Deck 2: Six Sigma Green Belt

Question 1

Albert Technologies is developing a new transistor system to launch in 2012. Which Six Sigma project methodology are managers likely to use?

A)DMADV
B)DMAIC
C)DMAIV
D)DMADC

Answer 1

DMADV

Question 2

In DMAIC project methodology, the 'I' refers to the following:

A)integrate current products
B)integrate future products
C)improve current processes
D)improve future processes

Answer 2

improve current processes

Question 3

Jason's company manufactures parts for large car producers such as Toyota and Honda. Management at his company is committed to continuous improvement in manufacturing standards and practices through rigorous training. What is the name of this practice?

A)Kaiser
B)error-proofing
C)Kaizen
D)teamwork

Answer 3

Kaizen

Question 4

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation requests 'business cases' of all new project proposals. What is the main goal behind the preparation of a business case?

A)to gather technical requirements for an IT project
B)to present financial projections to investors
C)to address how the project will address the business need
D)to focus the efforts of executive recruitment

Question 5

David's team of architectural engineers is prompted by managers to gather Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for their next project. What is the process whereby project KPIs are set against internal and external goals?

A)kaizen
B)benchmarking
C)data gathering
D)organizational restructuring

Question 6

What is the correct sequence for the use of benchmarking in the assessment of process efficiency?

A)select KPIs > collect data > analyze data against benchmarks > improve strategies
B)select KPIs > select benchmarking targets > collect data > analyze data against benchmarks > improve strategies
C)select benchmarking targets > collect data > improve strategies > select KPIs
D)select KPIs > select benchmarking targets > improve strategies > analyze data against benchmarking

Question 7

Managers at a waste management facility are exploring question-asking methods to help them understand the cause of low productivity. What technique that utilizes repeated questions can they use to get to the root of a problem?

A)pareto chart
B)run chart
C)5why
D)3why

Question 8

As manager of a grocery store, Jason is requested by executives to develop a SIPOC diagram for their latest expansion. What does the P stand for in the acronym?

A)process
B)production
C)project
D)pareto

Question 9

Drake International is compiling a list of their customers who have purchased large items in successive years. They complete a contingency table that compiles biographical information on the customers such as age and occupation along with information on the purchases. What are the values in a contingency table based on?

A)prior knowledge
B)empirical evidence
C)personal experiences
D)public data repository

Question 10

Sam's research at a local manufacturing company is examining the efficiency of a new machine in detecting design failures. To present evidence to his supervisors that the machine is indeed effective, he must accept or reject the null hypothesis. According to the image below, what does the region of non-rejection imply?

A)accept the alternate hypothesis
B)reject the null hypothesis
C)accept the null hypothesis
D)reject the alternate

Question 11

A significant limitation of regression analysis is:

A)an incomplete understanding of the relationship between the independent and dependent variable
B)an incomplete understanding of the relationship between the slope and the random error term
C)an incomplete understanding of the relationship between the slope and the intercept
D)an incomplete understanding of the relationship between the intercept and the random error term

Question 12

Business Process Mapping (BPM) defines what a business does and the various actors within these activities. What is the final product of Business Process Mapping?

A)process map
B)business map
C)business process deliverable
D)business process illustration

Question 13

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is considered to be a ______________ type of accident analysis.

A)reactive
B)reflective
C)proactive
D)probative

Question 14

Green Technologies Inc. is conducting a JAD session to define those factors they think will contribute to the success of the new information system. This will include cost limitations and how to measure the success of the system. What does JAD stand for?

A)Joint Assessment Design
B)Joint Analytical Design
C)Joint Application Development
D)Joint Assessment Development

Question 15

Sam's Club executives noticed a strong, positive correlation between in-store promotions and the use of mail coupons. How does the increase of mail coupons affect in-store promotions?

