According to recent research, lean and Six Sigma are destined for eternal togetherness.

The Avery Point Group, a national executive search firm that specializes in lean and Six Sigma, conducted a survey in which the desire for Six Sigma skills outpaced that for lean skills by a wide margin. For companies seeking Six Sigma talent, fully one-third are looking for practitioners with lean experience. For companies seeking lean talent, the desire is even greater for candidates also to possess Six Sigma skills, with almost half of candidate seekers looking for employees with both skill sets.

“Companies want to have their cake and eat it too,” says Tim Noble, managing principle of The Avery Point Group. “Even though companies may not have a full-blown Six Sigma or lean deployment underway, they highly desire talent that possesses both Six Sigma and lean skill sets. Continuous improvement practitioners on either side of the aisle might want to sit up and take notice that this wedding is clearly underway.”

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