Six Sigma Training Material

Minitab Adds New Capabilities to Quality Trainer Statistics E-Learning Course

State College, PA (PRWEB) July 07, 2011

Minitab, the leading provider of software for quality improvement, has added a new feature to its Quality Trainer online statistics course.

Quality Trainer is an e-learning course focused on statistics for Six Sigma and data analysis with Minitab Statistical Software. It’s been enthusiastically adopted by companies including Caterpillar, Cummins, Baxter Healthcare, the U.S. Postal Service, Wal-Mart and many more.

Quality Trainer now gives companies the ability to organize their subscribers into groups so they can easily manage their employees’ progress. Subscription coordinators can create and name groups, assign users to those groups, and track subscribers' progress as part of that group. Coordinators also can filter or sort by group and create, manage or delete groups as needed.

"Statistics and data analysis form the foundation of quality improvement methods in business and industry," says Michelle Paret, product marketing manager for Minitab. "The problem for quality-minded organizations is that not all employees understand statistics—and even those who have statistical training need to refresh their knowledge regularly."

That's where Quality Trainer comes in. This comprehensive, Web-based course prepares professionals for quality improvement training courses and serves as an ongoing resource. An animated tour of the course is available at http://www.minitab.com/theater/default.aspx?video=QualityTrainerTour .

“Anyone can benefit from this opportunity to boost their statistical know-how and learn at their own pace,” says Paret. “And with subscriptions starting at just $30 US per month, it's an extremely affordable way to develop your skills.”

Quality Trainer’s engaging, Web-based design makes difficult statistical concepts easy to grasp and gives professionals convenient access to an ongoing resource for their projects. Using narration, animation, and other multimedia, Quality Trainer teaches subscribers how to apply statistics and make the most effective use of their data.

The course delivers nine chapters of material covering basic graphical analysis and statistical inference, as well as more advanced techniques like process capability, analysis of variance and design of experiments.

“Quality Trainer lets you learn how to use these methods to solve real-world quality improvement challenges, and then practice your new skills immediately through hands-on exercises and interactive quizzes,” says Paret.

On-line certification and projects that benefit the big picture ...

LINKEDIN COMMENT:  From another perspective, I somewhat disagree with everyone regarding Moresteam (relative on on-line Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training). While they are a very reputable firm, my experience with their material is and their testing is that they are interested in the use of statistics for the sake of stats. (but I do have a bias) They, no doubt, are experts at statistical analysis, and now doubt their training would prepare you to sit for any Lean Six Sigma certification exam. But will their training prepare you to be a solid performance improvement professional? Most of the feedback I received was that the candidates just wanted to pass the test and worry about being a solid black belt once they got through the study and exam. My caveat, however, is that I did not go through a project with them nor did I ask the black belts regarding the level of success they experienced 6 months to a year afterwards. But do not take my word for it, Cardinal Health is a company that uses Moresteam to train their black belt, try and contact one of them and make an inquiry. They can tell you from experience.

MY RESPONSE TO THE LINKEDIN COMMENT: You made some good points.

Another problem that is often experienced in Lean Six Sigma deployments is that even if someone is working on a project it seems like more often than not is that the drive to completion of the project rests on Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Green Belt.  What is wrong with this picture? The process owner should be asking/demanding that the project to improve their area be timely completed.

My conclusion about this is that process improvement efforts are not truly integrated within an overall business management system that consists of scorecards (which I think should be predictive) goals and analytically/innovatively determined targeted-worded strategies that positively impact the big picture; i.e., an organization business system pull for project creation system — as opposed to someone hunting for a project so that they can get certification.

This is the reason I am so convinced that businesses need revisit their business management system to address these important issues; e.g., we saved 100 million dollars but nobody can find the money.  We need non-silo projects that benefit the big picture, where people are actively coached on how to timely and effectively complete these projects; i.e., it is more than just knowledge of the tools.

Again, suggest that organizations approach their efforts from a business point of view rather than just Lean or Six Sigma tools, as described in the following short videos.  How-to-implement books are readily available from Amazon.com.

The Six Sigma basic training kit

Six Sigma Workbook For Dummies

Implementing six sigma, smarter solutions using statistical methods

Six Sigma for managers

Six Sigma Greenbelt Training Material, Seminar / Self-study Presentation Slides