Six Sigma: Analyze, Improve, Control

I am called Emmanuel .V. Basam; serving with Heifer Project International (INGO) with headquarters in Littlerock, Arkansas, USA. HPI is an INGO serving smallholder farmers in the Agricultural space in Africa, Asia, Americas, and USA. We are deeply rooted in sustainable community development, value-chain development, market system analysis using supply and demand data to build responsive models to inform profitable intervention options (Value Chains) to enable the Smallholder farmers achieve a Living Income (i.e. income level that will enable farmers earn a decent life); while being mindful of the use of technology, different market players requirements (VoC, & CTQ), impact of climate change on the environment, as we focus on Youth and Women socio-economic, and financial empowerment. Project/program management is an "Art" and a "Science." Through this course, I am thrilled with the science part of identifying, designing, and managing projects/programs systematically (i.e. DMAIC, DFSS models) with well defined measures (CTQ) that are determined in a logical and participatory manner with the customers (donors and end users of the product), and with specific tools/processes/methodology within each phase to ensure the achievement of a state-of-the-art product that ends up with customer satisfaction and bringing the desired business returns to the company (i.e. a win-win approach). I am deeply impressed with the use tools and processes to define the VoC, identify CTQ requirements, use them to define the project baseline, as we use analytical tools like Cause and Effect to determine the root cause of a problem, Pareto analysis to prioritize the identified problems or root causes since we want to be efficient and effective during define, design, develop, test and deploy the products or services, then; improve the process using designed experiments or prototypes (in my company's case) using one-way or two-ways ANOVA test, to measure and compare between and within factor effects; using Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Control charts (UCL, CL, LCL), X-bar, R-charts, P, C,I, MA, MR, EWMA charts are just great tools to control the process for stability, capability and for productivity, using the Lean methodology. I am a strong supporter of process control because that speaks to our efficient use of resources that would translate into effectiveness i.e. achievement of our business results, then, positive impact (customer and other stakeholder satisfaction), then, trust and sustainability of the business. Though I have learned quality tools like FMEA, 8D, 5Whys, and DFSS; in my current job, I would mostly practice 8D and 5Whys based on our business model. However, I want to learn how to practically apply all these Lean and Six Sigma tools in any company on a part time basis, as I aspire to sink and drown myself with the tools/approaches/methodologies of Lean Six Sigma in my goal to be a sound professional or expert in Lean Six Sigma within 12 months from today. Practice makes perfect! My deepest thanks to FUM, all the lecturers in the course for their commitment and professionalism in preparing and delivering these lectures; especially Prof Holly. I would like to get and keep connect on LinkedIn. My sincere and profound gratitude to all course mates for their professional contributions. Thanks

Holly Ott is an excellent teacher and the teaching methodology of the videos are clear and priceless and they urge to deepen each topic.

I am still studying the QPLS2x and the applicability of each of the tools in each of the phases is immense, for example the use of simple and multiple linear regressions to analyze any production and service process, as well as the design of experiments To improve processes and adjust them to the required quality conditions, I have had the opportunity to apply some of these tools for process improvement during my work experience but not in a Six Sigma project, this course provides powerful tools and is an exciting topic and I consider that must be passionate about those professionals who are in love with quality, processes and especially mathematics and statistics.

I searched for months and read the descriptions (and even attended trailer demos) for many courses. But I haven't seen a course that is as organised and content-rich as this series from TUM !
I can't thank enough Dr. Holly Ott and the team for this course, it was really helpful and helped me construct a massive amount of knowledge about Six Sigma...
When I first became interested about quality improvement and operational excellence concept, I noticed that our company lacks a quality control department, This course, along with the previous one helped me to prepare a full presentation to our senior leadership about the importance of quality and why is it critical to establish such a department, and it was quite impressive. I can't wait to start the next and the final course in this bundle (Lean Production).

Marvin Clarke. Employed to the Alcoholic Beverage Industry under Campari Global.

Analyse, Improve, Control is a very important program which will help you to think effectively within a production environment where challenges may arise spontaneously without little signs nor warning.

It is very important to have the right attitude and approach towards handling process challenges and eliminating process problems in the most time effective manner; all in the interest of protecting the customers interest and minimizing costs.

This program will not only help you to Analyse, but to Identify and locate process problems and to get to the direct root causes of these challenges.

