Six Sigma Part 1: Define and Measure

First and foremost, I want to convey my utmost gratitude, praise, and appreciation to Holly Ott for her skillful execution and expertise conducting the course. She made the course interesting as an online course can be. Even for someone who has been out of college for 30+ years, she made it understandable. Not that I did not need to do some significant scratching of the head and dig up some supplemental information, but I did learn a great deal.

The material presented and knowledge (yes, even my old grey hair head can still retain some information) will be used as I work on implementing a new process at my company. The process is tied to the Request for Maintenance Action (RMA). As a manufacturer and distributer of ground based and naval radar systems, the process for customers to return parts that fail in the field was cumbersome and chaotic at best. Additionally, our customers were not very happy with the Turn Around Time (TAT) of receiving their repaired or replaced parts back. These times often exceeded 3 to 6 months. Unless previously agreed to for specific parts, this was completely unacceptable. Furthermore, there are some parts that are failing on a more regular basis. Thus, quality measurements and improvements were in need. Capturing the metrics of the failure rates will drive the organization to reevaluate the design or supplier and hopefully foster improvements for future system deliveries. The data collected will also be used to drive obsolescence, FMEA and FMECA analyses.

The process is somewhat complicated as there are customer reports involved that need to be evaluated, shipping and trade compliance concerns, supplier and vendor interactions and agreed to evaluation pricing, customer purchase orders, vendor purchase orders, work authorizations, etc. etc.

I have just completed the process mapping flow (with help from what I learned in the class) and have received comments back from the review. I have also been working with our Oracle subject matter experts to develop the process tool and alerts to be used. There is a great deal of historical data that also needs to be captured and input into Oracle. From there, once the process is finalized and all stakeholders are in agreement on the use of the tool. I will develop training slide decks for the requisite responsible individuals.

My ultimate goal along with the quality organization is to see a significant reduction in TAT as well as capture statistics on what parts are failing the most, under what conditions, and work with engineering and our supply chain to either modify or redesign or seek alternate suppliers that can meet the failure rate requirements. Everything we work on is driven by Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). The limits of which are set by customer requirements. And yes, this goes down to something as small as a connector to something as large as a big drive gear.

In closing, while my company does have some process and methods for capturing this critical data for RMAs, it is, as I said dispersed and un- organized. I am confident that what I have learned in the course will help me significantly as I drive the process and help my company achieve a better RMA status and less customer complaints.

I look forward to taking more edX courses and will certainly look for others from TUM if Holly is teaching.

Sincerely,

Elias A. Elias

My name is Rony Tabari and I am from Indonesia, I am currently undertaking a role as an Operations Improvement Advisor for Phu Bia Mining (PBM) with operations in Laos as one of the producing assets for PanAust in South East Asia.

First of all, I would like to sincerely express my gratitude and appreciation to Professor Holly Ott with her skills and expertise for bringing such an excellent series of lectures, and to all the team from Technische Universität München (TUM) and edX for the well packaged courses. I would also like to thank to PanAust through my Operations Improvement team, for the opportunity, support, motivation for me to experience the study to enhance my professional skills and potential career advancement.

The course with TUM via edX has been a quite refresher for me as it has been more than 15 years since I took statistics as a subject in my college and applied some of the tools and calculations during my previous work as a management consultant in various client industries, such as measuring and prioritising defects and setting up improvement measurement baselines using regression to calculate savings.

There are 3 specific things that I have been learning so far from the course that have been adding more value to the extent of the knowledge and skills I have at the moment :

• The knowledge of the need to understand the Voice of Customer, and to convert into Critical to Quality measurement as per Lean principles, would also be the implementation of a ‘Pull System’.
• The knowledge in regards to statistics which equips me with advanced capability for data processing and more accurate decision making.
• The use of Six Sigma with its DMAIC phases to be able to define, formulate and process the information about the problem added with data to be analysed as proof of process improvements. Moreover, this approach has also been formulated in terms of the project approach that will be useful as project guidelines.

Currently, during my time to deliver high quality of work with PBM, I have been on the task to engage people from different departments and levels to train, to coach and to support them to improve the process of their work to be easier, better, quicker, cheaper and safe using the Lean principles, including to use some of the problem solving tools for projects that require us to define the problem and key measurements.

