Master Black Belt Certificate Program

Program Dates:

  • June 14 - 18, 2010
  • Oct. 25 - 29, 2010

Program Fee: $3500
SME Members: $3000

Program Sections:

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Overview

Master Black Belts have the highest level of technical and organizational proficiency in the institution. MBB's provide technical leadership of the Six Sigma program. Thus, they must know everything the Black Belts know, as well as understand the mathematical theory on which the statistical methods are based. Master Black Belts must be able to assist Black Belts in applying the methods correctly in unusual situations.

The key method of teaching these new leaders is to encourage freethinking, individual discovery of strength/weakness, practice to overcome deficiencies, co-leading peers by collaborative efforts and communication skills. Most importantly, learn to be a role model for the BB's. Our intent is not to make the MBB re-learn how to be operate as a Black belt; therefore, we avoid scripting the course for every hour like the BB training. The emphasis here at ASU is about power thinking for new solutions rather than memorizing set solutions. Students are asked to help lead the class so they can be comfortable with the new role as leader/mentor.

ASU's faculty for the Master Black Belt program is recognized as world-renowned leaders in quality, business, and statistics. We teach in a context that encourages the creation of new knowledge-teaching and research are connected. In addition, we provide lifelong membership to a large, diverse, and collaborative network of six sigma colleagues, leading to continued professional growth, relationships, and personal fulfillment in professional development.

ASU faculty for this program is comprised of Industrial Engineering professors including Dr. Douglas Montgomery, Dr. Connie Borror, and Industry Executives, formerly from Motorola, who allow ASU to blend academic excellence with industry expertise.

Program Objectives
  • Future leaders in the company
  • Achieve competence in leadership, business acumen, and technical expertise
  • Become role models for BB's and others
  • Advanced tools training
  • Change Management & Leading the Six Sigma Culture
Specific Roles & Responsibilities of MBB's
  • Coach BB's to complete project faster
  • Coach champions on how to select projects
  • Coach senior management on y=f(x) objective setting and objective alignment to the business
  • Coach senior management to use six sigma properly
  • Mentor BB's and reverse - mentors senior executives
  • Teach BB's and GB classes
  • Certify BB and GB
  • Assist management in setting future direction for six sigma deployment
  • Act as the six sigma "Director" at each business units (so they can learn to be business leaders and learn to deliver business results at a higher level.)
Noncredit Professional Certification Requirements
  • Students attend one week classroom training and complete 2 online courses
  • A final exam is administered at the end of each online component
  • A white paper is submitted after completing the classroom training and two online courses to receive certification


Prerequisites:

  • MBB candidates must have completed black belt curriculum and be a certified black belt
  • MBB candidates must have three years of experience as a black belt as well as three documented projects.

An advisor will review with the MBB candidate previous black belt and education background as well as their documented experience to qualify candidates for acceptance into the program.

Faculty

Dr. Douglas C. Montgomery
Doug Montgomery, Ph.D., is a Regent's Professor of Industrial Engineering and Statistics, and ASU Foundation Professor of Engineering at Arizona State University. Additional accolades include;

  • John M. Fluke Distinguished Professor of Engineering, Director of Industrial Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle
  • Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech
  • BSIE, MS and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Tech
  • Recipient of the Shewhart Medal, William G. Hunter Award, Brumbaugh Award, and the Shewell Award (twice) from the American Society for Quality Control
  • Interests focus on industrial statistics, including design of experiments, quality and reliability engineering, applications of linear models, and time series analysis and forecasting
  • Industrial experience includes engineering assignments with Union Carbide Corporation and Eli Lilly and Company, and extensive consulting experience
  • Visiting Professor of Engineering at the Monterey Institute of Technology in Monterey, Mexico, and a University Distinguished Visitor at the University of Manitoba
  • The Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the United States Army, and private industry have sponsored Dr. Montgomery's research

Al Filardo, M.A.
Mr. Filardo is the Assistant Dean in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and Executive Director of the Department of Organizational Performance at Arizona State University.

As the Executive Director of the Department of Organizational Performance at ASU, Al Filardo is the Six Sigma champion for the University. Mr. Filardo provides organizational consultation throughout ASU and instructs for the Center for Professional Development at the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

Mr. Filardo began his career as an electrical engineer for TRW and transitioned to management. He is a graduate of the University of San Francisco with a BS in Organizational Behavior. His Masters degree in Human Resource Management is from Webster University at Luke Air Force Base.

Mr. Filardo is an industry subject matter expert in customer service, field engineering, management, manufacturing, quality, sales, and training responsible for as many as 1,200 employees with an annual production of $700 million.

Prior to joining ASU Mr. Filardo was the director of Motorola University for the western and pacific coast regions of the United States. Mr. Filardo has deployed Six Sigma globally in China, Southeast Asia and the United States. He works with firms specializing in quality, process, and policy improvements. In addition, he is an award-winning executive coach, trainer and quality advocate, and a member of the team that received the highest quality award at Motorola during his tenure.

Dr. Connie M. Borror
Dr. Connie M. Borror is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Computing at Arizona State University West. She earned her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University in 1998. Her research interests include experimental design, response surface methods, and statistical process control. She has co-authored two books and over 50 journal articles in these areas.

Dr. Borror has taught numerous short courses on response surface methodology, robust design, statistical process control, experimental design, basic statistics, green belt training, and using statistical packages such as Minitab.

Dr. Borror is a member of the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society, the American Society for Engineering Education, and a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality and the Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Russell J. Elias, Ph.D., CRE
Dr. Elias was one of the original architects of Six Sigma and has over twenty-five years of industrial applications experience. He was a contemporary of Dr. Mikel Harry and Mr. Bill Smith while at Motorola from 1984-2001, and was intimately involved in Motorola's initial development and deployment of the Six Sigma concept. He received six Outstanding Achievement Awards at Motorola for Six Sigma breakthroughs in product quality and reliability, and has worked for two Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award winners (Motorola and Milliken & Co.).

