Overview

If you reflect back to the Preface, you ll recall we provided some astonishing data on how few companies are improving and provided a case study of what Lean Six Sigma can accomplish to deliver a significant increase in intrinsic shareholder value in a year or two. By this point in your Lean Six Sigma process, you should have two pieces in place that are critical to delivering on that claim: the engagement of senior executives and an infrastructure plan for widespread implementation.

The third and fourth pieces of the puzzle the people who will be part of the new infrastructure and the high-potential projects they will work on are the subject of this chapter. The order described here people first, then projects is deliberate. Remember that your black belts are being groomed to become leaders in your organization. They will hopefully hold their black belt positions through many projects and therefore represent a more significant investment than the projects themselves.

However, that s not to say that Lean Six Sigma advocates training a lot of black belts and turning them loose on the company. This was the approach of most TQM initiatives in the 1980s and 1990s and, with a few notable exceptions, these initiatives were not successful. To make sure your black belts and other resources are delivering value, you need to identify and select high-value-added projects and ensure that the training has been designed to enable the black belts to efficiently complete those projects.

Selecting Black Belt Resources

Knowing that you need...