A)as more in-store promotions are conducted, more mail coupons are used
B)there is no association between in-store promotions and mail coupons used
C)as more in-store promotions are conducted, mail coupons are not affected
D)as more in-store promotions are conducted, fewer mail coupons are used

Question 16

A car manufacturing company is facing a class -action lawsuit because of major brake failures. The company's research department is especially implicated because their published research on the brake systems showed them to be within expected safety standards. The following are expectations of ethical experimentation EXCEPT:

A)presentation of all results - favorable and unfavorable
B)full explanation of methodologies used in research
C)exclusion of important factors that affect experiment results
D)presenting summaries that do not distort experiment results

Question 17

The Risk Priority Number (RPN) methodology is an analytic tool that is used to determine the risks associated with potential problems for a product or a process. The following are components of the RPN equation EXCEPT:

A)source
B)severity
C)occurrence
D)detection

Question 18

Managers at a food manufacturing plant are studying the efficiency of sorting processes. They believe that 2% of food products contain defects; to prove this, their stated alternate hypothesis (H1) is that:

A)2% of food products do not contain defects
B)2% of food products contain defects
C)98% of food products do not contain defects
D)not enough information is available

Question 19

Three samples (1, 2, 3) are compared using ANOVA. The null hypothesis is stated as:

A)H0: µ₁ = µ₂ = µ₃
B)H₀: µ₁ = µ₂
C)H₁: µ₁ = µ₂ = µ₃
D)H₀: µ₂ = µ₃

Question 20

Brian is a Management Consultant who is hired to improve the performance of a capital fundraising team. In his initial workshop, he relates the importance of understanding team development and its effects on their upcoming fundraising campaign. After 'forming', teams enter a stage where ideas compete for prominence. What is this stage called?

A)adjourning
B)performing
C)storming
D)recognition

Question 21

An effective communication strategy is a must for successful and profitable companies. All of the following are important components of effective communication EXCEPT:

A)location
B)speaker credibility
C)purpose
D)audience

Question 22

Pharmaceutical companies are often accused of hiding experimental results that do not support their stated marketing campaigns. In ethical terms, what is this practice called?

A)"data cleansing"
B)"data boosting"
C)"data analysis"
D)"data scrubbing"

Question 23

Quality control at a software production assembly line chooses samples for study from every 25 units produced within the day shift. At the end of a single production cycle, they are expected to analyze 200 units for defects. What is this type of sampling called?

A)Probability sampling
B)Non-probability sampling
C)Continuous sampling
D)Fixed-rate sampling

Question 24

The throughput yields of 5 sub-processes in series to execute in order are: 80%, 82%, 80%, 80%, and 83%, respectively. What is the probability that the order executed through this 5 sub-processes in series is defect free?

A)25.15%
B)34.85%
C)45.15%
D)65.85%

Question 25

In both manufacturing and business processes in the long-term, the number of sigmas that will fit between a process mean and the desired specification limit will __________.

A)remain the same
B)decrease
C)increase
D)fluctuates with the process

Question 26

In a capability study, a process capability index uses both the process _______ and _________ to determine whether the process is "capable".

A)accuracy; precision
B)variability; specifications
C)variability; reproducibility
D)precision; specifications

Question 27

Melissa is a Management Consultant hired to conduct a business improvement assessment of low-performing processes in a fruit packing factory. The following are all examples of common causes in variations that could be found in this factory EXCEPT:

A)human reaction times
B)equipment age
C)materials variation
D)shortage of skilled machinists

Question 28

Following completion of her Six Sigma training, Stacey is responsible for Six Sigma implementation across the organization, integrating the knowledge she has gained while mentoring Black Belts. Stacey's role is:

A)executive leadership
B)champion
C)green belt
D)yellow belt

Question 29

An ink manufacturing company manager draws a control chart that displays a process mean. The manager is concerned that the process of ink packages assembly is inconsistent and inefficient. The control chart below shows that the process is out of control because:

A)eight points are above the center line
B)process means are too close to the LCL
C)process means are too far from the UCL
D)one point is above the center line

Question 30

Six Sigma business management strategy was started in 1981 in an effort to streamline and improve the effectiveness of business and manufacturing processes. Which company originally developed Six Sigma?

A)Microsoft
B)General Electric
C)General Motors
D)Motorola

Question 31

Charles' company plans to expand its market into North Africa particularly Egypt and Algiers. As producers of high quality, specialty food supplements, they must launch products that are specifically targeted to this new market, setting them apart from their own offerings and the local market. What is this practice called?

A)new market product launch
B)product differentiation
C)product innovation
D)new product market launch

Question 32

Richard's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project team members are spending increasingly less time on value-added tasks. As a result, the project's productivity is declining. What is this an example of?

