Lean and Six Sigma are now balanced?

As a follow-up an a recent post its now interesting to see that as far as job skills go the relationship between Six Sigma and Lean is starting to show signs of becoming a more balanced partnership according to an annual study by The Avery Point Group.

Apparently:

Six Sigma no longer outpaces Lean by a wide margin when it comes to desired skill sets … Demand for Lean talent has grown in the past year to almost equal that of Six Sigma. The growth in interest in Lean talent has not, however, come at the expense of Six Sigma; rather the study shows an overall increased demand for continuous improvement talent utilizing these skill sets.

After reading this I thought about Principle 10 of the Toyota Way:

Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy—Teams depend on well-trained people and part of individual development is learning to work in teams.

High employee turnover is not only disruptive but ruins the sense of workplace community. Additionally if the company has not bought into the philosophy behind these programs, which seems to be the case with the next quote, then the focus will ultimately be on using the tools only.

Top tip: It’s the Philosophy which is critical to long-term success!

Companies are increasingly opting instead to inject candidates who posses 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.