As a Motorola University Master Black Belt, Master Instructor, Member of the Technical Staff, and ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer, Dr. Elias architected many of the technical and business processes to support and proliferate Six Sigma methodologies throughout Motorola's worldwide operations during his 17 year career there. After leaving Motorola, he served at Cypress Semiconductor in San Jose as Senior Director of Quality and Productivity from 2002-2007, where as the Executive Black Belt re-engineered their Design for Six Sigma methodologies throughout their manufacturing and R&D organizations.

Dr. Elias received a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1982), a Masters of Science degree in Quality and Reliability Engineering (2000), and a Ph.D. in Industrial Systems Engineering (2006) at Arizona State University (under Professor Montgomery).. He holds 5 US patents, has authored 25+ technical publications, and continues to research, publish, and lecture in the areas of model-based forecasting, advanced process control, and Design for Six Sigma.

With over 1000 successful Six Sigma projects completed, and with more than 20 "waves” of Black Belts trained and mentored, Dr. Elias continues his consultancy and active involvement in the Six Sigma way. His client base includes semiconductor, solar, retail, insurance, financial services, health care management, environmental, food processing, stock arbitrage, safety systems, instrumentation, automotive, textile, software, utilities, and defense/aerospace. He is married with three children, lives in Tempe AZ, and may be reached at russell.elias@asu.edu .

Course Schedule

MBB Program-Week 1 Section I:

  • Day 1: AM - Global Strategic Leadership (Al Filardo)
    • Strategy and the Strategic Role of Six Sigma
    • The Strategic Planning Process of World Class Companies
    • Roles & Responsibilities
  • Day 1: PM -Advanced Design for Six Sigma (Dr. Douglas Montgomery)
    • advanced DFSS theory, methods and tools for technically oriented design projects
    • conduct design-process qualifications and other methods for either minimizing or avoiding the negative effects of variation
    • Provides an engineering organization with the necessary skills for minimizing design error and its associated manifestation in poor quality
  • Day 2: Logistic Regression & Categorical Date Analysis (Dr. Doug Montgomery)
    • Survival/Lifetime Data
    • Interclass correlation (ICC)
    • Categorical data analysis methods
  • Day 3: AM - Advanced Design of Experiments (Dr. Connie Borror)
    • Review of two-level designs and fractional factorials. Methods for choosing good designs and planning follow-up experimentation.
    • Response surface methods and process/product optimization. Topics include choice of designs, handling multiple responses, small designs.
    • Ugly design problems - mixtures, problems with region constraints, computer generated designs to solve these problems
  • Day 3: PM -Advanced Control and Forecasting for Six Sigma (Dr. Connie Borror)
    • How forecast inaccuracies drive waste in the business
    • Impact on the company's ability to plan for sourcing of raw materials and production
    • Measuring the process cycle time
  • Day 4: Roles and Responsibilities of Six-Sigma Master Black Belt - (Al Filardo)
    • Role and competencies of the Six Sigma MBB as Enabler, Manager, Facilitator, Consultant
    • MBB Behavioral Failure Points
    • Behavioral competency development planning
    • Creation of an MBB Development Plan
  • Day 5: Six Sigma Content Development and Presentation Skills (Al Filardo)
    • Criterion referenced instruction in SS
    • Developing appropriate content
    • Delivering SS instruction
    • Presentation skills lab

MBB Program-Week 2: Section II

Complete any 2 of the online classes (within 120 days of completing week one in the classroom):

  • Data Mining
  • Lean GB
  • RDFSS
  • Enterprise Innovation
Technical Requirements

View Tecnical Requirements

Required Software

Minitab Version 14 or 15 (student version is acceptable, software available to registered students during the timeframe of the course)

Program Deliverables

Classroom Component:
Attendance is required for the full 5 day classroom scheduled program

Online Components
Complete any 2 of the online classes (within 120 days of completing week one in the classroom):

  • Data Mining
  • Lean GB
  • RDFSS
  • Analyzing Time Dependant Data
  • Enterprise Innovation

Program Fee

$3500 (includes training, exams, and coaching to complete white paper) Students are required to purchase the textbooks for the two online courses completed after the in-person training. Group discounts and program customization are available.

Registration

Refunds and Cancellations

The registration fees for the Master Black Belt certification program held at Arizona State University includes instruction, handouts, and a catered lunch. Hotel accommodations are not included.

Seating at the course is limited. Enroll for the course as soon as possible to assure your space. You will receive a confirmation email upon registration. Fees may be paid by check, money order, purchase order, or credit card (VISA, MasterCard, and American Express) and must be received four weeks prior to the start date. Please make all remittances payable, in U.S. funds, to Arizona State University-Global Outreach and Extended Education.

If you register and then need to cancel, please note that there is a cancellation fee. Written requests for cancellation may be sent to Amy Sever at amy.sever@asu.edu. The rate of the fee is determined by how far in advance of the program start date the written request for cancellation is received by the office of Global Outreach and Extended Education. The cancellation fee schedule is as follows:

  • Four or more weeks prior - 10% of program fee
  • Three weeks prior - 50% of program fee
  • Within two weeks - 75% of program fee

Registrants who do not attend or who do not cancel are subject to the complete program fee. Participant substitutes may be made by submitting a written request in advance. The office of Global Outreach and Extended Education reserves the right to change instructors, cancel or reschedule the program in the event of insufficient enrollment or unforeseen circumstances.

For more information contact:

Amy Sever,
Manager - Professional and Executive Programs
asu.cpd@asu.edu