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Six Sigma Black Belt: Preparation Tips, Test Dates & Jobs

All organizations and businesses need professional employees who can give timely suggestions on improving their business strategy. If you want to become such a professional, the Six Sigma Black Belt certification is the best choice. However, many people neglect their importance.

Undoubtedly, the Six Sigma Black Belt gives a clear idea about your skills and increases the chances of getting hired at a job position.

This guide contains everything you need to know about the Six Sigma Black Belt, including the preparation tips for the exam.

Also Read: Best Books for IASSC Black Belt Exam Preparation

What is a Six Sigma Black Belt?

Six Sigma has several belts awarded based on performance as well as course-based training to the employees.

While the White Belt is for entry-level employees, A Six Sigma Black Belt certified professional plans the process based on the Six Sigma principles.

They are senior members of the team, and all others work according to their plans and guidelines.

Six Sigma Black Belts play a significant role due to their strong knowledge of Six Sigma methodologies and leadership roles. Thus, they are expected to bring a substantial change to the organization.

Also Read: Guide on how to prepare for IASSC ICBB Test

What are the benefits of becoming a Six Sigma Black Belt?

Six Sigma Black Belts are highly recognized in all industries and organizations. It is because it offers a lot of flexibility in getting better job opportunities and progressing your personality.

Here are some of the best benefits of becoming a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Leadership skills

Becoming a Six Sigma Black Belt will help you enhance your leadership skills. Unlike the white belt and green belt, Black Belts are the leaders of the group. Thus, you won’t be bound to work under someone else or follow their instructions.

Instead, you will organize the whole plan to run the organization efficiently, and all the members will follow your instructions. Such a position in the job will enhance your leadership skills, and you will get to know a lot about different strategies you need to adopt for the improvement of your business.

Better understanding

Training and courses can help you better understand the methodology you need while working in an organization. If you don’t know how to apply the method, you will never be able to fix the problems.

Thus, Six Sigma Black Belt certification and training helps you find the problem and come up with a solution by applying the methodology at the right time.

Also Read: What is Six Sigma Green Belt Certification and How to get it?

Enhance technical skills

When you become a Six Sigma Black Belt, many employees are working under you. Thus, as a manager, you need to have specific technical skills and an understanding of all the statistical tools that will help you get the job done efficiently and timely.

Makes you stand out

The Six Sigma Black Belt certification is the best way to enhance your career as a professional. Even when applying to new jobs, it will help the organization understand your abilities and several skills.

Thus, they will consider no one but you to manage their organization and other employees.

Enhance staff involvement

Due to their leadership qualities, Six Sigma Black Belts are excellent at communicating. They know how to come with better strategies and enhance staff involvement.

As they have to manage a whole group of employers and work for solutions, they encourage the staff to enhance their skills and abilities.

Customer relationships

Becoming a Six Sigma Black Belt allows you to make better relationships with clients and customers. As you are a part of the senior administration, you will become the face of the company.

Thus, you have to manage the clients professionally and explain all the terms and conditions while keeping the progress of your company a priority.

You might also need to support your explanation with some facts and figures. If you have better communication skills, more and more clients will be attracted to your company. While making your company progress, it will increase your chances of promotion too.

Better salary

As the Six Sigma Black Belt is better recognized than the White and Yellow Belt, it increases the chances of advancing your career. You will get a much higher salary as you become the boss of so many employees and the face of your company.

More job opportunities

As the Six Sigma Black Belt certification makes you gain several skills and leadership roles, it makes you eligible for several other jobs. Besides dealing with clients or becoming the manager, you will have a lot of knowledge about marketing and technical stuff.

In this way, it will open doors for new jobs, which might also offer a lot better salary.

Thus, it is always a better idea to pass the test and become a Six Sigma Black Belt.

What jobs are Six Sigma Black Belt hired for?

Six Sigma Black Belts get several job opportunities, which offer better salaries and job positions. Some of the career options for Six Sigma Black Belts are:

Senior manager
Six Sigma Lean coordinator
Business process engineer
Quality improvement specialist
Quality assurance manager
Business analyst
Senior SQE manager
Procurement Specialist

What are the eligibility criteria for the Six Sigma Black Belt?

