ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Study Guide
ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Study Guide
ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Study Guide
The ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Study Guide is a free, quick-reference list of
essential material to prepare for and pass the certification exam. Master the
ASQ Six Sigma Blackbelt Body of Knowledge with this Study Guide.
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Use this page as your ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Study Guide. All Body of
Knowledge topics required for the exam are mapped to study notes and
example problems. Also, read here to see how I prepared and passed the ASQ
Black Belt exam.
Describe the value of Six Sigma, its philosophy, history and goals. (Understand)
Describe the value of Lean, its philosophy, history and goals. (Understand)
Describe how these tools are applied to processes in all types of enterprises:
manufacturing, service, transactional, product and process design, innovation,
etc. (Understand)
B. Leadership
2. Organizational roadblocks
Describe the impact an organization’s culture and inherent structure can have
on the success of Six Sigma, and how deployment failure can result from the
lack of resources, management support, etc.; identify and apply various
techniques to overcome these barriers. Critical Success Factors to Six
Sigma (Apply)
3. Change management
Describe how projects and kaizen events are selected, when to use Six Sigma
instead of other problem-solving approaches, and the importance of aligning
their objectives with organizational goals. (Apply)
Critical to Client
C. Benchmarking
E. Financial measures
Define and use financial measures, including revenue growth, market share,
margin, cost of quality (COQ), net present value (NPV), return on investment
(ROI), cost benefit analysis, etc. (Apply)
Define and describe various types of teams (e.g., formal, informal, virtual,
cross-functional, self-directed, etc.), and determine what team model will work
best for a given situation. Identify constraining factors including geography,
technology, schedules, etc. (Apply)
2. Team roles
Define and describe various team roles and responsibilities, including leader,
facilitator, coach, individual member, etc. (Understand)
Define and describe various factors that influence the selection of team
members, including required skills sets, subject matter expertise, availability,
etc. (Apply)
4. Launching teams
Identify and describe the elements required for launching a team, including
having management support, establishing clear goals, ground rules and
timelines, and how these elements can affect the team’s success. (Apply)
B. Team facilitation
1. Team motivation
Describe and apply techniques that motivate team members and support and
sustain their participation and commitment. (Apply)
2. Team stages
3. Team communication
Identify and use appropriate communication methods (both within the team
and from the team to various stakeholders) to report progress, conduct
milestone reviews and support the overall success of the project. (Apply)
C. Team dynamics
Identify and use various techniques (e.g., coaching, mentoring, intervention,
etc.) to overcome various group dynamic challenges, including
overbearing/dominant or reluctant participants, feuding and other forms of
unproductive disagreement, unquestioned acceptance of opinions as facts,
group-think, floundering, rushing to accomplish or finish, digressions, tangents,
etc. (Evaluate)
Define, select and apply the following tools: affinity diagrams, tree
diagrams, process decision program charts (PDPC), matrix
diagrams, interrelationship digraphs, prioritization matrices and activity
network diagrams. (Apply)
Measure team progress in relation to goals, objectives and other metrics that
support team success and reward and recognize the team for its
accomplishments. (Analyze)
1. Customer identification
Segment customers for each project and show how the project will impact
both internal and external customers. (Apply)
2. Customer feedback
Identify and select the appropriate data collection method (surveys, focus
groups, interviews, observation, etc.) to gather customer feedback to better
understand customer needs, expectations and requirements. Ensure that the
instruments used are reviewed for validity and reliability to avoid introducing
bias or ambiguity in the responses. (Apply)
3. Customer requirements
B. Project charter
1. Problem statement
2. Project scope
Develop and review project boundaries to ensure that the project has value to
the customer. (Analyze)
Develop the goals and objectives for the project on the basis of the problem
statement and scope. (Apply)
C. Project tracking
Identify, develop and use project management tools, such as schedules, Gantt
charts, toll-gate reviews, etc., to track project progress.
Also see Project Management.
(Create)
V. Measure [26 Questions]
A. Process characteristics
B. Data collection
1. Types of data
2. Measurement scales
3. Sampling methods
4. Collecting data
Develop data collection plans, including consideration of how the data will be
collected (e.g., check sheets, data coding techniques, automated data
collection, etc.) and how it will be used. (Apply)
C. Measurement systems
1. Measurement methods
Define and describe measurement methods for both continuous and discrete
data. (Understand)
4. Metrology
D. Basic statistics
1. Basic terms
Describe and use this theorem and apply the sampling distribution of the mean
to inferential statistics for confidence intervals, control charts, etc. (Apply)
3. Descriptive statistics
4. Graphical methods
E. Probability
1. Basic concepts
3. Other distributions
Describe when and how to use the following
distributions: hypergeometric, bivariate, exponential, lognormal and Weibull.
