Lean Six Sigma for Students

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a comprehensive set of tools focused on process improvement. It is a powerful means to achieve continuous improvement and process change. Profit and non-profit organizations alike are committed to Lean Six Sigma as a means of simplifying processes, improving process accuracy, and lowering costs. Lean Six Sigma aims for a goal of 3.4 mistakes per million – this is actually what Six Sigma means. There are three levels of practitioner certification:

• At RIT, Yellow Belts train for three days and become proficient enough in LSS tools to be effective team members.
• At RIT, Green Belts train for thirteen days (spread out over thirteen weeks) and learn a host of “cognitive” and statistical tools to lead projects, oftentimes with Yellow Belts supporting the team effort. Green Belt certification also requires completion of a sponsored project with significant return-on-investment.
• Black Belts complete additional training beyond Green Belt certification and are the senior consultants in the world of Lean Six Sigma. They take on large cross-functional projects usually supported by Yellow and Green Belts. 

The underlying philosophy of Lean Six Sigma began with Henry Ford over 100 years ago. After World War II, American experts including Deming and Juran were invited to Japan to help businesses like Toyota. Toyota became one of the first companies in the world to use Lean and Six Sigma techniques to improve business processes with a real emphasis on employee involvement. LSS is not a “fad” – US companies such as GE, Allied Signal, and Motorola were some of the early adopters and have continued to embrace this methodology for many years. Today, nearly all businesses utilize Lean Six Sigma in one form or another to improve their business processes.

LSS offers a set of tools to solve process issues whether a process is inefficient, too costly, or is not contributing as it should to revenue generation or other business goals. LSS can be used for any process in any field or discipline, and will help you improve your contribution to a current or future employer. The online job placement site Indeed (2014) quotes an employer’s survey which shows a 5-8% salary premium for Lean Six Sigma practitioners.

Do you enjoy fixing processes? Are you frustrated by processes that do not reflect customer needs? Do you find yourself doing work that seems redundant? If so, you will enjoy Lean Six Sigma training and you will gain a great deal from enhancing your ability to influence and impact work processes that bring value to your organization.

Most candidates begin with a Yellow Belt to find out whether they have the interest and passion for Lean Six Sigma. The time to complete the Yellow Belt is not significant (3 days on-campus or 2 weeks online) but is a great introduction to LSS and will give you tools that will helpful regardless of whether or not you go further to a Green Belt or even a Black Belt.

Yes. Upper-class undergraduate and graduate students can take ISEE 582/682, an online course offered by RIT through the ISEE department in both the fall and spring semesters. In addition to academic credit, you are awarded a Yellow Belt and are considered to be Green Belt “trained” provided that you meet course requirements. If you would like to continue on to a Green Belt, you must then complete a project after course completion.  This requires securing of a sponsor, identification of a suitable project, and approval from RIT. The project must be completed within 2 years of completing ISEE 582/682 (and initiated within 1 year). Contact Vincenzo Buonomo at vxbasp@rit.edu for more information.

Yes. Admission requires prior completion of a basic course sequence in statistics. At RIT, this could be either STAT 145&146 or STAT 251&252.

You will be charged $750 to cover consultation and mentoring with RIT staff.

Lean Six Sigma is an industry credential which means that the primary focus of RIT's non-credit certification programs is working professionals and organizations. However, our training organization is part of RIT, so it is important that we serve students and help better prepare them for productive careers.

After securing a sponsor and discussing project ideas with your sponsor, you will prepare a project charter and get approval from both your sponsor and RIT (including registering for the project and paying $750).  Project execution will follow the DMAIC process, during which you will meet periodically with your sponsor and a RIT mentor. Your completed project will include a story board of key findings and the Control Plan, and you must also show proof that the sponsor has “signed-off” at all stages of the project. RIT will review all documentation and provide a report back to you. Should there be any issues, you will be told in writing what needs to be addressed. Finally, the sponsor must submit a brief letter in writing that supports completion of the project. Most Green Belt projects take 6-12 months to complete.

In general, no.  Projects associated with academic coursework, including Capstone projects, have characteristics that don’t lend themselves very well to satisfying Green Belt requirements: 

• Academic projects are time-constrained – bounded by semesters or graduation deadlines – while Green Belt projects have no such constraints and must be completed through the Control phase in order to be certified.
• Green Belt candidates must lead projects individually.  Team members on academic projects often have similar roles and share responsibilities.
• Academic projects have distinct requirements that are unrelated or poorly aligned with Green Belt process improvement requirements, and academic priorities take precedence.  Lean Six Sigma projects must utilize the DMAIC structured approach and be completed through the Control phase.  A Senior Design project, for example, usually follows a product development process and may require disciplinary deliverables that are unrelated to process improvement or don’t use the DMAIC process. A capstone or thesis project usually involves disciplinary research as well as reporting that is not well aligned with green belt tollgates and the DMAIC process.

After considering these challenges, if you still believe that your academic project can be structured to satisfy Green Belt project requirements, you must put together a draft project charter.  This means that you have identified a sponsor who is on-board with the opportunity/need and is committed to supporting you throughout the life of the project.  Submit your draft charter to Vincenzo Buonomo at vxbasp@rit.edu and he will evaluate its viability as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt project.

In general, no, for many of the same reasons mentioned above for academic projects: time constraints, project leadership requirements which are especially difficult in a co-op position, and misaligned requirements and priorities.  As a co-op student, gaining the necessary level of support to lead a Green Belt project is especially challenging. 

Nevertheless, after considering these issues, if you still believe that your academic project can be structured to satisfy Green Belt project requirements, you must put together a draft project charter.  This means that you have identified a sponsor who is on-board with the opportunity/need and is committed to supporting you throughout the life of the project.  Submit your draft charter to Vincenzo Buonomo at vxbasp@rit.edu and he will evaluate its viability as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt project.

Yes, ISEE 582/682 counts toward a minor in Supply Chain Management through the Saunders College of Business. There is no minor in Lean Six Sigma.

Yes, the Advanced Certificate in Lean Six Sigma at the graduate level. This academic program does not include professional certification beyond Yellow Belt certification embedded in ISEE 582/682 because the purpose of the Advanced Certificate is in-depth academic level coverage and not industry-based problem solving.

CQAS does offer a Black Belt Training program but candidates must have a Green Belt and significant work experience with demonstrated leadership competence before starting the program. Admission also requires the identification and approval of a significant improvement project. No academic coursework is available for Black Belt certification.

RIT does not offer the Master Black Belt at this time.  It is a very advanced credential seldom appropriate for students unless you already have significant work experience with demonstrated leadership competence. Master Black Belt study requires very specific deliverables including a comprehensive exam, project completion with significant financial expectations, training, consultation, and organization design. No academic coursework is available for Master Black Belt certification.

This question only applies to Black Belt Certification since this is the only certification program with pre-requisites.  Most students do not qualify for admission to our Black Belt program because of the experiential requirements.  See our Black Belt website for more information.