In the last blog, we explained the top 5 reasons why you and your organisation should consider getting certified under the new International Standard for Lean and Six Sigma, this was also released as a blog and has been well received. Because of this, we will now explain how you and your organisation can get certified under ISO18404:2015. Please note that these are the very basic steps you will need to take in order to eventually achieve your certification. Don’t get left beh

Both Lean and Six Sigma have been at the forefront of management tools for organisations of all sizes for well over 20 years. In that time, both methodologies have significantly developed. As such, so has the interest from both professionals and organisations. Because of these developments and the resulting growth of interest, bad practise began to creep into the market. False certifications and very cheap courses lead to interested professionals being ‘trained’ to a very poo

In his blog article on "Lean Standard" ISO 18404 – A Questionable Idea… Christoph Roser starts by saying that “This certification madness won’t make much difference for the quality of lean.” As anyone practicing in the real world knows, the quality of much Lean implementation and training is in many cases questionable, sometimes so bad that it doesn’t just waste money in implementing, but it actually makes things worse. These cases are well documented but recur frequently due

Welcome back to the official Services Limited ISO18404:2015 blog, a fountain of Lean/Six Sigma knowledge where and when you need it! Feel free to browse through past blogs and if there’s something you want to know, please ask us! It has been a short while since our last blog and a lot has happened within that time at Services Limited. For starters, we ran our world-first ISO18404-focused Master Six Sigma Black Belt course at our Charnwood House country location. This brings u

The new International Standard ISO18404 was officially launched in the UK on the 2nd of February 2016, having been published three months earlier. It is the first International Standard that will look to certify both organisations and their personnel for their successful implementation of Lean and/or Six Sigma. Certification against ISO18404 will be for application of competencies rather than knowledge and is aimed at the delivering of results. Prior to ISO18404, it was quite

Welcome back to the official Services Limited ISO18404:2015 blog, a weekly instalment of ISO18404 knowledge right where and when you need it! In this week’s blog, we’ll be informing you of the role of a Black Belt, or Lean equivalent, according to the new International Standard. First and foremost, ISO18404 is considered to be a very proactive International Standard, whereby an organisation or practitioner will continue providing evidence of competences in order to retain int

Welcome back to the official Services Limited ISO18404:2015 blog, a weekly instalment of Lean/Six Sigma and ISO18404 knowledge right where and when you need it! Check back every Thursday for the latest blog. In the blog this week, we will be revisiting a question that was posed to Professor Tony Bendell in our new ISO18404: Lean and Six Sigma Professionals group on LinkedIn, which you can join here and ask any questions you may have on the new International Standard. This reg

The last few months have been fairly big for the new International Standard, ISO18404:2015, with the imminent announcement of the pilot sector scheme looming and widespread interest being reported it’s fair to say it’s also been busy! In today’s ISO18404 blog, I will be discussing the method in which an organisation implementing a management system for the first time can attain certification against the new International Standard. 1. Attend one of our ISO18404 FREE Briefing

Welcome back to the official Services Limited ISO18404:2015 blog, a weekly instalment of Lean/Six Sigma and ISO18404 knowledge right where and when you need it! Check back every Thursday for the latest blog. In previous blogs and social media postings, we’ve commented that the creation of the ISO18404 International Standard has been proactive to improve practice. This week, we would like to elaborate on that and provide you with more information on the requirements and expect

The first International Standard of its kind, ISO18404:2015, was officially launched at the beginning of February at a partnership event organised by the British Standards Institute and the Royal Statistical Society. ISO18404 will be the basis to certify the successful implementation of Lean and/or Six Sigma practices, in place of the current knowledge testing model for practitioners which is commonplace globally. Not only should this deliver immediate results, but it will

On an organisational level, ISO9001, was launched to provide recognition to organisations globally for their use of Quality Management Systems. In its 25 years of existence, it has become one of the go-to standards globally with over a million organisations already certified. Whilst ISO9001 has become the most popular certification of its kind for organisations, it doesn’t feed through to their Quality Management or Lean and/or Six Sigma practitioners. Unfortunately, this has

As you may or may not know by now, the new International ISO standard, ISO18404, launched in December 2016 ahead of schedule. We’ve not spoken too much about the combination of both Lean and Six Sigma as an opportunity for certification both on an organisational level, and a personnel level. If your organisation is applying or thinking of applying Lean Six Sigma, you’ll be happy to hear there IS an opportunity to be certificated simultaneously for both practises; it’s similar

Prior to the issue of the new International ISO Standard, ISO18404, there was no way to know if a Lean and/or Six Sigma practitioner was genuine. This paved the way for a very lucrative market to be abused; bad practise became a mainstay as a result. In recent years, some courses aimed at bringing a potential Lean and/or Six Sigma candidate up to scratch were heavily reduced and in many cases were not fit for purpose. Could this be a reason why Six Sigma and/or Lean is often

Welcome back to the official Services Limited ISO18404:2015 blog, a fountain of Lean/Six Sigma knowledge where and when you need it! Feel free to browse through past blogs and if there’s something you want to know, please ask us! In this week’s blog, we’ll be discussing the benefits behind a company having or acquiring a Six Sigma Black Belt under the new International Standard ISO18404. Before we dig any deeper, we must first understand what is required of a Six Sigma Black

Welcome back to the official Services Limited ISO18404:2015 blog, a fountain of Lean/Six Sigma knowledge where and when you need it! Feel free to browse through past blogs and if there’s something you want to know, please ask us! Since the initial development of the Six Sigma approach by Motorola back around 1986, Six Sigma has been both a success and a failure. Six Sigma certifications were initially rather hard to get and they demanded respect. Unfortunately, in recent yea

The very foundations of Lean can be chased all the way back until the Terracotta Warriors in Xian China around 246 BC, followed by the Venetians kitting out their warships using flow principles. It was in the 1450’s, when rigorous process thinking in manufacturing in the Arsenal in Venice first made an appearance. But, the individual who can be associated with the first fully integrated production process was Henry Ford in 1913, founder of Ford Motor Company. After many years

Welcome back to the official Services Limited ISO18404:2015 blog, a weekly instalment of Lean/Six Sigma and ISO18404 knowledge right where and when you need it! You should check back every Thursday for your latest news. In this week’s blog, we’ll be discussing why your organisation should become certified against the new International Standard, ISO18404. ISO to the Rescue! The market for the training & certification of Lean and/or Six Sigma has become abused, there’s no doubt

Hello and welcome back to the official Services Limited ISO18404:2015 blog. Now that the Services Limited team are rested, after our Easter break, allow us to bring you the latest update with regards to the new International Standard. In recent blogs, we have hinted towards the announcement of the ISO18404 pilot sector scheme. As a result of some big certification bodies, who shall remain nameless, coming forward and participating in this initiative, we’re now happy to say th

In recent months on our Services Limited blog, we have been commenting on the activity on the Royal Statistical Society’s (RSS) ISO18404 Sector Scheme for Certification of Six Sigma & Lean practitioners and organisations. You’ll be happy to hear there has been a recent announcement that moves us another step closer. The United Kingdom Accreditation Society (UKAS) has recently published a ‘Expressions of Interest’ notice on their website encouraging its accredited certificatio