The program equips you with the right frame of mind to understand the origin of process problems and to understand how they are likely to impact on the success of process activities whether 'directly' or 'indirectly'. It will help you to Scientifically examine and to breakdown how a process problem may grow, evolve, or translate into wastes, defects, or other related impacts caused by situations that are either controllable, or uncontrollable. (Common Causes/Assignable Causes)

This course helps you to link your ideologies and suspicions about damages, stoppages, defects and wastes in a production run, and to correlate such suspicion toward a set of outcomes that were undesirable.

Fairly, it is always natural to have suspicions. Hence, this program will show you how to ask the most pertinent questions relating to your Suspicions; all in an effort to get to the root of the problem in the most ample time.

Your Suspicion could be a popular opinion, supported by others; or an opinion that was questioned by others. Thus, you will then learn to formulate your hypothesis, which will then aim to prove your very own impression to be Wrong or Right to the context of the situation.

You will also learn how to communicate process problems with the internal departments, & how to better your relationship with the support functions at your company.

In my daily work life, this course has made me more a patient individual. I am much more understanding of Process Activities and I am quite comfortable with knowing that challenges may arise with any of the activities that I carry out.

Henceforth, thanks to this course, I am ready to handle Process Challenges as I am now much more direct but patient with my scrutiny of Activities.

I am much more methodical with my approach, and I understand very well how to locate root causes and to assess its impact on the entire processes and the Supply Chain.

Furthermore, I am even more capable of reporting process problems, and in working with the internal partners/support functions to address such problems.

I would recommend this course to Everyone and Anyone.

It is important to have the mindset for working with Complex Industries.

This is my honest testament.

Thank you.

My name is Rony Tabari and I am from Indonesia, I am currently undertaking a role as an Operations Improvement Advisor for Phu Bia Mining (PBM) with operations in Laos as one of the producing assets for PanAust in South East Asia.

Again, first of all, I would like to sincerely express my gratitude and appreciation to Professor Holly Ott with her skills and expertise for bringing such an excellent series of lectures, and to all the team from Technische Universität München (TUM), Mr. Martin, Mr. Reiner, also Mr. Zubair from ASQ, and all edX team for the well packaged courses. I would also like to thank to PanAust through my Operations Improvement team, for the opportunity, support, motivation for me to experience the study to enhance my professional skills and potential career advancement.

There are 3 specific things that I have been learning so far from the course that have been adding more value to the extent of the knowledge and skills I have at the moment.

• The knowledge of the need to understand the concept of RCA added with correlations and regression would add value for what I have been learning and forwarding to other team members in relates to the problem solving projects undertaken in the company.

• The statistic tools such as inferential statistics, confidence interval, hypothesis testing and even ANOVA will also be beneficial to initially look at the data available, to learn to test them and try to look what we can do better to the process. Sometimes, the team would only collect data even a good data, but it stops there.

• Using the concept we learned in Control Phase, we would also be able to see how the improvement will be controlled in order to be sustained.

Currently, during my time to deliver high quality of work with PBM, I have been on the task to engage people from different departments and levels to train, to coach and to support them to improve the process of their work to be easier, better, quicker, cheaper and safe using the Lean principles, including to use some of the problem solving tools for projects that require us to define the problem and key measurements.

Six sigma has been one of the selected training course which will equip me with useful knowledge and tools especially when we are involved in the data driven decision making process for the project. And thus we will have a more accurate decision from the data to be made and not just simply estimate.

I am looking forward to continue my study via TUM and edX for the next series of Six Sigma courses to complete the Yellow Belt certification. I also look forward to contribute my skills and study experience to seek the Six Sigma Green Belt level through applying Six Sigma concept to improve the process on some area of interest as well as practicing the tools and sharing the success stories with the team as part as my return on company's investments.

The course is a very effective  learning tool for the DMAIC-Analyze Improve Control process of the Six Sigma regime.The salient feature of the course are :

1. The contents of the course is very very precise and to the point.

2. Every topic is explained by solving  problems which makes the concept very much clear.

3. The examples and case studies that are included in the course to explain the subjects/topic are practical and based on real challange encountered specially in design & engineering field.One thing I would like to highlight is that a single case study/example is  used to explain different topics in different perspective which makes the topic more clear & easy to understand.

4. The course is a ready made tool for a Quality professional in any field.

5. The course can contribute towards our personal development as well  by  helping us in problem solving & decision making  in our personal front ,I feel so...!!

