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If you are a management consultant seeking your next contract, it is unlikely to have escaped your attention that there is currently a lucrative and growing market for practitioners qualified to deliver Lean Six Sigma to the manufacturing and service industry.

If you wish to pursue a Lean Six Sigma practitioners career, will have to undergo some training, in order to get your name onto the, “applicants for further consideration,” short list. Lean Six Sigma consultants are trained to what is known as Master Black Belt (MBB), Black Belt or Green Belt level. There are many training organizations, offering the relevant certification and a reputable one can invariably sourced through the internet.

The role of Black Belts is to lead small teams through a performance enhancement procedure that uses statistical techniques to improve process. Black Belts typically undergo approaching five weeks of full time classroom training.

Once assigned to a project, a Black Belt’s team will comprise:

• Green belts with a lesser two weeks training
• Team members with Lean Six Sigma awareness but no training and
• Process owners who have responsibility for the process which is the target of the improvement program

A Master Black Belt is an expert who has led several projects and is appropriately experienced to coach, mentor and train lesser Black Belts through a project.

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There are two alternatives for organizations seeking to initiate a Six Sigma Program.
The option exists to either:

1. Recruit Master, Black and Green Belts from within the organization
2. Employ external consultants with Master, Black and Green Belt certification to administer the project

As such, many short-term, consultancy contracts are advertised soliciting applications from those with relevant experience and qualifications. The typical length of such contracts is six months to two years. Less frequently, employers seek candidates to employ as Lean Six Sigma Black belts on a permanent basis.

When in-house recruitment is the selected mode, high potential employees are identified, hired as Black Belts, trained and moved back into the organization as part of their rotation and leadership training.

Employers seeking external Lean Six Sigma Candidates will be looking for:

1. Experience in the same or a related industry
2. Proven success in project management
3. Appropriate certification
4. Six Sigma DMAIC and/or DFSS methodology training and experience
5. A proven track record of achieving results with Lean Six Sigma
6. Competent change management skills

It can be difficult for, “newbies,” to land their first Lean Six Sigma Black Belt assignment since employers often seek candidates with five or more years of relevant experience. High potentials selected for black belt training in-house, having earned experience following on from this, possess a distinct advantage here if they wish to pursue a freelancing Lean Six Sigma career later on.

Salary.com report that,

“The most highly leveraged position in 2007 was the Top Six Sigma Executive, earning a median short-term incentive of 35% of base salary; by contrast, the least leveraged job was the Green Belt in Manufacturing/Engineering, with a median short-term incentive of just below 9% of base pay.”

They also confirm that 82% – 95% of employers, “look both internally and externally to fill Six Sigma roles,” and that, “almost half (49%) of the organizations offer a rotational Black Belt program. These programs last an average of 24 months.”

According to one of the leading Global Salary Survey reports that a Black Belt can expect to earn around $75,000 PA plus in the region of a $10,000 bonus and that for a master black belt the corresponding figures are $100,000 and $20,000 respectively.