Online Black Belt Course

0.1: An introduction to the Course
In this opening session, we introduce you to the course, the format, how to navigate your way around, and ensure you are ready for the remainder of the course.
We will also discuss certification requirements to ensure you are ready to go!

0.2: Benefits of Lean Six Sigma
Learn about the benefits of Lean and Lean Six Sigma and how world-class organisations have used Lean to drive exceptional results.
What are the key reasons these companies are successful, and how, through this training, can you begin to apply this knowledge to your career.

0.3: Black Belt Projects
Finally, in this session, we help you begin to identify what types of projects are the best for running as Green Belts.
We look at the tools and prioritisation matrix that can be used to identify the best projects with the largest business impact.

1.1: What is Lean
In order to understand how to build Lean processes, we have to understand what Lean really means and how we can apply Lean across what we do to drive a difference.
We will explore what Lean is, what it is not, and where Lean fits within the current business climate.

1.2: What are the keen Lean Principles?
The principles behind Lean are fundamental to core fundamentals for business excellence and building operational excellence.
Every industry has a way of doing business, but the principles behind Lean are relevant across all sectors, helping build the long-term growth and culture of an organisation.

1.3: How to identify wastes and inefficiencies in our processes
Learning to see inefficiencies does not start when something obvious goes wrong.
As an expert in Lean thinking, you will be able to watch processes, understand the inefficiencies that exist, and identify waste within every process.
With most processes having almost 80% waste, can any of us afford to ignore it?

1.4: How to be process-centered in our thinking
To build new products or services and to fix existing products or services, you have to be process-centered and process-focused.
Learning the art of process thinking to build improved or new processes is a skill that can be developed leveraging Lean principles.

1.5: Core Lean Tool Kit
Understanding what tool to use when and which tool will yield the best and biggest result is critical to making lasting change happen.
You will learn the critical Lean tools such as Value Stream Mapping or 5S, but you will also learn how to get really good at brainstorming, SCAMPER, assumption busting, and prioritisation of activities while developing skills that can be applied across any business and any role.

1.6: Using A3 Problem Solving
Toyota taught its leaders how to solve issues on a single sheet of A3 paper, and we will show you how to do it.
This tool brings together visual management, change management, and problem solving into an unbelievably powerful problem-solving format that you can use for the rest of your career to solve business challenges – at any level.

2.1 What is Six Sigma?
So what actually does Six Sigma mean? In this module, we will explore the background of Six Sigma, where it came from, and what it means to businesses today.
We will look at the impact of poor sigma levels in business operations and how the Six Sigma approach can enable world-class performance.

2.2 What is the difference between Lean & Six Sigma
With so much talk about Lean and Six Sigma, consultants, businesses, and leaders are often one or the other.
But why is that? And should it be the case?

2.3 Introduction to the DMAIC Problem Solving approach
The DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) phases are central to the Six Sigma project approach, and we will show you how DMAIC, and DMADV,
can provide a structure to solve almost any project you will ever work on. So, if you are ever lost in your project and unsure what to do next,
the approach we will show you and teach you helps you walk your way through any project, keeping it well-structured so you can be creative.

03: The Define Stage
Have you ever identified a project to work on but found it hard to keep the project on track and within scope?
Have you ever worked on a project where senior management are just not supportive or interested? Well, in the Define phase,
we are going to show you how to build projects that the business wants to do, needs to do, and will support you to do.

We will look at the following elements:

• Building Problem/Goal Statements
• Learning how to quantify the cost of poor quality in your business/operations
• Understanding customers and linking projects to burning customer needs
• How to align teams behind projects, including stakeholders
• What makes teams successful and how to build the right team with the right structures
• Getting business approval and support

04: The Measure Phase
Ever got to the end of a project and had difficulty proving it was a success? Have you ever heard about a project someone
claimed they did, but you are just not sure if anything actually improved? More often than not, this is because they
jumped, skipped, or simply did not know about the Measure phase. If you want to improve something, you have to learn
how to baseline performance.

In the Measure phase, we look at how we should identify the data we need, how to capture and extract that data, and ensure its quality
before applying tools to build high-quality performance metrics and KPIs. We will look at the different measures you can use
to baseline performance so you can prove how good performance was before you started.

We will cover key topics such as:

• How to build KPIs and cascade them across teams and projects
• How to use basic statistics to offer more insights and depth into your data
• What you need to do to ensure the data you capture is quality data and not biased
• The different types of data and why some types of data are better than others
• Skills to learn how to interpret data, the distributions, and which tools can be used to deliver insights
• How to use graphical analysis tools to represent data clearly
• How to understand if your process is actually capable of what you need
• And finally, how to translate this into baseline metrics, a foundation for success

05: An Introduction to Basic Statistics
Ever get lost or confused when people talk about statistics? This short module is designed to help simplify statistics, demystify
the jargon, and teach us how to apply sensible statistics in the real world. It will break down the concepts so you can feel
confident presenting data and using data to challenge business processes.