Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Curriculum

Performance Criteria: Describe the steps undertaken in a change management model.

Learning Expected: Describe and identify selected organizational change management principles, for example models such as Kotter’s 8 steps.

Performance Criteria: Prepare a change management plan for improvement initiatives.

• Document a change management plan that covers methods including:
  • Stakeholder analysis
  • Communications plan
  • Force field analysis

Performance Criteria: Define team evolution and identify and resolve negative dynamics.

• Define and describe the stages of team evolution:
  • Forming
  • Storming
  • Norming
  • Performing
  • Adjourning
  • Recognition
• Identify tools that help resolve negative dynamics such as overbearing or dominant participants, reluctant participants, and unquestioned acceptance of opinions as facts.

Performance Criteria: Define roles and responsibilities of team members on Six Sigma and other teams.

• Describe and define roles and responsibilities of:
  • Master Black Belt
  • Black Belt
  • Green Belt
  • Yellow Belt
  • Champion
  • Executive
  • Coach
  • Facilitator
  • Team member
  • Sponsor
  • Process owner
• Explain how these roles fit in the organization and relate to each other.

Performance Criteria: Define and apply team tools.

Learning Expected: Define and apply tools such as brainstorming, nominal group technique, and multi-voting to support group decisions.

Performance Criteria: Describe and apply effective communication.

Learning Expected: Identify and use effective and appropriate communication techniques for different situations to overcome barriers to project success.

Performance Criteria: Design effective meetings for project work.

Learning Expected: Identify and utilize effective meeting design techniques for different situations to support project progress and overcome barriers.

Performance Criteria: Outline process elements including components and boundaries.

• Define and describe process components and boundaries.
• Describe how processes span across various functional areas.
• Identify challenges that may result from process improvement efforts.

Performance Criteria: Identify process owners, stakeholders, internal customers, external customers, and suppliers.

Learning Expected: Identify process owners, internal and external customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders in a project.

Performance Criteria: Collect customer data using methods such as surveys, focus groups, interviews, observations, and good question construction.

• Define methods to collect customer data, including surveys, focus groups, interviews, and observation.
• Identify key elements that make these tools effective.
• Review data collection questions to identify and eliminate bias and vagueness.

Performance Criteria: Analyze customer data using graphical, statistical, and qualitative tools.

• Use graphical, statistical, and qualitative tools to analyze customer feedback.
• Translate customer feedback into project goals and objectives, including critical-to-quality (CTQ) attributes and requirements statements.
• Use Voice of the Customer (VOC) and Voice of the Business (VOB) analysis tools to translate customer requirements into performance measures.

Performance Criteria: Outline project elements and develop a problem statement.

Learning Expected: Define and describe elements of a project charter and develop a problem statement, including baseline and improvement goals.

Performance Criteria: Develop the project scope.

• Describe project definition and scope theories including:
  • Objectives
  • Boundaries
  • In-scope
  • Out-of-scope

Performance Criteria: Develop project metrics.

Learning Expected: Establish key project metrics that relate to the voice of the customer.

Performance Criteria: Apply project planning tools.

• Demonstrate the use of project tools such as:
  • Gantt charts
  • Critical Path Method (CPM)

Performance Criteria: Define and use project risk analysis.

• Describe the purpose, benefits, and impacts of project risk analysis, including considerations for:
  • Resources
  • Financials
  • Impact on customers and other stakeholders

Performance Criteria: Use software effectively to support analysis and project management.

Learning Expected: Describe how software is used for statistical analysis, process mapping, and other project management needs.

Performance Criteria: Present findings of the Define stage in a concise manner.

Performance Criteria: Identify process input and output variables.

• Identify process input variables and process output variables (SIPOC).
• Document their relationships through cause-and-effect diagrams and relational matrices.

Performance Criteria: Develop process modeling tools.

• Develop and review process modeling tools such as process maps and flowcharts against actual processes.

Performance Criteria: Describe basic statistical data including population vs sample statistics, normality testing, and the Central Limit Theorem.

• Distinguish between a population parameter and a sample statistic.
• Identify types of test data for normality testing.
• Define the Central Limit Theorem and describe its significance in the application of statistics.
• Describe and apply these concepts in basic analysis.

