Question

1- Apply DMAIC to improve the following at a college university:

a. Admission

b. Course registration

2- Do a literature review (at least, two recent academic journals) on the pros and cons of DMAIC.

Answer 1

Could you please post the (2) separately please, because as per Chegg we are not supposed to answer to multiple questions. Thank you! Please like!

The admissions process which is the first step for any aspiring student creates a first impression about an institution. All academic institution bares the responsibility for creating a positive impression for students and parents and reducing the lead time for the application process. Implementation of Six Sigma follows a five-step Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) process. Each of these steps utilize multiple tools for data measurement analysis and control. In the following sections, we apply each of these steps to the admissions process.

Define Phase - The admissions process for undergraduate students at ______ has been characterized by long lead times for application processing. This in turn has resulted in decrease in acceptance rate and selection of qualified applicants. The above is a result of a number of factors like – tracking, communication, technology, staff, training, etc. Sometimes the delays are due to students not submitting the required transcripts on time, but most of the times other technical reasons are responsible for delay in processing the applications

Measure Phase - This Phase identifies the measurement and variation by collecting the relevant data and performing graphical analysis on it . After identifying the factors in the Define previous phase, the admissions office was contacted for application processing data. Undergraduate applications were classified into three categories: Second Degree, Transfer and Freshman.

Analyze Phase - At this stage of Six Sigma implementation, we have narrowed our focus on a distinct group of processes that may be responsible for delays. During the analyze phase, we try to identify the reasons for delay in these processes. Fish Bone Diagram also known as Cause and Effect Diagram or Ishikawa diagram is used to analyze reasons behind the problem causing areas.

Improvement - After performing the analysis using fishbone diagram and looking at the above mentioned causes for the delay in the admissions process we came up with the following recommendations. ‚ The staff should be aware of notifying the appropriate parties when a situation arises, making sure the situation is handled properly, fixed and documented for future purposes. The students should be sent reminders periodically every week regarding their status of their application to their emails along with placing it online.

Conclusions - Six-Sigma methodology has been applied to the admissions process at a higher education institution. The methodology offers a detailed step by step implementation process for improving a process. Data collected on processing times were used to identify key steps resulting in delay. During the analysis phase, key reasons behind the delay were identified.

The same applies to the course registration also. for both (a) and (b)