Six Sigma: Green Belt Course - Spring 2009

IIE would like to inform you about our exciting course opportunities for this semester. We will be offering another set of Six Sigma and Lean Enterprise certification classes. There are no pre-requisites for either of these courses and you do not have to be an IE to participate.

*Six Sigma*:
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Six Sigma, don't let that discourage you! Six Sigma is a widely respected business strategy employed by huge corporations such as Motorola, General Electric, Dell, and Boeing. It teaches a standardized methodology for process improvement and process conception, and focuses on maintaining the highest measures of quality. There are several levels of Six Sigma certification, each a prerequisite for the next. The first step is becoming a Green Belt, then a Black Belt, and so forth as your career progresses. Becoming Six Sigma certified is a great way to boost your resume and appeal to a lot of different companies. This past fall, IIE offered the Green Belt course 4 times and certified over 80 students. We hope to increase that number every semester...don't miss out!

The course includes 2 full days of class, and a third day of review and examination. All of our Green Belt courses will be offered on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday schedule. This means that you will have class all day from 8am to 5pm on Friday and Saturday (so plan accordingly with your Friday professors), with a review on Sunday morning and an exam that will last until early Sunday afternoon. At the end of the three days (if you successfully pass the exam), you will become a Six Sigma Green Belt and will be awarded written certification. Lunch will be provided every day, and all classes will be held on campus (room information to come).

*Lean*:
*Lean certification consists of a 9 day training course divided into three separate weekends (each 3 days long). We will offer two groups of Lean classes. Please be advised that you must sign up for either one of the two groups since it will be difficult for us to switch students around once the program begins. You have the option of signing up for 1 or more of the three courses when you take the survey. Also, you can choose between Group 1 or Group 2. So if you choose only Lean II as your course with Group 2 it is understood that you wish to take Lean II with Group 2 during the weekend of March 6th, 7th and 8th.

Group 1:
February 6th - February 8th (Lean I)
February 27th - March 1st (Lean II)
March 27th - March 29th (Business and Change Management)

Group 2:
February 20th - February 22nd (Lean I)
March 6th - March 8th (Lean II)
April 3rd - April 5th (Business and Change Management)

*Class is held from 8am to 4:30pm daily. Please make sure you plan accordingly with your professors ahead of time. Lunch will be provided every day and all classes will be held on campus (room information to come).

In order to register for a Lean course, please click on the link below and fill out the information.//www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QsXEymFaisoZcCFfGX5VRQ_3d_3d

*Prices*
Six Sigma:
For registered IIE student members: $700
For non IIE members: $850

Lean:
For registered IIE student members taking ALL THREE classes: $1350
For non IIE members taking ALL THREE classes: $1550

For IIE student members taking less than three classes: $500/class
For non IIE members taking less than three classes: $650/class

You MUST have a valid, student IIE membership to be eligible for the discounts. A great reason to join IIE!
You can join IIE by going to IIEnet.org <http://IIEnet.org> and clicking on membership.
*Note that these prices are LARGELY discounted compared to full priced Green Belt and Lean courses. Only through IIE's Georgia Tech chapter can you find such a great deal!
*
***Please be aware that space is limited. Registration and/or first choice of weekends cannot be guaranteed. Priority will be given to those students closest to graduating and with highest student classification. Payment delivery and location details will be provided to registered students closer to the course dates.

SIX SIGMA AND LEAN ENTERPRISE: AN IIE INITIATIVE

GENERAL

Six Sigma (6) is a business-driven, multi-faceted approach to process improvement, reduced costs, and increased profits. With a fundamental principle to improve customer satisfaction by reducing defects, its ultimate performance target is virtually defect-free processes and products (3.4 or fewer defective parts per million (ppm)). The Six Sigma methodology, consisting of the steps "Define - Measure - Analyze - Improve - Control," is the roadmap to achieving this goal. Within this improvement framework, it is the responsibility of the improvement team to identify the process, the definition of defect, and the corresponding measurements.

Six Sigma originated at Motorola in the early 1980s in response to a CEO-driven challenge to achieve tenfold reduction in product-failure levels in five years. Meeting this challenge required swift and accurate root-cause analysis and correction. In the mid-1990s, Motorola divulged the details of their quality improvement framework, which has since been adopted by several large manufacturing companies. According to the Six Sigma Academy, Black Belts save companies approximately $230,000 per project and can complete four to 6 projects per year. General Electric, one of the most successful companies implementing Six Sigma, has estimated benefits on the order of $10 billion during the first five years of implementation.