A)over-commitment
B)under-commitment
C)ERP creep
D)scope creep

Question 33

What does DPMO stand for?

A)Dedicated Production & Manufacturing Output
B)Defects Per Million Opportunities
C)Defects Per Manufacturing Output
D)Defects Per Manufacturing Opportunities

Question 34

Annex Inc. managers wish to improve the productivity of project processes that require cross-functional team collaborations. Which of the following does NOT contribute to cross-functional teams failing to complete projects successfully?

A)leadership crises
B)differing departmental cultures
C)remote communication
D)territorial behavior

Question 35

Organizations forming successful cross-functional teams during the planning stages often have a formula include the following EXCEPT:

A)a detailed 'roles and responsibilities' document that is tailored to cross-functional teams
B)team members who can anticipate both cultural and practical processes complications
C)an experienced project manager who has limited exposure to cross-functional teams
D)business units that are flexible enough to provide support to cross-functional teams

Question 36

A specialized national welding company is facing the looming retirement of their most senior welders. According to the Theory of Constraints, what is their most pressing internal constraint?

A)lack of high quality welding materials
B)competition from outsourcing companies
C)shortage of expertise within the company
D)vulnerability to rising metal prices

Question 37

In product development and design, it is important to document and analyze all the ways that a product design would fail in real life situations. The goal of DFMEA in Six Sigma methodology is to uncover those instances where _________ ________ occurs.

A)failure mode
B)failure milestones
C)function model
D)function milestones

Question 38

PEAK Inc. is a large medical facility offering advanced radiological services. Executives are interested in computing the median age of men seeking full diagnostic imaging. As a measure of central tendency, where is the median point located?

A)located at the midway point of outlier points
B)located at the midway point of the upper 50% and lower 50% of data
C)located at the midway point of the most frequent data
D)located at the sum of differences between the mean and individual data points

Question 39

Operators of a local racetrack are interested in calculating the probability of rain during a major upcoming event. When calculating probability, what assumption is made about all outcomes of an event?

A)that they are a greater value than individual outcomes
B)that they are a smaller value than individual outcomes
C)that they have an equal likelihood of occurrence
D)that they have an unequal likelihood of occurrence

Question 40

Stakeholders are individuals or organizations that are affected by a company's decisions. Which one of these can be considered an external stakeholder to a global oil and gas company?

A)project leads in overseas offices
B)independent drilling equipment producers
C)seasonal employees
D)subcontracted consultants

Question 41

NEC launches a new TV set in Washington State in 2008 with a limited release. Company executives are interested in tracking sales' patterns in order to make production decisions for the following year. What graphical tool can display sales figures by month?

A)histogram
B)run chart
C)CTQ tree
D)process map

Question 42

Kroger's grocery stores in Houston are interested in gauging the response of weekend managers to door promotions. By selecting specific managers, what sampling method are executives using in their research?

A)convenience sampling
B)stratified sampling
C)simple random sampling
D)judgment sampling

Question 43

A biomedical company is studying whether its knee joint replacement is causing nerve damage. After extensive tests, the researchers make an erroneous decision, concluding that the replacement does cause nerve damage. A Type I error is the probability of?

A)rejecting the alternative hypothesis when it is true
B)rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true
C)accepting the null hypothesis when it is true
D)accepting the alternative hypothesis when it is true

Question 44

All of the following are the components of the multiple regression model EXCEPT:

A)slopes of trend lines
B)correlation coefficients
C)random error terms
D)intercept

Question 45

Executives at a software company are studying the differences between two groups of application users using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). If they ACCEPT the null hypothesis in this study, the implication is that:

A)there are no differences in the means between the two groups
B)there are small differences in the means between the two groups
C)there are large differences in the means between the two groups
D)there are no differences between the first group and the population

Question 46

Using a Program Evaluation & Review Chart (PERT) model, fundraising managers at Smith College develop a plan to expand the reach of their capital gains campaign. What is the main purpose behind the use of a PERT model in project management?

A)to predict the likelihood that employees will increase their productivity
B)to gain a new perspective on campaign growth strategy
C)to analyze tasks involved in completing the project
D)to provide post-implementation evaluation of the project

Question 47

Procom Systems uses a centralized system of gathering and analyzing feedback from customers through an online repository of surveys. What is this system called?

