Tips: How to Get Green Belt Certified - Norbertson Vergara, Global Lean Coordinator
Originally Published 2.20.2019
MAKATI CITY, Philippines- Norbertson Vergara, a Quality and Continuous Improvement Specialist and the Global Lean Coordinator of an international airline company, earned his Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification last February 2, 2018, the Last day of the Green Belt workshop (Wave 36).
On the day of his certification, Norbertson gave a short testimonial, inspiring and encouraging the graduating class. Of course, as he shared the story about his experience in executing his Lean Six Sigma Project, he also left some tips that will surely be helpful once they pursue their own certification.
We were also able to get a written and detailed report from him. With this, Norbert can inspire not only the students in the most recent class but also more Filipino professionals online. This is in a very different format that the interviews we regularly do, so we, from Six Sigma PH are also very excited to share this with our readers!
All you have to do is scroll a little further and all the tips from Norbertson are yours:
1. My Green Belt Project
My GB project is about the monitoring and reduction of remaining open items of a team handling Order To Cash Asia for a shared service company. When it was migrated to Manila, the remaining open items per month were significantly high. These are invoices and payments not received and closed thus failing to meet the target of 30% remaining open items by month end (actual was 47% on the average). Upon deploying the DMAIC phases and guided by the Six Sigma Circuit, root causes were addressed, opportunities for enhancement were identified and controls were set in place to attain and sustain great improvement in meeting the 30% or even less remaining open items by month-end.
2. How did the Lean Sigma Philippines‘ GB Training help me with my project
The learnings and activities done during the training helped me understand better in a practical and effective way, what, why, and how it is to be done. With that, I applied such a good approach when I was doing the GB project with the team.
It made me realize more the importance of continuous improvement: to learn, grow, and assess our performance; adopt and adjust to attain one's fulfillment; reflect and still continue to develop its improvement but most importantly, to enjoy the learnings along the continuous improvement journey.
Having undergone and experienced doing the circuit made me understand better the Lean Six Sigma culture and practice. It motivated me to do well and promote its benefits to others
I shared my learning experience with the team to encourage them to be part of something that would help enhance their processes, increase customer satisfaction, and contribute to the company’s improvement toward its growth and success.
Gave a better perspective on doing the analysis, which can be accomplished by the team’s involvement and engagement, focusing on the process & based upon data, it can help showcase the opportunities that can be attained or improvements that were achieved.
3. How I addressed the roadblocks
Change on something that we are already used to - explain the benefits and improvements that can be attained and have the team engaged and involved to witness firsthand the progress and development being done in defining, measuring, analyzing, improving & setting controls for their processes. Showcasing the benefits of change has to be communicated top-down - from the management to its members
Data gathering, What’s in it for me & Support for the project - Proper communication and transparency among the team members; explaining their role and importance; engagement and involvement in its development and having patience with empathy, understanding, and time management due to their workload, tasks, and deliverable.
Committing fully to the process; employing the Six Sigma Circuit with its various tools and supporting the team to ensure that the GB project is deploying the methodology; promoting its benefits; keeping everyone (Stakeholders and Team) updated on its progress (transparency) and not just using its terms and approach without explaining the reason why and its purpose.
4. Tips to the graduating GB Wave / those pursuing GB certification
Transparency, empathy, engagement, patience, and a clear explanation of the purpose of the things you will do will help bring good communication and support to the team.
Always have room to improve, learn, & grow in new ways (self-continuous improvement).
Involve & engage all Key Stakeholders in helping to design the Lean Six Sigma deployment to ensure their commitment to the effort and keep them posted on its development.
Give much value to data, its importance, and how it speaks for itself. Without data, there is no way to know how a process is performing thus there is no way to know how to improve it.
Lean Six Sigma is not a set of rules to be followed but rather a culture that must be practiced day in and day out with the proper positive attitude, teamwork, engagement, continual communication with feedback, and leadership (sharing your knowledge with others for them to learn, understand & grow).
Don’t be discouraged by the numerous revisions and possible corrections that will come along the way. Instead, treat it as a positive experience and learning opportunity for you will now know how to do it the right way, and would further enhance your understanding of it.
Feel free to consult and reach out to our Black Belt Coach and Master Black Belt Sensei to help you gain a better understanding and guidance on your project.
Good luck and advance congratulations to the future graduating GB wave batches for being CSSGB. Continue to hone your skills and have a great time learning and sharing them with others.
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