Some Suggestions for Integrating Six Sigma Into Academic Curricula

• Activity Number: 193
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education*
• Author(s): Roger Hoerl*+
• Affiliation(s): General Electric Company
• Keywords: Six Sigma ; Quality

Abstract

Six Sigma is having a profound impact on the application of statistics in business and industry and will likely have similar impact on government and biological use of statistics in the future. GE alone has trained hundreds of thousands of people in statistical methods through its Six Sigma initiative, perhaps making this initiative the largest statistical education effort in history. However, there have been a number of challenges to integration of Six Sigma into academic curricula that have slowed academia's response: 1) difficulty in cutting through the media "hype" to understand what Six Sigma is technically; 2) deciding how Six Sigma best fits in; 3) finding something to delete from an already overcrowded course syllabus; 4) finding appropriate materials and case studies; 5) belief on the part of instructors that Six Sigma is a temporary "fad," not "scientific," or only applicable to industrial applications.

This talk will briefly comment on the educational value of Six Sigma and then suggest several specific ways that it can be integrated into college curricula. These suggestions will address each of the challenges listed above.