Application of Six Sigma to Improve the Passing Percentage of an Engineering Course

Six Sigma is a data-driven tool used to improve the process quality in either manufacturing or service industry. The objective of the usage of Six Sigma is to obtain less than 3.4 DPMO (defects per million opportunities). DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) is a methodology applied in this work. There are five phases in the DMAIC. One of the theory subjects named “Basic Thermodynamics” for the third semester of the Mechanical Engineering department is considered for the study. Student’s performance in the Semester End Examination (SEE) of the third semester was collected and found that the passing percentage of the students is quite less compared to other subjects. Therefore to improve the students passing percentage in Basic Thermodynamics subject, efforts are made thereby applying the Six Sigma methodology. From the literature survey, the research reveals that for improving the constantly declining pass-percentage of engineering colleges, they needed to have good faculty, better financial condition and the right infrastructure, better student-faculty interaction, and a well-planned curriculum. Six Sigma methodologies help to improve the input quality of students, the teaching-learning process, required classroom facilities, etc. In engineering colleges, defect means, not attaining the marks or grades of the students, which could be due to several reasons. In this work, an attempt is made to improve the passing percentage of students in basic thermodynamics subject by analyzing two years’ results and applying the DMAIC technique.