Chapter 6

Six Sigma Methodology in Action: Selected Black Belt Projects in Swedish Organisations

In this final chapter of the book we present a summary of a selected sample of Six Sigma Black Belt projects carried out in the last three editions of the Six Sigma Black Belt course offered by the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.

In fall 2007 Chalmers launched an international master's programme on Quality and Operations Management (QOM). The programme includes a number of courses, among which is a Six Sigma Black Belt course. To complement the theoretical knowledge in the course, private and public organisations are invited to send in participants.

The Chalmers Black Belt course is based on traditional Black Belt course material. It is necessary that participants face real industrial problems during the course. Thus, the industrial participants work in groups together with two or three students. This arrangement is a win-win solution—the organisations get access to a number of problem-solving tools, get some of their employees trained as Black Belts and get important problems solved; from the educational point of view the students get access to real world problems and get valuable input to the programme from the industrial participants.