Six Sigma Fundamentals: A Complete Introduction to the System, Methods, and Tools

Recognize the need for change and the role of values in a business.

Recognize the need for measurement and its role in business success.

Understand the role of questions in the context of management leadership.

Provide a brief history of six sigma and its evolution.

Understand the need for measuring those things which are critical to the customer, business and process.

Define the various facets of six sigma and why six sigma is important to a business.

Identify the parts-per-million defect goal of six sigma.

Define the magnitude of difference between three, four, five and six sigma.

Recognize that defects that arise from variation.

Define the three primary sources of variation in a product.

Describe the general methodologies that are required to progress through the hierarchy of quality improvement.

Define the phases of breakthrough in quality improvement.

Identify the values of a six sigma organization as compared to a four sigma business.

Understand the key success factors related to the attainment of six sigma.

Understand why inspection and test is non-value-added to a business and serves as a roadblock for achieving six sigma.

Understand the difference between the terms process precision and process accuracy.

Provide a very general description of how a process capability study is conducted and interpreted.

Understand the basic elements of a sigma benchmarking chart.

Interpret a data point plotted on a sigma benchmarking chart.

Understand the difference between the idea of benchmark, baseline and entitlement cycle time.

Provide a brief description for the outcome 1 - Y.rt.

Recognize that the quantity 1 + (1 - Y.rt) represents the number of units that must be produced to extract one good unit from a process.

Describe how every occurrence of a defect requires time to verify, analyze, repair and re-verify.

Understand that work-in-process (WIP) is highly correlated to the rate of defects.

Describe what is meant by the term mean time between failure (MTBF).

Interpret the temporal failure pattern of a product using the classical bathtub reliability curve.

Explain how process capability impacts the pattern of failure inherent to the infant mortality rate.

Provide a rational definition of the term latent defect and how such defects can impact product reliability.

Explain how defects produced during manufacture influence product reliability which, in turn, influence customer satisfaction.

Rationalize the statement: The highest quality producer is the lowest cost producer.

Understand the fundamental nature of quantitative benchmarking on a sigma scale of measure.

Recognize that the sigma scale of measure is at the opportunity level, not at the system level.

Interpret an array of sigma benchmarking charts.

Understand that global benchmarking has consistently revealed four sigma as average, while best-in-class is near the six sigma region.

Draw first-order conclusions when given a global bench-marking chart.

Provide a brief description of the five sigma wall—what it is, why it exists and how to get over it.

State the general findings that tend to characterize or profile a four sigma organization.

Explain how the sigma scale of measure could be employed for purposes of strategic planning.

Recognize the cycle time, reliability and cost implications when interpreting a sigma benchmarking chart.

Understand how a six sigma product without a market will fail, while a six sigma product in a viable market is virtually certain to succeed.

Provide a qualitative definition and graphical interpretation of the standard deviation.

Understand the driving need for breakthrough improvement versus continual improvement.

Define the two primary components of process breakthrough.

Provide a brief description of the four phases of process breakthrough (i.e., measure, analyze, improve, control).

Provide a synopsis of what a statistically designed experiment is and what role it plays during the improvement phase of breakthrough.

Understand the basic nature of statistical process control charts and the role they play during the control phase of breakthrough.

Explain the interrelationship between the terms process capability, process precision and process accuracy.

Explain how statistically designed experiments can be used to achieve the major aims of six sigma from a quality, cost, and cycle time point of view.

Understand that the term sigma is a performance metric that only applies at the opportunity level.