Six sigma has been one of the selected training course which will equip me with useful knowledge and tools especially when we are involved in the data driven decision making process for the project. And thus we will have a more accurate decision from the data to be made and not just simply estimate.
In the mining industry, more specifically, there have been many project opportunities that involve and require data processing for improving the decision making process and actions; such as recovery, liner wear rates, inventories, and so on.

I am looking forward to continue my study via TUM and edX for the next series of Six Sigma courses to complete the Yellow Belt certification. I also look forward to contribute my skills and study experience to seek the Six Sigma Green Belt level through undertaking process improvement projects with PBM, applying the lessons, practicing the tools and sharing the success stories with my team.

Thank you again for the excellent courses.

Sincerely,

Rony Tabari

The course content is very much helpful and informative. The course really helps to gain insight into the lean production and six sigma. The concepts are very much latest and related with industry.
The course has helped me a lot for securing the internship at Schaeffler Company. The material has proved to be very much useful with the project I am working in Schaeffler.

The instructor, Dr. Holly Ott, was one of the best I had ever experienced, coming from an in-class and online university-level course perspective. Not only were her lectures engaging and informative but she showed a genuine interest in the subject matter. She went above and beyond what I would expect from any prof and in addition to providing a great portion of the lectures herself, was also a frequent poster in the discussion forums. The guest lecturers that were brought in were world-class experts and it showed. They were able to explain increasingly difficult concepts using basic examples and to me, that is a sign of someone who really knows what they’re talking about!

I also wanted to mention that taking good notes in this course is a must since there are so many different concepts being thrown at you that unless you take good notes now, you may be a little bit confused later on. I still sometimes re-read my notes or re-watch a video to get a better grasp on a topic and see if and how I can implement it at work and in my daily life.

Thank you, Professor Ott, all of the guest lecturers and TAs, and the rest of the TUM team that worked tirelessly to bring this MOOC to us!

My name is Kien Vu (trongkienvu), and I am currently based in Darmstadt.

I recently completed the course “Six Sigma Part 1: Define and Measure” offered by edX, and I found it to be incredibly valuable for my professional development. Here are three specific things I learned from the course:

Understanding the DMAIC Process: The course provided an in-depth understanding of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) framework, which is fundamental in Six Sigma methodologies. This structured approach has enhanced my ability to engage in meaningful discussions with colleagues regarding process improvement initiatives in the semiconductor industry.

Voice of the Customer (VoC): Learning to identify and prioritize customer needs through techniques like the Kano Model was particularly enlightening. Understanding the VoC has enabled me to better translate customer feedback into actionable insights, which helps in aligning our goals with customer expectations.

Process Mapping and Capability Analysis: The course emphasized the importance of process mapping and understanding process capability metrics (CP/CPK). Gaining these skills has improved my ability to comprehend and discuss our operational processes, leading to clearer communication and collaboration among team members.

Overall, this course has equipped me with the necessary tools to enhance my understanding of quality and efficiency. It has empowered me to contribute more effectively to discussions and decision-making processes within my organization. I am grateful for the insights gained and look forward to applying them as I continue my learning journey in Six Sigma.

Thank you to Professor Holly Ott and the entire team for delivering such an impactful course!

My name is Gabriel F., and I’m currently based in Hamburg, Germany. I work as a Process Engineer in the metallurgical industry. This course provided an excellent foundation in Six Sigma methodologies and helped reinforce structured problem-solving techniques that I now apply in my daily job.

Three specific things I learned:
How to Define a Problem Clearly – The use of SIPOC diagrams and project charters helped me better align cross-functional teams and set clear goals from the start of any improvement initiative.

Measurement System Analysis (MSA) – I understood the importance of checking measurement reliability before drawing any conclusions. I used this directly at work to validate one of our inspection processes for surface defects.

The Role of CTQs (Critical to Quality) – I learned how to translate vague customer requirements into measurable performance standards. For example, in my plant, we used this approach to reformulate our KPIs for product consistency.

Application to my job:
After completing the course, I applied the DMAIC structure to analyze scrap loss in our steel production line. By clearly defining the problem and validating our measurement system, we saved time and avoided jumping into ineffective solutions. This contributed to a noticeable reduction in rework hours.

The course also gave me the confidence to propose a small Six Sigma project during our department’s improvement week, which I believe helped demonstrate initiative and systematic thinking to my managers.

