In the Analyze phase of the DMAIC methodology, Six Sigma teams analyze the underlying causes of issues that need to be addressed for the successful completion of their improvement projects. To that end, teams conduct a number of statistical analyses to determine the nature of variables and their interrelationships in the process under study. It is rarely possible to study and analyze the full scope of population data pertaining to all processes, products, or services, so Six Sigma teams typically collect samples of the population data to be analyzed, and based on that sample data, they make hypotheses about the entire population. Because there is a lot at stake in forming the correct conclusions about the larger population, Six Sigma teams validate their inferences using hypothesis tests. This course builds on basic hypothesis testing concepts, terminologies, and some of the most commonly used hypothesis tests - one- and two-sample tests for means. The course also discusses the importance of sample size and power in hypothesis testing, as well as exploring issues relating to point estimators and confidence intervals in hypothesis testing. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

A project charter is the most important document used to initiate and manage a Six Sigma project. It is treated as an informal contract between an organization and the Six Sigma team. The project charter articulates the business case for Six Sigma projects, specific problem that the Six Sigma team is going to work on, and the project's scope, goals, and objectives in very clear, specific, and measurable terms. As part of the process of developing a project charter, some performance measures such as cost, revenue, and schedule are identified and developed. Once the project is kicked off, the project charter is reviewed periodically by stakeholders in relation to a project's actual progress. A number of project management and analytical tools, such as Gantt charts, tollgate reviews, work breakdown structures, RACI model, affinity diagrams, tree diagrams, and prioritization matrices are used to measure and track the project's progress on a continuous basis. This course deals with the key issues in developing project charters and tracking a Six Sigma project. It takes you through some of the key elements of a Six Sigma project charter, including the business case and problem statement, as well as the project's scope, goals, and objectives. It also explains project performance measures and how to review the performance of a Six Sigma project using these measures. In addition, the course introduces common tools for tracking a project's progress and deliverables. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in Skillsoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

An organization's success depends upon how it delivers on its processes. Before Black Belts can begin to improve an organization's processes, they must collect data to measure current processes using appropriate methods and tools. Successful data collection starts with careful planning and a knowledge of various data types, measurement methods, and sampling techniques. Black Belts also need to be aware of best practices for ensuring data accuracy and integrity. As Six Sigma team leaders, Black Belts help to oversee careful data collection efforts during the Measure phase of the Six Sigma DMAIC process. This course prepares Black Belts for successful data collection by surveying the types of data, measurement methods, and scales; sampling techniques; and collection methods available. It offers guidance for ensuring data integrity, pointing to different collection methods for different informational needs, and recommending best practices for front-line data collectors. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Six Sigma teams design and conduct experiments to investigate the relationships between input variables and response variables. By controlling and changing the input variables and observing the effects on the response variables, a Six Sigma team gains a deep understanding of these relationships. After determining what and how much needs to be changed to meet the desired improvement, teams generate solution ideas based on the best combination of input variables' settings to optimize the response, and then the ideas are tested, implemented, and validated. Later in the Control stage, efforts are made to keep the improved processes, products, or services under statistical control and to retain the gains. This course explores full and fractional factorial designs and the DOE process. In addition, it teaches how to select, test, and validate solutions using a variety of analysis, screening, and testing tools commonly used in Six Sigma. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation.