Morever the guest lectures from the industry,domain experts add spice to the course...the more the better...!

Last but the great one...I thank all the Six Sigma course Team specially Prof. Holly Ott,Prof. Dr Martin Grunow,Prof. Dr. Reiner & Engr. Zubair Anwar for their painstaking work for making the course"Learning a Joyride"!

Best wishes to All.

About me:

My name is Utpal Dutta.I am working as a Civil Engineer in a Hydro Electric Power Plant for the last 15 years, India.The course is greatly helping me in the implementation of Integrated Management System (ISO:9001,18001,45001) in our organization as well as Quality Control & Assurance of the Civil works at site.

     

Name: Paul Duggleby

Location: England

Type of work organisation: Healthcare

Completed course February 2021

Overall impression:

I found the course to be very informative, enjoyable to undertake but a good challenge as well. For me the statistical aspects of the course were difficult having not studied this subject for a long time, however with patience and study, I was able to overcome this.

I particularly enjoyed the modules on Lean Management as this made re-think my approach in areas such as solving problems arising at work and how to approach the problem-solving process in a scientific way.

Good aspects of the course:

Holly’s videos and presentation is very good.

The use of real-world examples was fascinating and tied the theory into actual real-world practice.

The practice questions and home work really made think and analyse the course content.

The discussion boards, as it was good to see other people’s opinions and thought process.

Aspects of the course that could be improved:

Sometimes a little more detailed explanation of concepts in the handout would have been helpful as not everyone can afford to purchase the course book.

Statistics – some of the equations were difficult to follow for those like me who have not studied statistics for some time. What would be helpful would be links to you tube videos that explain some of the basics of the models used.

Specific things I learned in that course:

Understanding Customer Expectations – In the Department I work in we had not done any specific work on clearly identifying customer expectations. Following this section of the course I have worked with colleagues on identifying the Voice of the Customer and translating this into Critical-to-Quality Characteristics utilising the Kano Model. This has allowed us to begin to look at how we can improve services to meet these expectations.

Problem solving – Before undertaking this course, my approach to work problems was to deal with the immediate problem, put the fire out so to speak and move on to the next one and carry on. Working with my colleagues we have started down the process of clearly identifying the problem and then using tools such as cause and effect analysis, 5 why’s and pareto analysis. Crucially we are learning to take the lessons learned from these exercises and to incorporate them into our work procedures.

Use of statistics – This is an area in which I have realised that both myself and the Organisation I work for are poor in. The general collection of performance/quality data and its analysis needs vast improvement and this is an area we are currently addressing. We have realised that poor data and its analysis is not giving us a clear picture on how operations are working and impacts on areas such as problem solving.

Hello! My name is Tatiana Polishchuk. I am a student of the Czech Technical University in Prague. I am a second year student in Economics and Management(Bachelor degree).
The course was online, nevertheless there was a complete immersion in the topic of the course. Despite my lack of knowledge of basic statistics, I was able to successfully complete the course thanks to interesting and informative sessions.

From this course, I learned a lot of new things that will be useful to me in getting the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification and later in employment.

One of the important things I learned is correlation. Correlation is a statistical measure that expresses the extent to which two variables are linearly related. It's a common tool for describing simple relationships without making a statement about cause and effect.

Another important thing that I have learned is Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). ANOVA is used to compare several population means. ANOVA tells us whether there is a difference among means.

I also learned what is The Eight Disciplines (8D). It is problem-solving methodology: starting point is a deviation or problem. Eight stages are defined to help structure the problem solving process with an emphasis on team synergy. It is often used for handling customer complaints and recurring process problems.

In conclusion, I would like to say that this course can be useful for people who want to connect their lives with Operations Management or Quality Management in the future. You will get solid foundations that will be useful in practice.

Hi,

My name is Tanti Gantina and I am from Indonesia. I have a Master in Geotechnical Civil Engineering with several years and projects of experiences. I decided to join this 2nd course last 2 weeks and now I am getting excited to learn more about Lean Six Sigma. Thus I continue my course to the next stage right after I got my first certificate.

This course itself from the beginning until the end is very interesting and useful. Professor Ott and team explained the materials very clear and easily to understand about the concepts, the analysis, and also the study cases so that we know the implementation about the theory in the real projects / companies / organizations. All is served in very detail, structured but in a simple way. Professor Ott also made this course become a very interesting high class online course, thus made me feel confidence completing this course very well.

