Lean Six Sigma

This first course covers all the non-statistical tools that Black Belts need to successfully identify process problems and lead teams through the DMAIC process.

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Course Features

• Lessons on the Six Sigma philosophy, DMAIC methodology, project management, team dynamics, survey design, training methods, and Lean tools
• Instructional videos with a companion course guide
• Hospitality industry case study
• Excel spreadsheet with templates and custom calculators
• Graded course assignments
• Quizzes
• Weekly live online office hours with the instructor

Topics Include: 

• Reviewing Six Sigma
• Launching Projects
• Capturing the Voice of the Customer
• Choosing Metrics
• Leading Teams
• Managing Projects
• Mapping & Graphing Data 
• Finding Root Causes
• Implementing Lean
• Calculating Lean Metrics
• Training Employees
• Designing for Six Sigma
• Closing the Project

Required Textbook

Black Belts use a wide range of statistical tools to analyze data for process improvement. This second course covers descriptive statistics, probability, hypothesis testing, statistical process control, linear and logistic regression and design of experiments. You will analyze data sets using Minitab statistical software. If you do not already have access to Minitab, a limited license can be purchased for an additional fee.

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Course Features Include:

• Instructional videos with companion course guide
• Hospitality industry case study
• Applied statistics textbook, available for purchase separately
• 6-month license to Minitab statistical software required; available for purchase separately
• Graded course assignments
• Quizzes
• Weekly live online office hours with the instructor

Topics Include:

• Descriptive Statistics & Graphical Analysis
• Probability
• Discrete Probability Distributions
• Continuous Probability Distributions
• Analysis of Variance
• Correlation & Regression
• Multiple Linear Regression & Logistic Regression
• Design of Experiments
• Control Charts
• Process Capability

Textbooks

Required
Leadership Tools for Black Belts

Recommended
The Probability Handbook

You will identify and conduct a Six Sigma project at your workplace with mentoring from the instructor.

Course Features Include:

• Project mentoring and advice from the instructor
• Project tollgate report assignments

Topics Include:

• Project Selection
• Define Tollgate
• Measure Tollgate
• Analyze Tollgate
• Improve Tollgate
• Control Tollgate 

You will be registered in the Project Capstone concurrently with the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Management Skills course.

For more information on how the UNF Center for Quality & Process Improvement can help your organization, contact Jessica Murray, program director, at (904) 620-4200 or Jessica.Murray@unf.edu.

Completion of a Green Belt project is optional in this certificate program. In the traditional classroom option, your registration fee includes one year of instructor mentorship immediately following the course to identify and complete an approved project. In the online class, the project mentorship can be purchased for an additional fee. Oftentimes a project will serve as credible evidence to an employer that you can apply Six Sigma in the real world. The registration fee will not be discounted if you choose not to complete a project. Two six-month project extensions are available for purchase if you are unable to complete your project within twelve months.

Typically, projects are conducted at the participants’ workplace. If a participant is not currently employed, he/she should seek out a volunteer or non-profit organization that may benefit from a process improvement project.

During the class, participants will have the opportunity to brainstorm possible Six Sigma projects with the instructor and work on the project problem and goal statements. Ideally, a project topic will be approved by the last day of class. If more time is needed, participants can communicate with the instructor via email.

The project topic, problem and goal statements must be approved by the instructor. Failing to have a project approved before proceeding may result in the project being rejected by the mentor.

After each phase of the approved Six Sigma project, participants will submit documentation for instructor review. The participant may redact any confidential or sensitive data or information from the documentation if required by the participant’s organization.

Participants will have the ability to communicate with the instructor via email and/or phone conference over the 12-month period immediately following the course. In addition to reviewing the required documentation, the instructor is also available to offer specific project management advice, guidance on the use of Six Sigma tools, and technical assistance in data collection and analysis.

• For the Yellow Belt certification, a project is not required.
• For the Green Belt certification, the project is completely optional and included in the registration fee when you choose the traditional classroom option. In the online class option, the project mentorship can be purchased for an additional $500 fee. Oftentimes completion of a project will serve as credible evidence to an employer that you can apply Six Sigma in the real world.
• For the Black Belt certification, yes. The project is required and included in the registration fee. The completion of the project serves as credible evidence that you can apply Six Sigma in the real world.

No. A discount will not be applied for a participant’s choice not to complete the project.

Participants are given 12 months from the last day of classroom/online training to complete his/her approved project. The project must be approved by the instructor beforehand and submitted by each of the DMAIC phases.

Two separate six-month extensions are available to purchase if you are unable to finish within the allotted twelve-month period. Each extension is $500. Call Customer Care at 904-620-4200 to purchase a project extension.

No. Yellow Belt training is not a prerequisite for UNF’s Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate or Black Belt Certificate.

