Using Six Sigma for performance improvement in business curriculum: A case study

Abstract

During the last few decades, a number of quality improvement methodologies have been used by organizations. This article provides a brief review of the quality improvement literature related to academia and a case study using Six Sigma methodology to analyze students' performance in a standardized examination. We found Six Sigma to be an effective tool for curriculum improvement and team building. The challenges and benefits of using Six Sigma are discussed.DURING THE PAST FEW DECADES, a number of quality improvement methodologies have been used extensively by organizations to improve products and services. Techniques like continuous quality improvement (CQI) and total quality management (TQM) have been used to provide modest, incremental improvements, whereas techniques like reengineering and Six Sigma have been used for making drastic changes to existing processes.Quality improvement in higher education involves examining the needs and expectations of various stakeholders (e.g., students, faculty, accrediting agencies). In addition, it requires the evaluation of the effectiveness of academic and academic support programs based on careful documentation and data collection. Temponi (2005) suggests that a number of factors drive the need for CQI in higher education: employers' desire for expanded skill sets at the entry level, increased competition for talent, changes in student composition, demands from accrediting bodies, and the complexities of a constantly changing business environment. She also notes a number of concerns among academic stakeholders regarding CQI: the perception of the student as the customer may lead to students' having too much influence; professors' lack of full control over course content may lead to violations of academic freedom; should inexperienced students' needs and wants actually be satisfied; implementation of CQI may affect the primary mission of teaching and research; and whether students are ready for the challenge of a collaborative effort to improve the learning experience.This article presents a case study using a Six Sigma process improvement methodology-DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control)-to analyze students' academic performance in the accounting section of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) major field examination in business administered by the business division at a liberal arts university in the southern United States. We view this as an initial investigation in using DMAIC to assess and improve curriculum. The literature has a number of cases employing continuous improvement strategies in institutions of higher education in nonacademic areas (Hogg & Hogg, 1995;Hargrove & Burge, 2002). Stevenson and Mergen (2006) discuss the desirability of including Six Sigma thinking in an undergraduate business curriculum, whereas Weinstein, Castellano, Petrick, and Vokurka (2008) describe an approach used to direct MBA students through Six Sigma process improvement projects. However, the literature is void of a DMAIC case that assesses, evaluates, and improv...

Lean six sigma and assurance of learning: Challenges and opportunities

“…Although previous studies have tended to frame LSS applications in higher education from an institutional perspective (Jenicke et al 2008;Kukreja et al, 2009 andYu andUeng, 2012), our research finds that individual faculty can also benefit from using the DMAIC procedure to help inform and guide their research initiatives. Adopting a project to project isomorphic perspective (Miterev, M., Engwall, M., & Jerbrant, A.…”

“…Common issues include the necessity of sponsorship and support by senior leadership, difficulty measuring the exact nature of the educational product, necessity of dealing with long measurement time periods common in higher education assessment protocols, the service nature of education and the overall misalignment of faculty reward systems. Nevertheless, there have been some encouraging adoptions and case studies reported in the higher education literature (Al-Kuwaiti and Vijay, 2015;Holmes, Jenicke and Hempel, 2015;Kukreja, Ricks, Jr. and Meyer, 2009;Pavlovic et al, 2014;Yu and Ueng, 2012).…”

Revisión de la implementación de Lean Six Sigma en Instituciones de Educación Superior

“…En cuanto al mejoramiento de procesos académicos se encuentra el caso de la Universidad de Texas en el que se utilizaron equipos de estudiantes y ayudas tecnológicas para el proceso de aprobación del currículo y de curso con el fin de reducir el tiempo de ciclo, logrando una reducción del 78.9% [27]. Otro ejemplo en mejora de procesos académicos lo constituye el caso aplicado por Kukreja et al [28] en el cual implementaron Six Sigma para mejorar el curriculo del programa de Administración de Empresas con el fin de obtener la acreditación del programa. A pesar de encontrar grandes ventajas en su implementación, el autor observó que se requiere y se consume un tiempo importante en la implementación de esta metodología, especialmente en la obtención de los datos.…”

“…Resulta interesante nombrar el proyecto que se ejecutó en una IES no especificada para reducir la deserción estudiantil utilizando la metodología Lean Six Sigma con la estructura DMAIC, se demostró que resulta viable para este tipo de problemas aplicar esta metodología, sin embargo, al ser un primer proyecto de este tipo se presentan barreras importantes por superar [51]. [53], [54], [18], [55], [48], [20], [56], [38], [13], [57], [58], [25], [28], [14], [40], [59], [47], [50], [60], [61], [62] 21 2 Mejorar el sistema de calidad y acreditación de las IES [54], [9], [48], [63], [64], [56], [38], [10], [57], [26], [59], [52], [47], [65], [61], [62] 16…”

“…3 Mejorar eficiencia y efectividad de procesos [18], [48], [1], [66], [20], [4], [10], [38], [13], [26], [50], [60], [65], [61], 14 4 Responder a la alta competencia del sector educativo [53], [55], [1], [20], [56], [38], [13], [10], [58], [40], [59], [65], [61] 13 5 Mejorar procesos administrativos y académicos [53], [1], [20], [64], [38], [57], [28], [29], [59], [47], [60], [61]…”