Two months ago, BPTrends, the primary source for business process information and news, published a report summarizing their overview of the lean six sigma market in the summer of 2005.
The summary has three major points: (1) the technologies that define the market; (2) a description of the Lean Six Sigma market itself; and (3) the size of the Lean Six Sigma market.
The technologies are:
1. ISO 9000 and its variations, an international standard quality certification
2. TQM, a quality management program
3. CMMI (Corporate Maturity Model Integrated), an IT quality program
4. SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference), a business process framework developed by the Supply Chain Council (SCC)
5. HPT (Human Performance Technology), a set of models and techniques developed by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) to analyze human performance problems
6. BPM (Business Process Management), a general approach to managing Six Sigma efforts
The Lean Six Sigma market according to the article revolves around training and consulting companies. Thefore the market is not considered big for now. There are more than 100 Six Sigma training and consulting companies listed in Quality Digest magazine’s annual list of Six Sigma Service companies, but most are small consultancies. There are also some small software companies that provide products that are used by Six Sigma practitioners, which can be roughly divided into four groups: 1) Statistical tools, 2) Data collection and analysis tools, 3) project management tools and 4) process modeling tools.
Each of the six leading Lean Six Sigma Consultancies has between 50 and 100 employees. Each gives between 250 and 500 training courses a year, usually in conjunction with projects that they help companies accomplish. All six are privately held, but each makes between $15 million and $20 million. Each is growing by over 10% a year. Thus, the six leading companies, taken together, are earning between $90 and $120 million a year. Assume that all the other Lean Six Sigma consultancies, the assorted software vendors, and corporations committed to Lean Six Sigma spend or earn about $100 million a year. That would yield a total Lean Six Sigma market of between $190 million and $220 million.