In any improvement initiative, organizations must determine whether their existing processes meet the targets and specifications demanded by the customer, or by the business. Measuring and analyzing the capability and performance of a process under review enables organizations to numerically represent and interpret its current state, and to report its sigma level. When done correctly, process capability analyses enable Black Belts to precisely assess current performance in light of future goals, and ultimately, to determine the need and targets of process improvement. Process capabilities can be determined for normal and non-normal data, variable (continuous) and attribute (discrete) data, and for long- and short-term alike. This course explores key considerations and calculations used in determining process capability and performance. This includes choosing parameters, verifying the stability and normality of a given process, and gathering and interpreting capability and performance data using common indices. The course also explores the special treatment of non-normal data and attributes data in the context of a capability study and long-and short-term capability. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Customers are at the heart of all Six Sigma initiatives, and this focus on customers is what makes Six Sigma an outstanding organizational performance improvement program. The voice of the customer (VOC) is a Six Sigma strategy used to capture requirements and feedback from customers in order to meet their requirements. Voice of the customer is a critical input at every stage in the Six Sigma DMAIC process, particularly at the Define stage. At this stage, critical customer requirements concerning quality, cost, process, and delivery are collected and translated into measurable, actionable project goals using a number of tools. Using VOC begins with defining Six Sigma goals for collecting and analyzing customer requirements. It is imperative that Six Sigma leaders determine the critical to x (CTx) requirements concerning quality, cost, process, and delivery requirements of customers and the organization. Then the team needs to identify and select the most effective methods for collecting customer feedback and requirements. From there, customer requirements are translated into measurable, actionable project goals. This course examines how an organization uses the voice of the customer to define the problem at hand and to set the direction of its Six Sigma efforts. It discusses some common customer data collection methods - such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups - and looks at how to ensure validity and reliability in data collection. In addition, the course illustrates how tools such as CTx, SIPOC, Kano analysis, critical-to-quality (CTQ) analysis, and quality function deployment (QFD) are used to translate customer data into critical customer requirements and actionable goals for the Six Sigma team. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is the methodology associated with the design of a process, product, or service, which results in Six Sigma output that satisfies both the external customer and internal business requirements. DFSS is an innovative strategy for the design or redesign of a process, product, or service from the ground up. This course examines several of the common methodologies utilized in Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), beginning with the two common counterparts to the DMAIC methodology: DMADV and DMADOV. Design for X is emerging as an important knowledge-based multifunctional approach to design that is aimed at particular prioritized process constraints, such as cost, manufacturability, testability, or maintainability. This course explores several constraints in more detail, offering strategies for achieving designs concentrated on the chosen criteria. Another recently developed approach, robust design, uses parameter and tolerance control to produce designs which will be reliable during manufacturing and while in use. This course will address the basic aims of parameter control, tolerance design, and statistical tolerancing. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Getting to the source of why something has gone wrong in a system or process is critical to identifying the changes necessary for resolving the problem. During the Analyze phase of a Six Sigma project, a Black Belt practitioner utilizes a variety of statistical and nonstatistical tools and methods for analyzing systems and processes to identify variation and defects, reduce costs, eliminate waste, and reduce cycle time. While many of the tools used in the Analyze phase are statistical and quantitative in nature, there are many useful nonstatistical methods. Nonstatistical methods help in the analysis by including qualitative considerations in identifying potential problems, their root causes, and their impacts. They help prioritize these causes and generate initial ideas for resolving problems when a project enters the Improve phase. This course covers the use of various nonstatistical analysis methods including failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), gap analysis, scenario planning, root cause analysis, the 5 Whys, fault tree analysis (FTA), and waste analysis. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Six Sigma is a data-driven improvement strategy that views all activities within an organization as processes. Process inputs can be controlled and adjusted to effect significant improvements in process outputs. Six Sigma uses a rigorous and systematic methodology known as DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) and a number of qualitative and quantitative tools. Its goal is to drive process, product, and service improvements for reducing variation and defects. Lean is also an improvement methodology, but with a different focus. It aims to enhance process flow, reduce cycle time, and eliminate waste. This course introduces Six Sigma and Lean methodologies and looks at the relationship between them. It also explores relationships among business systems and processes using some practical examples of Lean Six Sigma applications in both manufacturing and service industries. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

The success of Six Sigma deployment in an organization largely depends on the success of individual Six Sigma projects. Organizational stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, and employees, have a strong influence on the implementation of Six Sigma projects. In turn, these projects impact the organizational stakeholders by throwing many opportunities and challenges before them and requiring them to adapt to changes caused by improvements. Benchmarking is used in Six Sigma projects to set improvement goals against world-class and competitive reference points. Benchmarking may also be used at later stages in Six Sigma DMAIC while evaluating existing operations and incorporating best practices to maximize the success of improvement efforts. This course helps analyze key stakeholders and explore the impact Six Sigma projects can have on them. The course also discusses the concept of benchmarking, various benchmarking types, and how benchmarking is used in Six Sigma. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

As a Lean Six Sigma improvement team moves into the Improve phase of a DMAIC project, it begins to generate a list of solutions to address process problems. Lean offers several techniques to reduce waste and cycle time, as well as improvement tools such as kaizen, theory of constraints, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). After appropriate methods and tools are used and solutions developed, the implementation of proposed solutions needs to be tested and verified to ensure that optimal choices are made. This course looks at some of the popular Lean methods and implementation planning in Six Sigma. It examines Lean tools used for reducing waste and cycle time, and the Japanese principles of continuous improvement - kaizen and kaizen blitz. It also looks at some other process improvement methodologies such as theory of constraints and OEE. Finally, the course examines planning for proposed solutions, including conducting pilot tests and simulations. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Six Sigma measurement systems are vital to improving an organization's processes. Measurement systems encompass the conditions, devices, and the human element of measurement, which together must produce correct measurements and comply with appropriate standards. Measurement error, or measurement variability, is a problem whose components must be thoroughly understood and kept in check to maintain the effectiveness of any measurement system. Measurement variability contributes to the overall variability in the process and it is important to understand its sources and minimize it. Black Belts can calculate correlation, bias, linearity, stability, reproducibility, and repeatability to analyze and further improve measurement systems. This course examines how to analyze a measurement system to help it produce correct measurements and minimize its proportion of variability in the overall variability. It introduces key elements of metrology and international systems of measurement, explores the many sources of measurement error, and surveys a broad range of items that can be measured in various functional areas of the enterprise. The course also presents some of the considerations influencing the use of measurement systems in service industries. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

