IASSC Black Belt – Examination Preparation Training for Black Belt Examination

Deliverable – Equip trainees with enough knowledge to attempt and pass the IASSC Black Belt
Examination.

1. The Final Examination will be for 4 hours.

2. You would be asked 150 questions.
3. Each of these questions would be MCQ.
4. The complexity levels of the examination will be higher.
5. The passing score is 70%.
6. Each question would carry 5 marks.

1. Six Sigma means Six times standard deviation from the mean. This represents a measure of
performance excellence.
2. Now when a process works at Six Sigma levels, it would have reduced the COPQ to a very low
level.
3. That’s why Six Sigma is considered an excellence benchmark.
4. Six Sigma levels can be achieved by
a. DMAIC – Improves processes
b. DFSS – Design and develop new processes.
5. Both DMAIC and DFSS concepts are used in projects.
6. Can a DMAIC project move into a DFSS project?

Sometimes when you improve the process, you have finished all improvements, you jump to
re-engineering. When would you decide you have finished all improvements?

1. Based on Sigma level

2. Changes in customer requirements
3. Cost of doing improvement is significantly high
7. I identify a DMAIC project and I start the DMAIC project. I can move this DMAIC project to a
DFSS project
a. After Measure – If you found that
i. Measurement system is not capable
ii. There are a lot of uncontrollable variables
iii. The process data is not stable
iv. The process is not capable
b. After Analyze
i. If you have not found a single critical X
ii. If you find that the data distribution keeps changing all the time
c. After Improve
i. When you use DOE, you have not found a single validated X
ii. When piloted improvements have not impacted X performance or Y performance

8. Some projects can be moved from DMAIC to DFSS after Improve, but this will lead to cost
investment.
a. Does your sponsor agree to the cost investment?
b. Why did the project team take so much time to move to DFSS?
9. You want to collect data manually. There is cost involved. What type of costs?
a. People’s hour costs
b. Stationary cost
c. Training costs
10. Process maturity in Six Sigma is a function of cost of improvement/ Sigma levels.

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 11. A process working at 6 Sigma levels will deliver 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

12. When a new process is designed, 3.4 Defects per Million opportunities correspond to a sigma
level of 4.5. In the long term, the process performance can shift maximum by 1.5 Sigma. That’s
where 6 Sigma.

13. A process working at 6 Sigma levels will give a yield of 99.999998% which equates to 2 Defects
per Billion opportunities.

14. Should we always reach Six Sigma levels by completing a DMAIC project?

Salah says No. Let’s assume the baseline sigma was established at 1.4. By the end of the project,
you have improved this to 2.2. This improvement of 0.8 has reduced defective units being made.
This actually would have brought financial benefit to the company.

So, any improvement in Sigma levels is considered financially beneficial.

15. A project team completes a DMAIC project where it has improved Sigma levels from 1.2 to 1.5 in
3 months. This has saved the company $90,000. The business case said that we will save $200,000.
Let the cost be $10000
a. Can the pilot be considered successful?
b. Can the sustenance be considered successful?
16. Six Sigma projects is about integrating three voices
a. Voice of customer – Customers can be internal or external
b. Voice of business – Gaps in strategic areas (Cost/ Revenue/ Market Share)
c. Voice of process/ Employees – Operational Indicators (KPIs)

For example, in WST, we observed that there was a potential to increase revenue/
reduce cost. We tabulated various costs – Maintenance, fuel, octroi, labour, etc. We
understood that revenue = f(# of trips trucks used to make).

Operational KPI = # of trips made by trucks

Strategic impact area (KBO) = Revenue

Studied data sheets and we found that the trucks used to make X number of trips every
month. We wanted to increase this to Y number of trips every month. By increasing from
X to Y, the company would have benefited financially ($750,000).

# of trips = Primary metric

Kilometers run = Secondary metric
Maintenance time = Secondary metric
Tires wear out = Secondary metric

A project will have only 1 primary metric, but it could have many secondary metrics.
These secondary metrics are prepared in order to measure complete changes to the
process.