I strongly believe that this course will become one of the best solution to improve a project's/company's/organization's performance. I hope I can complete my course until get the Yellow Belt Certification. I look forward to continue my journey to get Green and Black Belt Certification. Thus I can find new job opportunities in related company.

Last but not least, I want to convey my gratitude and highly appreciation to Professor Holly Ott and team. I am truly proud become an alumni of one of the best Technical University in Germany, Technische Universität München, TUM.

Best Regards,

Tanti Gantina

I am Renante P. Guda, working in one company that specializes in Industrial Automation here in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For the course Six Sigma : Analyze, Improve and Control, first and foremost-this is a requirement to complete Six Sigma DMAIC Training. Analyze, Improve and Control is the next important topics after Six Sigma: Define and Measure. Very important continuation wherein after defining a certain issue in an organization and gathering data measurement of such parameters, "Analyze" stage will do the analysis of data that has been gathered. Here, different methodology can be used to analyze the data such as cause and effect analysis. After analyzing which includes hypothesis testing, process improvement can be done using Design of Experiments. And last is Control, which will develop a long term execution for maintaining the improvements that has been concluded. This course is very much related on my work especially I am managing our Quality Management System. Improvements and corrective action implementation is much needed when we encounter issues. Complete phases of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control are very much applicable to make an stable but has continuous improvement in an organization. This may initiate from customer feedback, internal organizational issues, lesson learned. Moreover, how to maintain the controls after implementation of the corrective action is necessary for organization's sustainability.

Stan (Tracy) Arola-Johnson
Phoenix, AZ
self employed

I loved taking the Six Sigma and Lean Production courses.

The things that will help me the most are:

1. Increased understanding in the Measure stage of DMAIC. Since my previous employment was in customer service, I did not get to work with numbers as much as I would have liked (Math is my favorite subject). I did not have the opportunities to statistically prove the information on team performances within my organization. With this additional training I feel qualified to give input to any organization on confidents levels of service.

2. Lean Production was a refresher for me, having learned most of those skills on the job. I am retired from telecommunications, but own two start up businesses. Lean as well as Six Sigma will continue to help me improve my service and hopefully increase revenue.

3. The instructors were great! A big shout out to HOLLY OTTO for her consistency over the years to make this course one of the best in the world!

4. To add, I like that a Six Sigma project is now available to those of us (who do not work for large corporations) to achieve our GB. This will be my next step. My plan is to incorporate all I have learned into a new project for my company.

In my opinion, this course is great for beginners to the Six Sigma Methodology. It is very well paced and every individual can easily understand and learn to apply all the statistical tools like control charts, Analysis of Variance and others that are required during various stages of a six sigma project. I have been an automotive trim design engineer for two years and I can see how these concepts could have given me an additional advantage in my profession. It would have been a good knowledge booster to start a DFSS project.

The statistical calculations in the course might seem a little time consuming but one can overcome that by using excel or minitab software. Overall, the course difficulty level can be described as 3 on a scale of 5.

Though this course focuses on the process improvement for six sigma, by understanding how each phase of the six sigma project contributes to attaining good quality, one can easily co-relate these concepts and tools to the DFSS(Design for six sigma). At the end of the course, there is a guest lecture on the DFSS methodology too, which is a useful tool for engineers involved in design. The course also has references to materials from ASQ and notes on a few defined standards which will be useful in starting a project.

During my internship in a factory of a FMCG multinational company, it was the first time I ever heard about Lean Six Sigma. In 2018, as I was looking back at the four different jobs I've worked on in different factories, I realized that LSS was a must for me. I wanted to become an expert on it. After a long search for a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification, I found out about edX, Technical University of Munich and of course the three courses that they provided. What a life changing experience to go back to "school" in the digital way..

As I started learning more about Six Sigma, my previous knowledge from small or on-the-job trainings fell in place and they were put in order in my mind. I also learnt so much new things like the importance figuring out the root causes of your defects (and different types of relevant analysis), ways to reduce or eliminate the variance in your process and many many more.

