Incorporating a Unique Lean Six Sigma Learning Experience by Integrating Graduate and Undergraduate Students Across Two Lean Six Sigma Courses in the Engineering Technology and Engineering Management Curriculum

The purpose of this study is to incorporate a rather unique experiential learning experience into two Lean Six Sigma courses, one at the undergraduate level in an engineering technology program, the second in a graduate-level engineering management program, residing in the same department. The Engineering Management, Systems and Technology Department at the University offers a Lean Six Sigma course within the undergraduate engineering technology programs and as part of the graduate Engineering Management and Management Science programs. We integrated the undergraduate and graduate students across the two courses and two sections during the Fall 2020 semester. This enabled both undergraduate and graduate students to work together on real-world service-based lean six sigma projects. The undergraduate course covered a Six Sigma Green Belt curriculum, and the graduate course incorporated additional Six Sigma Black Belt tools. The student teams worked on 6 different Lean Six Sigma projects. For five of the six projects, two separate teams worked on each project, meeting with stakeholders and process owners together, to reduce the redundancy of the material covered. For comparison purposes, there were three undergraduate students only project teams, two graduate students only project teams, and six combined undergraduate and graduate student teams. A Six Sigma Master Black Belt separate from the instructor mentored the students on their projects, and assessed their ability to apply the Lean Six Sigma tools and the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) methodology. We will assess the student performance on applying the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC methodology and tools, based on both the Six Sigma Master Black Belt mentor feedback, and student final report results at the end of the Fall 2020 semester.