
Imagine your business is a leaky ship. Every day, water (waste) seeps in through tiny cracks. You’ve got a team frantically bailing it out, but no matter how fast they work, it feels like you’re sinking. Now imagine someone offers you a tool—not a bucket to bail faster, but a map showing where the cracks are and how to seal them permanently.
Lean Six Sigma is such a tool for companies to stop the leaking of profits due to inefficiencies.
But let’s get one thing straight: you don’t need a fancy title like “Black Belt” to use it. The belts are distractions. They’re the shiny trophies people chase while the cracks keep leaking.
In our opinion, the belt system is mainly created by an industry that earns from the courses and issuing certificates. It caters to the needs of large corporations with significant training budgets. The only result these training institutions commit to is sharing common sense knowledge and issuing a piece of paper with a fancy seal-shaped logo.
Real transformation comes from getting dirty, asking hard questions, and taking action.
The Myth of the Lean Six Sigma Belts
Let’s be honest. The whole “belt” system sounds more like a martial arts dojo than a business tool. Sure, it’s structured and hierarchical, but does it really help you solve problems? Many CEOs and managers have fallen into the trap of thinking they need a certified expert to get results. The truth? They don’t.
There were no “Lean Masters” swooping in to save the day in the several companies I turned around. Instead, we asked workers a simple question: “What’s slowing you down?” One technician pointed to a machine in the wrong spot. Moving it cut the team’s walking back and forth with parts by over 90%.
Another example is when our videos revealed workers searching for tools away from their workstations. We fabricated a simple tool board on wheels, so the tools were precisely where they were needed at all times: no belts, no jargon, just practical changes.
Lean Six Sigma works because it’s grounded in common sense. The belts? They’re like adding decorative trim to a car with no engine—it looks impressive but doesn’t get you anywhere.
Waste: The Silent Killer
Waste in a business is like cholesterol in your arteries. It builds up slowly and silently until one day—bam—you’ve got a crisis. Maybe it’s a missed delivery because parts weren’t on hand. Maybe it’s a product recall because of defects. Whatever the issue, waste is the hidden culprit behind it.
Take the Singapore shipyard Michel, the founder of ZingURbiz, managed. One of the biggest sources of waste was rework—fixing quality defects after the product was finished. Imagine painting a house, only to find out the foundation was crooked. You’d have to scrape the paint, redo the walls, and start over. That’s rework, and it costs time, money, and morale.
We didn’t fix this with a Six Sigma flowchart. We implemented a rigorous analysis of the causes and removed these, so these issues and anything alike could never happen again. Together, we uncovered where errors were creeping in and made adjustments. The result? A 90% drop in defects, fewer delays, and teams that felt proud of their work.
Only avoiding defects increased the margin by 2%!
The Real Reason CEOs Fail at Efficiency
Most CEOs treat efficiency like squeezing juice from an orange—they believe if they press their workers harder, they’ll get more out of them. But here’s the thing: an over-squeezed orange just gives you bitter pulp. Pushing people harder only creates burnout, resentment, and mistakes.
The smarter approach is to examine your processes. Are they clear and repeatable? Or are they chaotic, with workers making it up as they go? At the shipyard, we found that the focus on local efficiency introduced lost time in the factory. Workers weren’t lazy—they were navigating a broken system and chasing the wrong performance.
By standardising workflows and providing clear instructions, we not only reduced errors but also made the work easier and faster. It was like replacing a dull knife with a razor-sharp one. Suddenly, the same effort produced far better results.
Stop admiring the problem.
Too many companies fall into the trap of admiring their problems. They hold endless meetings to discuss rising costs, delayed deliveries, and frustrated teams to end the meeting in complete agreement that ‘we should do something.’ Talking about a problem isn’t solving it.
Lean Six Sigma forces action. It’s about rolling up your sleeves, walking the shop floor, and seeing the issues firsthand. At the shipyard, we did something called a “Gemba Walk”—a fancy term for simply observing work as it happens. It’s like stepping into the kitchen of a struggling restaurant and watching the chefs at work. You can see the clogged pathways, the poorly placed utensils, and the chaotic movements.
One small fix—measuring a safety hazard’s progression instead of eliminating the hazard before we knew how severe the issue was—saved the shipyard about 1 million dollars. It didn’t require a grand strategy, just attention to detail and the willingness to act.
Stop stalling, start acting.
Obtaining a Lean Six Sigma belt takes time and effort. While your colleagues follow their belt training—yes, plural—because you need people with different experience levels, your company’s operations are not improving.
Of course, belt training is not completely useless. Students learn many tools, systems, and processes and run a project to obtain the certificate. The practical experience is especially useful. The theoretical knowledge is available for free or very low cost.
Many companies struggle to initiate meaningful action. Issues enter the doldrums of eternal analysis in an effort to design a perfect solution from the meeting rooms.
Sending people to training to obtain a certificate may feel like action, but the fact is that nothing changes in the organisation after the certificates are issued. The situation will be similar after the certificates are issued; the trained colleagues still need to gain experience building change momentum in an entire company.
These initiatives often perish with little results to show for.
That is why we at ZingURbiz consider the belt projects corporate procrastination. It feels like you’re doing the right thing but are not moving closer to your objectives.
As an alternative, you can start immediately under ZingURbiz’s guidance. Our clients see the first results within weeks.
The better news is that the budget is often lower than what is needed to educate employees on the different belt levels.
Beyond Manufacturing
Now, you might be thinking, “This all sounds great, but I’m not running a factory.” Fair enough. But waste isn’t exclusive to manufacturing. It’s in every business. It’s the IT project that drags on for months because requirements keep changing. It’s the healthcare provider overwhelmed by paperwork while patients wait. Waste is everywhere.
Lean Six Sigma is the scalpel you use to remove waste. We’ve helped businesses in several industries streamline operations using these principles. The tools might change, but the goal is the same: work smarter, not harder.
Your Belt Won’t Save You
Let’s end with a reality check. Lean Six Sigma isn’t about the belts, the certificates, or the buzzwords. It’s about fixing what’s broken, engaging your team, and creating systems that work.
If your business feels like that leaky ship, don’t waste time thinking of better pumps but start acting by sealing the cracks. And leave the belts to the karate kids.
If you’re ready to take action, ZingURbiz is here to help. Together, we’ll cut through the waste, simplify your processes, and unlock your business’s true potential—no belts required.
Comments