As a Six Sigma Black Belt is a leader of the organization, he needs to have special skills and work experience to make himself eligible for the role.

Six Sigma has several belts and has the most rules for being eligible for the Six Sigma Black Belt.

While most people think that you need to have the Yellow and Green Belt to be eligible for the black one, it isn’t true.

Although most people recommend it, it isn’t mandatory.

For being eligible for the Six Sigma Black belt, you need to have three years of work experience or complete two Six Sigma projects. You also need to provide signed affidavits.

But, make sure that the work experience is in a full-time job.

When and where are Six Sigma Black Belt tests held?

The Six Sigma Black Belt certification tests are mainly conducted by:

IASSC (International Association for Six Sigma Certification)
CSSC (Council for Six Sigma Certification)
ASQ (American Society for Quality)
Simplilearn

Besides, some other organizations also offer this certification and conduct training courses to help individuals pass the test. You will receive the certificate from the one you decide.

All of them are independent to conduct their tests, for which you need to pay a registration fee. The fee also varies for all organizations, and you can get to know the exact information by visiting their websites.

Generally, the exam is conducted in two different modes:

Computer-based test
Paper and pencil test (conducted in test centers)

You can choose any of the modes, depending on your preference.

These are proctored exams with a time duration of 4 hours. The exam contains 150 questions, most of which are MCQs and true/false questions. After filling the form, you will get a schedule for the test.

What are some basic guidelines for preparing for the Six Sigma Black Belt?

Here are some of the basic guidelines for preparation that will help you get the certificate on the first attempt.

Manage your time

Time management is perhaps an essential step to success when preparing for any exam. Most people find it difficult to study while doing a full-time job.

In this case, an efficient study schedule will help you pass the test. If you have 2 months left for the test, a better strategy is to study for two hours daily. At the weekends, you can increase the time to 4 hours.

However, the time you give also depends on your ability to learn things.

If you have more time left, you can study less, like an hour a day. So, consider the time left for the preparation and then make a daily schedule and stick to it.

Have the Green Belt first

Although getting the Green Belt isn’t necessary for the Black Belt, we recommend have the green belt certification first.

This step-by-step strategy will help you gain a better understanding and in-depth knowledge about the Black Belt. Besides, the questions and concepts are similar in both the test, while the Black Belt certification requires some additional skills.

Make use of available resources

The good part is that many organizations that offer Black Belt certificates also have proper training sessions. So, it is better to get the training course from the organization you will get certified. The course will highlight all the features of the test and make you better prepared for it.

So far, many people think that ASQ is the best organization for the Six Sigma Black Belt training and certification.

Although all organizations have a training fee, it will help you pass the test. However, you can also buy some useful books if you have a habit of self-study, or make your own notes.

There are also some free online resources and videos for the preparation of the test.

Final words

The Six Sigma Black Belt is one of the highly recognized certifications globally, which is why more and more organizations have started to offer it.

It offers many benefits and is one of the most highly-paid jobs. However, a better test-attempting strategy and continuous efforts while preparing for the exam are essential to pass it.

Our detailed guide will help you in this process so that you can get the certification without any hassle.

How difficult is Six Sigma Certification?

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Is the Six Sigma course difficult? The answer is Yes. Is the Six Sigma course too difficult to qualify? The answer is No. It is is no rocket science and is relatively less difficult for people from a non-quality background. Anyone and everyone can acquire the knowledge of Six Sigma methodologies and tools irrespective of educational background. This includes medical as well.

How Much Time do You Need to Learn Six Sigma?

The answer to this question varies from person to person. It greatly depends on your training and from where you are getting that certificate. Honestly, there is no use in the 3 day or 5-day courses where trainers charge you/your company good money to certify you at the end. Let’s just say the more grinding you will get in this course, the more concepts and methodologies you will learn. On average, it takes from 4-5 weeks to a few months to get this certification.

Also Read: How long does it take to get Six Sigma Certification?

How Much Time do You Need to Prepare for a Six Sigma Exam?

Like I have told you earlier, this depends upon the level of your pre-requisite knowledge you are going on with. For most candidates who have had good training, it takes at least 8 weeks (2 hours a day) of study to clear the written tests. In any case, you should at least give it 3-4 weeks, even if you are very sure to have a great command of the material.

