Six Sigma: Total Quality Applications

Learn to apply the elements and methods of Six Sigma to achieve the highest possible quality.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

Starting May 14, 2025

Offered in partnership with your preferred school

Sierra College Community Education

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Learning method

Self-Guided

$135

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

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Instructor-Moderated

$135

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Starting May 14 | June 11

Details + Objectives

Course code: tqa

Learn how to effectively apply the elements and methods of Six Sigma. Understand how more than 25 tools and methods relate to the DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) model. Determine the relationship of basic statistics to Six Sigma and learn about the Six Sigma business case, including strategic planning, the voice of the customer (VOC), quality function deployment (QFD), benchmarking, and financial investment methods. Discover how to use brainstorming; Pareto charts, and critical quality help define processes, problems, and opportunities. Master the use of other key tools such as cause and effect diagrams, check sheets, scatter diagrams, failure mode and effects analysis (FEMA), and force field analysis.

In this course you will learn how to apply the DMAIC model each step of the way. You will learn how to define, plan, implement, and close a Six Sigma project. You will also know how to use process capability and how to apply lean thinking. You will understand the basics of advanced Six Sigma tools.

This course will help you prepare for the internationally recognized Six Sigma Black Belt and Quality Manager exams offered by the American Society for Quality® (ASQ®).

What you will learn

Learn about Six Sigma business case
Develop a basic knowledge of statistics
Learn about strategic planning
Discover two methods of identifying customer requirements: the voice of the customer (VOC) and quality function deployment (QFD)
Learn each component of DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve and control)
Learn to think lean which means doing more with less

How you will benefit

Effectively apply the elements and methods of Six Sigma
Be able to define, plan, implement, and close a Six Sigma project
Begin preparing for the Six Sigma Black Belt and Quality Manager exams

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

In the first lesson, you'll start off by investigating DMAIC, the most popular acronym within the Six Sigma body of knowledge. It stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. Then, to set the stage for the remaining lessons, you'll explore basic statistics. Since many of the Six Sigma methods and tools that will be discussed require that you have a basic knowledge of statistics, you'll need to be well-prepared. The lesson will show you how to apply the measures of location—median, mode, mean—and the measures of dispersion—range, mean absolute deviation (MAD), variance, and standard deviation (SD).

In this lesson, you'll take a look at the business side of Six Sigma. The lesson will start off by discussing strategic planning—a concept that looks at internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. You'll move on to two methods of identifying customer requirements—the voice of the customer (VOC) and quality function deployment (QFD). Next, you'll explore benchmarking, a technique that helps you determine how your company matches up to the competition and industry standards. Finally, you'll look at a few financial methods to help you keep track of key objectives.

You can't improve something unless you first define it. To help identify what you're dealing with, you'll begin this lesson by reviewing the first element of the DMAIC model: define. You'll move on and learn about the basic Six Sigma metrics—defects per unit (DPU), defects per million opportunities (DPMO), yield, and rolled throughput yield (RTY). Next, you'll investigate a few team techniques to help define conditions and situations—brainstorming, brainwriting, nominal group technique (NGT), and affinity diagrams. You'll finish up by seeing how Pareto charts and critical to quality (CTQ) relate to process and problem definition.

The next two lessons will tackle the measuring aspect of DMAIC. Along with defining a process, problem, or opportunity, you'll need to measure things before you can improve them. You'll learn about different types of data and gain an understanding of sampling by seeing how it's used to analyze and observe populations. You'll conclude the lesson by examining three graphical methods to measure a population: histograms, stem and leaf diagrams, and box and whisker plots.

As you continue to learn about the measure component of DMAIC, you'll begin this lesson by looking at probability distributions, failure methods and effects analysis (FMEA), and physical measurement. The probability distributions that you'll review (binomial, Poisson, and chi-square) are discrete. You'll study their formulas and see how their distributions compare to the normal curve. FMEA is one of the most popular and effective Six Sigma tools. This lesson will help you learn about FMEA's risk priority numbers (RPN) and also provide a form to help you use FMEA. You'll wrap up the lesson by examining a few members of the physical measurement family—metrology, tensile strength, micrometers, and optical comparators.

This lesson will present several tools that relate to the third component of DMAIC: analyze. The first order of business will be learning how to make sound decisions and assess risk. After that, you'll look at tools to help you investigate the processes, problems, and opportunities you defined and measured in the earlier lessons. The lesson will teach you how to use regression analyses and cause and effect diagrams. You'll also spend time on force field analysis, storyboards, decision trees, why-why diagrams, and finish up with checksheets and scatter diagrams.

