Week 2: Six Sigma Define Phase Overview

Welcome to Week 2, Day 1 of the Six Sigma Green Belt review!

During the first week we covered Six Sigma and the Organization as well as Six Sigma Teams. If you didn’t have a chance to review those topics, go back now and catch up. The context supplied with those topics gives an excellent foundation for our studying. Plus it can be a hefty portion of your exam grade that your peers tend to overlook, so it’s a good way to differentiate your score.

Week 2: Six Sigma Define Phase

Today we’re starting with the Define Phase of Six Sigma’s DMAIC process. Just like last week, before we start I’d like to begin with a note that many different certifying bodies exist and I am trying to help people that are candidates in all of them. This means that I may refer to things that aren’t specifically on your exam.

Your Assignment

Here's what I'd like you to do.

First, you’ll need to log in to the site.

Free membership or paid, it doesn’t matter. You just have to be logged in. Buttons to sign up and log in are below.

Second, review the articles I list below.

These are the concepts I refer exam candidates to when diving into these particular sections.

Take a look.

If you want to really improve your skills in a particular subject…

Take a minute and write everything you know on a topic from scratch then go to the page and see how what you wrote compares to what is there.

This is known as the Feynman technique. That is exactly how I passed all of my Six Sigma and other professional industry certifications the first time. This is how this website was made. It will 100% work for you.

Feynman Technique to Learn anything in 4 steps

(Sourced from Learn Anything)

1. Pick a topic you want to understand and start studying it. Write down everything you know about the topic on a notebook page, and add to that page every time you learn something new about it.

2. Pretend to teach your topic to a classroom. Make sure you’re able to explain the topic in simple terms.

3. Go back to the books when you get stuck. The gaps in your knowledge should be obvious. Revisit problem areas until you can explain the topic fully.

4. Simplify and use analogies. Repeat the process while simplifying your language and connecting facts with analogies to help strengthen your understanding.

For extra credit, leave your notes in the comment section of the page.

If you’re not as strong as you’d like to be in that subject…

Read through, click around the resources I’ve listed, and learn more. If you have questions, post them on that page.

If you feel strong in a topic…

Go to the article and see if any of your colleagues have posted questions that you can help them with. Trying to answer questions on the spot may reveal that you’re not as strong as you thought you were.

Introducing Six Sigma Define Phase

Project Creation

DMAIC was covered in the first section but there is lots of overlap between DMAIC concepts and questions centered in the Define phase so I would also suggest reviewing:

• Six Sigma DMAIC tollgates
• DMAIC improvement process
• Deliverables of a Lean Six Sigma Project
• The Problem Solving Strategy Y = f(x)
• Voice of the Customer, Business and Employee
• Understanding the needs of the customers of the process.
• Six Sigma Roles & Responsibilities
• The Fundamentals of Six Sigma
  • Defining a Process
  • Critical to Quality Characteristics (CTQ’s)
  • Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)

What Do You Think?

I’d love to know what you think about the material you need to know in these sections. Please take a minute to share your thoughts below. I’ll use these responses to decide the best way to improve the site to help the most number of people.

Next Time

Next time we will dive into the specific requirements of these topics across of a few popular certifying bodies (ASQ, IASSC, Villanova).

Happy studying!