A)Enterprise Survey Development
B)Enterprise Feedback Management
C)Enterprise Survey Generation
D)Enterprise Feedback Analysis

Question 48

SWOT analysis is frequently used by companies to assess the viability of a new project or an existing one. The goal of this analysis is to provide __________ into the company's past performance and ___________ about its future performance.

A)insight; foresight
B)planning; action
C)insight; data
D)forecast; planning

Question 49

The Taguchi method for improving product quality of goods aims to eliminate variation in manufacturing. When is this method optimally used in the manufacturing life cycle?

A)during the design stage
B)before the design stage
C)during the production stage
D)after the production stage

Question 50

A manager of an 800-room hotel wishes to study the time it takes to deliver luggage to a room. For 10 days, he collects data on delivery times which can be up to 20 per day. What measure of dispersion can he use to analyze this data?

A)mean
B)standard deviation
C)median
D)mode

Question 51

Weigh-It-Right is producing a new brand of scales that measures body fat in addition to weight. Under testing conditions, the scale shows a consistent weight of 0.25 lbs. What is this an example of?

A)constant bias
B)constant variation
C)constant average
D)constant overeating

Question 52

A national dairy farm is facing significant revenue losses due to customer returns and store rejections of their milk products. Executives wish to quantify the actual cost of poor quality on revenues. Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) includes the following EXCEPT:

A)cost of labor to repair a problem
B)cost of failure prevention programs
C)cost of new and extra materials used
D)cost of additional utilities used

Question 53

A marketing company claims that its customer return 12% of promotional surveys they conduct on a quarterly basis. To test this claim, a random sample of 1000 customers are sent a promotional survey. The significance level (a) of this study is set at 0.05. What does a significance level imply?

A)probability of rejecting the alternate hypothesis when it is true
B)probability of accepting the null hypothesis when it is false
C)probability of accepting the alternate hypothesis when it is false
D)probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true

Question 54

Researchers at a soap production company are interested in the purchasing differences amongst 3 of their products (Product 1, Product 2, and Product 3). They state a null hypothesis that there are no differences between mean sales of the 3 products. The alternate hypothesis is stated as:

A)H₁: Not all µ_x are the same (where x is a product)
B)H₀: Not all µ_x are the same (where x is a product)
C)H₁: µ₁ = µ₂ but not µ₃
D)H₀: µ₂ = µ₃ but not µ₁

Question 55

In the company's annual retreat, several members complain to the facilitators that some participants are not putting in an equal effort. What is this behavior referred to?

A)groupthink
B)social loafing
C)jerkdom
D)performing

Question 56

In a brainstorming session, an effective facilitator should NOT:

A)encourage the participation of all members
B)dismiss ideas in the early stages
C)dismiss discouraging remarks
D)encourage adherence to a structure

Question 57

Jackie's communication firm is asked to provide a training session to a medical supplies' sales force. The session emphasizes the importance of involving the intended audience when making sales presentations. In order of importance, rank the level of involvement of the audience in bringing about effective results:

A)engage < consult < tell < show
B)tell < consult < show
C)tell < show < consult < engage
D)consult < show < tell

Question 58

Jeffrey is a real estate agent who wishes to study the relationship between the selling price of a house and its size (measured in feet) in Manhattan. He develops a simple linear regression model as seen below. What is the slope of the model? Houseprice = 95.5 + 0.25 (square feet) + 13

A)95.5
B)0.25
C)13
D)4.5

Question 59

Managers at an oil and gas company are interested in improving current safety procedures in their plants in the Gulf Coast. Six Sigma certified professionals are consulted on how to improve these processes. In Six Sigma's DMAIC methodology, what does the 'M' represent?

A)measure
B)model
C)maintain
D)modify

Question 60

Process variation is a natural phenomenon in business as no two products or service experiences offered to customers can be identical. What two components make up process variation?