Also Read: Six Sigma Black Belt: Preparation Tips, Test Dates & Jobs

Things to Remember

Time is always a question when you are opting for preparation for Six Sigma Green Belt. So, you should be making your mind and a good schedule to support you before signing up for the course.
The tricky and non-practical questions bother a lot of candidates in these exams. You should give special time to improve your category-wise skills to answer those questions.
Your focal point should be preparing and covering the given complete syllabus and not the final test score. Because it is the learning that you will get out of the course.

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What’s the difference between Lean and Six Sigma?

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Something that almost every interviewee gets caught in is the difference between lean and Six Sigma. You might come across some highly qualified individuals in your company confusing one with another, don’t bother to correct them. It is because both Lean and Six Sigma work towards the same results, therefore they are very close to being separated.

For clarity, the primary focus of lean is to eliminate waste, adding value to the product/service, and reduce cycle time, while Six Sigma strives for perfection in the results and achieving higher customer satisfaction.

Six Sigma

There was a very specific goal behind the development of Six Sigma. It was reducing the variations in the same process, and that could be achieved only by eliminating defects. Generally speaking, there are two distinct approaches used in Six Sigma. What is the DMAIC or DMADV Method?

Although both of these methods have their unique and distinct uses, DMAIC is more preferred by industries. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control. This process helps in identifying the problem, identifying and implementing a solution plan, and maintaining that solution in the future. This method is perfectly suited for times when only adjustments to an already existing system are required, For example in Supply Chain Management.

The Lean Method

On contrary, the Lean method is entirely focused on eliminating waste and providing maximum value to customers. The term Lean was first introduced by the Toyota Business System in the 1980s, a business methodology that helped the company attain its maximum efficiency. Lean can be very useful when a new process is to be designed. It will involve every tier of the organization, help in the allocation of resources, and shaping out every facet of that business.

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Which is better Six Sigma or PMP for your career?

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The most widely recognized and spoken of certifications in the manufacturing industry are Six Sigma Certification and Project Management Professional (PMP). Now the question arises, how to choose between these two? As a newbie, you may struggle to choose the best for you. First, second, or both?

The growing competition in the market has made it difficult for an ordinary person to survive and grow with an average skillset. Every new opportunity asks for something more than your degree and experience. That is where these certifications come into play. They do not just add valuable fodder to your resume but also required a set of tools that will help you in the longer run. If you are a person that looks for change and improvement in everything, you should surely challenge yourself by obtaining these certifications.

Since both Six Sigma and PMP are tied to a business’ success rate, many companies today list either one or both as job requirements. It is also to be kept in consideration that while both certifications are much valuable, they can be very tough, costly, and require some hectic months of preparation and training.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a set of tools and methods mostly used for quality control and improvement. The overarching goal of Six Sigma is to reduce variance in outcomes by using analytical and statistical methods to enhance the efficiency and productivity of a system. Since its advent in the 1990s, it has grown to much fame and is now deployed by several leading names of manufacturing industries in the world.

PMP

Project Management Professional (PMP) on the other hand is more focused on improving the success rate of a project in all areas. It is an international designation and one of the most significant certifications by the Project Management Institute (PMI). In short, it trains and enables business personals to improve the overall dimensions, output, and turnover of a project by applying a standardized and evolving set of management principles.

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Will Six Sigma help my career? Benefits of Six Sigma

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Why do people do Six Sigma? The primary purpose is not improving industrial and manufacturing processes using Six Sigma methodologies, it is to grow your career. The industry or organization comes later. The fact that Six Sigma adds a lot to your professional skills, improves your business at work, and more than anything, it speaks of your commitment to improving business acumen. If you have Six Sigma expertise a wide you can find a place in a wide range of industries worldwide.

Some of the most promising ways how Six Sigma can transform your career are as follows:

1) Career Advancement

Six Sigma certifications are one way of ensuring that you are on the right track for success and advancement in your career. It will act as a cherry on the top of your skillset in front of people who want to hire you. Also, you hold this certification and the right skills, you will perhaps be at ease in the stiff and challenging competition to be employed. Hence it proves that Six Sigma can be very instrumental in getting you promotions ad advancements in a career in a shorter period.

