I know the CEO of a group of large companies who is a big believer in small, continuous improvements—primarily through ideas from employees on how to improve their own work or processes. This group also has Six Sigma experts, some of whom privately believed that small improvements weren’t worth their time. After all, they were there to manage projects and produce breakthrough results using statistical analysis and other Six Sigma tools.

However, the business results from the individual continuous improvements within this group have by no means been small. During a five-year period, nearly 25,000 small improvements were generated, and after an evaluation and selection process, about 15 percent of the ideas were implemented. The small improvements contributed $550 million in revenue and another $120 million in cost savings; the large and more formal lean Six Sigma projects contributed $580 million in revenue and $70 million in cost savings.

With the contribution of small improvements to financial results surpassing lean Six Sigma projects, how can we afford to ignore either?

Another lesson I’ve learned from being involved in more than 1,000 lean Six Sigma projects in a dozen years is that results from quality improvement projects are not proportionate to the sophistication or complexity of the improvement tools and methods, but how appropriate those tools and methods are for solving a particular problem.

 …