ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

Next courses

Autumn 2025

Finland

Spring 2026

Netherlands

Advance your career

Develop Advanced Skills and Drive Real Business Results

Gain essential tools and models for process improvement:

conduct process analysis with both qualitative and quantitative tools
manage complex improvement projects
build a project portfolio
coach Green Belt projects
foster a continuous improvement culture

Wider approach for LSS

The course content differs from a traditional Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB) course in a number of significant ways. While both are focused on developing expertise in Lean Six Sigma methodology, the course provides a more comprehensive, broader approach to quality management, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.

Strategic and Organizational Context: It includes an additional "Recognize" phase for upfront strategic planning, focusing on strategic alignment, portfolio management and project formulation.
The 3 Gembas: Different Levels of Organization: Explores how the leadership, management, and operational levels of an organization align through Gemba practices to drive improvements at every phase of different types of projects.
Post-Implementation Activities and Daily Management: In addition to traditional control activities, the course emphasizes fine-tuning solutions and role of daily management in ensuring sustained improvements.

By focusing on both the big picture and the fine-tuning of solutins, along with mastering Lean Six Sigma problem-solving skills, you'll gain the tools to drive long-term, sustainable improvements. This comprehensive approach equips you to deliver measurable impact, fast-tracking your career and positioning you as a leader in operational excellence and business transformation.

Accelerate your learning based on the problem type

In this course, we’ve designed the learning experience to help you solve business challenges faster and more effectively by approaching them through the lenses of:

Muda (Process)
Mura (Flow)
Muri (Management)

This course breaks down problems based on the type of waste you're addressing, making it easier to identify the right solutions earlier in the process.

Faster Identification of Solutions: By grouping problems under Muda, Mura, and Muri, you’ll be able to quickly determine which tools to use and how to approach the solution based on the specific challenge you’re facing—whether it’s optimizing cycle time, streamlining flows, or managing complexity.
Practical and Intuitive Learning: Instead of theoretical concepts, you’ll learn to apply different Lean Six Sigma tools based on the waste type you're addressing, making your learning relevant to real-world scenarios and allowing you to build knowledge over time.

This course offers a more practical, intuitive path to mastering Lean Six Sigma—allowing you to solve problems faster and apply improvements that directly address the operational challenges you face.

Course contents

Introduction to Quality Management

Introduction to Lean Management

Historical roots of Lean
Key concepts of of Lean

Introduction to Lean Six Sigma

Historical roots of Lean Six Sigma
Key concepts of Lean Six Sigma

Introduction to Design Thinking

Historical roots of Design Thinking
Key concepts of Design Thinking
Design Thinking process

Different Quality Management approaches and Lean Six Sigma

Introduction to Operational Excellence
Lean Six Sigma as a system
How do ISO9001, IATF 16949, Lean Six Sigma, Txxxxx, Business Excellence and company-specific methods differ

Quality Improvement in Organizations

Quality and organizations

Different levels of organization – Three Gembas
Elements of quality management

Daily Management

SDCA cycle for daily management
3S + 3S

Structured Problem-Solving

Introduction to structured problem-solving methods (e.g. PDCA, 8D)
Theory O, and how to prevent from jumping to conclusions
Root cause analysis (RCA)
Structured problem-solving inside improvement projects ("Blue - Red - Yellow - Green")

Performance Measurement in Organization

Introduction to learning about the business performance
Introduction to measurement systems
Different types of performance measures

Building a Project Portfolio

Project-based vs. continuous improvement
From strategy to development actions
Different types of projects
How to manage a project portfolio?
Different types of PMO

Recognize phase

Introduction to the Recognize phase

Introduction to the Recognize model
Role of strategic planning in starting new projects

Demonstrate the performance gap

Identify new opportunities for improvement
Opportunity size validation

Choose the right type of improvement

Create list of problem & solution hypothesis ("Red - Yellow - Green")
Choose the right way of improvement to solve the performance gap

Formulate a development project

Create a project portfolio to solve the problem
How to start different kinds of development actions?

Define phase

Starting a LSS project

What to consider when starting a new project?
Quantifying the project target and financial benefit
Turning the project goal into scope, schedule and deliverables
Choosing the right project team and involving the right people
Involving workers to development from the start
Understanding customer requirements
Creating the project charter

Managing a LSS project

Model for managing projects
How to ensure project steering early, rather than late
Managing a project portfolio
Empowering the project team to cocreate, not only be a group of experts
Assessing, coaching and building competence for process improvement within the project team

Measure phase

INTRODUCTION

Model for Measure & Analyze
Data collection and sampling

IDENTIFYING RATIONAL SUBGROUPS TO FIND PROBLEM SCOPE

Find rational subgroups by focusing on what matters to customers
Find rational subgroups by letting the data illustrate differences
Find rational subgroups by visualizing processes
Find rational subgroups by observing process performance
Find rational subgroups by gathering qualitative feedback

QUANTIFYING RATIONAL SUBGROUPS TO FIND PROBLEM SCOPE

Model for validating problem scope hypothesis
Quantifying the performance gap in process quality
Quantifying the performance gap in product quality
Quantifying the performance gap in service quality
Quantifying the performance gap in trapped cash

Analyze phase

MURI (Management)

Identify problems in and optimize the design vs. the customer need.
Identify problems in and optimize manufacturability and complexity.
Identify opportunities in resource allocation.

