Is the need for Six Sigma professionals dying out? As a specialist time served (5+ years) Six Sigma & BPI recruiter I would certainly say over the last 12 – 24 months I have seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of companies looking to hire permanent & contracted Six Sigma resource. This is not to say that process improvement professionals are not still in demand! Lean Sigma has long been tagged on the market for logical progression for any strictly DMAIC black belts, it seems that view has filtered down to many companies not only with well established BPI programs but green field sites at the beginning of there CI journey. If we look to offers from management consultancies these days there are plenty or ‘FRESH’ sells on the market to be gobbled up for businesses hungry for process excellence. Its no surprise ‘Lean Sigma’ is the new ‘Six Sigma’. So we don’t see as many assignments for strictly DMAIC BB’s but BB’s with a good lean grounding do now seem to be much more valued.

Too many jobs not enough candidates? Given the current economic climate you would think there is a lack of jobs across pretty much every industry, but actually the renewable energy sector seems to be more buoyant than ever. Although renewable energy has been around for many years, as a country we have only become more aware of its benefits over the past few years. As the government vow’s to plough millions into therenewable energy market there has been a rise in jobs and a demand for experienced individuals to drive the business forward. The most booming sector and most successful area of renewable energy is Wind Energy, this has taken off massively over the last few years, and I need experience individuals who have onshore or offshore experience within this sector. Where are you all?
 

The Future of Process Excellence:
The service sector is now likely the most prolific user of the Lean toolkit, with Financial Services and Insurance and the public sector embracing Lean with greater relish now than at any other time. Are we in for an era of rapid process improvement? Why has Lean come to such prowess? The benefits of Lean deployment can be seen far quicker than Six Sigma and it is the breadth of tools combined with the quick and results that satisfies managers across the business from Finance to HR and operations. Lean has had its heyday on the shop-floor and is now equally, if not more loved by the service industries. Lean also offers what is for most people a more digestible form of process improvement - something they can easily get their heads round - less clouded in mystery than Six Sigma. Six Sigma however is by no means dead and buried and for those in larger corps with both time and data to spare the financial rewards of a successful Six Sigma project can be infinitely as if not more exciting to the board room heavyweights.

Where will the process excellence community go next as the BPR experts look to push the boundaries of quality and change management and seek out ever bigger wins rewards? New proposition development and embracing the gamut of Web 2.0 technologies and social networking could hold the key…the future looks exciting and could hold real promise if better and better best practice is sought!

Ripe4 are experts in delivery and execution of OE and Process Improvement Recruitment assignments 
 

Today the government announced 11 potential sites for new nuclear power stations. Nuclear power is often defended as a low carbon source of energy production however environmental groups are up in arms claiming nuclear energy is not the ‘right’ focus for carbon reduction efforts.

Although nuclear energy is not sustainable (it results in waste and decommissioning problems which will have to be dealt with eventually) or renewable (it uses up Uranium in the process) it does release less carbon than other traditional energy sources. Nuclear technology is also readily available and does not need to be developed and one plant can produce a high amount of energy.

Personally I think it is madness to dedicate funds to an energy source which will definitely store up issues for the future. Instead the government should dedicate serious resources to renewable development. In times of war technology develops at a far higher rate – because leaders provide both drive and resources – the government needs to get behind the renewable sector and provide the push which will result in a truly viable renewable alternative.
 

Time and time again I talk to candidates who when asked about why they want to get into to renewable energy sector say, “well, it’s the future”. This seems to be the accepted view among the general population, but is this the case?
In one sense of course renewable energy is the future – we are fast running out of fossil fuels and the rate of pollution we are currently maintaining is unsustainable. But does anyone really feel that the current forms of renewable energy are how we will solve the imminent ‘energy-crunch’?
Currently the BWEA say that the average wind farm in the UK should pay back the energy used in its manufacture and construction in six to eight months, in comparison with a coal or nuclear power station which take about six months. With the advantage that after that initial payback period the energy is to all intents and purposes entirely free (bar any faults or maintenance), and free of pollution!
With massive jumps being made in improving efficiency and in lowering the cost of producing energy from solar power, and the UK boasting some of the best wave and tidal resources in Europe, other technologies could come to the forefront in the next few years. Many innovative Wave and Tidal renewable energy companies are even starting to reach the deployment and testing stage of their projects.
Although my gut feeling is that the current products being used are not the future, surely putting in investment, resources and talented individuals now is the only way we will ever reach a point when we do have products which can provide us with constant and reliable renewable energy at the flick of a switch.