Lean manufacturing or lean production, which is often known simply as "Lean", is the practice of a theory of production that considers the expenditure of resources for any means other than the creation of value for the presumed customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Lean manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS).It is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes in order to improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world's largest automaker,has focused attention on how it has achieved this.

SIX SIGMA AND LEAN ENTERPRISE AT IIE

1. Green Belt Training 

General overview or Green Belt training is a three-day program. Concepts and methodologies are explained and illustrated. Participants learn about data collection and the interpretation of the data, specifically as it relates to the processes. Participants must pass an examination to receive the IIE Green Belt Certificate. The examination is given during the afternoon of the last day of training. 

The three-day class is IIE’s basic Six Sigma for Process Improvement course. 

Specific topics covered include  

• Six Sigma philosophy
  • Objective
  • Organization
  • Structure
  • Approach
• DMAIC
• Six Sigma Projects
• Variation
• Histograms
• Basic Statistics
• Statistical Process Control
  • Variables
  • Attributes
• Process capability
• Root Cause Analysis
  • Break even
  • Flow charts
  • Pareto analysis
  • Check sheets
  • Ishikawa diagrams
  • Scatter diagrams

2. Black Belt Training 

Training of these black belts provides the necessary knowledge and technical ground for organizations to achieve their targets. This training will provide the basic problem solving skills which enable these experts to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements, and quantify the resulting savings to the company. A key component of the training is the project that each black belt student must complete. These projects permit training to be tailored to specific organizational needs. The projects also provide the participant the opportunity to demonstrate correct use of appropriate analytical tools. All projects are under the direct supervision and mentoring of the course instructors. 

Training is conducted over the weekend, for five weekends. These are typically spaced approximately 4-6 weeks apart. Each prospective black belt must complete an individual project using the six sigma methodology and pass an examination. 

The following major sections should be included in each Six Sigma Black Belt project report: 

o      Definition of Project including items such as the approved project charter, the constraints of the project and the projected schedule. The overall approach, e.g., team structure, anticipated methodologies, etc., should be included.

o      Measurements used in the project. Included should be not only the listing of those characteristics identified for measurement but also the rationale for their selection.

o      Analysis of the measurements. This should describe the analytical methods employed, the rationale for using those measurements, and the results of the analysis.

o      Improvements considered and selected. Once again the justification for selection including an explanation of the analysis and evaluation should be included.

o      Implementation plans for the improvement(s) recommended. This may be a tentative schedule.

o      Control mechanisms to assure that the improvements are used consistently once implemented. Also include a discussion of the system that will be used for ongoing monitoring. 

The final report may be submitted in either text form (word document) or in PowerPoint. Appendices should be included with all substantiating data. The project evaluators will treat this as proprietary. Projects are expected to be the work of the prospective Black Belt. Any research/references should be cited in a professional and consistent manner.

It is expected that the following approximate deadlines be met. All times begin with the first week of black belt training. 

Lean Enterprise : ( Lean I + Lean II + Change Management ) 

Lean I   

It explores the main principles of lean thinking in-depth during this three-day seminar led by experienced lean practitioners. The course covers the significant impact these concepts can have on operations, and most importantly, how to begin. This workshop focuses on value stream mapping principles and lean manufacturing techniques such as

5S and Setup Time Reduction. It is designed for representatives from all levels of your organization. The course includes both simulation and mapping exercises to demonstrate how these concepts can have an impact on operations.

By the end of this seminar, participants will be able to apply the five main principles of lean thinking: 

1. Defining the value of a product or service: Specify all activities that add value to a product or service. All other activities are waste and should be removed. Eliminating waste is a significant source of improvement in corporate performance and customer service. 

2. Identifying the value stream: Identify business and transformation processes to deliver a product or service to the customer. Begin to manage the value stream as a whole instead of independent steps or processes. 

3. Creating flow: Arrange value-adding steps and eliminate waste to remove obstacles that prohibit continuous material or information flow. 

4. Produce to the pull of the customer: Change the method of production from large batch production to producing only what is demanded by the customer. This involves not only finished products but work in process throughout the entire value stream. 