As a Six Sigma team moves into the Analyze stage of the DMAIC process, it looks more closely at the variables and variable interrelationships identified during the Measure stage. As part of the analysis, a scatter diagram of dependent and independent variables is drawn to visualize the form, strength, and direction of their relationships. By determining their correlation coefficient, a linear relationship can be quantified and identified as positive, negative, or neutral. Then, using regression analysis, a model is developed to describe the relationship as a linear equation and then used for predictions and estimations. However, it is essential to analyze the uncertainty in the estimate, to test that the relationship between variables is statistically significant, and that the model is valid. This course discusses two important tools - correlation and regression analysis for measuring and modeling relationships between variables. In terms of correlation, it takes learners through examples of scatter diagrams for two variables, the calculation and interpretation of the correlation coefficient, and the interpretation of its confidence interval. The course also draws learners' attention to some key considerations in correlation analysis, such as correlation and causation. In terms of regression analysis, the course discusses the simple linear regression model, how to create it using sample data, interpret and use it, and conduct a hypothesis test to check that the relationship between the variables is statistically significant. Finally, the course looks into how residual analysis is used to test the validity of the regression model. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

In the Analyze phase of the DMAIC methodology, a Six Sigma team begins to analyze the root causes of the problems that it identified in the earlier stages. This analysis may require churning out huge volumes of data of different types. Sometimes this data is of a multivariate nature, meaning that many dependent and independent variables need to be considered simultaneously. As such, Six Sigma teams often use advanced multivariate tools to manage this type of data. Another set of advanced statistical analysis tools used in this phase is nonparametric tests. In conventional hypothesis tests - called parametric tests - a sample statistic is obtained to estimate a population parameter and hence requires a number of assumptions to be made about the underlying population, such as the normality of data. However, a nonparametric test is used when some of these assumptions, such as normality of data, cannot be safely made. This course deals with multivariate and categorical data analysis tools such as factor analysis, discriminant analysis, and multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA). The course also aims to familiarize learners with approaches for analyzing nonparametric data, particularly the use of Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests for validating hypotheses. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Organizations need to make inferences about a population from sample data, and understanding how to calculate the probability that an event will occur is crucial to making those inferences. In a Six Sigma context, it is often important to calculate the likelihood that a combination of events or that an ordered combination of events will occur. Understanding probabilities can provide Black Belts with the tools to make predictions about events or event combinations. To make accurate inferences about a population from the sample data collected in the Measure stage, Black Belts must also be familiar with the characteristics of various probability distributions, and their suitability for different types of data. Understanding the behavior of probability distributions allows the Black Belts to find the probability that values will be found within a given range, and thus to provide information on the variation in the organization's processes and products. This course provides Black Belts with basic information on probabilities and probability distributions, from the frequently used normal, Poisson, and binomial distributions, to the more specialized hypergeometric, Weibull, bivariate, exponential, and lognormal, as well as the distributions that test hypothesis and set confidence intervals: Chi-square, Student's t, and F distributions. When chosen appropriately to represent the data, these distributions will provide information on process and product variation, and support subsequent inferences based on sample data. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