(Apply)
F. Process capability
Define, select and calculate Cp and Cpk to assess process capability. (Evaluate)
Define, select and calculate Pp, Ppk and Cpm to assess process
performance. (Evaluate)
Describe and use appropriate assumptions and conventions when only short-
term data or attributes data are available and when long-term data are
available. Interpret the relationship between long-term and short-term
capability. (Evaluate)
Calculate the process capability and process sigma level for attributes data.
(Apply)
1. Correlation coefficient
Calculate and interpret the correlation coefficient and its confidence interval,
and describe the difference between correlation and causation. (Analyze)
NOTE: Serial correlation will not be tested.
2. Regression
Calculate and interpret regression analysis, and apply and interpret hypothesis
tests for regression statistics. Use the regression model for estimation and
prediction, analyze the uncertainty in the estimate, and perform a residuals
analysis to validate the model. (Evaluate) NOTE: Models that have non-linear
parameters will not be tested.
• Linear Regression
• Logisitic Regression
• Multiple Linear Regression
3. Multivariate tools
4. Multi-vari studies
Use and interpret charts of these studies and determine the difference
between positional, cyclical and temporal variation. (Analyze)
Define and interpret the significance level, power, type I and type II errors of
statistical tests. (Evaluate)
3. Sample size
Calculate sample size for common hypothesis tests (e.g., equality of means,
equality of proportions, etc.). (Apply)
Use and interpret the results of hypothesis tests for means, variances and
proportions. (Evaluate)
9. Non-parametric tests
Select, develop and use various non-parametric tests, including Mood’s
Median, Levene’s test, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, etc. (Evaluate)
Distinguish between design FMEA (DFMEA) and process FMEA (PFMEA), and
interpret results from each. (Evaluate)
1. Gap analysis
Use various tools and techniques (gap analysis, scenario planning, etc.) to
compare the current and future state in terms of pre-defined metrics. (Analyze)
Define and describe the purpose of root cause analysis, recognize the issues
involved in identifying a root cause, and use various tools (e.g., the 5
whys, Pareto charts, fault tree analysis, cause and effect diagrams, etc.) for
resolving chronic problems. (Evaluate)
3. Waste analysis
2. Design principles
Define and apply DOE principles, including power and sample size, balance,
repetition, replication, order, efficiency, randomization, blocking,
interaction, confounding, resolution, etc. (Apply)
3. Planning experiments
4. One-factor experiments
Design, analyze and interpret these types of experiments and describe how
confounding affects their use. (Evaluate)
B. Waste elimination
Select and apply tools and techniques for eliminating or preventing waste,
including pull systems, kanban, 5S, standard work, poka-yoke, etc. (Analyze)
C. Cycle-time reduction
Use various tools and techniques for reducing cycle time, including continuous
flow, single-minute exchange of die (SMED), etc. (Analyze)
Define and distinguish between these two methods and apply them in various
situations. (Apply)
E. Theory of constraints (TOC)
Define and describe this concept and its uses. (Understand)
F. Implementation
Develop plans for implementing the improved process (i.e., conduct pilot tests,
simulations, etc.), and evaluate results to select the optimum solution.
(Evaluate)
2. Selection of variables
Identify and select critical characteristics for control chart monitoring. (Apply)
3. Rational subgrouping
Define the elements of TPM and describe how it can be used to control the
improved process. (Understand)
2. Visual factory
Define the elements of a visual factory and describe how they can help control
the improved process. (Understand)
C. Maintain controls
2. Control plan
Develop a control plan for ensuring the ongoing success of the improved
process including the transfer of responsibility from the project team to the
process owner. (Apply)
D. Sustain improvements
1. Lessons learned
Document the lessons learned from all phases of a project and identify how
improvements can be replicated and applied to other processes in the
organization. (Apply)
4. Ongoing evaluation
Identify and apply tools for ongoing evaluation of the improved process,
including monitoring for new constraints, additional opportunities for
improvement, etc. (Apply)
1. Strategic
Describe how Porter’s five forces analysis, portfolio architecting and other
tools can be used in strategic design and planning. (Understand)
2. Tactical