Six Sigma Certification Guide: Everything You Need to Know

Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that began in manufacturing in the mid-1980s at Motorola. Today, many other industries embrace Six Sigma, including: 

• Finance 
• Construction 
• Transport 
• Health Care 
• Mining
• Trade 
• Education 
• Food services
• Retail 
• Insurance 
• Telecommunications 
• Information Technology 
• Real Estate 
• Media 
• Hospitality 
• Publishing 
• Small Businesses 
• Large Corporations 
• And many others 

Six Sigma is required to improve business processes. A Six Sigma Certification is necessary for every professional across industries, and becoming a Six Sigma White Belt, Yellow Belt, Green Belt, or Black Belt is highly beneficial. Realizing this, you may have several questions about these certifications. 

This blog provides everything you need to know about Six Sigma Certifications. In it, we will cover:

1. What is Six Sigma?
2. What are the salaries of Six Sigma Certified Professionals?
3. What is Six Sigma Certification?
   1. Six Sigma White Belt Certification
   2. Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification
   3. Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
   4. Six Sigma Black Belt Certification
   5. Six Sigma Master Black Belt Certification
4. Why is achieving Six Sigma Certification important for individuals?
5. Why is Six Sigma so important for organizations?
6. Will the Six Sigma Certification help you in getting a job?
7. Is it necessary to achieve the Six Sigma Certification from a few known institutions?
8. What is the difference between Lean Six Sigma Certification and Six Sigma Certification?
9. Conclusion

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a set of methods and tools for business process improvement and quality management that focuses on identifying and eliminating defects. One of the many benefits of Six Sigma is that it directly impacts Cost Savings for your organization by improving processes to increase the repeatability and accuracy of process results.

What are the salaries of Six Sigma Certified professionals?

The salaries discussed in this blog reflect how much a typical Black Belt position is paid across the globe. The specific salaries depend on which industry and organization you focus on. We also want to clarify that your actual salary level may vary from these representative salary levels.

An individual qualified as a Six Sigma Black Belt increases your chances of getting a much higher salary than peers in Operations or other functions. Let’s discuss some actual figures.

According to Indeed.com, a Black Belt’s salary in the United States ranges from US$99,000 to US$130,000 per year. Glassdoor.com suggests the average base pay of over US$97,000/year, and the salary for most open jobs ranges between US$106,000 to US$191,000 per year. Both sources suggest very high confidence in these salary figures.

Similarly, per Payscale.com, a Black Belt’s salary in the United Kingdom range from GBP£44,000 to £50,000, while Glassdoor.com suggests an average base pay of over GBP£46,000 per year. And the salary range for open positions is from GBP£49,000 to GBP£64,000. The confidence level is high for these numbers as well.

If you are in India, Payscale.com suggests a Black Belt’s salary ranges from INR₹1 million to 3 million rupees per year, while Glassdoor.com suggests an average base pay of INR₹1.8 million. Salaries range from INR₹1.2 million to INR₹3.3 million with a very high confidence level.

We can confidently say that salaries in the United States can go beyond US$250,000 for suitable Black Belt candidates. Similarly, in the U.K., the wages are much higher than those projected by these websites. In India, the salary ranges can vary from INR₹1.6 million to more than INR₹5 million.

What is Six Sigma Certification?

Six Sigma Certification is a documented validation of your mastery over Six Sigma. It conveys that you have the knowledge and skills to execute Six Sigma projects.

What are the different levels of Six Sigma certifications?

You can achieve your Six Sigma certification at different levels. These are:

1. Six Sigma White Belt Certification
2. Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification
3. Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
4. Six Sigma Black Belt Certification
5. Six Sigma Master Black Belt Certification

We’ll take a moment to understand each certification level and its eligibility criteria.

Six Sigma White Belt Certification

Until recently, the Six Sigma Yellow Belt was the beginning of your Six Sigma journey. However, the Six Sigma White Belt has started to gain prominence in the last few years. 

As a Six Sigma White Belt, you are the subject matter expert in your business process. You must have an intimate working knowledge of the intricate details of your business process. This means:

• You will have a basic understanding of Six Sigma. 
• You must gain an understanding of the Seven Basic Tools of Quality. 
• Six Sigma White Belt is a part-time role. 

Eligibility criteria 

For the Six Sigma White Belt certification:

• Limited or no work experience is needed
• All ground-level staff in any organization can apply and achieve Six Sigma White Belt Certification. 

Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification

As a Yellow Belt, you are the subject matter expert in your business process. You also play an active role in Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt projects. Additionally, you will have an overview of the five DMAIC phases of Six Sigma. DMAIC stands for: 

• Define
• Measure
• Analyze
• Improve
• And Control 

As a Yellow Belt, you:

• Must master the Seven Basic Tools of Quality. 
• Are responsible for data collection, data analysis, data scrubbing, and other such activities. 
• Have basic know-how of graphical analysis.
• Lead Six Sigma Yellow Belt projects. 

The Six Sigma Yellow Belt is a part-time role. Yellow Belt projects are smaller sub-process level projects and may also be offshoots of the larger Six Sigma projects. 

