Six sigma for green belts and champions : foundations, DMAIC, tools, cases, and certification

Much has been said or written about the value of Six Sigma methodologies in driving organizational improvement. This text provides a pragmatic treatment of underlying principles and methods, management obligations, and case study examples to assist readers in value-added enterprise-wide improvement.

Author Notes

David M. Levine is Professor Emeritus of Statistics and Computer Information Systems at Bernard M. Baruch College (City University of New York). He received B.B.A. and M.B.A. degrees in Statistics from City College of New York and a Ph.D. degree from New York University in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. He is nationally recognized as a leading innovator in business statistics education and is the co-author of such best-selling statistics textbooks as Statistics for Managers using Microsoft Excel, Basic Business Statistics: Concepts and Applications, Business Statistics: A First Course , and Applied Statistics for Engineers and Scientists using Microsoft Excel and Minitab , He has published articles in various journals including Psychometrika , The American Statistician , Communications in Statistics , Multivariate Behavioral Research , Journal of Systems Management , Quality Progress , and The American Anthropologist .

Dr. Howard S. Gitlow is Executive Director of the University of Miami Institute for the Study of Quality in Manufacturing and Service and a Professor of Management Science, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. He was a Visiting Professor at the Science University of Tokyo in 1990 where he studied Quality Management with Dr. Noriaki Kano. He received his Ph.D. in Statistics (1974), M.B.A. (1972), and B.S. in Statistics (1969) from New York University. His areas of specialization are Six Sigma Management, Dr. Deming's theory of management, Japanese Total Quality Control, and statistical quality control.

Dr. Gitlow is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, a senior member of the American Society for Quality Control and a member of the American Statistical Association. He has consulted on quality, productivity, and related matters with many organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies.

Dr. Gitlow has co-authored several books. These include: Quality Management: Tools and Methods for Improvement , Richard D. Irwin Publishers (2005), third edition; Quality Management Systems , CRC Press (2000), Total Quality Management in Action , Prentice-Hall, (1994); The Deming Guide to Quality and Competitive Position , Prentice-Hall, (1987), fifteenth printing; Planning for Quality, Productivity , and Competitive Position , Dow Jones-Irwin Publishers (1990); and Stat City: Understanding Statistics Through Realistic Applications , Richard D. Irwin Publishers (1987), second edition. He has published over 45 academic articles in the areas of quality, statistics, management, and marketing.

While at the University of Miami, Dr. Gitlow has received awards for Outstanding Teaching, Outstanding Writing, and Outstanding Published Research Articles.

Excerpts

Preface Unique Aspects of the Book Six Sigma for Green Belts and Champions: Foundations, DMAIC, Tools, Cases, and Certification, has numerous features that make this book unique. • Contains coverage of the foundations of management necessary for professional Six Sigma management. This includes how to deploy an organization's mission statement throughout an organization through a cascading and interlocking system of key objectives and key indicators, called a dashboard. It is illustrated with many practical and relevant examples. • Presents a thorough and detailed anatomy of the Six Sigma improvement model, called the DMAIC model. DMAIC is an acronym for Define-Measure-Analyze- Improve-Control. The DMAIC model is a well-tested vehicle for guiding an improvement team through the maze of a complex process improvement project. • Integrates coverage of Six Sigma management with detailed coverage of those statistical methods that are appropriate for Green Belt and Champion certification. Each statistical method is explained and applied to an example involving actual data in a quality improvement context. Coverage of statistics begins with an introduction and basic definitions, along with graphs and descriptive statistical measures; provides critical insights into probability and probability distributions; and covers the essential topics of confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, design of experiments, and control charts, all from an applied quality improvement perspective. Output from the Minitab statistical software package, widely used in Six Sigma management, is illustrated. • Includes chapter ending appendixes that provide step-by-step instructions for using Minitab Version 14 for the statistical methods covered in each chapter. • Includes two case studies in Six Sigma management. Each case study provides a detailed examination of all the steps involved in using the DMAIC Six Sigma approach. One case is from a service industry, and the other relates to manufacturing. • Includes information on Champion and Green Belt certification exams, along with sample test questions. Excerpted from Six Sigma for Green Belts and Champions: Foundations, DMAIC, Tools, Cases, and Certification by Howard S. Gitlow, David M. Levine All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Preface

1 Six Sigma Basics

1 Overview of Six Sigma Management

2 Six Sigma Roles, Responsibilities, and Terminology

2 Six Sigma Model

3 Macro Model (Dashboards)

4 Define Phase

5 Measure Phase

6 Analyze Phase

7 Improve Phase

8 Control Phase

3 Six Sigma Tools and Methods

9 Basic of Statistical Studies

10 Basic Probability and Probability Distributions

11 Sampling Distributions and Confidence Intervals

12 Hypothesis Testing

13 Design of Experiments

14 Control Charts for Six Sigma Management

15 Additional Tools and Methods

4 Six Sigma Case Studies

16 Paper Organizers International: A Fictitious Six Sigma Green Belt Case Study

17 A Paper Helicopter Case Study

5 Six Sigma Certification

18 Six Sigma Champion

19 Six Sigma Green Belt

Appendixes

A Review of Arithmetic and Algebra

B Summation Notation

C Statistical Tables

D Documentation of Web Files

Glossary of Terms

Index

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On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Excerpts

Excerpts

Table of Contents