What I also loved was that I realized that as the Lean methodology, also Six Sigma has many applications in many different fields. Even if it started at Motorola, it was really interesting for me that my fellow students from hospitals, call centers, education and other industries brought their Lean examples for discussion on our forum

Our professor Mrs Holly Ott did more than her best, as she was always so accurate in her videos and so helpful at the forum of the course. I also loved that I could study in my own terms and time, because back then I was working on shifts and believed that my difficult work schedule would be an obstacle. How wrong was I?!

Of course I also completed the other two courses of the professional certificate from TUM and gained my Yellow Belt certificate. Not only did it open new job opportunities for me, but I feel like it also evolved me both as a person and a professional.

What is even more fascinating is that this certification enhanced the confidence in me to pursue a Master's degree. I'm currently studying for my MBA with specialization in Total Quality Management and guess what? Lots of knowledge from the certification have already helped me in my master's, as I hear it again. Furthermore, I'm able to help my fellow students with the examples I took from the TUM forum. It's also a big gain for me that I had practiced on my statistic skills during the certification and when we had the statistic's class at the university, I was already trained hard on the topic because of the time I put on the certificate. That's the ultimate proof for me that even if you take this certification for academic or professional reasons, it's for sure a GREAT investment on yourself.

Hello ! I am Nuruzzaman Faruqui from Dhaka, Banglades. I am an Electrical Engineer and working in Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd with the Technical Project Team of my company . I have to work & perform with different project all over the year. For me this a is very good initiative to enrolled in this course. Course content is fantastic. I have just completed this course (Six Sigma: Analyze, Improve, Control) . I found this course very helpful for who are working with project implementation. There is lots of tools & technique i learned. I learned lots of thing to analyze , improve and control for problem solving by maintaining lots of process.

I learned the way of solving problem within a lots of process and procedure for lean production. My learning from this course :

1. To maintain Quality how to start with
2. How to Define , Analyze and improve service or production and control problem
3. 8D problem solving method
4. 5 Why & implementation of Statistical Mathematics in real field.
5. How probability can be used as a countable way by using math.
6. The difference between Probability & Statistic.
7. The mathematics of Probability & Statistics, the control chart
8. About TUM School of Management.
9. Real life example how to apply DMAIC steps: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control, 8D problem solving method

10. Vast using of Normal distribution, control chart method and lots of implementation statistical & Probability mathematics and finally what is 6 Sigma program means and from where it is born ("It was introduced by American engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986. Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995. A six sigma process is one in which 99.99966% of all opportunities to produce some feature of a part are statistically expected to be free of defects")

11. Defiantly learned about TUM and Beautiful presentation of all classes and flawless description of all topics from Professor Holly Ott, it is outstanding lecture of all.

This is a great course for the people who are working with projects. Thanks all the course coordinator and peers who helped me in different way and judge me by beautiful comments on my works. Thanks for fantastic presentation and choosing and explaining topics to be understand by the classical mathematics of statistics & probability. I really loved this course.

Thanks & best regards,

Md. Nuruzzaman Faruqui
Rollout Management Senior Manager
Network Service Management
Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd., Dhaka Bangladesh.

I work for a software company in Germany. Through the course "Six Sigma: Analyze, Improve, Control" I now got a profound unterstanding what is required to execute a successful Six Sigma project..

I was taught how to analyze root cause, supported with statistical worksheets. I also learned how to design an improvement process so that ultimately the process is optimized. Finally, I was given the tool set to check the success of the improvement with different control charts.

The guest lectures that the course provided give a very good insight into the practical implementation and successes of the method. I could already use the fishbone diagram for analysis to find out in our service process, which factors lad for the overall effect

With the Design of Experiements know-how and the Control Charts, I will be able to implement my planned changes and test them for success.

- davidtmrrw

The TUMx QPLS2x Six Sigma: Analyze, Improve, Control is a very complete course.
I was particularly absorbed by the 8 sessions.
The structure of the course (lessons + practices + examples + homeworks) is well built. The amount of concepts I've learned & knowledge I've assimilated is wide.

Inferential statistics and Design of Experiments were captivating sessions.
I was impressed by all the different charts that could be constructed within the DMAIC methodology for process improvement.

I also want to thank Professor Hott for her helpful lessons and the dynamism of her videos. I'd also like to thank her again for her particularly active participation in the Discussion Thread. She helped me understanding tough concepts and triggering some mistakes.

Thibault Pasquier
2018 - 2021 - Research Quality Engineering Team Leader
Since 2021 - RAMS Engineer & Safety Assurance Manager