Are you familiar with the old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words?" Since you're going to be spending a large portion of the lesson learning about flowcharting, this quotation is very relevant. Flowcharts are a fine tool to define processes and analyze what's taking place. You'll look at the ins and outs and the subtleties of creating and using flowcharts. After that, you'll jump back into the world of statistics and examine hypothesis testing and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

This lesson and the next one will discuss project management as an essential vehicle to help you achieve your Six Sigma plans. The lesson will begin by discussing the different phases of the project life cycle. Then, you'll move on and examine deliverables. Since they represent what customers expect, you need to know how to create and manage them. The lesson will also define stakeholders and talk about what they expect. It will put special emphasis on the words "customers" and "stakeholders" to represent those inside and outside your organization.

Now that you have a good understanding of the different phases of a project and know all about deliverables, you're ready to learn how to "scope" and schedule a project. Scoping refers to making sure that you set the original boundaries for your project. When you understand all the variables of your project and define the scope properly, your plan and the results that follow have a much better chance of meeting stakeholder expectations. This lesson will talk about what is arguably the most valuable item in your project management toolbox—a work breakdown structure (WBS). It will discuss two different versions of WBS and then you'll look at ways to schedule your project.

If you like playing games and solving puzzles, you'll enjoy this lesson. It will address the "I element" (improve) of DMAIC by introducing design of experiments (DOE). Although DOE has been around since the 1920s, it's taken a while for organizations to accept it. The lesson will begin with an overview and discuss what a design and an experiment are. You'll learn about the history of DOE and its nature. Afterwards, the lesson will identify the principles of sound experimental design and help you work on three DOE problems: one factor at a time (OFAT), full factorial, and fractional factorial DOE.

This lesson will finish the examination of DMAIC by featuring the final letter—C for control. You'll learn about three different tools to help you control your operations: run charts, control charts, and process capability. The lesson will discuss how to create run charts, give an overview of control charts, and show you how to create two different types of control charts. It will wrap things up by showing you how to use process capability.

You've just about completed all course requirements except for learning how to think lean—which is the topic of this lesson. Lean thinking means doing more with less. This is one way that companies succeed: providing more satisfaction and more quality with less effort and less frustration. Your focus on lean thinking will consist of eliminating waste, reducing lead time, and minimizing the impact of constraints.

Instructors & Support

Tony Swaim

Tony Swaim has helped many clients, colleagues, and students reach their professional and personal goals. He has been an online instructor since 1998 and has taught at colleges and universities across the United States since 1981. His focus areas are project management, Six Sigma, and supply chain management. Tony manages a successful consulting firm, and his industry experience includes 20 years of supply chain management. He earned a Doctorate in Business Administration from Kennesaw State University and holds professional certifications in six disciplines, including the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI)® and Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB)® from the American Society for Quality (ASQ)®.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

Completion of Tony Swaim's Total Quality Fundamentals.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Reviews

I thought the instructor did an amazing job in writing the lessons. They were up-beat, easy to understand and they kept my interest throughout the entire lesson. I would definitely take another course with this instructor in the future.

Great course! Instructor very knowledgeable on the subject.

I consider this an excellent resource to get familiar with all the concepts and techniques of the Six Sigma Body of Knowledge. The lessons are very clear and well presented. Absolutely great!

I enjoyed my first online learning experience. I thought it was very well organized. Thanks!

This course was very informative. I kept all of my lessons in paper and electronic formats. They will be of great help in the future as I apply the tools that I learned. I really enjoyed taking these two courses. I thought the professors writing style and examples were excellent. Every time I read and think more about this material I learn something new - continuous improvement/learning. I need to keep applying these tools. Like they say "Use it or lose it". Thanks so much for everything!

I just wanted you to know that this course has been very valuable. I just finished a graduate statistics course. Like most students, statistics is greek to me. This lesson has explained things in a simpler fashion than I had before. I thinks it's starting to sink in.

I learned a lot from this course, the terminology and ideas were presented in an effective manner.

It was a good way to be introduced to Six Sigma. I would recommend this course to others. Thank you.

Tony has an excellent writing style. His Web references are very helpful and he does actively participate in the discussion area. This course is a great value for the money!

I have worked with TQM Process Improvement tools in the past. This was my first Six Sigma course which was a great way to refresh my knowledge of some tools and also learn a few new tools/techniques. Great Course!