MURA (Flow)

Identify problems in and optimize flow within end-to-end processes.
Identify problems in and optimize inventory and production planning.
Identify problems in and optimize demand variability management & production scheduling.

MUDA (Process)

Identify and optimize cycle time.
Identify, prioritize and correct quality defects and improve yield.
Identify and optimize customer interactions.
Identify and optimize process input to output ratio.

Improve phase

Managing the project in improve and control phase

Introduction to the Improve & Control
Changes in team structure when entering implementation
Models for managing implementation

Define the solution

Describe how the solution works
Compare different solution alternatives
Identify, analyze risks due to the process change, and create a plan to mitigate them
Create an implementation plan

Refine process change to fit actual work

Identify and implement actions to increase compliance rate
Fine-tune solution to increase work effectiveness per use?
Identify and reduce additional losses in operations due to process change
Identify and mitigate risks causing additional cost of poor quality

Implement sustainable change in organization

Implementation handover from project to different Gembas.
How to plan, measure and manage cultural change?
Plan and manage individual change journey, and aggregate it to reporting
Identify, mitigate and measure resistance to change

Control phase

Post-implementation reviews

How to measure post-implementation success
Plan and implement a post-implementation review schedule
How to identify risk of reverting to old habits, and how to mitigate that
Establishing action limits, and response actions if those limits are breached

Finetune & further improvement

Improving the capability for continuous improvement
Leveraging the project learnings for further improvement
Action needed for proper project closure

New process design

Managing a project to design a new process

Different possible starting points for creating a new process
From product strategy to process design, how to combine product and process design
Developing processes in sync with digital development
Team composition and timetable

Defining process requirements

Identifying, categorising and prioritising customer requirements (VoC)
Translating process requirements from product design
Defining the process suppliers and their requirements
Defining performance targets and quality limits

Create initial process design

Creating process operating model ("world-on-a-page”)
Benchmarking process design internally and externally
Defining process flow and responsibilities
Design a process measurement system and process governance
Assessing process performance before implementing, and validating its feasibility

Fine-tune process design (and product design if needed)

How to know when the process fine-tuned enough for implementation?
Identifying opportunities to improve process efficiency and effectiveness
Building a process simulation, and utilising it for optimization
Using risk-based approach for fine-tuning process design

Process verification

Step-by-step testing
End-to-end testing
Process verification in context: fit with other process steps
Verifying process outputs vs. customer requirements, product requirements and process targets

Preparation for implementation (incl. documentation)

Preparing the physical and digital environment for process
Creating the process documentation and training
Building the process measurement system
Assessing the process maturity to be implemented

Implementation (incl. phasing)

Model for managing process ramp up
Monitoring and improving process capability during ramp-up

Closing the new process development

How to assess when the process development is ready?
Handover from process development to going concern.

Demonstrate your skills

Through the Black Belt project, you’ll not only develop the advanced skills needed to solve critical business challenges, but also showcase your ability to deliver measurable, real-world results.

Hands-on Experience: Apply variety of tools to a complex project that deliver tangible outcomes for your organization.
Measurable Impact: Whether it’s reducing production defects, cutting down process lead times, or improving customer satisfaction, your project will deliver tangible, data-driven results that create lasting value for your organization.
Professional Recognition: Upon completing your project and mastering these skills, you’ll also earn your Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification, solidifying your expertise and opening new career opportunities.

Teaching

Designed by IEM professionals for IEM professionals, this course enhances the highly regarded ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB) program with a scalable and engaging teaching approach. By participating, you’re not just learning—you’re also becoming a catalyst for change in our field. Here’s why sharing your knowledge after the course is essential:

Make Learning Possible for Others: By educating others, you contribute to a vibrant community of continuous learning, driving innovation and growth within our profession.
Deepen Your Understanding: Teaching others solidifies your expertise, helping you master concepts more deeply as you explain and apply them in real-world scenarios.
Gain Professional Experience: Sharing your knowledge allows you to grow professionally by refining your training, communication and leadership skills while expanding your industry influence.