MECH 8143 - Six-Sigma, Techniques & Strate

Six-Sigma is a quality improvement methodology structured to reduce product or service failure rates to a negligible level (roughly 3.4 failures per million opportunities). The Six-Sigma process encompasses all aspects of a business, including management, service delivery, design, production and customer satisfaction. This course explores the principles and practices of Six-Sigma in manufacturing oriented industries. Students will be introduced to the key concepts of Six-Sigma to better prepare them to support a company's continuous improvement efforts. Students will also learn how to select, justify, and apply the principles, tools, and techniques to improve manufacturing and/or business performance. Topics covered include quality function deployment; teams and teamwork; DMAIC problem-solving; measures and metrics; project management; statistical methods; control charts; design of experiments; reliability; failure modes and effects analysis; and lean manufacturing. A realistic capstone industry project will be developed and defended by students, individually or in teams, to support understanding and deployment of the Six-Sigma strategies on the factory floor and beyond.