SC QUALITY GUILDCertified Six Sigma Green Belt (CSSGB)
Six sections, one machining line. Every number in the book came out of a single generator, and every number reconciles.
The paper carries 110 questions in total: 100 that are scored and 10 unscored pretest items that do not count toward your result.
Calderwyn makes an anodized aluminum bracket on a six-step machining line, and the same data set produces the Pareto chart, the capability study, the gauge study, the designed experiment and the control chart. Check the arithmetic anywhere and it holds.
Section length is budgeted against the exam's own question allocation. Define carries twenty questions across twenty-three subsections — sampled broadly and shallowly. Analyze carries eighteen across six, the densest ratio on the paper. The book says so, and is written accordingly.
The appendix tables — sigma conversion, the standard normal table and the control chart constants — were computed from their mathematical definitions and then checked against published values, rather than transcribed from anywhere.
The Six Sigma Green Belt Primer is published, in two volumes. Volume 1 works the CSSGB Body of Knowledge section by section. Volume 2 is practice and worked solutions.
What the CSSGB examination covers
The Body of Knowledge divides into 6 sections. The question count is what each section is worth on the paper, which is not the same as how long it takes to learn.
| Section | Topic | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| I | Overview: Six Sigma and the Organization The value of Six Sigma, organizational goals and drivers. Lean concepts and value stream mapping. Design for Six Sigma roadmaps and FMEA. | 11 |
| II | Define Phase Project selection, process elements, benchmarking, inputs and outputs, owners and stakeholders. Voice of the customer, CTQ, project charter and management tools. | 20 |
| III | Measure Phase Process analysis and documentation. Probability, the central limit theorem, distributions, data types. Measurement system analysis and process capability. | 20 |
| IV | Analyze Phase Multi-vari studies, correlation and regression. Hypothesis testing basics, tests for means, variances and proportions. Gap analysis and root cause analysis. | 18 |
| V | Improve Phase Design of experiments, main effects and interactions. Lean methods, kaizen, SMED and error proofing. Implementation planning: proofs of concept, simulations and pilots. | 16 |
| VI | Control Phase Statistical process control, rational subgrouping, chart selection and interpretation. Control plans, visual controls and sustaining improvements. | 15 |
Section by section
I — Overview: Six Sigma and the Organization 11 QUESTIONS
Why Six Sigma exists, what the sigma scale actually measures, and where lean and Six Sigma each apply. The primer establishes the case study here and every number in the rest of the book reconciles back to it.
II — Define Phase 20 QUESTIONS
Define carries twenty questions across twenty-three subsections, so it is sampled broadly and shallowly. The primer covers it accordingly — project selection, voice of the customer, CTQ translation, SIPOC, charters and the management tools.
III — Measure Phase 20 QUESTIONS
Process characteristics, probability, distributions, measurement system analysis and capability. The central limit theorem is worked with its three tested consequences rather than stated as a definition.
IV — Analyze Phase 18 QUESTIONS
Analyze carries eighteen questions across only six subsections, the densest ratio on the paper. Correlation, regression, hypothesis testing and interval estimation are taught at applied depth because that is where the questions concentrate.
V — Improve Phase 16 QUESTIONS
Designed experiments, lean methods and error proofing. Main effects and interaction plots are read from real output, and the primer separates statistical significance from practical significance explicitly.
VI — Control Phase 15 QUESTIONS
Statistical process control, rational subgrouping, chart selection and the control plan. Rational subgrouping is taught as the decision it is: admit the variation you want to detect into the subgroup and the chart goes blind to it.
Questions from the free practice test
Every item carries the reasoning, not just the answer, and none of them appears in any book. The CSSGB self-assessment covers every requirement in the Body of Knowledge: choose a 20-question random sample, a quick check at half the exam's length, a full exam at its real length and section mix, or work on your weak spots.
The financial case for a Six Sigma program is best made using:
- Cost of poor quality as a proportion of revenue
- The number of projects completed to date
- The sigma level the process currently runs at
- The count of defects recorded over the year
Failure cost is denominated in the unit the organization decides in, which makes it the only measure that competes with other spending. A defect rate persuades quality people; a proportion of revenue reaches a board.
A CTQ tree translates:
- Identified causes into the effects they produce
- A broad customer need into measurable requirements
- The steps of a process into their own measures
- Recorded defects into their cost to the business
It decomposes something like "reliable delivery" into drivers and then into measurable requirements, which is how a stated need becomes something a process can be held to.
A data collection plan must specify:
- The result the team expects the data to show
- The analysis that will be performed on the data
- What, how, who, when, and the operational definition
- The sample size, from which the rest follows
The operational definition is the part that gets skipped and the part that decides whether two people record the same event the same way. Without it the data is a mixture of two definitions and cannot be stratified.
The practice test is free and needs no account. The CSSGB test is a full self-assessment covering all 66 requirements in the current Body of Knowledge, with the reasoning on every answer, a score for every requirement and your progress over time. Or work through the primer week by week in the free eight-week self study, with a check after every reading.