Black Belt Return on Investment Research Report

2.1%  of the organizations have been using Six Sigma for more than 10 years

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The iSixSigma Magazine benchmarking study of Black Belt return on investment (ROI) found a wide range of results – some expected and some not. At any stage of deployment, companies reap significant financial benefits from Six Sigma Black Belt projects and generally have the commitment of senior management.

The most significant financial benefits are enjoyed by the companies that audit their project results.

And while the vast majority of organizations do set annual Six Sigma goals, over half of all Black Belts surveyed do not have any compensation tied to achieving those goals. Take a look and see how your organization compares.

• $187,500: Median value of "hard" financial savings per Six Sigma Black Belt project


• $107,500: Median value of "soft" financial savings per Six Sigma Black Belt project


• 12: Median number of months for which Black Belt project benefits are counted


• 32.7: Percent of Black Belts who indicate senior management is highly committed
  to their Six Sigma program


• 48: Percent of Business Leaders who believe their Six Sigma financial benefits
  to be highly credible


• 20, 60, 20: Percent of Business Leaders who assess their Six Sigma program as very
  successful, somewhat successful and somewhat unsuccessful, respectively


• 65.4: Percent of respondents whose company audits Six Sigma project financial benefits


• 47.5: Percent of Black Belts who never experience pressure to inflate project results


• 53.8: Percent of Black Belts who have none of their compensation tied to attaining
  Six Sigma financial benefits


• < 0.5: Percent most often chosen to represent the number of Black Belts
  as compared to full-time employees


• 17.7: Percent of organizations that have been using Six Sigma
  for less than one year


• 2.1: Percent of organizations that have been using Six Sigma
  for more than 10 years

How the survey was done: iSixSigma Magazine designed the survey with input from Six Sigma practitioners. Six Sigma professionals gathered from the iSixSigma readership were invited by email to participate in the benchmarking survey.

Additionally, visitors to iSixSigma.com had the opportunity to participate through a link on the website. Eight hundred and nineteen individuals responded to the online survey from October 7 through 15, 2004.

Of the respondents, 48.7 percent were Black Belts. Some reported totals do not add to 100 percent due to rounding and survey questions that allowed more than one response to be selected.

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