Six Sigma Training Gains Popularity as Depression Looms

CLEVELAND, OH--(Marketwire - December 2, 2008) - With the economy in turmoil, many of the country's largest companies are beginning to brace for the worst. Employers are already being forced to suspend expansion endeavors, cut employee benefits, and worst of all, reduce their workforce. Furthermore, existing employees are feeling an undertone of cut-throat competitiveness. As a company downsizes, employees are finding themselves in a direct contest with co-workers to maintain a steady paycheck.

Yet, as the economy seems to fall, searches for the term "Six Sigma Certification" in Google have been up almost 25% according to Google Trends. Searches for "Six Sigma Training," "Six Sigma black belt" and "Six Sigma processes" are also up. Business training companies including Six Sigma Online are reporting 10-30% increases over 2007. This trend is attributed to the demand for improved efficiency in the workplace to shave costs.

"The economy is in a very vulnerable situation," says Craig Setter, President of Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online. "Subprime Mortgages are just the tip of the iceberg. By now almost everyone has heard the story... people were given loans that they could not afford to repay. This was because the mortgages were packaged up and sold by Wall Street as investments."

Mr. Setter continued, "The same thing happened to other forms of credit. Even if our economy can climb these mountains... the United States still has an outdated infrastructure, a $10 trillion dollar national debt, and over $50 trillion dollars that is currently 'missing' from Social Security & Medicare."

Setter adds, "Many leading companies are well aware of these issues, but not every company failed during The Great Depression. If a consumer has less money to spend, a company simply needs to become highly efficient. Many top organizations are well aware that reorganization will allow them to become resilient in uncertain times."

From an employer's standpoint, employing Six Sigma methodology allows a company to eliminate the waste from within their organization. During tight economic times, the need for efficiency trends higher, thus the increased demand for Six Sigma trained employees. Companies typically recover over 20% of lost revenues by reducing waste through Six Sigma processes.

Other factors to account for increased demand for Six Sigma are on the individual employee level. Six Sigma certification provides a competitive advantage. Hiring or retaining an employee that has received training to "eliminate waste" is an obvious choice to most employers.

Six Sigma is a business management strategy originally developed in 1986 by Motorola as a means to reduce waste; Motorola reports over $17 billion in savings as of 2006. Other major corporations that champion the success of Six Sigma processes include Honeywell and GE. Six Sigma Online is the leading provider of online Six Sigma Training.

For additional information on Six Sigma philosophy and training, visit http://www.sixsigmaonline.org