A project team speaks to the finance, marketing and the operations teams to understand
their impact on a process which needs to be improved. The project team has collected ______

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Example – My company is losing $100,000 – VOB. My company is losing the money due to increased
defectives – VOC. My company is making 5% defective rate every month – VOP.

Pareto Chart of Customer complaints

200 100
80
Frequency

150

Percent
60
100
40
50 20
0 0
Customer complaints ly d al rly rly
er ba riv e e
op e ar op op
pr er on pr pr
w
t ed ns en lt e
d
pe
d
in io ok bo ip
pa e ns b r
t sh
t
no m re no no
t
di tu e
re re r ni ur as
it u tu it
i Fu rn
w
rn rn Fu re
Fu Fu n it
u
r
Fu
Frequency 100 35 30 24 20
Percent 47.8 16.7 14.4 11.5 9.6
Cum % 47.8 64.6 78.9 90.4 100.0

From the Pareto Chart which uses the 80-20 principle where 20 is Vital Few, you would find that
furniture not painted properly and dimensions being bad are two reasons which have resulted in 65%
dissatisfaction.

Loss = Customer dissatisfaction = f( Paint, dimensions)

This is called y = f(x) technique of problem solving.

Pareto chart is a prioritization tool, which means you would want to shortlist something out of
something.

__________________ shows a bar graph with the y-axis as Frequency and x –axis as contributing reasons

d. Histogram
e. Bar chart
f. Pareto chart
g. None of the above

Who first discovered the use of Pareto Charts?

i. Vilfredo Pareto
ii. Michael Lorenz
iii. Joseph Juran
iv. William Deming

17. Deliverables of a Lean Six Sigma project

a. Better quality (Quality products, less defectives etc)

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 b. Faster speeds (Increased turnover of products, reduced cycle time etc)
c. Reduced costs

18. Roles and responsibilities

a. Champion scopes the project
b. MBB guides
c. BB leads
d. GB implements
e. YB team member

In a small enterprise which has about 250 employees, ______ leads the project

1. Champion
2. GB
3. BB
4. YB

It’s a small organization. Functional processes would be simple and there would be no inter-
departmental dependencies. So, if a GB identifies this project, he will be able to complete it. Again, being
a small organization, the organization may not have resources to allow a BB to do a full time project.

Black Belts are full time process improvement specialists. 100% of the time they should do projects. 1-2
projects in a year with a minimum of $250,000 per project.

The ratio below is applicable for big organizations that need to have a robust framework for Six Sigma.

YB – 1: 10

GB – 1: 50

BB – 1: 250

MBB – 1: 1000

Anything less than 500 is known as SME.

Six Sigma Metrics

First Time Yield(FTY) - % age of the products which are made correct first time without rework.

A company produces 100 units out of which 5 are scrap and 5 are reworked. The FTY of the company is
(100-5-5)/100 = 90/ 100 = 90%.

Rolled Throughput Yield and Defects per Unit

Three sub-processes work in a series with their data as shown below

Process A makes 90 products first time right out of 100

Process B makes 95 products first time right out of 100

Process C makes 90 products first time right out of 100

Calculate the overall efficiency.

Thus, the overall efficiency of the company known as Rolled Throughput Yield is at 75%. A Black Belt
will see that his process yield is at 75%. The Black Belt knows that if the process has to work at 6 Sigma
Levels, the yield will have to be 99.9996%.

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Ideal = 99.9996%

As is = 75%

Overall process yield will increase to 87.42% from 75% if process A, B and C all are improved.

A Green Belt will identify the process with the lowest yield and he will improve that process. A Black Belt
will have to work with all processes.

Rolled Throughput Yield can be used as a metric and can also be used as a scoping tactic.

Two companies produce the same unit. The RTY of Shejara is 90% and Yarmouk is 92%. Which company
is better financially?

Cost of 1 unit of scrap = $1

Cost of 1 unit of rework = $0.50

Shejara 10 units – 8 rework and 2 scrap

Yarmouk 7 units of scrap and 1 rework

Cost of the defectives Shejara - $4 + $2 = $6

Cost of the defectives Yarmouk = $8

RTY for Shejara is 90% and cost of defects is $6, while for Yarmouk it is 92% and cost is $8.