To improve the processes behind an organization's products and services, a Six Sigma Black Belt must measure them. Among the many Six Sigma tools, several are designed specifically to identify and prioritize process input and output variables and their importance relative to customer or business requirements. Using cause-and-effect matrices, Black Belts can determine which process inputs to target first. Using process efficiency formulas, they can determine the ratio of value-added time to total lead time, then enhance this ratio by reducing that troublesome drag on lead time - work in process. With metrics established, Black Belts can recommend approaches to balance the flow of processes and determine the impact that 'hidden factories' could have on process flow metrics. Looking closer at the steps of a given process, Black Belts are then able to wield a number of analysis tools such as flowcharts, spaghetti diagrams, process maps, value stream maps, and gemba walk to reveal lurking time traps, constraints, and wasted steps - all with a view of improving process characteristics for optimum efficiency. This course provides strategies to measure the current state of an organization's processes by analyzing the variables of its processes, using metrics to calculate process flow performance, and employing tools to analyze processes. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Deployment of Six Sigma, Lean, or another continuous improvement methodology demands major investments of time, effort, and money on behalf of an organization. Organizations need to exercise due diligence to determine if Six Sigma or Lean is the appropriate methodology to employ, or perhaps a less demanding quality and process improvement approach is better suited to meet their needs. Having decided on the methodology, improvement teams need to determine screening criteria for the selection of most appropriate improvement projects. Success of these projects largely depends upon the contribution of a variety of Six Sigma stakeholders. As a key Six Sigma stakeholder, Black Belts often lead improvement teams and their skills and qualifications are critical to teams' ability to deliver the expected results. This course deals with the key considerations around the selection of Six Sigma, Lean, and continuous improvement projects. It also explores roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders and qualifications needed for Black Belts for leading Six Sigma teams. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Ensuring a process is in control is critical to any Six Sigma project, but how do you determine with certainty if a process is on track or requires improvement? Where do you find the 'proof' or solid facts that a process is out of control and requires intervention? By applying statistical process control (SPC) methods, a Six Sigma team can identify and control variation in a process. This course covers the basic concepts in statistical process control methodology, including the selection of variables and rational subgrouping. One of the most important tools used in SPC methodology is the control chart, and this course explores how to select the right control chart for the variables being measured, and how to interpret specific patterns they reveal. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Strategic planning of Six Sigma projects and Lean initiatives plays a critical role in their success in an organization deploying them. A number of strategic analysis and planning tools, such as Hoshin Kanri, feasibility studies, SWOT and PEST analysis, can be used in support of strategic deployment of improvement projects and to enhance their value and effectiveness. An organization's culture and its inherent structure, lack of resources, and top leadership support sometimes create organizational roadblocks that may result in deployment failures. Six Sigma Black Belts should be able to identify these roadblocks and deal with them effectively. Six Sigma deployment is a revolutionary strategy and may result in significant organizational changes. Black Belts need to proactively anticipate human responses, overcome them, and lead the organizational change. The course discusses the importance of strategic planning and deployment of Six Sigma projects and Lean initiatives and some of the key tools used for this purpose. This course also explores organizational roadblocks and ways to manage them effectively. In addition, the course deals with changes caused by Six Sigma deployment, resistance to it, and strategies Black Belts can apply to manage change. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

