Six Sigma teams design and conduct experiments to investigate the relationships between input variables and response variables. By controlling and changing the input variables and observing the effects on the response variables, a Six Sigma team gains a deep understanding of these relationships. After determining what and how much needs to be changed to meet the desired improvement, teams generate solution ideas based on the best combination of input variables' settings to optimize the response, and then the ideas are tested, implemented, and validated. Later in the Control stage, efforts are made to keep the improved processes, products, or services under statistical control and to retain the gains.

This course explores full and fractional factorial designs and the DOE process. In addition, it teaches how to select, test, and validate solutions using a variety of analysis, screening, and testing tools commonly used in Six Sigma. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation.

Six Sigma offers many techniques and strategies to improve an organization's processes. As a Six Sigma team moves into the Improve phas

Six Sigma teams concluding the Analyze phase with a well-understood problem strive in the Improve phase to generate a well-designed solution. Design of experiments (DOE) is a controlled approach to experimentation that enables teams to systematically change the level of one or more input factors and observe the effects on the targeted response. If teams exercise care in choosing the right design – including suitable factors, levels, and responses – their experiments can reveal the precise combination of factors that will optimize the response. Later, that combination will be tested, validated, and ultimately implemented to effect the desired process improvement. This course surveys the concepts that are fundamental to design of experiments methodology, including the basic elements of experiments; principles for minimizing the effects of error, noise, and aliasing; and strategies for designing experiments with a maximum of power and resolution within the practical realities of resource and time constraints. The focus is on the planning stage of DOE, when teams set experimental objectives; select the factors, levels, and responses to be studied; choose the best experimental design; and prepare to run the experiments. In describing these activities, the course explores the questions teams should consider at each stage of planning, and it provides recommendations for building a design to meet a variety of needs. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft's ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.