Lean Six Sigma Accreditation

Although there are no official Lean and Six Sigma accreditation, there are two primary standards that have gained the most popularity as of 2025.

• ISO 18404:2015 – The competencies and requirements for Lean and Six Sigma professionals and organizations.
• Council for Six Sigma Certification – Popular accreditation program for Lean Six Sigma training and certification programs.

These standards are explained below, along with how we are aligned to them.

In general, here are some keys to selecting a legitimate Lean Six Sigma certification program:

• Experienced instructor (I have 25+ years of Lean Six Sigma experience)
• Real-life coaching (included with all our certification programs)
• A required improvement project (required for all Green and Black Belt certifications)
• A structured, validated exam (included with all organization programs)
• Clear alignment with professional standards (see below)
• Transparent expectations (well described in all our programs)
• Student success stories (numerous case studies and hundreds of projects certified)

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ISO 18404:2015

ISO 18404 focuses on the skills and capabilities required to practice Lean and Six Sigma effectively. It defines roles like Lean Practitioner, Lean Leader, Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt. It also includes organizational criteria for deploying Lean Six Sigma such as leadership commitment and program governance. It references and builds upon standards like ISO 13053 to ensure consistency in Six Sigma implementation.

ISO 13053 describes the “how” of Six Sigma (tools + methodology), whereas ISO 18404 describes the “who” and “what level” of competency is required to apply Lean and Six Sigma in an organization.

To meet ISO 18404 certification standards, a provider’s program must:

• Follow the DMAIC methodology for Six Sigma and/or Lean principles for Lean training
• Include statistical tools and process improvement techniques (such as SPC, regression, hypothesis testing)
• Require trainees to complete real-world projects as part of their certification
• Use competency-based exams and assessments

Achieving ISO 18404 certification requires partnering with an accredited certification body that can assess and validate your organization’s Lean and Six Sigma competencies. It is a significant investment to achieve this certification, and there hasn’t been enough demand from our customers to obtain this certification.

That being said, our Green and Black Belt training and certification program is compliant to ISO 18404.

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Council for Six Sigma Certification

The CSSC organization provides accreditation for Lean Six Sigma training providers. Providers are expected to have a minimum number of course completion hours related to the Body of Knowledge:

• Green Belt – 35 contact hours
• Black Belt – 95 contact hours

Without getting into all the details, training and certification providers are required to:

• Provide instructor support for direct questions from a Black Belt Certified instructor (for Green Belts) and Master Black Belt Instructor (for Black Belts), and provide students with access to advanced statistical software.
• Test comprehension with an exam, and must be kept on file for 1 year.
• Students must be allowed the ability to challenge the validity of any question that is used to test his/her comprehension.
• Black Belt Certification must submit a completed project (or a project affidavit) for review by a Master Black Belt(s).
  • The project must demonstrate the student’s understanding of project implementation for the DMAIC, DMADV, or similar Six Sigma methodology and must employ the use of multiple six sigma tools/calculations.
• Required to issue a certification number and certification date to each certified student.
• Reasonable attempts must be made to safeguard the database of all certified individuals from their respective programs.
• Provide a method to verify the certification of any student that has obtained a certification.
• Provide the certification number and date of certification to any past student that has an “active” certification with that organization at no additional charge upon said student’s request.
• Submitted projects cannot be sold, released, shared.

You can view the full list of accreditation standards at https://www.sixsigmacouncil.org/six-sigma-principles-accreditation-standards/