Vishwadeep Khatri from Benchmark Six Sigma recently interviewed Soumya Shetty who is Manager - Operational Excellence at Praxair to find out how Six Sigma training has been shaping her career.

BSS : Soumya, can you share with us details of your career journey?

Soumya Shetty: I was working with Siemens in Manufacturing Quality when I underwent my Green Belt and Black Belt training from Benchmark. Black Belt gave me a career opportunity at Praxair as Assistant Manager. Currently I am heading Operational Excellence and have a team of 10 Six Sigma professionals in OPEX. It has been a good career journey

BSS : You have undergone Black Belt training from Benchmark. How was your experience?

Soumya Shetty: I have undergone Black Belt program from Benchmark. I have benefited a lot as it gave me a new career opportunity.

BSS : What kind of Six Sigma projects have you been working on?

Soumya Shetty: One of the best project I did had a large scope from incoming raw material till the shipment of finished goods. It took 8 months to complete this Black Belt project. The acceptance of finished goods went up from 96% to 99% and there was a benefit of close to 70,000 dollars. I am involved in a design project currently. This one is about development of a customer servoce program within our company.

BSS : Do you have any suggestion for Green Belt and Black Belt programs?

Soumya Shetty: I think the Green Belt program is just fine. I feel the Black Belt program duration should be increased.

BSS : You would be pleased to know that our Black Belt upgrade program (only for Green Belts) duration is now increased to six days and it covers non-parametric tests in more detail.

It is good to know about your progress. Thanks for your suggestion & time and we hope to have another interaction with you in future.