Every company wants to increase profitability.  Most companies realize that improving product quality will increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs, which in turn leads to higher customer retention rates, decreased manufacturing costs and higher profitability.  For decades Quality Gurus have instructed companies to implement SPC, Lean Manufacturing and now Six Sigma, which are all great ways to improve the bottom-line.  But now companies are looking at their quality investments and asking, "Where are the benefits?  We are using SPC and Lean Manufacturing Tools, but sales are down, profits are down and we may need to lay off employees."