The Colors of Six Sigma: The Yellow Belt
Within the Six Sigma business quality management system, there is a hierarchy of ‘belts’ or levels of training and certification. There are three main levels in this hierarchy; Black, Green, and Yellow Belt Professionals.
Today, many business owners and executives have begun to rely on the Six Sigma methods brought into their workplace by professional quality improvement specialists. These Six Sigma professionals are determined to identify any quality issues within a company’s business processes and suggest ways to make the business procedures more functional and more profitable. As most business owners know all too well, the quality of their products and services directly correlate to their success in business and thus, their bottom line as well.
Six Sigma professionals work in a belt system. This system begins with the Black Belt professional, who is in charge of the project. This individual will choose team members, delegate responsibilities and tasks, and help the company executives create a plan of improvement, based on the results of the analyzed company data.
The Green Belt professionals will work as assistants to the Black Belt professionals. They are both there to help the Yellow Belt professionals, although the Green Belt will work more with the Yellow than the Black will.
A Yellow Belt professional works to collect data and analyze that data for flaws and faults. Once those problems are identified, the professionals can work on finding ways to improve the processes, guaranteeing better quality output from the company. Black Belts are in charge of the project and will ultimately make the decisions about what methods will be used. They will instruct the Green and Yellow belts, who will in turn decide what internal methods need to be used to get the information needed with accurate results.
A Black Belt will direct the team to use the DMADV (define, measure, analyze, design and verify design) or the DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve and control) method to find the answers they are looking for. Within each phase of these processes, there are more useful methods taught to these professionals that will help them keep everything organized and accurate.
In the Six Sigma program, the Green Belt will work as an assistant to the Black Belt, observing the work, taking up any slack and organizing to prevent chaos. If they are asked any questions they do not have the answer to, they can always rely on the knowledge of the Black Belt professional. Yellow Belts are not in the position of authority and are most commonly known as ‘support staff’. They will take direction from either the Green or Black Belt when analyzing the company. However, their experience and knowledge in their particular areas makes their suggestions and recommendations sound and reasonable. If they were not knowledgeable, they would not be chosen to do the work, as Six Sigma is a process that relies heavily on the concept of teamwork.
Yellow Belt professionals depend on the knowledge, training, and guidance of the Green and Black level professionals. They have a significant role to play on any Six Sigma team and are respected as the core support of the project.
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