Online Belt eLearning Training

Overview of Business Process Management In today's business world, competition is tough. Organizations are under a great deal of pressure to become more productive and more efficient while developing new, innovative products and services more rapidly than ever before. Management is demanding improved quality, reduced costs, and increased productivity with fewer resources. How can organizations respond to these pressures while remaining  more...

Process Analysis and Documentation The Six Sigma DMAIC system is a roadmap that points the way to process and performance improvement. The second phase in this methodology is Measure. You cannot hope to improve processes and performance without first knowing where you are, assessing where you want to be, and then planning how to get there, while measuring progress toward the goal all along the way. In the words of an old adage,  more...

Control Charts and the Pre-control Process Six Sigma teams may be tempted to consider their work done once they have improved their processes during the Improve phase. However, in the Control phase of the Six Sigma process improvement system, teams go further and verify that improved processes continue to perform at the improved levels. This course will present control charts, which are used to determine with statistical precision the  more...

Six Sigma--Lean Tools for Control Two key methodologies for improving operations in the manufacturing world are lean manufacturing and Six Sigma . Both are designed to reduce variation, yet each takes a different track. While Six Sigma utilizes data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance, lean manufacturing collocates all of an organization's processes in sequential order, restructuring  more...

Six Sigma--Measurement System Re-analysis ...Control phase outlines tools and techniques for the Black Belt to use. In this course, you will learn about Measurement System Re-analysis. During this phase, measurement system capability is re-assessed to ensure it remains adequate for the ever-improving process capability. You will focus on improving measurement system capability as the process capability improves. You'll learn about ongoing  more...

Define the Six Sigma Opportunity Have you ever heard someone say, "That's putting the cart before the horse"? It's a quaint way of describing a process that's being implemented in a backward manner. One example of this is a company that begins to make organization-wide improvements before identifying which improvements would provide optimal benefits. This course, Define the Six Sigma Opportunity, is a guide for choosing those  more...

The Six Sigma Project Charter and Plan What constitutes a project charter? How do you know whether you've set the right goals for your project? What tools can best help you plan your project? As you advance in this course--which focuses on project charter elements as well as planning tools and project documentation--you will obtain the skills and knowledge required to manage your project charter and plan. Six Sigma is a registered  more...

Six Sigma Team Leadership By addressing customer needs, streamlining processes, minimizing variance, and addressing poor quality and inefficiency, Six Sigma can encourage a more profitable and sustainable business. The development and leadership of an effective team is critical if these outcomes are to be achieved. An effective Six Sigma team comprises the right people using their skills in collaboration with each other to  more...

Six Sigma Team Dynamics and Performance Yogi Berra once said, "The other teams could make trouble for us if they win." While the quote is just one of Mr. Berra's many adages, it does provide a clue to the importance the legendary baseball coach placed on effective teamwork. Teamwork is no less important in the Six Sigma world. In fact, more than one Six Sigma expert has stated unequivocally that without effective teamwork, a process  more...

The Six Sigma Change Agent What is a Six Sigma change agent? How does one advocate change on a business-wide level? What are the skills required and the techniques used? In this course, you'll learn about the roles and responsibilities of the Six Sigma change agent. You'll explore ways to build a change management process and how to plan for change implementation. Effective communication is central to Six Sigma success, so  more...

Six Sigma Management and Planning Tools In the 1970s, a group of seven "new" tools for quality management were developed in Japan. When they reached America in the 1980s and 1990s, they were renamed the Management and Planning (MP) tools. Used separately or in combination, they are powerful tools in the Six Sigma approach for insuring quality and continuous improvement. This course will cover the seven tools--affinity diagrams,  more...

Six Sigma and the Voice of the Customer Do you know the phrase, "caveat emptor"? It's a Latin term that means, "Let the buyer beware." It's also a legal principle stating that consumers must purchase goods at their own risk, because unless specifically asked, the seller is generally under no obligation to disclose defects. Caveat emptor once struck fear in the hearts of many wary consumers. Fortunately, the tide has turned. Increased  more...

Six Sigma and Critical Customer Requirements Mark Twain once said, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it." Unlike the weather, serving customer needs is something companies actually can do something about. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic process for motivating a business to focus on its customers. In a Six Sigma environment, such a focus is central to success. In this course, you'll learn how  more...

Defining and Mapping the Six Sigma Process Maps are incredible tools. They show--on one page--where you are, where you want to go, the best way to get there, and endless alternate routes. Without maps, we would be left to wander unknown paths to uncertain destinations, encountering untold pitfalls along the way. Maps are also important tools in guiding Six Sigma teams in the quest for process improvement; it is impossible to improve a  more...

Scoping the Six Sigma Project ...Belts are called upon to solve problems that have no known solutions. This is a risky endeavor. Yet Six Sigma deployment has a track record of success. One of the keys to its success is proper project scoping. No one wants to try to do it all with a single opportunity. Six Sigma projects need to be selected mindfully and scoped appropriately. Yet, without known solutions, identifying projects  more...

Design of Experiments DOE By the time they reach the Six Sigma Improve phase, organizations have a solid understanding of how and why their processes fail to meet customers' expectations. Organizations use the Design of Experiments (DOE), a key methodology of the Six Sigma Improve phase, to quantify with statistical precision the factors that are causing this gap. Well-designed experiments result in effective process  more...