This course is a great entry point for anyone starting in quality or process improvement – whether you're in manufacturing, services, or data analysis.

Thank you for offering such practical and structured content!

This course is really interesting and has an organized structure and sequence of contents. As an introduction for the DMAIC Process Improvement Cycle, the course really provides the knowledge related to the phases Define and Measure, specially enforces the importance of understand the costumer expectations (and Critical-to-Quality characteristics), your contribution to design and measure the process' capability and performance. The module Statistics Review is imperative to complete overall the course and module 8 (Quality Topics and Course Summary) provides a very good ending and motivation to go ahead to the next course. Thank you professor Ott and the entire course's team.
Best regards!
Robson Torres Bandeira, city of Fortaleza (Brazil), Economist and Master in Logistics Management, Planning Manager at the Municipal Infrastruture Secretariat (Fortaleza City Hall).

Hello,

My name is Faisal Enad S Alenezi. As I know from my experience from a bachelor's degree Dr Holly Ott, was one of the best I had ever experienced coming from an in-class and online university-level course perspective. Furthermore, I want to convey my utmost gratitude, praise, and appreciation to Holly Ott for her skilful execution and expertise conducting the course. She made the course interesting as an online course can be.

Six Sigma projects are processed along with the phases of the DMAIC cycle (DEFINE-MEASURE-ANALYSE-IMPROVE-CONTROL). And each phase covers a set of chronologically interlinked rational and statistical tools. In the DEFINE phase we answer the question:

What is the problem?

First, a product or service, that deviates from the requirements must be identified as a potential for improvement. Customer requirements are then prioritized as a basis for defining the primary problems of the product or service. The specified customer requirements and the size of the problems help to define the business case for the project.

Finally, the scope and objectives of the project are defined, and a project team is formed with subject matter experts, as supporters for the project.

After defining the problems, we look for their triggering causes in the MEASURE phase.

To identify these negative influences on the problem, the as-is process is mapped and inspected first. The next step is to formulate hypotheses that reflect the relationship between triggering influences and the problem.

In the ANALYSE phase we answer the question:

What are the root causes of the influences on the problem?

At first, the measured data are evaluated graphically. Next, the process capability is calculated and – most important – the hypotheses to identify the significant influences are tested.

In the IMPROVE phase, we answer the question: What is the solution?

At first, solutions are developed to eliminate, adjust or circumvent the identified root causes. Risks and resistances against these solutions are then identified and the solutions are adapted, to put them into practice.

In the CONTROL phase, we answer the question:

How can we ensure the sustainability of our improvements?

First, the degree of improvement is calculated on a statistical basis and the achieved financial benefit is calculated. A Process-Management-Plan is then installed, with control charts to monitor the process and with countermeasures for deviations that occur. New standards for the process are developed and communicated. Finally, the project is handed over to the process owner. This means each Six Sigma project is based on a process.

Thank you, Professor Ott, all of the guest lecturers and TAs, and the rest of the TUM team that worked tirelessly to bring this MOOC to us!

Hi, I am Husain from Bahrain, and I work in financial services and insurance industry.
For a quite long period of time, I became very interested in process improvement and quality assurance for financial services. I have read a lot of books and internet guidelines, I even made a presentation for my company's management to convince them to invest in such a critical and much important addition to the organization. Ever sense then, I've been in search for a reliable and trustworthy academic material so I can further enhance my knowledge in the subject based on a correct and solid fundamentals, and I got to say this course by the Technical University of Munich is one of the best available, if wasn't the best overall!
Dr. Holly makes everything easy and understandable, although it is an online course with no face-to-face interaction, yet it felt like I am in a classroom with some colleagues. Today I just finished the first course out of a long journey towards the green belt certification.

The course is great! The professor explains in an engaging and clear way the topics.
There are homework, exercises and tests, all are not difficult and effective, allowing you to internalize the concepts.
I live in Austria, working for a large home furniture company.
For me, the core was to understand prioritization of customer's needs and risks, and the study of process deviations in a quantifiable manner based on statistics.
3 tools that I learned with the course are the Kano model to organize and prioritize customer's needs, the Gage R&R study to evaluate the precision of a measurement system, and FMEA technique to prioritize potential causes for product failure, which support the Define and Measure stages in the DMAIC methodology.
Thank you very much!
Hector

Name: Julia Szabo
Location: Bayreuth, Germany
Industry: KOMPASS Consultant, Team Lead, Self-employed

Review:

This course provided a very valuable mindset for structured and customer-oriented process improvement.

