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Dartmouth and SMT Unite in Six Sigma Effort
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
He is probably the most influential American you never heard of. The "Father of West Point," "Father of Technology in the United States" and the founder of Thayer Academy in his native Braintree, Mass., Sylvanus Thayer arguably left a greater mark on our country than half of our Presidents. Without him, there might not have been a Grant, Lee, Pershing, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Patton or many other great leaders. Most of the early significant engineering projects in our country were led by students of his, most notably the Panama Canal and George Goethals. One of the last things Thayer did in his long and productive life was to found and endow the Thayer School of Engineering at his Alma Mater, Dartmouth College.
The Thayer School of Engineering was the first professional engineering institution in the U.S., when it opened its doors in 1871. Something new is afoot there in Hanover, N.H., that is another milestone in technical education. The Thayer School's Cook Engineering Design Center, working with SMT, has established what we believe is industry's most rigorous Six Sigma program. The Workshops are scheduled to start in June 2005.
The director of the program is Ronald Lasky, Ph.D., PE, a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth and a Senior Technologist with Indium Corporation of America. Lasky is also a lead instructor in the program. He has worked with his colleagues at the Thayer School, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and associates from the industry in developing the unique curriculum. The workshops cover the typical Six Sigma topics such as statistics, design of experiments, design for manufacturability, and continuous improvement plans. However, there are numerous topics that Lasky and his colleagues are passionate about. As Lasky states, "An effective Six Sigma Program should have a dramatic impact on the financial bottom line. To achieve this objective, we believe that additional topics such as process optimization, cost estimating, technical estimating and statistical thinking are crucial for success. Not only do we teach these topics, but we have developed Excel-based software to help the student master them."
As Dartmouth is the birthplace of the BASIC programming language and one of the first educational institutions to be wired and wireless for the Internet, computers play an important role in the Six Sigma Program. The use of Excel and Minitab to solve practical and insightful problems begins with the first day of class.
The program starts with a one-week, "Green Belt" phase. This week consists of four days of training and a one-day examination. After successfully completing this phase, the participant earns the right to be called a Six Sigma Green Belt. To obtain a Black Belt, the student has to attend three additional workshops of three days each. The Black Belt is awarded after successfully completing a final exam and applying the skills learned to an on-the-job project.
Phil Zarrow of ITM and staff at Dartmouth administer the program. The staff and facilities at Dartmouth are first-rate. Cooperation between SMT, Dartmouth, ITM and several student interns have been crucial in putting the program together. Professional education at Dartmouth for the Six Sigma Workshops provides hands-on education for management seeking growth in quality programs. The campus and surroundings are beautiful. As President Eisenhower commented when visiting the campus, "This is how a college is supposed to look."
The program has had an ardent supporter in the Thayer School, Dean William Lotko. "The entire program has come together in such a logical way. Professors at the Thayer school, like Lasky and Bob Graves, who have both the theoretical and practical experience, allied with our colleagues in the Tuck School, have a strong mix of the right skills to make our Six Sigma Program the best of breed. They have also invited colleagues from industry as lecturers to further strengthen the program. This entire effort is consistent with Dartmouth's mission as a top-tier educational institution. I am also thrilled to have SMT sharing the program with us. SMT's broad industrial reach and commitment to industrial education complement Dartmouth's skills nicely."
Since this program seeks to be the best in the industry, it may be too challenging for some. It is expected that most attendees would have a bachelor's degree with at least some exposure to calculus. For more information on the program and registration, go to engineering.dartmouth.edu/other/sixsigma/.
SMT is also pleased to be participating in this program with Dartmouth. All in all, we think Sylvanus Thayer would be pleased.