Quality without a standard is a double standard. How is it that a methodology as enduring and accepted as Lean Six Sigma still has no globally accepted standard of belt certification? The proliferation of schools, organizations, and training providers that now offer belt certification has led to varied standards and a widespread skepticism of external certification. Consequently, corporate leaders have addressed the absence of a standard by building their own equally varied array of in-house certification processes.
 In the past year, the Center for Operational Excellence (COE) at The Ohio State University has worked with a council of academic faculty, industry leaders, and member companies to develop a common, robust, objective, and accessible operational definition for "what is a Lean Six Sigma Belt." This rigorous, third-party standard, which reflects the most common scope of industry expectations, is now available for public use, with the goal of bringing greater uniformity and value to the Black Belt and Green Belt certification process. The Center for Operational Excellence does not provide certifications, only a published standard.
Join us for an unprecedented and candid conversation on why the Lean Six Sigma industry needs a rigorous third-party certification standard (recorded March 10, 2010). The presenters, representing the viewpoints of academia, business, and training providers, discussed the many ways in which the new COE standards will benefit individual Lean Six Sigma practitioners, corporate deployments, and those who wish to hire external Belts. The one-hour program will conclude with an open forum for participants’ questions, comments, and feedback.
This session covers:
- What is the current state of belt certification practices?
- Why does the Lean Six Sigma community need an impartial standard?
- What combination of knowledge and experience defines a Black or Green Belt?
- What are the new COE Six Sigma Certification Standards, and how were they developed?
- How will the new standards better support Lean Six Sigma deployments?
Presenters:
- Peg Pennington, Executive Director of The Center for Operational Excellence at Ohio State University
- Rachel Lane, Associate Vice President, Business Excellence at Nationwide
- Bill Hathaway, Founder and CEO of MoreSteam.com
Peg Pennington, Director of Continuous Improvement for The Center for Operational Excellence at Ohio State University
 Peg Pennington is the Executive Director of The Center for Operational Excellence (COE) at Ohio State University’s Max M. Fisher College of Business, located in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Peg manages the Lean Sigma Forum for the COE, which is designed to promote Lean and Six Sigma principles for COE member companies. As a Management Sciences faculty member, Peg teaches both graduate and undergraduate students in Operations Management, Statistics and Six Sigma methodology. She has been selected to teach the top business students as a faculty member in the honors program. The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business is consistently rated one of the top 25 business programs according to US News and World Report.
Rachel L. Lane, Associate Vice President, Business Excellence for Nationwide
 Rachel Lane has more than 20 years experience working with organizations to improve business processes. As AVP, Business Excellence for Nationwide, she is responsible for building the center of excellence for continuous improvement. Prior to joining Nationwide, she served as Corporate Deployment Leader and Master Black Belt at Cardinal Health. In Cardinal Health’s Center of Excellence, she participated in the enterprise deployment of Lean and Six Sigma across 19 business units and 55,000 employees. In addition, she was responsible for the execution of business segment site assessments, training and mentoring staff on Lean and Six Sigma methodologies and corporate communication responsibilities for the Center of Excellence.
Bill Hathaway, CEO and Founder, MoreSteam.com LLC
 Bill Hathaway is President and founder of MoreSteam.com, which was launched in February of 2000 as an internet-based process improvement learning portal. Prior to creating MoreSteam, Bill spent 13 years in manufacturing, quality, and operations management. After 10 years at Ford Motor Co., Bill then held executive level operations positions with Raytheon at Amana Home Appliances, and with Mansfield Plumbing Products. Bill earned an undergraduate finance degree from the University of Notre Dame, and graduate degree in business finance and operations from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
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