Design and Analysis In the Six Sigma Improve phase, organizations are aiming to evaluate which process inputs have the most significant impact on the process output. Only by effective experimental design and subsequent analysis can organizations pinpoint areas for improvement. This course will enable you to choose between process methods, determine the most effective process, and take into account all of the  more...

Taguchi and Quality Improvement Well-designed experiments result in effective process design or redesign, and ultimately, improved organizations. The Taguchi Method is a technique for designing and performing experiments to investigate processes where the output depends on many variables. The Taguchi Method allows the Six Sigma teams to avoid the tedious and costly task of running a process using all possible combinations of  more...

Experimenting for Process Improvement The Improve phase of the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology concerns locating the optimal conditions of a process. Many improvement techniques used in Six Sigma concentrate on the impact of single factors on response or yield. In order to achieve breakthrough improvements, however, it is necessary to determine how multiple interacting factors impact response. This course introduces the sophisticated  more...

Lean Concepts Most business processes are 90 waste and 10 value-added work. The challenge for businesses today is to find new ways to dramatically reduce costs and improve investment returns while better serving their customers. To meet these challenges, organizations have turned to Lean Thinking, which seeks the elimination of all forms of waste, strives for continuous improvement, and simplifies business  more...

Non-value added Steps and Tasks Anytime you have products sitting in inventory it means your resources are not producing cash flow. Identifying and removing the non-value-added steps and tasks in the supply chain is the key element in effective inventory management. This course examines how Lean businesses seek to integrate their supply chains with their production processes so as to minimize inventory levels, improve the flow  more...

Lean Tools At its heart, being Lean seeks to eliminate waste from the organization. By applying Lean tools and techniques, organizations can become more competitive, agile, and responsive to customer demands. This course highlights the implementation of Lean tools in the production and manufacturing environment. These tools have derived largely from the development of the Toyota Production System (TPS). In  more...

Total Productive Maintenance TPM How do you ensure that the maintenance requirements of physical assets are met as cheaply and effectively as possible? The goal is to reduce downtime and minimize maintenance costs. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a systematic approach to eliminating waste associated with production equipment and machinery. It is an approach that seeks to engage all levels and functions in an organization to  more...

Probability and Statistics ...cs to produce information on variations in process. Black Belt candidates must be proficient in descriptive, inferential, and process-oriented statistical thinking; must understand how to stratify data; and must appreciate the uses of the Central Limit Theorem and inferential statistics to interpret available data. This course serves as a summary for each of these areas, and provides a  more...

Collecting and Summarizing Data The Six Sigma DMAIC system is a roadmap that shows the way to process and performance improvement. The second phase in the roadmap, the Measure phase, provides a methodology and tools for establishing a baseline of current processes. This baseline is your starting point for process improvement. A critical part of establishing baselines is collecting data that will enable you to learn the current  more...

Properties and Applications of Probability Distributions ...bility distributions are essential to the Six Sigma Black Belt. Distributions and their random variables are the key to determining supportable conclusions for hypothesis tests and confidence intervals. This course discusses the general use of probability distributions, and reviews the applications of normal and nonnormal distributions. The course also details the benefits and teaches the steps  more...

Measurement Systems The Six Sigma DMAIC system is a roadmap that shows the way to process and performance improvement. The second phase in the roadmap, the Measure phase, provides a methodology and tools for collecting data and establishing baseline measures of current processes. However, measurement itself can be problematic. A measurement system is only as good as the measuring instruments and the operators, and  more...

Analyzing Process Capability ...ong-term variability. This course teaches Six Sigma Black Belts the process capability techniques to analyze current output and project expected value. Six Sigma is a registered Trademark of Motorola Corporation, and all rights, title and interest in Six Sigma belongs to Motorola. Candidates for Black Belt certification; managers/executives overseeing personnel involved in the implementation of  more...

Calculating Process Capability ...o calculate process capability. This course teaches Black Belt candidates the indices for non-normal process capability, and discusses how to transform non-normal data for use in standard statistical tests. It also examines the difference between continuous and discrete data, and the distributions used for capability analysis of discrete data. Six Sigma is a registered Trademark of Motorola  more...

Organizational Goals and Objectives Before a Six Sigma project can be executed, organizational strategic planning goals and objectives must be defined. Determining selection of appropriate projects and choosing an effective improvement model are crucial tasks that help to ensure your company is pointed in the right direction. Performing risk analysis while avoiding pitfalls common to Six Sigma projects is also important to prevent  more...

Leadership in Six Sigma Six Sigma has become synonymous with quality in the business world, but there is no prescriptive process for planning and launching a Six Sigma initiative. Each business must learn to call upon the strengths and abilities of its diverse professionals, from executives to highly trained technical specialists. What are the roles of each in the Six Sigma process? What planning should take place to  more...

Six Sigma and the Corporate Enterprise What exactly is Six Sigma , and why is it important to your company? This course helps you to make that determination through a discussion of basic concepts underlying the Six Sigma philosophy. A broad overview is provided of the initial development of Six Sigma; Six Sigma's uses in leading companies to date; the benefits to be realized by successful deployment, and the metrics and core  more...

History of Organizational Improvement and the Foundations of Six Sigma To successfully implement Six Sigma , it's useful to understand the history of organizational improvement and the contributions of various leaders in the field of quality. This course examines the concepts of quality, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement that are common among Six Sigma, the Total Quality Management movement, and continuous improvement. It also discusses the continuum  more...

Introduction to Statistics An introduction to statistics for those who will be taking Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training.  more...