Performance Criteria: Use FMEA to assess risk.

• Define and describe Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA).
• Describe the purpose and use of scale criteria and calculate Risk Priority Numbers (RPN).

Performance Criteria: Calculate process performance.

• Calculate process performance metrics such as:
  • Defects Per Unit (DPU)
  • Rolled Throughput Yield (RTY)
  • Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)
  • Defects Per Million Opportunities (DPMO)
  • Sigma levels
  • Process capability indices
• Describe the process used to track process performance measures to drive project decisions.
• Define and describe various CTx requirements such as Critical to Quality (CTQ), Critical to Cost (CTC), Critical to Process (CTP), Critical to Safety (CTS), Critical to Delivery (CTD), and align projects with those requirements.

Performance Criteria: Collect and summarize data using data types, data collection methods, data assurance techniques, descriptive statistics, graphical methods, and probability distributions.

• Identify and classify continuous (variables) and discrete (attributes) data.
• Describe nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio measurement scales.
• Apply methods for collecting data such as check sheets and coded data.
• Apply techniques such as random sampling, stratified sampling, and ensuring sample homogeneity.
• Compute and interpret measures of dispersion and central tendency.
• Construct and interpret frequency distributions and cumulative frequency distributions.
• Depict relationships using diagrams and charts such as box-and-whisker plots, scatter diagrams, and Pareto charts.
• Depict distributions using histograms, normal probability plots, and similar tools.
• Describe and interpret normal distributions.
• Use data analysis software to obtain and interpret these statistics.

Performance Criteria: Implement MSA for attribute data.

Learning Expected: Conduct measurement system analysis for attribute data and interpret results.

Performance Criteria: Apply process capability and performance techniques including capability studies, process performance vs specifications, capability indices, short-term vs long-term capability, and capability for attributes data.

• Identify, describe, and apply elements of designing and conducting process capability studies, including identifying characteristics, specifications and tolerances, sampling plans, and verifying stability and normality.
• Distinguish between natural process limits and specification limits and calculate process performance metrics such as percent defective.
• Define, select, and calculate Pp and Ppk and assess process capability.
• Describe assumptions and conventions when only short-term data or only attributes data are available.
• Describe the relationship between long-term and short-term capability and the sigma shift.
• Compute the sigma level for a process and describe its relationship to Ppk.
• Present findings of the Measure stage in a concise manner where applicable.

Performance Criteria: Present findings of the Measure stage in a concise manner.

Performance Criteria: Identify potential causes of variation and defects.

• Apply tools such as root cause analysis, cause-and-effect diagrams, 5 Whys, C and E matrix, value analysis, and Pareto charts to identify potential causes.

Performance Criteria: Use exploratory analysis to study relationships and statistical significance.

• Analyze the correlation coefficient and determine its statistical significance (p-value).
• Explain the difference between correlation and causation.
• Interpret linear regression equations and determine their statistical significance.
• Use regression models for estimation and prediction, supported by graphical tools such as histograms and box-and-whisker diagrams.

Performance Criteria: Undertake hypothesis testing for differences in means, variances, and proportions.

• Explain and use tools including:
  • Basic hypothesis test concepts
  • Tests for means, variances, and proportions
  • Paired-comparison tests
  • Single-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA)
  • Chi-square tests
• Define and distinguish between statistical and practical significance.
• Apply tests considering significance level, type I errors, and type II errors.
• Determine appropriate sample size for the various tests.

Performance Criteria: Present findings of the Analyze stage in a concise manner.

Performance Criteria: Generate potential solutions that address the validated root causes.

• Define and use tools such as brainstorming and creative thinking techniques to generate solutions to root causes.

Performance Criteria: Pilot root cause solutions and evaluate results.

Learning Expected: Apply Measure tools to pilot improvements, collect data, and compare against the original hypothesis and baseline.

Performance Criteria: Apply Lean tools as part of improvement and sustainment.

• Explain and apply tools such as:
  • 5S
  • Poka-yoke
  • Visual controls
• Explain the relevance and need for Design of Experiments (DOE) and the concepts behind it (at an introductory level for Green Belt).

Performance Criteria: Present findings of the Improve stage in a concise manner.