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1. The primary goal of lean is to remove waste in a process, and the primary goal of six sigma is
to reduce variation.

A. True
B. False

2. At a soda bottling plant in Mexico, machines are supposed to fill each can with 12 fluid ounces
(355 milliliters) of soda. However, after conducting a sample of 100 cans, employees at the
plant noticed that the variation in the amount of soda per can was beyond certain limits that
were acceptable to their customers. A reduction in variation, which would be needed in this
example, is the primary goal of:

A. Statistical Process Control

B. Lean
C. Pareto Analysis
D. Six Sigma

3. At a factory owned by a mobile phone company, thousands of phones are manufactured each
day. However, on occasion, the company designs a new type of phone to accommodate a
change in customer preferences – such as a desire for more storage capacity or longer battery
life. In this case, the effort to design a new phone is considered a:

A. Process
B. Project
C. Product
D. Phase

4. Which of the following is an example of a process?

A. Constructing a new factory for a car manufacturer

B. Deploying workforce management software across an organization
C. Planning a wedding for a high-level politician
D. Processing a customer's order at a checkout register

5. The goal of lean is to eliminate waste in our processes. Which of the following types of waste
refers to raw materials that are purchased but not immediately used?

A. Overprocessing
B. Overproduction
C. Inventory
D. Defects

6. A company that makes televisions decides to add features to their product that are not
required or value-added for their customers. This is an example of which one of the seven
elements of waste? (It also referred to as “gold plating.”)

A. Defects
B. Overprocessing
C. Inventory
D. Overproduction
7. A software development team releases a feature with several bugs. After receiving complaints
about the issues, they spend several days on corrections. What type of waste does this
represent?

A. Defects
B. Overprocessing
C. Waiting
D. Inventory

8. A restaurant offers a buffet, but food is often left untouched and discarded at the end of the
day. What type of waste does this represent?

A. Defects
B. Overproduction
C. Waiting
D. Overprocessing

9. To reach a sigma level of six (“Six Sigma”), there must be at least 6 standard deviations
between the average of a process (the mean) and the closest customer specification limit. It
also signifies that our defects per million opportunities (DPMO) are less than or equal to 3.4.

A. True
B. False

10. Six Sigma is now used across the world, but it had its origins in the 1980s at which company?

A. Texas Instruments
B. Allied Signals
C. General Electric
D. Motorola

11. Who is considered the pioneer of the Toyota Production System?

A. John Krafcik
B. Ohno Taiichi
C. Jack Welch
D. Henry Ford

12. After production, a worker at an electronics factory tests a sample of memory cards to
confirm that each contains the amount of storage that has been promised to the customer.
(This measurement is in gigabytes.) In a particular batch, he observes that the memory cards
have become corrupted and will need to be repaired before being sold. This scenario
represents which type of quality cost?

A. Internal Failure
B. External Failure
C. Prevention
D. Appraisal
13. A petroleum company has an accident on a rig that results in oil spilling into the ocean. They
are required to pay penalties, which represent what type of quality cost?

A. Appraisal
B. Internal Failure
C. External Failure
D. Prevention

14. The cost of poor quality is the financial impact of our defects. Which of the following would be
classified as a visible cost of poor quality?

A. Loss of future sales

B. Delays to other initiatives
C. Damage to company brand
D. Returns by customers

15. At a software company, after a tester identifies a security vulnerability, it typically takes 2
hours before the development team begins their investigation. Once they begin investigating
and fixing the issue, on average, it takes the team 8 hours to implement a solution. In this
case, what is the process cycle efficiency?

A. 0.25
B. 0.20
C. 0.80
D. 4.00

16. A clothing manufacturer produces 1,000 pairs of jeans in a given month. For each pair of
jeans, there are 12 different opportunities to fail at meeting critical CTQs. During the month
of May, they identified and corrected 24 defects. In this case, what are defects per million
opportunities (DPMO), and are they achieving six sigma?

A. 500; Yes
B. 2,000; No
C. 500; No
D. 2,000; Yes

17. A company that manufactures wheelchairs for hospitals wants to understand the amount of
rework in a given manufacturing process. The process has three steps with the following
yields: 92%, 96%, and 89%. What is the rolled throughput yield (RTY) for this process?

A. 79%
B. 75%
C. 89%
D. 96%
18. A doctor’s office has benchmarked themselves against other offices in the area and noticed
that their average patient wait times are considerably longer than normal. (They hypothesize
that this could be one explanation for their declining customer review scores.) They decide to
begin scoping a new process improvement project to correct the issue. What phase of the
DMAIC lifecycle are they in?

A. Measure
B. Improve
C. Control
D. Define

19. A restaurant chain is looking at their food delivery process in order to understand and
improve it. They decide to frame the problem in a formula, which shows how various inputs
affect the output of a given process. In this case, which would be the best way to represent
that formula?

A. On-Time Delivery = order volume + distance + traffic + weather

B. On-Time Delivery = f (order volume, distance, traffic, weather)
C. On-Time Delivery = f (orders items / order volume)
D. On-Time Delivery = 3 (order volume, distance, traffic, weather)

20. A project to reduce lead time in a manufacturing process involves coordinating with multiple
departments. The project leader is responsible for facilitating collaboration, solving conflicts,
and using advanced tools, like regression analysis. What belt is this person likely to hold?

A. White Belt
B. Yellow Belt
C. Green Belt
D. Black Belt

21. Following a project to improve billing accuracy, an individual takes responsibility for
integrating the new billing process into daily operations and training employees on the
updates. What role are they fulfilling?

A. White Belt
B. Process Owner
C. Yellow Belt
D. Executive Sponsor

22. The operations department within a large construction company has documented several
examples of waste being generated across the organization and has recommended a Lean Six
Sigma implementation to address the issues. Who would need to approve this organization-
wide implementation of Lean Six Sigma?