2) Leadership Abilities

Knowing the methods with which you can efficiently improve the processes of business in your company will enable you to lead the efforts in enhancing the activities in the company. You will thus become an agent of change in the industry. Such employees are highly regarded in any organization. This will likely multiply your chances of growing into marginal positions in the company.

3) Salary

Your wage is ought to rise after this certification. You will be entertained with a better package among your career mates within the same job bracket. The higher pay will make sure you offer your best services with great commitment. Additionally, you will never be underpaid. This is the best motivation to thrive and achieve for your industry.

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Is Six Sigma training worth it? Importance of Six Sigma

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What is the importance of Six Sigma Certification? Does it justify all the hype around it? Is it even worth it? These are the most frequently asked questioned by beginners. Well, we will try to answer all of them in a more comprehensive way in this article.

To begin with, it is not a binary question to have only two possible answers. There are a few ways to look at this. Generally speaking, any certification is nothing more than a resume-folder. More important is what it brings along. A certificate or a degree may help you to enter an office, but your expertise and practical skills will help you stay there. Having said that, Six Sigma provides certainly valuable resume fodder, which comes along with useful analytical and management skills. But there is a condition to it. And that is if only you get it from the right organization, otherwise, it is more or less virtually useless.

What is it in Six Sigma that will change my point of view about things? Well, it is the hard work you will put into the training. It will not just give you a new perspective and approach about processes, but will also give you valuable techniques for improvement and analysis. Also, you can master these techniques, methods, and apply to become a trainer. It is one of the most in-demand and lucrative jobs today. Best suitable for those who are interested in problem-solving and like to make things better.

Finally, sit back, ask yourself, understand the philosophy, draw the connection, and go for it. Don’t get confused in your interviews if someone uses lean instead of Six Sigma. They are essentially different things but are used on similar notes. They are quite interchangeable. Understand what are your plans after getting the certification, pick the right program, and cert for your situation.

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Which Six Sigma Certification is best for you?

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How do you choose? Which Six Sigma Certification is better? What is the most recognized and followed Six Sigma Institutes around the world? And most importantly, does it make any difference as to where you are getting your Six Sigma Certificate from? I mean, after all, this is about the knowledge, and concepts of methods you gain from your training ad classes that you can apply in the field to improve the quality of business processes and remove defects from products/services? If you have a similar question in your mind, stick with us through this article, and we ensure you will go with clarity of mind out of this.

There has already been enough discussion on the importance of Six Sigma certification and how beneficial it would be in your career growth, and improvement of your worth within your organization, we will cut it short directly to where you should get this certification from? And what things should be considered before selecting an institute for this purpose:

The credibility of the Organization. As you know a lot of fakes are going on all around, it is pretty easy to fall for a scam. You should look for and find out the most credible institutions to get your certification.
Course Content. Depending upon your institute, the course content, number of hours per week, classes, and projects vary. You should consider those courses, with which your pre-requisite knowledge is compatible.
How is the training conducted? You may be asked for weekend classes, or online sessions, etc. this is what we call the schedule part. How much practical knowledge is induced? How many projects are compulsory for the certification?
Who is the trainer? The most important of the above is who is going to give you training? Generally, ASQ and IASSC are considered to be leaders in Six Sigma Black Belt Certification. The fact that the IASSC exam is a closed book exam, while the ASQ exam is an open book. Unlike many other certifications such as Project Management (PMI), there is no single authorizing agency Six Sigma certification, so there can be a variation in the course contents and merit of certifications of these institutes.

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How do you become Six Sigma certified?

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Have you already made you are made about getting Six Sigma certified? If so, this article will help you in understanding the steps that will follow once you express your desire of taking Six Sigma Certification tests, and have already started at an institution for studies and projects.

For a quick review, Six Sigma is a quality management methodology that aims to improve the quality of process outputs by analyzing, identifying, and eliminating the causes of errors, thus minimizing variability in a manufacturing process.

Also Read: How long does it take to get a Six Sigma Certificate?

