Before You Hire Anyone, Find Out If It Even Applies.

The usual version of this question is who can help me. I would start somewhere else, because the more expensive mistake is not hiring the wrong person. It is applying a structured improvement methodology to a problem that was never a process problem in the first place, and spending months confirming it.

So this article is a diagnostic rather than a pitch. You can run it yourself, this week, without hiring anyone. I have spent 35+ years leading this work in engineering and manufacturing organizations and I hold a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and the honest position is that a good practitioner should be able to tell you quickly when the answer is no.

The Three-Part Test

Take one specific problem currently costing you money and run it through these three questions honestly.

1. Does it repeat? A structured project earns its cost by fixing a pattern, not an incident. If a shipment went out wrong once because someone was covering an unfamiliar desk on a bad day, that is not a pattern. If it goes wrong most weeks, it is.
2. Does it cost enough to matter? Put a rough number on it: rework hours, expedited shipping, lost orders, overtime, credits issued. If the annual figure is small, fix it informally and spend your attention elsewhere. This methodology is for problems worth months of effort.
3. Is the cause genuinely unknown? This is the one people get wrong. If everyone in the building already knows the cause and it has simply not been addressed, that is not an analysis problem, it is a decision problem. Structured improvement is for causes that are contested, invisible, or spread across departments so nobody sees the whole picture.

Three yeses mean the methodology applies. Two yeses usually mean a lighter approach: map the process, fix the obvious, and move on. One yes generally means look elsewhere for the real issue.

What Are the Signals That It Applies?

• Wildly different outcomes for the same job. The same order type takes two days sometimes and three weeks other times. That variation is the classic signature.
• Nobody can say how long something takes. If asking for the average time to complete a core process produces guesses rather than data, the process is not understood.
• Recurring rework nobody has quantified. Everyone knows quotes get redone; nobody knows how often or what it costs.
• Problems that cross departments. Sales blames operations, operations blames sales, and the problem lives in the handoff between them.
• Firefighting as a normal state. Days spent on urgent exceptions rather than on planned work.
• Growth that broke something. Processes built for a smaller company that quietly stopped scaling.

What Are the Signals That It Does Not?

Does Company Size Change the Answer?

Size does not determine whether the methodology applies, but it should change how you apply it.

Large organizations can support formal project structures, dedicated practitioners, and long analysis cycles. A twelve-person business cannot, and should not try. The scaled version is lighter: pick one process, map it with the people who do the work, measure the few things that matter, fix the largest gap, and write down the new standard so it holds. That is the same discipline without the apparatus.

What a smaller organization gains is speed. Decisions that take a quarter in a large company take an afternoon, and the person who owns the process is usually in the room. Used properly, that is an advantage rather than a limitation.

What Should You Do First?

Pick your single most expensive recurring problem and spend two hours on it with the people closest to the work. Write every step on the wall, including the waiting. Put rough numbers on how long each step takes and how long the gaps between steps are. Then look at the ratio.

You will learn one of two things. Either the elapsed time is mostly waiting, in which case you have found real waste and the methodology applies directly. Or the process is tight and the problem lies elsewhere, in which case you have saved yourself a significant expense and can go looking in the right place. Both outcomes are worth the afternoon.

How Do We Work With Organizations in Durham Region?

Gurley Leadership Solutions is based in Ajax and works with organizations across Whitby, Oshawa, Clarington, Pickering, Barrie, Mississauga, and the wider Durham Region and Greater Toronto Area, in sectors including manufacturing, healthcare, not-for-profit, engineering, and operations. A free 15 minute phone call is usually enough to tell whether your problem is a process problem, a leadership problem, or something structural that neither addresses. If it is the third, I will say so. For the full methodology, see the guide to Lean Six Sigma implementation, or read more about Malcolm Gurley.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if Lean Six Sigma applies to my business?

Test one specific problem against three conditions. Does it repeat rather than being a one-off. Does it cost enough annually to justify months of effort. Is the cause genuinely unknown rather than something everyone already knows but has not addressed. Three yeses mean the methodology applies, regardless of your industry.

What problems does it not solve?

Demand, pricing, and product-market problems are not process problems. Neither is a genuine capacity or capital constraint, one individual's conduct or capability, or a failure of leadership and accountability. In that last case the tools will produce a sound analysis and no lasting change, because the constraint is behavioural rather than procedural.

Is our business too small for this?

Size changes how you apply it, not whether it applies. Small organizations should skip the formal apparatus and use the discipline directly: map one process, measure what matters, fix the largest gap, write down the new standard. Smaller businesses also decide faster, which is a real advantage.

What can we do ourselves before hiring anyone?

Take your most expensive recurring problem and spend two hours mapping it on a wall with the people who do the work, including the waiting between steps. Compare working time against total elapsed time. If most of the elapsed time is waiting, you have found real waste. If the process is tight, the problem is elsewhere and you have saved yourself an expense.

How do we get started?

Book a free 15 minute phone call with Malcolm Gurley through the button above, or call 416.669.7644, Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. There is no cost and no obligation for the initial conversation.

Gurley Leadership Solutions Inc. delivers leadership development and organizational improvement programs licensed through Leadership Management International; every engagement is customized and outcomes vary by organization. The diagnostic described in this article is general guidance and not a substitute for assessment of your specific operation. Results described from prior engagements, including the Honeywell figures, describe those engagements and are not a guarantee of future results. Return-on-investment figures, including any 10:1 reference, describe typical results from prior engagements and are not a guarantee of future results. This article is general information, not a proposal and not an offer.