A. Process Owner
B. Black Belt
C. Executive Sponsor
D. Green Belt
ANSWER KEY (BLANK)

1 ___________ 11 ___________ 21 ___________

2 ___________ 12 ___________ 22 ___________

3 ___________ 13 ___________

4 ___________ 14 ___________

5 ___________ 15 ___________

6 ___________ 16 ___________

7 ___________ 17 ___________

8 ___________ 18 ___________

9 ___________ 19 ___________

10 ___________ 20 ___________
ANSWER KEY (COMPLETED)

1 A Lean deals with eliminating waste. Six sigma deals with reducing variation.

2 D Lean deals with eliminating waste. Six sigma deals with reducing variation.

3 B Processes are ongoing, repetitive activities. Projects are temporary initiatives.

4 D Processes are ongoing, repetitive activities. Projects are temporary initiatives.

5 C As a summary of the 7 elements of waste: TRANSPORTATION is the unnecessary

movement of materials. INVENTORY is storing more raw materials that can be
immediately used. MOTION is the unnecessary movement of people (as mentioned in
this question). WAITING is waiting for the next step in the process. OVERPRODUCTION
is producing more than the customer demands. OVERPROCESSING is doing more than
the customer requires. DEFECTS are when we have to correct issues with our products.

6 B As a summary of the 7 elements of waste: TRANSPORTATION is the unnecessary

movement of materials. INVENTORY is storing more raw materials that can be
immediately used. MOTION is the unnecessary movement of people. WAITING is
waiting for the next step in the process. OVERPRODUCTION is producing more than the
customer demands. OVERPROCESSING is doing more than the customer requires (as
mentioned in this question). DEFECTS are when we have to correct issues with our
products.

7 A Defects are errors in a product or service that require correction. In this case, the bugs
in the software necessitate rework and impact customer satisfaction.

8 B Overproduction is making more finished goods (food, in this case) than are needed.
Buffets often lead to overproduction because the supply doesn’t align with the actual
demand.

9 A This is true. There must be at least 6 standard deviations between the mean and the
closest customer specification limit, and DPMO should be less than or equal to 3.4.

10 D WALTER SHEWHART, while at Bell Labs in the 1920s, began using statistical process
control (SPC). BOB GALVIN, while at Motorola in the 1980s, formalized Six Sigma.
Then, JACK WELCH, while at General Electric in the 1990s, led one of the largest
implementations of Six Sigma.

11 B Ohno Taiichi developed the Toyota Production System in the 1950s. It focused on
eliminating waste and “just-in-time” production.

12 A In terms of quality costs, PREVENTION is before production, APPRAISAL is during

production, INTERNAL FAILURES are after production but before shipment, and
EXTERNAL FAILURES are after production and after shipment. Repair or rework costs,
as mentioned in this scenario, are classified as an internal failure cost. They are
incurred before the product is shipped.
13 C In terms of quality costs, PREVENTION is before production, APPRAISAL is during
production, INTERNAL FAILURES are after production but before shipment, and
EXTERNAL FAILURES are after production and after shipment. Legal penalties, as
mentioned in this scenario, are classified as an external failure cost. They are incurred
after shipment.

14 D When we consider costs of poor quality using the “iceberg” model, visible (or hard
costs) are more easily quantified. They are more direct. Hidden (or soft costs) are more
difficult to quantify.

15 C To calculate process cycle efficiency (PCE), the value-added time is divided by the
process lead time. Value-added activities are those that add value to the product. They
are activities that the customer is willing to pay for. The process lead time is the total
time between when we receive the order until the product or service is delivered to the
customer, which includes waiting. In this case, PCE is 8 hours divided by 10 hours,
which is 0.80.

16 B To calculate defects per million opportunities (DPMO), we use the following formula:
(defects/opportunities) x 1 million. In this case, we have 24 defects and 12,000
opportunities (or 1,000 units multiplied by 12 opportunities to fail per unit). Finally, if
our DPMO is greater than 3.4, we are not achieving six sigma.

17 A Rolled throughput yield (RTY) for an entire process is calculated by multiplying the
yield of individual process steps.

18 D As a summary of the DMAIC lifecycle: In DEFINE, we define the goals of the process
improvement and scope a new project. (This can include preparing a Project Charter.)
In MEASURE, we measure the current, "as is" process. (This can include preparing a
process map.) In ANALYZE, we analyze the process for areas of improvement and use
statistics (hypothesis testing) to validate claims made about the process using sample
data. In IMPROVE, we improve the process. (This can include conducting designed
experiments.) In CONTROL, we monitor and sustain the improved process to ensure the
benefits last.

19 B When we first begin to brainstorm and break down the process, we do not yet know the
mathematical relationship, so it would not make sense (or be correct) to add, subtract,
divide, or multiply. We simply say that our process output is a function ("f") of the
inputs, which are separated by commas.

20 D Black Belts lead large, cross-functional projects and are skilled in using advanced
analytical tools. Green Belts typically lead smaller, department-specific projects.

21 B The Process Owner is accountable for embedding process improvements into regular
operations and ensuring proper training. The Executive Sponsor is involved at a higher
strategic level and does not handle day-to-day implementation.

22 C Within the world of Lean Six Sigma: an EXECUTIVE SPONSOR decides to invest in Lean
Six Sigma and sets goals for the organization. The PROCESS OWNER is responsible for
the process being improved and will often consult with teams during the improvement.
A WHITE BELT understands foundational terms. A YELLOW BELT has a basic
understanding, supports small projects, and often focuses on improving their own work.
A GREEN BELT has an intermediate understanding and leads small projects often in
their own functional area. A BLACK BELT has a deep understanding and leads large,
cross-functional projects.