Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

Course details

Lean Six Sigma is a comprehensive and highly effective strategy for achieving and sustaining business success. Lean Six Sigma delivers bottom line savings, project by project, in an organised, proactive and highly transparent manner.

Lean Six Sigma is driven by a close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of knowledge, facts and statistical analysis and diligent attention to a methodology to improve or reinvent business processes.

Learning Outcomes

The aim of the programme is to produce graduates who possess advanced knowledge of theory and practice of Lean Six Sigma to enable them to establish and/or take leadership roles in process improvement efforts in manufacturing or data intensive service organisations.

On successful completion of this programme the delegate will:

1. have a good understanding of advanced process statistics, including industrial designed experiments, and their application to expanding the boundaries of current knowledge within an existing, manufacturing or service industry, process
2. have detailed knowledge and understanding of a wide range of problem solving principles, tools and techniques and the manner in which these are combined in the overall pursuit of business process improvement via Lean Six Sigma
3. demonstrate the ability to draw conclusions from data through the use of advanced analytical and/or statistical techniques
4. be able to confidently engage in and successfully resolve process engineering projects in both the technical and managerial aspects and communicate effectively their resolution.
5. demonstrate, through leading a project, that the learner thoroughly understands the rigour and discipline of the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC methodology
6. be able to apply Lean Six Sigma concepts and advanced problem solving skills learnt in a variety of contexts in manufacturing and service environments
7. deliver significant financial and/or customer benefit for the learners employer (target of €100k annualized, €50k for SME’s) through a proactive, investigative and data driven problem solving approach
8. be able to research process engineering issues and solutions to issues, taking responsibility for his/her own learning in unfamiliar learning contexts
9. be able to work independently or effectively lead a cross functional team to solve complex process engineering problems
10. demonstrate the ability to overcome resistance to change in an organisation through effective communication with and influencing of key stakeholders

Who Should Attend

• Business Process Improvement Personnel
• Operations / Quality Managers
• Process Experts & High Potentials
• Those tasked with driving a major change initiative

Entry Requirements

• Honours Bachelor Degree, level 8 in National Framework of Qualifications in Engineering, Science or equivalent Technical undergraduate qualification, or
• A person who has demonstrated the achievement of this level by approved prior experiential learning (APEL).
• Suitable project to complete during training
• Competence in basic Microsoft Office suite of software
• Laptop with the most recent version of Minitab (Data Analysis Software). See www.minitab.com for more details. Candidates are advised that a basic knowledge of statistics is recommended prior to commencing the programme.
• Competence in English language (SQT recommend a competency comparable to IELTS 5.5 or equivalent).
• Skills that are considered necessary for successful participation in the programme include:
• willingness to learn (reading, research)
• good communication skills
• ability to self-direct
• business acumen
• assertiveness

Course Programme

Week 1 Define

Aim

To successfully launch a Lean Six Sigma project by defining a project, assembling a project team, garnering support for the project from process stakeholders and ensuring a common understanding of the process across all project participants and stakeholders.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject the delegate will be able to:

• Explain the DMAIC methodology that a Lean Six Sigma project will follow
• Examine requirements of internal and external process customers to ensure these are aligned with project goals
• Evaluate the performance of processes in meeting customer requirements
• Assemble a cross functional project team capable of completing a Lean Six Sigma process improvement project
• Review and refine a project charter to minimize risks to successful project completion
• Generate sufficient stakeholder support for a proposed Lean Six Sigma project
• Demonstrate an ability to develop a detailed project plan, considering resources and key project milestones
• Construct a high level map of a process to achieve a common understanding among project participants and stakeholders

Week 2 Measure

Aim

To develop a factual and accurate picture of the current state of process performance, identifying areas of weakness within the process for further investigation and achieving ‘quick win’ improvements where possible.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject the delegate will be able to:

• Apply Lean principles to reduce waste and improve flow in processes
• Construct a suitable map of a process at an actionable level
• Prepare a plan to collect data from a process
• Evaluate stability of process output metrics
• Compute process capability indices
• Evaluate the suitability of process measurement systems for data collection activities
• Analyse and draw conclusions from historical process data

Week 3 Analyse

Aim

To understand the drivers of poor performance in a process and select focus areas for improvement actions.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject the delegate will be able to:

• Identify and prioritise causal relationships in a process
• Conduct root cause analysis on the primary causes of poor performance in a process
• Compare the components of variation in a process using graphical analysis tools (such as multi-vari charts)
• Distinguish between analytical and enumerative statistical techniques
• Understand the relationship between sample size and power of a given test
• Select and apply appropriate statistical tests to examine subject matter expert hypotheses
• Use Analysis of Variance studies to assess factor significance
• Examine and prioritise process risk using process FMEA

Week 4 Improve

Aim

To identify and implement optimum solutions using innovative thinking and considering all risks to solution effectiveness

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject the delegate will be able to:

• Facilitate solutions workshops using creative thinking techniques
• Apply kaizen and other Lean tools to generate process improvements
• Evaluate and select appropriate solutions from a list of possible solutions
• Perform regression analysis to develop prediction models
• Conduct designed experiments to optimize solution effectiveness
• Understand experimental considerations such as Blocking, Randomisation, Repeats and Replicates
• Manage resistance to change in an organization

Week 5 Control

Aim

To ensure solutions are sustainable and ongoing controls are institutionalized in the organisation

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject the delegate will be able to:

• Standardise and simplify work practices to reduce potential for variation in process outputs
• Develop appropriate error proofing techniques to enhance solution sustainability
• Select critical characteristics for monitoring by control chart
• Identify and construct appropriate control charts for ongoing monitoring of critical process characteristics
• Create process control plans to identify responsibility for maintaining process performance
• Communicate the results, recommendations and lessons learned from the project to the organisation