Course Information

OULI offers industry standard Lean Six Sigma certification training, as well as more specialized certificates applying process improvement techniques to the field of environmental sustainability. Our public training is applicable to clients from all fields, but we are also happy to tailor training to clients who wish to develop a long-term training relationship.

OULI Instructors

OULI's team of instructors and consultants are practicing, experts in the field with extensive history in implementing process improvement efforts and coaching students.

Brian deFonteny is the creator of Leading with Lean and other short courses soon to be offered by the OU Lean Institute. A certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt active in the Oil and Gas industry, deFonteny has more than a decade of experience as a Lean practitioner, coach and instructor. He holds a master’s degree in Human Relations and bachelor’s in Psychology. deFonteny is committed to optimizing organizational success by helping others Lead with Lean.

Joyce Hinton is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and has served as an OULI lean/six sigma coach, instructor and consultant for many of the Institute’s major clients. She is the primary instructor for the Institute’s LSS White and Green Belt training workshops. She holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and has completed extensive training in lean/six sigma methodologies, as well as having extensive experience in both management and procurement.

Teresa Tobias is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, trained by some of the original consultants in the industry (Sigma Sciences, Inc., p.k.a. Six Sigma Associates) and has worked with Six Sigma Academy, the first consulting organization created by the founder of Six Sigma (Dr. Mikel Harry). Tobias has extensive experience at the strategic level working with leadership to select the right projects—aligned with business goals—and to assign resources to execute those projects. At the tactical level, she has coached and mentored clients' internal resources to successful completion of hundreds of transformational projects.

OULI Courses

Lean Six Sigma White Belt

One Day (0.8 CEUS)

This course is basic awareness training that has been designed to provide the core concepts of Lean and Six Sigma with a focus on basic Lean practices and quality improvement tools. Participants will be introduced to the DMAIC methodology—Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control—as well as tools to help enhance the fundamental quality skills and applications of common sense. This program will allow you to introduce the Lean Six Sigma program into more areas within the organization and reach line level employees without completing the projects required in the Green Belt course. All in all, this will create real financial gains that create value for both the company and its customers.

Who Should Attend: Employees designated to work in areas where continuous improvement activities and projects are taking place.

Objective: Participants will overview the basic elements of Lean change. They will also know their own roles and importance in the transformation process and learn how to implement Lean strategies throughout the company on all levels.

Topics: The Six Sigma DMAIC methodology and basic Lean topics are introduced, including Takt time, 5S, Value Stream Mapping, Kanban, and Poka Yoke.

Instructor: Joyce Hinton, LSS Black Belt

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt

Twelve Days (9.6 CEUS)

Lean and Six Sigma are a proven, complementary business mentality for maximizing customer satisfaction and improving quality by reducing defects, process waste, and variation. When properly applied on carefully selected improvement projects, businesses achieve significant productivity and financial gains.

The Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program delivers in-depth training, preparing participants to successfully lead and contribute to process-level improvement projects. Attendees will gain practical insight into the five-step DMAIC model—Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control—and how it is used to apply a variety of Lean and Six Sigma principles and tools to reduce defects and waste, and then, to verify the effectiveness of the solutions. This course is a blend of lecture and application, emphasizing individual and small group exercises and interactive simulations, in a stimulating and active training environment.

Newly added is the integration of Leading with Lean, a four-hour leadership course providing both formal and informal leaders the basic awareness of how the Lean mentality can be incorporated into the daily interaction with employees, customers, and the processes within the larger value stream to which they all contribute. The managers, supervisors, and Champions working directly with the LSS Green Belt candidate will be invited to attend and participate in this session.

Attendees do not need to have any previous process improvement experience prior to training. The workshop is concluded with a coached project, wherein each participant will apply the concepts learned to a real-world project assigned to them by their management sponsor. Each Green Belt candidate must demonstrate the ability to implement process improvement using Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Green Belt certification requires attending training, a comprehensive project report, and the completion and review of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt project.

Who Should Attend: Green Belts include individuals with diverse technical, operational, and/or transactional backgrounds. Natural candidates to become Green Belts are people whose current positions are routinely associated with or directed at problem-solving. Individuals identified for this intense training should be those who will be expected to become continuous process improvement team members.

Objective: After certification, Lean Six Sigma Green Belts usually function as members of process improvement action teams within their functional area. Green Belts usually work under the supervision and mentorship of a Black Belt and may be associate team leaders in a closely scoped project or sub-project. These projects may be completed within the scope of their normal daily roles. In less complex situations, Green Belts may also lead process improvement efforts that do not require the statistical rigor of a Black Belt.