For more details, check out this YouTube video. 

Eligibility criteria

• If you have at least two years of experience, you can apply for the Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification. 
• Ideal candidates for Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification are: 
  • Associates
  • Team Leaders
  • Line Managers
  • Assistant Operations Managers
  • Managers
  • Other such roles 

Six Sigma Green Belt Certification

As a Six Sigma Green Belt, you hold an authoritative role in any business process. You lead and drive Six Sigma Green Belt projects (generally process-level projects). This means:

• You receive in-depth Six Sigma training for each of the five DMAIC phases. 
• You are trained to perform data analysis using graphical and statistical techniques. 
• You receive guidance and mentoring from Six Sigma Black Belts. 
• You spend about 25% of your work hours executing Six Sigma projects. 

In most cases, the Six Sigma Green Belt is a part-time role, though a few organizations offer it as a full-time role. 

For more details, check out this YouTube video. 

Eligibility criteria

If you have two or more years of experience, you can apply for the Six Sigma Green Belt Certification. Ideal candidates for Six Sigma Green Belt Certification are: 

• Team Leaders
• Line Managers
• Asst. Operations Managers
• Managers
• Senior Managers
• Directors
• Vice Presidents
• Senior Management-Level leaders 

Six Sigma Black Belt Certification

As a Six Sigma Black Belt, you master the Six Sigma methodology. This means:

• You coach and mentor Green Belts and Yellow Belts
• You lead and drive business and functional level Six Sigma projects
• You translate the business goals into reality. You set these goals around crucial business factors such as: 
  • Service
  • Quality
  • Cost
  • Customer Satisfaction
• You master the graphical methods, statistical techniques, and data-analysis-backed business decisions.
• Six Sigma Black Belt is a full-time role.

If you encounter any problems, you reach out to Six Sigma Master Black Belts for guidance and mentoring.

For more details, check out this YouTube video.

Eligibility criteria

If you have two or more years of experience, you are eligible to apply for the Black Belt Certification. Ideal candidates for Six Sigma Black Belt Certification are: 

• Team Leaders
• Line Managers
• Assistant Operations Managers
• Managers
• Senior Managers
• Directors
• Vice Presidents
• Senior-management-level individuals.

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

As a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, you are at the ultimate level of Six Sigma that an individual can attain. In this role:

• You work with the senior management to define the goals of your organization.
• You allocate these goals to Black Belts and track their performance.
• You have developed a thorough understanding of Six Sigma and statistical analysis.
• You mentor Six Sigma Black Belts and help them achieve their goals and targets.

Six Sigma Master Black Belt is a full-time role. For more details, check out this YouTube video. 

Eligibility criteria

A Six Sigma Master Black Belt Certification requires you:

• To be a full-time Black Belt for at least two years.
• To complete at least 5 Six Sigma or Lean projects.
• To coach/train other candidates for at least 100 hours.
• TO demonstrate the ability to work with senior management.

Why is achieving Six Sigma Certification important?

If you go to Google trends by typing http://trends.google.com in your web URL and search for the keyword “Six Sigma,” you will see this map. The blue region indicates the keyword used by the maximum number of people on the Google Search Engine. The darker the area, the more the usage. Impressive, isn’t it?

This map indicates that most organizations in every industry have embraced Six Sigma. These organizations need Six Sigma experts. Six Sigma Certification has become an essential qualification; organizations expect you to be Six Sigma Certified. 

Advantages of Six Sigma Certifications include:

• An extra edge on your resume, making it and you more lucrative. 
• The ability to stand out from the competition. 
• It often unlocks the hiring process’s initial rounds and takes you to the interview table.
• A Six Sigma Certification gives you the ability to showcase your talent and process improvement skills. 
• It shows that your consistent performance helps you become a solution-driven individual. 
• Your management, subordinates, and peers will view you as a value-adding professional. Business problems that require Six Sigma tools and techniques will be brought to you, allowing you to be visible across all levels of the organization.
• The Six Sigma Certification helps you prove your skills and ability to manage people and projects. 
• A Six Sigma Certification further helps you negotiate a better pay package and unveils the possibility of receiving a promotion in your current job.

Achieving a Six Sigma Certification is a norm in today’s corporate world. Organizations expect you to go the extra mile and help them achieve their business goals. With the knowledge and skills of Six Sigma, you are trained and certified to use these tools. All it requires is the commitment and time to invest in achieving the required qualification. The stronger your commitment, the more you increase your probability of shaping your career the way you want.

Why is Six Sigma so important for organizations?

Organizations come into existence to earn profits. The simple equation for profitability is:

Profit = Revenue – Cost

Profit is equal to Revenue minus Cost. In situations where the revenues are low and costs are high, profits take a beating. For organizations to survive, they must be profitable. Thus, the revenues must be high and the costs low.

Considering the phenomenon of globalization, technology, and innovation worldwide, almost every organization has a global presence in the wake of the 21^st century. From the beverages brand Coca-Cola to the IT brand IBM, fashion brand Levi to telecom and computer brand Apple, automobile brand Toyota to consulting brand Delloite, each organization is making revenue by selling its products or services virtually in every continent, every country, and every city on the planet. The competition is fierce. And the opportunity to increase revenue is declining daily for all organizations.

