The following are selected highlights of a 2011 research study. The complete report, with more analysis and extended findings, is available for purchase on the iSixSigma Marketplace.

Even in today’s challenging economy, small companies continue to maintain their focus on Six Sigma and allocate resources to ensure that their deployments reach their goals. While the goals for their programs may differ slightly from those put forth by larger companies, the efforts that small businesses are making – particularly to integrate Six Sigma with innovation – appear to be paying off. As this research shows, companies that integrate their Six Sigma programs with their innovation processes are more likely to view their innovation efforts as being successful, regardless of the size of the company.

Research conducted in 2011, based on data from 293 respondents, explores these connections between innovation and Six Sigma within small businesses (those with fewer than 500 employees or less than $50 million in annual revenue) as well as trends in project completion, leadership support and culture change. This report also makes comparisons to data from a previous article, “Size Matters: How Small Companies Use Six Sigma,” which studies similar themes, published in the November/December 2007 issue of iSixSigma Magazine.

Finding 1: Smaller companies are more likely to have their Six Sigma programs integrated with their innovation process – defined as any structured efforts to evolve existing products or services or design new ones.

Companies that have Six Sigma integrated with innovation also are more likely to believe that their innovation programs are effective.

Of respondents from companies with less than $50 million in annual revenue, 24 percent stated that innovation and Six Sigma programs are integrated within their organization, while an average of only 10 percent of respondents from companies with higher annual revenues reported the same structure (Table 1.1).

Compared to the 2007 report, the data suggests that small companies have integrated Six Sigma and innovation to a greater degree in the last four years. At the time of the earlier report, only 17 percent of respondents working at small companies stated that the programs were integrated.

The data from the 2011 survey also shows that innovation at companies where Six Sigma and innovation are integrated is viewed as more successful (Table 1.2). Of those respondents who stated that their innovation and Six Sigma programs are integrated, 90 percent said that they believed their innovation programs are either somewhat effective or effective; only 9 percent said that the programs are somewhat ineffective, and none said that their programs were ineffective.

This compares to nearly half (46 percent) of respondents from companies where innovation is independent of Six Sigma who described innovation at their organization as either ineffective or somewhat ineffective.

Regardless of company size, 21 percent of those surveyed said they believe that their organizations have a clear innovation strategy and are executing to that strategy (Table 1.3). A much larger proportion, 40 percent of respondents, indicated that innovation is talked about at their company but no strategy has been formulated. 

Small companies are more likely than larger companies to have no innovation strategy. More than 60 percent of respondents from small companies reported that their organization either talks about innovation but has no strategy or has not even seriously considered the idea of an innovation strategy; this compares to 47 percent of respondents from larger companies who said the same.

Finding 2: Both large and small companies are pursuing culture change to some degree and consider Black Belts to be the agents of this change. However, while large companies tend to focus more on innovation, small companies are more concerned with becoming more process oriented and data driven.

Larger companies are pursuing culture change to a greater degree than smaller companies. Of respondents working for very large companies, 38 percent reported that their organizations are pursuing culture change either to the greatest extent or to a great extent (Table 2.1). In contrast, 24 percent of respondents who work for small companies said the same thing.

Small companies are less likely than large companies to focus on innovation as a goal for culture change. Of the respondents from small companies, 34 percent stated that innovation is an important goal for their company’s culture change initiative, compared to 45 percent of those who work for large companies (Table 2.2).

According to survey data, respondents who work for small companies are more likely than those at very large companies to state that their culture change initiative includes instilling a process orientation in employees (48 percent vs. 41 percent) and to make data-driven decisions (49 percent vs. 43 percent). The largest companies are more likely to focus on creating a collaborative work environment; 43 percent of respondents from the largest companies reported that as a goal of their change initiatives, compared to 36 percent of respondents from small companies.

An equal percentage of respondents from both large and small companies – 37 percent – reported that Black Belts are considered agents of change to the greatest extent or to a great extent (Table 2.3). Only 4 percent of respondents employed by very large companies feel that Black Belts are not at all considered as agents of change, compared to 11 percent of respondents at small companies.

The nature of culture change in organizations itself appears to be changing. In the 2007 report, one of the most prevalent goals of culture change within an organization was to be more customer focused: 67 percent of respondents from small companies and 71 percent of those at large companies stated that this was a goal. In 2011, however, only about half of the respondents stated that being more customer focused was one of their company’s goals. Perhaps as companies have indeed become more customer focused, this aspect of an organization’s culture has required less emphasized.

Survey Methodology: iSixSigma designed this survey to explore trends about how small businesses are using Six Sigma. Practitioners were invited by email and through LinkedIn to participate in the survey. This survey drew responses from 293 individuals. Some reported totals do not add to 100 percent because of rounding and survey questions that allowed more than one response per respondent.

Click here to purchase the complete research report on the iSixSigma Marketplace, which includes two additional findings:

• Black Belts are completing slightly fewer projects than in the past and taking more time to complete those projects.
• Six Sigma professionals working for small companies are more likely than their large-company counterparts to view their Six Sigma program as successful, regardless of the deployment structure.