Using Design for Six Sigma Practices to Develop a “Rose” Belt Course

Due to the well-documented benefits of Six Sigma methodologies in many successful and competitive organizations, the adoption of Six Sigma continues to expand within and outside of traditional manufacturing and service organizations. As such, the Engineering department of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology set out to develop a 10-week Rose Belt course to provide students with fundamental knowledge, quality tools, and practical experience using the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) process. The intent of the course is not to supplant other forms of certification (white, yellow, green, or black belt). Rather, the goal is to use a project-based approach so that students gain valuable insight into the organizational (operational) improvement process, as well as experience using Six Sigma tools (qualitative and quantitative). It is the author’s belief that these experiences will reduce the amount of time required by students/graduates to begin engaging in “live” Six Sigma projects upon completion of the course. In the absence of a universally accepted or practiced Six Sigma body of knowledge, the DMADV (Define-Measure-Analyze-Design-Verify) methodology was used to design the course. Previous uses of similar industry-focused quality management tools, such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD), have been used to redesign engineering education curriculum with notable success. The objective was to correctly identify and assess the technical concepts and nontechnical skills industrial practitioners most frequently utilized when leading or participating in successful Six Sigma projects. This information will serve as the critical-to-quality (CTQ) components of the curricula.