Shejara makes 10% defective but spends 1 hour in re-doing all 10. Cost incurred is $10. Yarmouk makes
8% defective but spends 2 hours/ unit and cost incurred is $16. Who is better?

DPU or Defects per Unit is given by the formula, # of Defects/ Total Number of Units.

TDPU is an addition of all the DPU, which means DPU can be added while RTY should be multiplied.

RTY = e-TDPU

The total defects per unit from a company is 0.12. The Rolled Throughput Yield is __________

19. COPQ or Cost of Poor Quality is the price a company pays in producing bad quality products/
products not right first time.
20. Only 20% of COPQ is visible. 80% is invisible.
21. For example, 5% defective rate would result in 20% COPQ, but rework cost, cost of extra raw
material, cost of machines etc would contribute to 80%. In calculating COPQ as a Black Belter for
your projects, you should always try to understand what does the organization do when bad
quality products are produced? This question will answer the COPQ of the organization.
22. COPQ Analysis is done in the Define stage of a project, but a project team should continually
revisit the COPQ numbers.
23. COPQ has four type of costs: 100 bad units out of 1000
a. Internal Failure Cost = $10
b. External Failure Cost = $15
c. Prevention Cost = $2
d. Appraisal cost = $3
24. The total COPQ is $30 for 100 bad units.

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 25. After improvement, you reduced 100 bad units to 10 bad units of 1000. While improving, you
standardized work instructions and you did POKAYOKE, which is Mistake proofing. Now, the
COPQ table looks like below
a. Internal Failure Cost = $2
b. External Failure cost = $5
c. Prevention cost = $15
d. Appraisal cost = $8

The post improvement COPQ is $30 for 10 bad units of 1000.

26. For example, 10% defective rate gives a revenue loss of $20. After the defectives are detected, the
company issues new raw material, asks a supervisor to supervise production and this production
is completed. Cost now includes
a. Cost of new raw material = $10
b. Labour cost = $5
c. Supervision cost = $3
d. Additional inspection cost = $2
e. Electricity and other overheads. = 3

Direct revenue loss = $20

Indirect cost of poor quality = $23 ( 80%)

Total loss = $43

27. Which cost is hidden out of the 4 categories? --- External cost is visible. Prevention and appraisal
costs are also visible most of the times.

28. An operator finishes producing a product in 3 minutes and he checks the product for 2 minutes.
The company has a final quality check department which inspects 100% of the product. The costs
contributing to poor quality are:

a. Internal Failure
b. External Failure
c. Prevention
d. Appraisal

Prevention can never happen from humans.

29. In GIAD Furniture, all the operators used to spend 1 ½ hours in going and coming back from
Breakfast. This is
a. Internal Failure
b. Appraisal
c. External Failure
d. Prevention
30. COPQ is high because CTQ are not met.
31. CTQ stands for Critical to Quality and it should

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 a. Be a characteristic and not a product/ process/ system
b. Should have some variations
c. The customer should allow a variation range
32. CTQ comes from a customer
33. Customer complaint from VOC = Not painted properly = Paint should shine, Paint should be
thick and not watered…. Thickness of paint – 10 – 15.
34. VOC is subjective. CTC is the need of the customer. CTQ is the operational definition of the
customer need.
35. VOC  CTC  CTQ
36. When the CTQs are not met, the CTC is impacted and therefore customer complaints come in.
37. Business case is the first official document for communication with top stakeholders.
38. A Business case states the need of doing the project and has components like

a. Company overview
b. Need for this project in broad terms
c. Project charter
39. The project charter should have
a. Problem statement – This project needs to reduce maintenance expenses.
b. Goal
c. Scope – This project needs to be done in X factory in my company.
d. Primary and Secondary Metric
e. Charts from initial data collected
40. The biggest doubt when we do projects is the Goal of the project.
a. Ask the steering committee on what is an acceptable goal
b. Using Regression studies/ 1 Sample tests to find out the statistical goal.
41. A project charter is a living document and should never be closed. Any changes to the project
should be documented in the project charter.

