While nothing can exceed the breadth, depth, and quality
of direct in-person training, various factors can make it
inconvenient. If your organization is serious about Six Sigma
training, but find it difficult to get everyone together for
instructor-led training, then an online Six Sigma course is
a worthy alternative. An online training program can give
your organization more flexibility and even reduce your training
costs.
Online training has been shown to be useful for many learning
applications and Six Sigma is one of those. The advantages
of online training over instructor-led training are simple
but profound. There is considerable savings in cost as online
instruction is less expensive than in person classroom training
and there are no travel expenses. Also online training offers
greater flexibility in scheduling and causes less interruption
in work schedules.
An online training course combines the advantages of uniformity
in training and self-paced training. The basic course is the
same for each trainee but can be delivered to different people
at different times. While a human instructor is only available
a limited time, online training materials don’t “go
home” and trainees can review the subject matter as needed
or desired. Support can be supplied via e-mail or phone. This
scheduling flexibility is one of the benefits of online training.
Six Sigma courses can be made available for a specific amount
of time. For example, you could be granted access to the course
material for four weeks which could be extended an additional
two weeks on request at minimal or no extra cost.
The electronic format of online training makes it easier to
tailor training to your specific needs. Training can be split
into modules and you can present different modules to different
people in your organization giving them only the training
they need to fulfill their role. A Six Sigma online training program
can provide an overview of the Six Sigma concepts and tools
while going into detailed procedures and knowledge as needed.
Those who need the basics of the Six Sigma methodology can
receive it in a concise and easy-to-understand format. Those
who need more advanced topics such as Six Sigma deployment
practices, project development, and the DMAIC problem-solving
approach can receive those.
Six Sigma training in an online electronic format focuses
on active and applied learning methods where people can interact
directly with the material and tools. Trainees are able to
view samples of Six Sigma projects including some of the methods
used within a Six Sigma project. Trainees can also get hands-on
experience using some of the many statistical tools used in
Six Sigma. Rather than just hear about statistical methods,
they can see how they work in a spreadsheet in front of them.
They can play with the numbers and even practice computing
for variables to see directly how the tools function.
The online format also gives you more control over the training
and greater assurance that your people are achieving each
learning objective. Well placed mini quizzes can be employed
to check for student understanding and give immediate feedback.
Trainees will know in “real-time” whether they understand
the concepts presented and the online course can provide repetition
of content if needed. Trainees can spend more time on the
modules you need. - invest as much or as little time as appropriate
for you and not a class on each module.
Online training most likely will not require any additional
equipment at your location. Training is delivered through
existing computers and an Internet connection. Most online
courses will run through any Internet browser on any operating
system. You will need to dedicate newer and powerful computers
to the training is the course has graphics, sound or video.
Don’t make the mistake of using old castoff computers
as your training computers. That will just make your trainees
frustrated.
A well designed Six Sigma online training course can be highly
effective. The flexibility of scheduling and content delivery,
plus the cost savings make online Six Sigma training either
as an addition to or a replacement for the face-to-face classroom
environment, a strong part of your organization’s Six
Sigma deployment.
http://www.6sigma.usPeter Peterka is the Principal Consultant in practice
areas of DMAIC and DFSS. Peter has eleven years of experience
performing as a Master Black Belt, and has over 15 years experience
in industry as an improvement specialist and engineer working
with numerous companies.