5. Pursuing perfection: Where every asset and every action adds value to the product or service for the customer. Lean thinking represents a path of sustained performance improvement instead of individual process steps. Participants will also fully understand how to implement 5S within their plants and how to begin reducing setup time using the SMED process. 

Lean II 

This course focuses on linking and balancing operations to reduce lead times, minimize work in process, optimize floor space usage, and improve productivity. Led by experienced lean practitioners, you'll work through the five-step process for designing and implementing continuous flow cells. The course shows how to control shop floor inventory and production schedules by implementing pull systems. Participants learn how to implement repetitive and nonrepetitive

pull systems, set up point-of-use material storage, interface with planning systems, and balance lot sizes with capacity, not economic order quantity. Root cause analysis is a step-by-step method that leads to the discovery of a fault's root cause. Every failure happens for a number of reasons. There is a definite progression of actions and consequences that leads to a failure. An RCA investigation traces the cause and effect trail from the end failure back to the root cause. This course gives you the tools you need to make your organization as streamlined as possible. 

Specific course topics include:

• Lead time
• Equipment requirements
• Cell balancing
• Pull systems
• Root Cause analysis
• Cause and effect analysis
• Auditing

Successful Business and Change Management Skills 

According to research, nearly 70% of continual improvement change initiatives, such as Lean Enterprise or Six Sigma, fail to achieve their intended results. This course addresses how not to be one of these negative statistics! Successfully institutionalizing, not just implementing, lean in your organization requires an in-depth knowledge and proven strategies to address the most critical factor of

change, the human dimension. Tools and methods to more successfully institutionalize change and continual improvement in your organization are introduced in this seminar.

At the end of this seminar, participants will be able to:

• Recognize the phases and necessary elements of successful change
• Clearly articulate a shared need for continual improvement in your organization and a vision of the desired outcomes
• Establish key measures to monitor, improve and reinforce your continual improvement results
• Understand your personal and organization's readiness as well as capacity for change with assessment tools applicable to your organization
• Recognize the various roles of change, individual and organizational resistance to change as well as strategies to overcome resistance
• Apply an understanding of the types of decision-making, team utilization and dynamics in addition to your personal team style to expedite results and commitment
• Recognize and apply the critical "P" skills of successful change management
• Evaluate how you manage the demands of change to increase your personal change effectiveness
• Apply a Change Management Skills Assessment tool to gauge your organization's change management abilities
• Articulate and execute a prioritized action plan to institutionalize continual improvement in your organization and be a positive statistic of continual improvement

It will be a set of three courses where each course lasts over three days. Participants who complete all three courses will be awarded IIE’s Lean Enterprise Certificate. Individuals who complete only one or two courses will receive a certificate of completion of that particular course. 

TIME AND COST

The courses are conducted over the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) 

• Lean Enterprise Certification is Lean 1 + Lean 2 + Lean 3. If anyone is interested in doing just one/two of the three, the cost will be $500 per program.
• These prices are heavily discounted for students by the IIE, Global Organization.

 CONTACT INFO 

1. Nishad Dravid ( VP, Professional Planning ) : ndravid@gatech.edu
    

2. Dhruv Bhandari ( Program Director, Lean Enterprise ) : dhruvbhandari@gatech.edu
    

3. Caitlin Cirou ( Program Director, Six Sigma Green and Black Belt) : ccirou3@gatech.edu

QUOTES: 

1. Nishad Dravid, Green Belt , Spring 08

“The Six Sigma Green Belt Certification was a great break for me during my job search. I ended up getting an internship with a Fortune 500 company; just a month after the certification and this initiative by IIE Georgia Tech chapter was highly appreciated by my colleagues at work. The program was totally worth it! “ 

2. Mihir Pathak : Green Belt, Spring 08

“The Six Sigma Green Belt Certification Program was a great experience. We
learned some theory, worked on applications, and then went into some real world
case studies. Our instructor prepared us very well for the exam, which our whole
class ended up passing. Also, the lunches were great. This weekend long program
was definitely worth it” 

IIE Green Belts:

Spring 2008:

Last year, IIE offered the Green Belt course twice, and successfully certified 58 students. This fall, IIE will be offering the course 5 times, and we hope to certify over 120 undergraduate, graduate, and P.H.D. students. The course is 3 days long and  includes an exam at the end.