Applied assessment — Black Belt foundations

4 of 5 needed to pass

1. 1. A sewing line's end-line audit shows 8% of shirts failing on stitch defects each week, unchanged for three months despite operators being told to 'be more careful.' Which is the most appropriate next step?

   Choose one answer.

   Launch a DMAIC project to define the problem, measure current performance, and find root causes before selecting a fixImmediately retrain all operators on the full stitching SOPReject the audit data and re-run the audit next weekIssue another reminder memo and increase supervisor floor walks
2. 2. A factory spends monthly: BDT 400,000 rework labor, BDT 150,000 fabric scrapped from cutting errors, BDT 90,000 airfreight to cover late shipments caused by rejects, and BDT 1,200,000 planned sewing wages for on-standard production. Which amount is cost of poor quality?

   Choose one answer.

   BDT 640,000 (rework, scrap, and expedite freight only)BDT 90,000 (only the airfreight, since it is the most visible cost)BDT 1,840,000 (all four figures combined)BDT 1,200,000 (the sewing wage bill, since labor is the biggest cost)
3. 3. A Black Belt candidate wants to start improvement work on a line before its supervisor or the merchandising manager have agreed to the project or committed floor access. What is the biggest risk of proceeding without a sponsor and process owner on board?

   Choose one answer.

   There is no real risk since Black Belts have authority over any lineThe project will take slightly longer to documentData collected without sign-off cannot legally be used in the factoryWithout a sponsor's authority and the process owner's buy-in, changes are likely to be reversed or blocked once the Black Belt leaves the floor
4. 4. Two identical sewing lines produce the same style. Line A's cycle times vary from 38 to 62 seconds per operation; Line B's vary from 48 to 52 seconds. Both average 50 seconds. Applying basic quality-and-variation thinking, which line is the greater improvement priority and why?

   Choose one answer.

   Line B, because any variation at all is unacceptable in Six SigmaLine A, because its wide spread indicates more variation and higher risk of imbalance and defects even though the average is the sameNeither — since both average 50 seconds, output and quality risk are identicalLine A, but only because 50 seconds is worse than the takt time
5. 5. A factory has no budget for statistical software licenses. Which approach best fits a resource-constrained Black Belt program while still supporting valid DMAIC analysis?

   Choose one answer.

   Use free spreadsheet tools and open reference calculators for the required charts and tests, choosing tools proportional to the decision at stakeDelay all projects until paid software is purchasedUse only Pareto charts, since they are the only tool that works without softwareSkip statistical analysis entirely and rely on operator judgement