EARLIER this month, five Jamaican women joined the ranks of Lean Six Sigma black belt holders. The women are graduates of a programme delivered by Caribbean Centre for Organisation Development Excellence (CARI-CODE) in collaboration with Strategy Associates Incorporated and Harrington Institute (USA). It was a historical achievement for the graduates, as this was the first time the programme had fielded five women graduates with this level of certification.

The women — Karlene Waugh, Venisha Johnson, Brianna Johnson and Sanchia Henry, all VM staffers, and Tausa Swaby, CARI-CODE — had to complete the required instruction hours, assessments, and projects. The Lean Six Sigma programme is focussed on process improvement in business. Individuals are trained to reduce waste and improve efficiency and effectiveness, among other skills. Lean Six Sigma is based on the principles of customer focus, data-driven decision making, continuous improvement, and process orientation.

Dr Ben Babaii of Strategy Associates, who was the lead instructor on the course, says the recent black belt graduates “are capable of leveraging both traditional lean six sigma tools as well as [the] latest innovation tools for problem-solving, and mix-and-matching tools to resolve [the] most complicated problems faced by their respective industry in the new post-COVID reality”. The participants also received guidance from Grand Master Black Belt Frank Voehl, CEO of Strategy Associates Inc.

“As a black belt you are asked not to just make the decision, but to enable others to make the decision,” said Tausa Swaby, associate consultant at CARI-CODE. She described the programme as “challenging yet fun” and shared that one positive was that there was flexibility in choosing a class time that worked for the group, as the women all had great responsibilities both at work and at home. She credited the synergy that existed with her batchmates as a major contributor to their success.

Another graduate of the programme, Karlene Waugh, assistant vice-president of business operations at VM Group, said her organisation sees the Lean Six Sigma training as necessary as they work to improve their rate of execution. “Alongside that, we want to know that we are doing the right thing at the right time. We wanted the process awareness.”

While Waugh just completed her black belt training, she said VM has built a cadre of CARI-CODE-trained Lean Six Sigma team members throughout the organisation and that they are reaping the benefits. Some staff members have also received professional certificates in organisation development from CARI-CODE.

For her part, Ilsa H duVerney, CEO/chairman of CARI-CODE, is very proud of what the organisation has been able to accomplish since it began offering the programme in 2012.

“Over this period we have successfully developed over 500 yellow, green and black belt professionals,” she said.