Explore UCD

UCD Home >

MEEN50020

Academic Year 2025/2026

Six-Sigma Quality Management (MEEN50020)

Subject:
Mechanical Engineering
College:
Engineering & Architecture
School:
Mechanical & Materials Eng
Level:
5 (Doctoral)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Dr Pezhman Ghadimi
Trimester:
Autumn and Spring (separate)
Mode of Delivery:
Blended
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Pass/Fail (GPA Neutral)

Curricular information is subject to change.

This module is designed for graduate research students, both Masters and Ph.D., across engineering, physical and human sciences to make them familiar with quality control, lean and six-sigma contents applicable to their research projects together with the topics related to yellow and green belts certificates on six-sigma (by American Society for Quality (ASQ)) offered through series of online videos, reading assignments on some descriptive topics and class lectures for more technical aspects of the topics.
This module is designed to expose the students to the various quality management, quality control and lean six-sigma principles. A complete overview of the management and organization of quality and six-sigma related topics including definitions of quality and quality improvement, lean and six-sigma foundations and principles would be presented.
Quality and process improvement occurs most effectively on a project-by-project basis. Within this module, The DMAIC process, an acronym for define, measure, analyse, improve, and control is described as a structured five-step problem-solving procedure that can be used to successfully complete projects by proceeding through and implementing solutions that are designed to solve root causes of quality and process problems.Within the six-sigma DMAIC five-phase procedure, various types of related six-sigma yellow and green belt certification exam topics, tools and techniques will be covered such as process maps, flow charts, process capability analysis, ANOVA and regression analysis, gauge R&R, failure mode and effects analysis, quality deployment function, design of experiments, measurement systems analysis, statistical process control and process control plans. Minitab software will be briefly introduced for implementing various types of tests and experiments related to the introduced topics.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

On the competition of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Recognize the fundamental aspects of quality control, lean and six-sigma.
2. Apply statistical process control techniques to determine process behaviours.
3. Conduct a value stream analysis to improve the information flows within an organization.
4. Use customer requirements to make design and improvement decisions.
5. Design engineering experiments and perform statistical analysis on the data obtained thereby improving quality.

The assessment strategy for this module would be based on an end-of-semester project assignment that need to be contributing to/based on a part of your Ph.D. or Master degree research project. Final mark would be a Fail/Pass grade.

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

60
Autonomous Student Learning

50
Lectures

10
Total

120

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module will be delivered online. Various T&L approaches will be deployed, such as the integrated Approach, Which Combines different analytical methods; the Constructivist Approach, Which Emphasizes active learning and problem-solving; and the Interactive Approach, which encourages interaction and collaboration.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Assignment(Including Essay): End of Semester Project Week 12 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No
100
 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Name Role
Dr Pezhman Ghadimi Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Print this page
Fill in the following details:
Enter the body of your query here.

From time to time UCD would like to send you further information that we feel, based on your enquiry, would be of interest to you.