Upon completion, participants will be able to:

Apply the basic Six Sigma tools and methodologies
Think critically and use data-driven approaches to solving problems following the DMAIC model
Define, scope and create project charters
Develop process and value-stream maps
Develop cause and effect diagrams
Demonstrate basic statistical analyses
Understand and apply the following elements of Six Sigma techniques:
- Effective data collection techniques
- Central limit theorem
- Process and Control FMEA
- T-tests
- Regression
- Mistake-proofing (Poka Yoke)
- SPC Charts
- Control plans
Apply Lean/Six Sigma tools to track day-to-day process/project improvements
Report out results in a structured format

Credit for this course is CEU based on the Clock Hour system. Participants will receive 9.6 CEUs. Additionally, participants completing this course will be eligible to receive 3 hours of graduate-level credit from the University of Oklahoma College of Liberal Studies.

Instructor: Joyce Hinton, LSS Black Belt

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

Fifteen Days (10.4 CEUS)

The Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training is a professional certification program that involves 15 days of classroom training distributed over four months. During this time, participants work on a real-world process improvement project. Individuals with diverse technical, operations, and/or transactional backgrounds will find this course valuable. Participants are selected because of their project roles in leading and facilitating process improvement at the enterprise. Participants must have Green Belt Certification or satisfy the instructor with a working knowledge of Six Sigma concepts prior to registration.

Objective: At the end of the course, participants will understand the Six Sigma strategies and tools, the relationship of the transformation components of Lean and Six Sigma, how to lead process improvement projects, and how to lead and deploy Six Sigma process improvement tools effectively. Black Belts typically apply their Six Sigma skills beyond their functional area and are expected to train, lead, and coach Green Belts through their projects. Certified Black Belts are also expected to lead a team in broadly scoped projects of significant value to the organizational mission under the coaching and mentoring of a Master Black Belt.

Each trained Black Belt will be able to:

Understand and articulate the purpose and goals of using Six Sigma strategies within the context of the enterprise
Develop extensive knowledge of and experience using the specific Six Sigma deployment strategies that will be implemented within the enterprise
Competently and confidently apply Six Sigma tools and methodologies
Manage multiple projects
Define, solve problems and lead change persistently and patiently using analytical thinking and data-driven approaches (DMAIC)
Coach, mentor, and teach Green Belts and project team members in Six Sigma tools and methodologies
Understand and apply these Six Sigma concepts and processes:
- "Voice of the customer"
- Lean enterprise thinking
- Theory of constraints
- Distributions
- Probability plotting
- Variance components
- Control charting
- Short-term process capability
- Long-term process capability
- Gauge reproducibility
- Inferences
- Reliability analysis
- Probability
- Comparison testing
- Metrics
- Confidence intervals
- Regression
- Randomized blocking
- DOE
- Fractional factorials
- Statistical tolerance
- Hypothesis testing
Leverage and build the synergy among Lean and Six Sigma within the organization
Achieve project results in an accelerated timeframe
Report out project results

Topics: To provide employees with a detailed understanding of Six Sigma principles and project-applicable best practices. The workshop includes intensive training and hands-on exercises that will train each participant how to deploy and lead process improvement strategies effectively within the enterprise. The workshop will conclude with a coached project wherein each trained Black Belt must demonstrate the ability to lead and implement process improvement using Six Sigma tools and integrated strategies.

Credit for this course is CEU based on the Clock Hour system. Participants will receive 10.4 CEUs. Additionally, participants completing this course will be eligible to receive 3 hours of graduate level credit from the University of Oklahoma College of Professional and Continuing Studies.

Instructor: Teresa Tobias, LSS Master Black Belt

Leading with Lean

A special two-and-a-half hour leadership short course created by LSS Black Belt, Brian deFonteny. Leading with Lean provides those in leadership roles with the basic awareness of how the Lean mentality can be incorporated into daily interactions with employees, customers, and the processes within the larger value stream to which they all contribute. Participants are introduced to the “Traditional” and the “Lean-Minded” leadership approaches. Topics include, Voice-of-the-Customer (VOC) from the Lean Leader’s point-of-view, the mentality and behaviors of the Lean leader, the Single Value Stream Mentality, and Gemba Walking. Also taught as part of the OULI LSS Green Belt training. No prerequisites.

Instructor: Brian deFonteny, LSS Black Belt

Lean for Service

Fifteen days of classroom training distributed over three months plus three coaching sessions. Lean for Service Black Belt is designed to educate the student in the Lean tools and techniques applicable to implementing process improvement in service companies or production support. In addition, the course provides the student with the knowledge and insight needed to successfully plan and implement a Lean Initiative in either a large corporation or small company. Participants perform a real-world process improvement project. Individuals with diverse technical, operations and/or transactional process expertise will find the course especially valuable.

Prerequisite: LSS Green Belt or satisfy the instructor with a working knowledge of Lean concepts prior to registration.

Instructor: Mark Reid, LSS Master Black Belt