42. Example of using Regression studies to determine the goal of the project.
a. Baseline production capacity for 12 months is at 1.3 tons. Per ton price is $1,000. For 2013,
Sudan Mint had a revenue of $130,000. Mr. Alwathig says he wants to increase revenue
by 200%.
b. $260,000
c. Revenue = (0.5)* Production Capacity + 200

The responsibility of first drafting a project charter lies with ___________

a. Master Black Belt

b. Black Belt
c. Green Belt
d. Champion

Explanation: It is the Champion whose responsibility it is to identify strategic impact projects. It is the
Champion whose responsibility to identify the team who will do the project. Once the team is identified,
the Champion will communicate the need for the project. How ---- Using the Project Charter. Thus, it is
the Champion who first drafts the project charter.

1. Champion identifies project opportunity

2. Champion updates project charter – Start of the Define

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 3. Champion transfers project charter to project team
4. Project team collects data
5. Project team updates project charter and completes per Define
6. Project team transfers to BB if present
7. Internal review
8. Project team finally gets Charter approval. – End of Define

The project charter should have the below _________________

a. Voice of Process – Data collected for primary and secondary

b. Root Causes
c. Voice of Business – COPQ/ Revenue loss
d. Voice of Customer – Customer complaints analysis

43. Voice of Business represents profit/ financial opportunity for the project.
44. Example coffee is too hot  Coffee exceeded temperature specifications  What were the
specifications  Coffee water should have been boiled at 100.

45. What is Lean Six Sigma?

a. Lean + Six Sigma

b. Six Sigma + Lean
c. Lean in Six Sigma
d. Six Sigma in Lean
46. When you use Lean principles as part of the classical DMAIC approach, this is when you have
implemented Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma doesn’t mean you have to implement Lean first
and then Six Sigma.
47. Lean principles mean waste elimination. Six Sigma principles mean variation reduction.
48. If I do a Lean project, one of the tools I have to use is Statistical Process Control. SPC cannot be
achieved unless you have done stability – enforcing actions, which can be used using SS tools and
techniques.
49. Can a Six Sigma project eliminate wastes in the process? (Yes/ No)
50. Can a Lean project reduce variations in the process? (Yes/ No)
51. At the end of the day, Six Sigma is Kaizen.
52. Kaizen is a philosophy that drives slow, incremental and gradual improvement + also disruptive
or innovative improvement. Slow improvement is called Kaizen while innovative = Karakuri
Kaizen.
53. As per Lean principles wherever work is done,
a. Value is created
b. Waste is eliminated
c. Value is eliminated
d. Waste is generated
54. As per Lean defined by IASSC, there are 8 types of wastes:

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 55. In a factory, equipments like forklift, tools move around different places. This is an example of

a. Conveyance
b. Motion
c. Inventory
d. Waiting

56. In a factory, an operator finishes production of the unit, he carries the unit to place B where
quality inspection is done. This is an example of
a. Motion
b. Conveyance
c. Inventory
d. Waiting

57. In a factory, 25 units are produced instead of 20 because the factory historically makes 5 defects
in a day. This is an example of
a. Over-processing
b. Overproduction
c. Conveyance
d. Waiting

58. 5S stands for Sort, Straighten, Sweep, Standardize and Sustain.

59. No lean implementation can happen without 5S. This is the basic ingredient to be done for all
Lean implementations.
60. 5S is based on the concept of keeping what you need to perform efficiently near the workplace.
61. In the first stage, Sort, you classify what is needed and not needed. The not needed items are
marked with a red tag. This activity is called Red-tagging.

62. Red-tagging is an activity which typically happens in

a. Sort
b. Sweep
c. Sustain
d. Standardize

63. In which stage of 5S implementation would the project team outline standard protocols?

a. Sort
b. Sweep
c. Sustain
d. Standardize

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 64. Which of the below stages is the most difficult to complete in 5S?
a. Sort
b. Sweep
c. Sustain (Shitsuke and it is believed 90% of 5S fails due to lack of discipline)
d. Standardize

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