As organisations are increasingly looking to combine Lean and Six Sigma into their business improvement iniatives, the demand for practitioners with Lean skills to supplement their Six Sigma expertise is similarly on the increase. Just as the toolsets have been amalgamated, so have the skillsets.
Leading Six Sigma companies such as GE, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin have brought Lean thinking and its toolset into their improvement initiatives. This trend has not, however, been at the expense of Six Sigma.
“Decision makers in global organisations are focusing on combining the good parts from both Six Sigma and Lean,” says David Howells of Pacific International, recruitment specialists who have been focused on business improvement initiatives since 1997. “As organisations begin to look at Process Improvement methodologies with a more pragmatic approach the attraction to hire ‘Lean Sigma’ candidates is increasing.”
As the validity of combining the two methodologies has been proven, it makes sense that it would subsequently lead to the requirement for talent with experience of both skillsets, as opposed to using specialists in the individual fields. Additionally, the two compliment each other both in terms of the way they deal with different aspects of an organisations processes – waste and variation – and in the manner their problem solving techniques integrate. Increasingly, Lean tools are being included in the DMAIC process.
Interestingly, the demand for Six Sigma and Lean talent comes from almost every function and industry segment, due in part to the cross-pollination of the methodologies. “The increase in demand in the Lean skills environment has resulted in people moving from Manufacturing environments into service based industries like Banking, Insurance, Telecomms,” says Howells.
“For example, one of the UK’s major banking firms is currently deploying a Lean-focused improvement programme to remove the process waste in call centres and back office operations before looking at specific processes using the Six Sigma data driven methodology.”
The facts about the integration of the skillsets have been confirmed by a new study carried out by The Avery Point Group, a leading US executive search firm. The study found that 38 percent of companies seeking Six Sigma talent are looking for practitioners who have Lean expertise as part of their tool set as well. For companies seeking Lean talent, 42 percent also require Six Sigma exposure.
The study also found that demand for Six Sigma talent has become increasingly “operationalised” with less than one-fifth of Six Sigma postings seeking to specifically fill Master Black Belt and Black Belt roles.
“Companies are increasingly opting instead to inject candidates who possess Six Sigma and Lean skill sets into regular line roles versus creating standalone structured continuous improvement roles, as often was the case with Six Sigma positions in the past,” says Tim Noble, managing principal of The Avery Point Group. “Lean, for the most part, has always been an operationalized-based approach, and for Six Sigma this trend is a natural progression for a widely deployed maturing corporate initiative.”
For David Howells and Pacific International, who will be publishing their latest salary survey in January, the trend is indicative of the requirement for quicker, short-term wins, which requires specialist skills and to some extent goes against traditional Six Sigma; which is why the combination works.
“Lean is considered more ‘common sense’ and is therefore easier to teach and deploy at non-management levels in organizations,” says Howells. “With high turnover and seasonal working in contact centre environments, quick fire Kaizen and Lean events are consider more affective than a Six Sigma project which maybe 3-6 months lifecycle. Granted, Six Sigma will always deliver better long term improvements, which is why clients are looking for a mix of Lean Sigma. Lean equals short-term wins, whereas Six Sigma equals long term customer improvements.”