As a Six Sigma project winds down, a number of activities are undertaken to hold the improvements and gains achieved from the project. For instance, lessons learned from all phases of a project are documented. Efforts are made to replicate and apply improvements to other parts of the organization. Training for process owners and staff is developed and implemented to ensure consistent execution of revised methods and to maintain them. Improved processes are regularly evaluated to identify additional improvement opportunities. And finally, leading and lagging indicators are monitored to ensure processes consistently deliver expected value to the organization. This course will explore the importance of utilizing lessons learned and the role of training and documentation in sustaining support for Six Sigma improvements. Specifically, it will explore the use of a postmortem analysis, guidelines for developing training plans, and recommendations for delivering the training. Project documentation along with different measurement tools used for ongoing evaluation of the improved process will be discussed too. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Black Belts have the challenging task of managing the full spectrum of team dynamics on Six Sigma improvement projects. Besides resolving conflicts, Black Belts require the skills to manage and optimize group behavior. They must also be familiar with tools and techniques for making team meetings and decision-making process more effective. Black Belts are often called upon to assess training needs and plan its delivery to ensure team members have all necessary skills and knowledge required for the success of improvement projects. This course explores several team dynamics and management techniques for Black Belts. It also deals with training as a tool for improving the performance of Six Sigma team members and strengthening their ability to realize project goals. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Forming an effective Six Sigma team for driving improvement projects throughout an organization is essential to Six Sigma success. Teams are vital to Six Sigma and Lean projects that have goals of improving an organization's existing quality, enhancing bottom-line performance, and reducing costs. The methods used to form and develop a Six Sigma team will have a dramatic effect on the team's overall performance. Black Belts need to proactively contribute to the effectiveness of Six Sigma teams to promote positive organizational change. This course explores the variety of team types, roles, and composition, revealing strategies for selecting strong Six Sigma teams whose members bring diverse talents, knowledge, and aptitudes to the team. The course also examines factors critical to team success including management support, clarity of goals, and following ground rules. Acknowledging that today's organizations increasingly rely on virtual teams that cross geographic and cultural barriers, the course equips you with strategies for meeting the unique challenges of virtual teams. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Six Sigma Black Belts must possess specific qualities to succeed throughout the deployment cycle. Some of these qualities include effective leadership, motivation, team building, and communication. As team leaders, Six Sigma Black Belts need to know how to facilitate teams and apply motivational techniques to achieve assigned goals. Black Belt leaders adopt appropriate leadership approaches to help develop, strengthen, and integrate all elements necessary for the effective team facilitation. They need to recognize the stages of team development and choose targeted approaches for managing performance at every stage. Finally, they need to develop a communication plan that outlines the why, what, who, where, and how of team communication. This course offers strategies for effective team facilitation, which involves leadership, motivation, team building and communication. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in Skillsoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Six Sigma teams concluding the Analyze phase of DMAIC with a well-understood problem, strive to generate a powerful solution in the Improve phase. Design of experiments (DOE) is a controlled approach to experimentation that enables teams to systematically change the level of one or more input factors and observe the effects on the targeted response. If teams exercise care in choosing the right design - including suitable factors, levels, and responses - their experiments can reveal the precise combination of factors that will optimize the response. Later, that combination will be tested, validated, and ultimately implemented to effect the desired process improvement. This course surveys the concepts that are fundamental to design of experiments methodology. This course also explores the basic elements of experiments, principles of good experimental design, and strategies for designing experiments with desired power and resolution, and resource and time constraints. The focus is on the planning stage of DOE, when teams set experimental objectives, choose the best experimental design, and prepare to run the experiments. In describing these activities, the course explores the questions teams should consider at each stage of planning. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Organizations must ensure that their products and services are extremely consistent to desired specifications, as variations can lead to rejected orders, reworks, and eventually, customer dissatisfaction and financial losses. Statistics can provide Black Belts with the tools to summarize and assess collected data in a meaningful way for identifying sources of variation and controlling them. Black Belts can use descriptive (enumerative) statistics to tabulate and graphically represent sample data through a number of informative charts and diagrams. Using analytical (inferential) statistics, supported by the central limit theorem, Black Belts can confidently make inferences, test the statistical validity of their inferences, and optimize and control processes. This course provides Black Belts with basic statistical tools for describing, presenting, and analyzing data. It explores the process of preparing and presenting sample data using graphical methods and then making valid inferences about the population represented by the sample. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

Six Sigma improvement begins with assessing the current performance of an organization's processes and products, and comparing it with the desired performance. An important part of this assessment is choosing a set of measures that will provide a comprehensive picture of how the company is achieving its goals of customer satisfaction, organizational learning and improvement, internal process performance, and bottom-line financial growth. This course examines two categories of key measures: business performance measures and purely financial measures, exploring how these measures reveal the current state of the business and point to gains achievable through Six Sigma. This course explores how business performance measures such as balanced scorecard, key performance indicators (KPIs), and lagging and leading indicators can be used to align Lean Six Sigma initiatives toward organizational goals. It also explores the critical role of customer loyalty in business success. Turning to purely financial measures of success, this course explores how these financial measures are crucial in determining whether the potential returns of Six Sigma projects will outweigh the required investment. It provides practice in using the formulas associated with these measures, including market share, cost-benefit analysis, return on investment (ROI), net present value (NPV), and hard and soft costs and benefits of Six Sigma projects. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

In the final stages of the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology, teams need to control the improved processes in order to sustain improvement gains. Process control includes applying tools to continuously monitor and maintain each improved process, and to prevent it from reverting to its previous state. Apart from the statistical process control, there are a number of other Six Sigma and Lean tools to help to this end. This course introduces basic control tools commonly used in Lean Six Sigma projects. Specifically, it explores how total productive maintenance (TPM) promotes shared responsibility for maintaining process gains, and how the visual controls provide at-a-glance information about process performance. In addition, this course highlights the need to re-analyze the measurement system after improvement solutions are implemented, and provides guidelines for drawing conclusions from this. It tours the key elements of a vital tool for maintaining controls - the control plan - and explores the steps for developing an effective plan. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

As a Six Sigma team moves into the Analyze phase of a project, team members begin analyzing the information and data collected in the earlier phases. During the Analyze phase, Six Sigma teams identify possible sources of variation, underlying root causes, and areas for improvement. It is here where assumptions or hypotheses about a process, product, or service are made and validated using tests based on sample data. This course aims to familiarize you with some of the advanced hypothesis tests used in Six Sigma. You are taken through the key steps in testing hypotheses for proportions, variances, and analysis of variance (ANOVA), and their underlying assumptions, with the help of examples and case studies. You will also learn how to use goodness-of-fit test statistics and contingency tables for validating hypotheses about various aspects of the variables being analyzed. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.