In my work as a KOMPASS consultant, team lead, and freelancer, I will probably not use the statistical calculations frequently. However, the Six Sigma thinking itself is extremely helpful.

my 3 golden nuggets:

1. Viewing work as processes and identifying improvement potential

2. Using FMEA to think through risks systematically

3. Consistently focusing on customer requirements

The biggest value for me is the structured approach: mapping processes, analyzing them end-to-end, and improving them in a clear and practical way. This mindset is very helpful when supporting organizations, teams, and self-employed clients.

Thank you for this opportunity.

The professor Holly Ott understands what a S.M.A.R.T (specific measurable attainable realistic time) quality objective actually is for a each of her lectures. Furthermore she follows the 3E( FEMA Reinforcing the perception of fair treatment 3E) of communication which most people fail to do in lectures. Some students do not give her enough credit for how she sets up her lectures and her practice question are very good preparations for her quizzes/homework assignments. I have seen a lot of professors in my lifetime none of them of them were ever actually good, very intelligent people that mostly are perceived as critics, but none of them understood the word "Be Humble" while in a lecture especially when you are meeting your students for the first time. I have only met one other professor like her in my lifetime, that was professor Allen Claus who taught me to love organic chemistry again just by sticking to the quality objective, unfortunately I was not able to stay that field, but my point is, considered this Professional Certificate by TUMX

I took this course to understand the terminology of lean production and Six sigma, it has been very helpful in my day to day tasks, especially the fish bone diagrams and the five 5 WHYS that I constantly use to solve problem statements.

For example, if you have never heard the acronym DPMO or 8D I suggest you take this course and the next two for the professional certificate. but if you are more interested in being a critic about grammatical errors that were not intentional and obvious to see, do not take the course. I like the grammatical errors from time to time because to me, it means the people are actually humble and they are human.

My advice to TUMX Staff and Holly Ott don't change a thing about this professional certificate, you guys are doing a excellent job.

My Credentials: I have a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and I currently work as a Amazon Associate at MKE1

If my English structure is incorrect I apologize back in my high school days I was stuck with teachers for three years that spent 45 minutes a day talking about their marriage problems or money problems or just showing videos on subject instead of teaching it and that was in advanced English courses. Had the same problem with one college English course I took for a requirement, thank god for books. Got to love Self interest groups and Nepotism sometimes its not beneficial to students.

Well, I hope this helps.....

Sincerely Juan F.

It was a great honour to provide a review related to the Six Sigma Online Course by the Technical University of Munich through EDx.
Browsing the internet, you’ll find that tons of institutions, organizations and various groups are offering similar Six-Sigma Training Course. They usually have a time frame of a straight 2 to 3 months (some on a daily or weekly basis), which will be challenging if you have a full-time job and a family that you take care of. The cost can also range from USD1,000 to USD6,000, forcing you to finish the course despite realizing its complexity or ending up partially refunding some of your money. To top all of this, you need to question the credibility of the institution providing it. Do they really have the right knowledge and experience related to Six-Sigma?
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is a well-know institution, and I immediately check the course the moment I found out they are offering the six-sigma course. My only worry is the price (quality comes with a cost) and the time it will require, plus the fact that I don’t speak German. Lo-and-behold! The entire course is for FREE! And for less than USD500, you can have a verified certificate. They also provide the course in English Language at your own phase even at 2 am you can take it anywhere. Defending on when you enroll, it allows you to finish it within a year.
Since Six Sigma encompasses a lot of tools, techniques and processes, it is very critical of how it will be presented to the audience by the presenter. WOW! Even the introduction itself make me feel very much welcome to MUNICH that I was hoping to come and visit the place and the professor one day! The course was also presented and categorized in a step-by-step process that acceptable to the wide range of diverse audiences. Prof. Holly Ott and Dr. Grunow NAILED IT! They’ve explained the topic very precisely and well, the majority of the audience can understand that.
From the Theory, Application and up to relative Examples, all the parts of the Six-Sigma course will help you fully understand and motivate you to implement it within your organization. I love the one-page Diagram they’ve shared to the students, plus the form to help and guide them towards achieving the Green belt. Amazing! The course is for free but the quality of the knowledge you’ll receive is priceless.
I WILL TOTALLY RECOMMEND THIS COURSE TO MY FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES!!!

