Guide to Lean Six Sigma Training Online

Lean six sigma training is the combination of two very powerful disciplines for continuous improvement, lean manufacturing and six sigma. Prior to the last couple years, most individuals and companies either focused on lean or six sigma, but rarely both. However, the success of the combined approach has led to many companies seeking people skilled in both disciplines. These companies have determined the best way to maximize improvement is to combine both methods which enables the use of many more tools than either approach by itself.

The big obstacle is for employees to obtain the proper training to really learn lean manufacturing and six sigma. These are not simple subjects that can be learned in a couple weeks, and rarely is there sufficient compensation to consultants to provide a 3-4 month training course.

Because of the vast amount of material, lean six sigma training is best done online, where there are no time constraints and the depth of training is sufficient to apply the principles once the course is completed.

Online lean six sigma training should include all of the lean manufacturing concepts as well as the tools to implement the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) model of six sigma.

The lean manufacturing tools which should be included are 5S, SMED, kanban, value stream mapping, kaizen, continuous and one piece flow, quality at the source, standard operations, line balance, and 7 wastes.

The six sigma tools number over 100, but to name a few are SIPOC, hypothesis testing, ANOVA, regression analysis, basic statistics and confidence intervals for means, variances, and standard deviation, chi square, etc. All of the basic charting and graphs should also be included.

An online course of sufficient depth should take at least 6-8 weeks to complete.

The best success from an online lean six sigma course is to begin a project during the course and complete it at the end of the course, then move right into application in the field.