Six Sigma uses a set of quality management methods, that includes statistical, analytical, and practical methods to create a special title for people who are experts in these methods. This expertise is evaluated by a series of written tests and interviews, and worthy candidates are awarded certifications and are called “Champions”, “Black Belts”, “Green Belts”, “Yellow Belts”, etc.

Your Six Sigma journey will begin by finding your course of interest in Six Sigma, asking yourself why do you need this? What value will this certificate bring to your career? If you were already done with it, your next few steps should be as follows:

Locate a training Program. Generally, all certifications start with training, and Six Sigma is no different. Your certification journey will begin by locating the right training program. Look for trainers close to you. Google searches will come in handy here if you are clueless. Also, you can contact the people who have already got these certifications.

Enroll in the training program. The college routine will get to repeat itself once again here. Once you get yourself enrolled in a certified Six Sigma Institution, make up your mind for some rigorous study, the bulk of projects, and lots of class time. It is especially true if you have opted for Black Belt or Master Black Belt certification.

Take the written test. On the completion of your training, the next step is to appear and clear a written test. It will prove that you’ve completely learned what all you need to know about Six Sigma. The final phase of your certification journey includes the completion of one or two projects using the Six Sigma methodology. You can term this as your “lab work.”

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How long does it take to get Six Sigma Certificate?

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Are you planning to get Six Sigma certification but you are worried about your schedule? Do you want to know how many weeks/months usually someone gets certified? Well, we are here to clear this air for you. This article aims to provide you basic information about how long does it take usually to get a Six Sigma Certification.

Honestly speaking, the answer to this question may vary depending upon several factors. As there is not a single central international institution to award these certifications, the course of hours, study, and projects may differ depending upon where you are getting certified. Like for example, if you are getting your certification through the Management and Strategy Institute, the average completion time is maxed 5 weeks.

For the sake of understanding, it is also worth mentioning here that this program is completely self-paced within some regulations. It means you can move at whatever speed you are comfortable with. Preferably, if you have any experience of Six Sigma already, you would be at a greater possibility of completing this program faster. About how much maximum time someone takes to complete this course, it is one year.

Also Read: How do you become Six Sigma certified?

Understandably, if you only treat this as a test to clear, you could easily cram for a few days and get certified in a matter of a couple of weeks. But you will always lack the efficiency and depth of concepts that an effective practitioner would have. Hence, Six Sigma is not only about the written tests that you take, it is more about the projects you get to apply yourself into. In this way, if you learn all the concepts, along with applying them yourself, one month is more than enough to grasp complete concepts and sit in the test.

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Why it is called Six Sigma? How did it get this name?

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A lot of people ask a very relevant question about the nomenclature of Six Sigma. It is why Six Sigma is called Six Sigma? Well, we will try to answer it most comprehensively in this article. The name Six Sigma is derived from the bell curve that represents standard deviation and is used in statistics. In this way, we can safely say that Six Sigma represents one standard deviation away from one set of mean values.

To understand the concept of standard deviation, you will have to assume a dataset with scattered values. Standard deviation is the measure of how well-distributed is the data relative to the value of its average (mean). The further out the points are scattered, the greater would be the value of standard deviation.

Precisely, Six Sigma is a discipline that focuses on the variations in a process. This is why the ultimate goal of Six Sigma is the reduction and elimination of these variations, which eventually increases the control over the process.

Also Read: Why should you get Six Sigma Certification?

The History of Six Sigma Name

The concept of Six Sigma is often derived back to a 19th-century mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss, and hence the name Six Sigma. He was the first person to introduce the bell curves that represented normal distributions and standard deviation. When the industrial revolution arrived, the idea of mass production came into being. Henry Ford adopted this idea and developed an assembly to translate this idea into reality. The biggest problem with any mass production process is its inevitable errors. Teams of highly skilled supervisors and managers were deployed to detect these errors by measuring quantities and control quality.

This practice was aced by Motorola, in the 1980s, when they decided to measure errors per million from errors per thousand for the sake of improving the quality produced. This is how Six Sigma methodologies were born which are being implemented upon around the world and saving millions of dollars.

Also Read: Six Sigma Certification Guide – Get IASSC Black Belt in 15 days

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