small commercial programs that were less than two million dollars at Northrop Grumman that were simply not a challenge. I wanted to grow and take on more responsibility, so I applied for the Manufacturing Manager position and got the job. Now I am responsible for over 50 million dollars and a department of more than 30 people. I decided to take the class after attending an info session and saw that I could use the training in my new position.

What was your experience during the program?
I learned all sorts of Lean Six Sigma tools and methodologies that I could easily apply on the job. Tools like 5S+1, Gage R&R, Value Stream Maps, Spaghetti Diagrams, Control Charts, Mistake Proofing, and Team Building. These are just a few valuable offerings that were easy to implement, but they delivered huge results. One of my best experiences was watching one of Ric’s videos and realizing that low inventory, high quality, and high throughput are three keys to success in manufacturing operations. 

How was the program beneficial to you and your company?
The program has allowed me to remove the blindfold and see that waste exists throughout my organization. Now I see opportunities for improvement everywhere. It gave me the tools necessary to remove waste and invoke the five lean principles of value, value stream, flow, pull, and pursuit of perfection in manufacturing. This class also made me realize the importance of keeping score using key performance indicators of first pass yields, cost, and schedule. I am on track to save my company one million dollars within the next few months.

UC San Diego Extension’s 12-week Lean Six Sigma Black Belt program provides students with in-depth knowledge on best practices, along with a hands-on group project that gives students the experience to become a Lean Six Sigma leader in their organizations. Classroom lectures and projects are organized to allow structured implementation of a project, resulting in a minimum projected ROI of $100K.

Training for Six Sigma is provided through a belt-based training system similar to Karate. There are several different belts/levels including white, yellow, green, black and master black, each playing a crucial role in the implementation of a process improvement project.

Now accepting applications.

• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

• Lean Enterprise

For additional information contact Angela Cook at (858) 534-8133 or a9cook@ucsd.edu.