In this situation where increasing revenues are hard to come by, how can organizations continue to earn profit? They are left with two choices:

1. Either find another planet where they can sell their products or services to aliens — which is not possible so far
2. Reduce Costs

And Six Sigma is a crash course in reducing cost. This methodology comes to save the day!

Packed with powerful tools, Six Sigma helps any organization put money on the table. Thus, organizations continue to embrace Six Sigma even after three decades of existence. 

Will Six Sigma Certification help you get a job?

To get a job with Six Sigma, you must do two things:

1. Achieve a Six Sigma Certification
2. Have relevant work experience

If you have both certification and experience, you are more likely than your peers to get the job you desire.

Getting a job is significantly less likely if you lack relevant experience. Your employer needs you to start performing immediately and may not be willing to invest in training you for the job.

However, Six Sigma can give you an edge even without the necessary experience: 

By achieving a Six Sigma Certification:

• Your resume can stand out from your competitors. 
• It highlights your proactive attitude in learning new techniques. 
• You send a subtle message that you are invested in your organization’s growth, allowing you to beat most of the competition in the initial rounds of the hiring process. 
• It further enables you to land on the interview table rather quickly.

Is it necessary to achieve the Six Sigma Certification specifically from high-profile institutions?

No. You may achieve your certification from any institution, whether or not they are part of the International Association for Six Sigma Certification (IASSC) or the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

Are you wondering why this is the case?

A personal experience of an interviewer may shed some light on this. As an interviewer on a panel for several Fortune 500 organizations focusing on hiring Six Sigma professionals for their respective organizations, he is least interested in knowing the name of the certifying body. Instead, he is most interested in learning the candidate’s true potential. Interview questions gauge the following:

• Can this candidate resolve real-life business problems? Can they translate the theoretical knowledge into practical scenarios?
• Can the candidate solve complex problems with the least resistance and minimal time?

The focus is on understanding the candidate’s attitude towards the job. The goal is to seek answers to the following questions:

• Can the candidate go the extra mile to achieve the goals?
• Is the candidate street-smart enough to tackle any business problem?
• Does the candidate have the ability to motivate themselves and others when the chips are down?

As an interviewer, the focus is not simply to hire candidates certified only from the “best” institutions, but instead candidates who:

• Can get the job done
• Have hands-on expertise in Six Sigma tools and techniques
• Can be excellent change managers
• Are invested in self-growth and growth of the team members, business, and the organization

To summarize:

• You are not always required to achieve Six Sigma Certifications only from known institutions. 
• You may achieve Six Sigma certification from any institution.
• All you need is hands-on expertise on Six Sigma tools and techniques.
• You need to showcase the ability to use these tools in any given situation.

What is the difference between Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma Certification?

Above is the most common question asked by candidates new to Six Sigma.

Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma are both process improvement methodologies. The difference between them is the approach of each method:

• Lean focuses on the elimination of waste, whereas Six Sigma focuses on defect reduction
• Lean’s approach is to identify processes that do not add value. Six Sigma is data-driven and uses statistical techniques to identify root causes.
• Lean projects are complete in 30 to 45 days. Six Sigma projects are complete in 3 to 6 months.

Between the 1990s and early 2000s, experts independently practiced both of these approaches. With experience, they realized that combining the two methods yields outstanding results. Consequently, most practitioners started using Lean Six Sigma tools in their projects, which resulted in the emergence of Lean Six Sigma.

Today, any institution providing Six Sigma Certification includes Lean in its curriculum. When you undergo a Six Sigma training, the course material includes Lean Six Sigma by default. However, to be entirely sure:

• You can always confirm by reviewing the training body of knowledge (BoK). If the BoK has Lean tools included in the curriculum, you can refer to that training as Lean Six Sigma.
• You may also cross-check the sample certificate. The certificate will include “Lean Six Sigma Certified” noted on it.

The use of the Six Sigma credential today indicates that you are Lean Six Sigma Certified. Interviewers assume that you are aware of Lean tools. There will be one red flag, though. As you undertake a Six Sigma Certification, be concerned if:

• You do not find Lean tools discussed in the Body of Knowledge
• Lean Six Sigma certification is not included

It is not recommended to proceed with that certifying body in these situations. Lean is most commonly associated with Six Sigma, and the industry requires that you have a working knowledge of both. It is advisable that you get Lean Six Sigma Certified rather than only Six Sigma Certified.

Conclusion

Attaining the Six Sigma Certification is a necessity in today’s corporate world. Everyone wants to add value to their organization: corporate employees, team leaders, managers, senior managers, Vice Presidents, and directors. Six Sigma Certification gives you the necessary tools and techniques and the needed edge to showcase your vibrant talent. All you have to do is find the proper certification for you! 

Take a moment to review the eligibility requirements for the different Sigma belts (White Belt, Yellow Belt, Green Belt, and Black Belt) and find which certification is suitable for you. As you achieve these certifications, you are on a path to unlock your innate potential that is all set to flourish and prosper. 

Best wishes on your journey!