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ASU Lean Six Sigma Black Belt



Schedule: 4 week in-person program; 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Location: Arizona State University - Tempe

Dates:

  • April 26 - Information Session
  • May 11-13 - Pre-training Workshops
  • May 14 - Registration
  • May 25 - June 18 - Classes (Full Time, 9am to 5pm)
  • July 16 - Project Due


Prerequisites

Students MUST hold a six sigma green belt or lean green belt certification, bachelor's degree, and must have have completed a college-level statistics course, or have completed a lean or six sigma project to participate in the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification.

Who Should Attend

The program is aimed at directors, managers, engineers, supervisors and others who have been certified at the green belt level and are responsible for implementing continuous improvement within the organization and those who wish to develop individual knowledge and skills in the area of strategic lean systems leadership.

Program Requirements

The Lean Six Sigma Black Belt professional development program is a combination of course work and a black belt project. Students will complete the program in a group (cohort) format with a defined start date and completion date for the training portion of the program. A quiz will be administered at the end of each instructional week. Students must earn a 70% or higher on each quiz.

The program concludes with student Project Report presentations demonstrating effects on operational performance. This session is required for all students wishing to receive a certificate, as the project is used as the major criterion for grading.

Students will have 30 days after the end of the in-person training to complete and submit a black belt project.

Program Overview

It is generally accepted that one of the key issues to be addressed in maintaining and sustaining international competitiveness is to implement operational excellence and best practice continuous improvement methodologies. To be world class, organizations must focus on improving their ability to service markets in the face of increasing customer demands by creating value. Organizations must develop a strategic learning organization which in turn will enable associates at all levels to develop and manage and sustain a continuous improvement culture.

This Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Program focuses on the education of lean and six sigma experts and the methodologies of value, value streams, pull, flow, and perfection. Lean experts must be the strategic drivers for the identification of waste and the leaders to define strategic opportunities. Six Sigma will be integrated to advance operational excellence through analytical and data driven analysis to continuously improve and control process innovation.

Most organizations are attempting to create a consistent philosophical approach to solving fundamental problems. This notion of Continuous Improvement (CI) must cascade from the leadership team to the shop floor operator. If the philosophical approach is consistent, typical results are showing:

  • 50% Time Reduction
  • 50% Cost Reduction
  • 50% Quality Improvement.

These are startling results even to skilled practitioners.

However, if the CI portfolio is NOT managed consistently, then communication breaks down and the results above are NOT achieved. What is different about the two camps is the philosophical approach to problem solving. We at ASU have addressed this aggressively. We have established a consistent problem solving approach for everything we do. We call this: 'RDdmaicSI'

  • R - Strategically Recognize that an opportunity exists
  • D - Strategically Define the opportunity.
  • d - Tactically Define the purpose, viewpoint and context of the problem in a Value Stream Map or other format.
  • m - Measure the key attributes and align these to the strategic metrics found in "R".
  • a - Analyze the situation and identify the root cause
  • i - Make Improvements happen with the users owning the results.
  • c - Achieve Control of the new solution over the long run
  • S - Standardize on how this process should be conducted throughout the enterprise.
  • I - Integrated this into the fabric of the enterprise.

This 'RDdmaicSI' comes from page 115 of the classic Six Sigma text written by Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder. It extends the 'dmaic' problem solving approach to a strategic focus and strategic metrics.

We at ASU used this consistent philosophical approach in all of our CI offerings:

  • Obviously we use this in our Six Sigma offerings because 'dmaic' is the foundation of Six Sigma. However, we consistently add the 'RD' on the front end and the 'SI' on the back end.
  • What is not so obvious is that we also use 'RDdmaicSI' for our Lean Roadmapping. Lean and Six Sigma are complementary and the teams are using the same philosophical approach to solve problems.
  • We are now extending this into our new Sustainability thrust by incorporating 'RDdmaic' into our ISO 14000 Environmental Management Systems efforts.

By applying a consistent philosophical approach to problem solving, we find we achieve synergies from Senior Leadership to Knowledge Worker, from one organization to the next.

Learning Outcomes

Students participating in the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Program will learn:

  • To fully understand the history and the contributing developers of lean and six sigma.
  • To fully understand the strategic objective of lean and six sigma.
  • To mentor and lead the organization in lean and six sigma.
  • To become an expert in lean and six sigma tools and advanced methods.
  • To become conversant at the development of a strategic Operational Excellence plan and lead the execution of Lean Six Sigma Projects.

Required Textbooks and Software

  • Design and Analysis of Experiments, 7th Edition, by Douglas C. Montgomery, 2008, John Wiley & Sons (ISBN: 0470128666)
  • Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 6th Edition, by Douglas C. Montgomery, 2008, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (ISBN: 0470169923)
  • Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma Quality with Lean Production Speed by Michael L. George, 2002, McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0071385215)
  • Minitab Version 14 or 15 (student version is acceptable, software available to registered students during the timeframe of the course)
  • Engineering Statistics Handbook, National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • OPTIONAL: Design and Analysis of Experiments, Student Solutions Manual, 7th Edition, by Douglas C. Montgomery, 2008, John Wiley & Sons (ISBN: 0470169915)
  • OPTIONAL: Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, Student Resource Manual, 6th Edition, by Douglas C. Montgomery, 2008, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (ISBN: 0470449489)

The required textbooks and software will be provided to students.



Downloads:


Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Program Flyer in Adobe Acrobat Reader Format (PDF).

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Program Schedule in Adobe Acrobat Reader Format (PDF).



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