Yes. For Black Belt certification, completion of a Green Belt training is a prerequisite of our program. Participants that have attended a non-UNF Green Belt program may be eligible to attend if the program attended was comparable in duration and content (instructor approval is required).

Yes. For Black Belt certification, completion of a Green Belt training is a prerequisite of our program. Participants that have attended a non-UNF Green Belt program may be eligible to attend if the program attended was comparable in duration and content (instructor approval is required).

No. While it is required that you have completed a Green Belt training program prior to enrolling in the Black Belt program, the project component is not a requirement. If you have completed a project with a non-UNF Green Belt program, it is recommended that you provide that for instructor review to support your admission into the Black Belt program.

No. The course provides a background in basic statistics needed as part of the training. There are also many free online training programs available for those that need additional assistance.

There are some advanced statistics used in this course. If you are comfortable with creating graphs and using formulas in Excel, you’re way ahead of the game. If you aren’t that familiar with Excel, you’ll be adding that skill to your Six Sigma toolbox using the quick Excel tutorials included in the course.

The statistics course will ask more of you in terms of mathematical ability, but there are ample videos and software demos to help you understand the concepts. Plus, live office hours with the instructor can make those fuzzy topics seem so much clearer.

Yes, for the Green Belt traditional classroom option, all course materials are included in the registration fee. You will need to bring a laptop computer, loaded with Excel, to each class, as well as a pen or pencil.

For the Green Belt online course option, you will need to separately purchase the companion textbook, Lean Six Sigma Self-Paced Online Course Companion: Green Belt Level, which can be found on Amazon for less than $30. You will also need a computer loaded with Excel to complete the assignments.

For the Green Belt for Healthcare Organizations online course option, you will need to separately purchase the companion textbook, Lean Six Sigma Self-Paced Online Course Companion: Green Belt for Healthcare. You will also need a computer loaded with Excel to complete the assignments.

For the Black Belt online course option, you will need to purchase the companion textbooks separately, which can be found on Amazon. For the first course, the companion textbook is Lean Six Sigma Leadership Tools for Black Belts. For the second course, the companion textbook is Statistics for Black Belts: Slide Book. The instructor recommends you also purchase The Probability Handbook and DOE Simplified. You will also need a computer loaded with Excel to complete the assignments. You will also need Minitab for the second course. A student license can be purchased through UNF Division of Continuing Education by calling 904-620-4200.

Yes. With the traditional classroom option, the final exam is open-book and completed online through the course portal. The exam will be completed on the final day of class and consists of 50 multiple choice questions. With the online class option, instead of a comprehensive final exam, you will complete end-of-module quizzes that are open-book and multiple choice.

Participants in the online course are provided with six months’ access from the date of registration to successfully complete all components of the course. Six month extensions can be purchased for an additional $100 fee for those that cannot complete within the allotted timeframe. Call Customer Care at 904-620-4200 to purchase a course extension.

Both programs are identical in content and share the same learning objectives. The main difference is the delivery format and the manner in which concepts are reinforced. Participants in the traditional classroom option will benefit from live, interactive instruction with peers, completing individual and group exercises. Participants in the online class option will have instructor support, but will receive video lectures and self-led, individual exercises.

The Green Belt Project is optional for both formats, but the 12 months of instructor mentorship is included in the traditional classroom option; it must be purchased separately in the online option.

Dr. Mary McShane-Vaughn

LinkedIn Profile

Dr. Mary McShane-Vaughn is currently the Principal at University Training Partners, a company that develops and delivers Lean Six Sigma training for corporations and universities. She earned her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and an MS in Statistics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in Industrial Engineering from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, Michigan.

Dr. McShane-Vaughn has created and delivered Yellow, Green, and Black Belt training courses to hundreds of students, both in-person and online. Over the past seven years, she has enthusiastically delivered more than 70 Yellow, Green, and Black Belt courses for her university and corporate clients.

Previously, Mary was a tenured faculty member at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia (now Kennesaw State University). For eight years she directed and grew the Master of Science in Quality Assurance program and taught statistics, statistical quality control, linear regression, and design of experiments online in the graduate program.

Before her career in academics, Dr. McShane-Vaughn worked for 15 years as a quality engineer and statistician in the automotive, medical device manufacturing, consumer products testing, and revenue management industries.

Mary served as the Six Sigma Black Belt Exam Chair for the American Society for Quality (ASQ) from 2010–2012 and is now a member of the Certified Quality Engineer subcommittee. She is a past examiner for the Georgia Oglethorpe Award. She serves on the editorial review board for ASQ’s Six Sigma Forum. She is co-author of The Certified Quality Inspector Handbook, and author of The Probability Handbook, The Probability Workbook, and Lean Six Sigma Leadership. Dr. McShane-Vaughn is a senior member of the American Society for Quality and a member of the American Statistical Association. She holds ASQ certifications as a Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Engineer, and Reliability Engineer.