A)common cause & inherent cause
B)common cause & special cause
C)common cause & production cause
D)common cause & training cause

Question 61

A Decision Tree is a is a visual decision making tool that can prove useful across a number of business settings. Decision trees provide all of the following EXCEPT:

A)present competing alternatives
B)display potential outcomes
C)provide comprehensive risk analysis
D)compare probabilities

Question 62

The following is a multiple regression model. What do the regression coefficients b1 and b2 represent?
Y_i = b₀ + b₁X_1i + b₂X_2i+e_i

A)slopes of independent variables
B)slopes of dependent variables
C)random error term
D)graph intercept

Question 63

A process is a:

A)value-added transformation from input to output
B)value-added transformation from data to knowledge
C)manufacturing transformation of raw materials
D)business transformation of data to process maps

Question 64

The ability of an electronic scale to measure substances consistently every time the measurement is made is referred to as _____________.

A)repeatability
B)precision
C)accuracy
D)reproducibility

Question 65

_____ is a tool that is used in the define phase of Six Sigma DMAIC, and can be used in developing high level process maps in a process improvement project.

A)SIPOC
B)CPOQ
C)CTU
D)DPU

Question 66

Real estate agents at a national agency meet on a weekly basis to discuss property pricing. With repossessed homes, the proper procedure for pricing is for three real estate agents to agree on a selling price. This is an example of ____________.

A)percent agreement
B)pricing agreement
C)estate agreement
D)systematic agreement

Question 67

Workers in the overnight shift at an assembly line, on average, require 8.5 minutes to complete once production cycle. Production managers have contributed this to biological differences in overnight reaction times. What type of variation is this an example of:

A)wear-and-tear
B)inherent
C)special cause
D)deliberate

Question 68

The following are examples of statistical process control charts EXCEPT:

A)p-charts
B)c-charts
C)Xbar charts
D)Y charts

Question 69

Project specification limits are set by managers in response to customers' expectations. The largest specification value that can be obtained and still be acceptable to customer expectations is referred to as:

A)LSL
B)USL
C)LSL.
D)UCL.

Question 70

The Cp index is a measure of potential process performance as seen in the equation below. What does a Cp value greater than 1 imply?
Cp = USL - LSL/ 6( Rbar/d2) = specification spread/process spread

A)a process has the potential of having > 94.73% of outcomes within specifications
B)a process has the potential of having > 97.73% of outcomes within specifications
C)a process has the potential of having > 99.73% of outcomes within specifications
D)a process performance cannot be calculated from given information

Question 71

The Six Sigma approach allows for a shift of as much as ______ standard deviations, so it is essentially a ±4.5 standard deviation goal.

A)3.0
B)3.5
C)1.0
D)1.5

Question 72

Ron's research team is examining the tread quality of their company's new tires. The team decides to use a factorial design that is examining 2 types of tread in 3 different types of metal installations. What type of design is this?

A)2 X 2
B)2 X 3
C)6 X 1
D)3 X 3

Question 73

A C_p of more than 2 implies that a process has the potential of _____________ expectations of Six Sigma standards.

A)meeting
B)exceeding
C)falling short
D)being unaffected

Question 74

A hotel manager wishes to compare packaged deals to frequent guests. Specifically, he is interested in whether those who receive business deals stay longer than those who receive personal deals. What statistical test is most appropriate to compare the two deals?

A)t-test
B)f-test
C)chi-square test
D)m-test

Question 75

Statistical Process Control (SPC) is an application of statistical methodology such as experiments to ensure that a process produces desired effects. SPC can be broken down into understanding the following factors EXCEPT:

A)the process
B)the causes of variation
C)the roles
D)the corrective measures

Question 76

In Total Quality Management, most variation in a process is due to the system not the individual. Is this statement true?

A)yes
B)no
C)yes, but only in manufacturing
D)depends on the industry

Question 77

In an effort to mobilize resources needed for the annual fundraising campaign, Stewart uses a specialized type of bar chart to track the project's milestones within important phases. What is this type of bar chart referred to?

A)gantt chart
B)bar chart
C)c-chart
D)process chart

Question 78

In Six Sigma methodology implementation within a company, the commitment of senior management and executives is important because:

A)people only follow those in high ranks
B)they are important in providing resources and support
C)they are the ones that sign everyone's check
D)quality management is the concern of top level employees along

Question 79

A local FedEx company wishes to reduce the penalties incurred from late deliveries to business centers. Managers conduct the following analysis to understand the root cause of these late deliveries:

A)time trap analysis
B)ANOVA
C)regression analysis
D)time series analysis