Hello, I am Prashant Bhavsar from India, working for an Automotive Industry in India.

Let me first thank Prof. Holly Ott for her incredible skill for making this course easier. Her presentation and delivery of the course was excellent and made it easy for someone like me who is out of college from last 20 years.

Here I want to add about the best things I liked about the course.
We have been going through equivalent courses but I never came so close to understanding the concept so well. Specifically about the course , the best thing was the idea of conceptualizing the content through self-doing. The exercises after each module were so excellent that you can learn every thing that has been taught during the module presentation.
Application of the training through exercises and the discussion forum was excellent.

The examples of the Case studies gave a good insight about the problem solving technique applying the Six-Sigma. I liked the explanation and application of DMAIC Process.
The mathematical part was always made enjoyable by Prof. Holy Ott. Thanks once again for your skills to make each and everything so simple. The statistics part was excellently understood.
One thing during the course that I enjoyed most was the probability distribution module and its example solves. Excellent material to learn and apply in actual work.

I liked Process-Mapping module as well. Being a part of an automotive industry and a test engineer for NVH(Noise, Vibration and Harshness) function, there are application of Process flow in my work application as well. I surely will apply the technique in my work.
The application of Six-Sigma process of Define and Measure for technical work will be applied for the Major problem solving in our function.

I would love to have the Print option of the test after solving all the questions in the module.
There is no easy way to take the module content in example solves. Example solves were great help to understand the content and will always need to be revised. So print-out of this content with the solution would always help.

I would like to share my experience, that although you might always revisit the module's video content for revising, but it would be always better to have small notes of important content while you will be studying the modules online.

I would like to thank the edx Support team and Prof. Holy ott for this wonderful online module.

Thanking you

Sincerely yours

PRASHANT BHAVSAR
INDIA

Hi! My name is Julio Alvarado.

I´m from Panama, and I work on the shipping industry, more specifically, my job position is Marine Scheduler. My primary role surrounds coordinating / planning the vessel´s schedule integrity, so that we meet our customer´s delivery dates for their products inside the containers onboard the vessels. (Also for the vessel to arrive ASAP and take the export cargo)

Now that I´ve finished the first part of the Yellow Belt course, I can share that I´ve found this course to be a solid 10 out of 10 stars. I´ve learned a lot more than expected, and I already have three specific learning topics that will be implemented on my team department.

1. Problem definition: Current industry conditions are well known, and we have a clear VoC / idea of what our customers need, however, with the DEFINE phase I´ve learned that it is not enough to have minimal information. The process of collecting the Voc and transforming those into CTQ requirements is a must. Also, the process of documenting such data and presenting the information in a solid format will increase the chances of communicating the defined problem to all my colleagues so we have a unify approach to meet the CTQs. This will also help higher management visualize what we should prioritize, and that´s where the Kano Model that I´ve learn will help organize which requirements need to be prioritize so that our steps moving forward on the Six Sigma project are concentrated on those.

2. Normal distribution: We have a couple of KPIs that will help us predict future events. With the normal distribution and Central Limit Theorem I´m confident that we can build a model that will help us predict the probability of "X" event occurring. I was amazed of how practical the use of the Cumulative Probabilities of the Standard Normal Distribution table is, and now I´m excited to start building such graphs in Power BI so that the mean, standard deviation and variance are calculated on the spot using DAX formulas.

3. Process Mapping: Our job description as Marine Scheduler is changing due to the effects of the global pandemic. With process mapping we can start drawing out all the new processes that are appearing as the months go by. From start to end we will need to redefine all the moving parts that go on our daily jobs, and try to mitigate any process steps that don´t bring value while we are coordinating / planning the vessel´s schedule integrity.

These were my main 3 takeaways of this course, but I can assure that my learning experience was more profound. I´m more confident on my statistical and analytical skills, and hope I can hit the ground running to start making the changes to bring value to our customer´s, while reducing waste in our operations, and get another job position that would help me establish more Six Sigma projects for our pursuit of excellence.

Julio Alvarado