Services
Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement Consulting
DMAIC methodology applied by a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt with 20+ years of documented results across healthcare, financial services, higher education, and commercial operations.
What We Do
DMAIC process improvement that goes to root cause — every time.
Lean Six Sigma process improvement is the discipline of identifying what's broken, measuring how broken it is, finding the actual root cause, fixing it, and building the controls that keep it fixed. The methodology — DMAIC — was built for manufacturing but applies with equal force wherever the same failure keeps recurring: hospitals, universities, insurance carriers, banks, and commercial mortgage servicers.
The difference between a process improvement project that holds and one that doesn't comes down to two things: whether you treated the root cause or the symptom, and whether you built the control infrastructure to sustain the improvement after the engagement ends. Most improvement projects fail on one or both counts. We don't.
Bob Buckwalter holds the Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB) credential from ASQ and has spent 20+ years applying DMAIC to real operational problems with documented financial results. A commercial mortgage servicer engagement delivered $4M+ in annualized cost reduction. An insurance carrier engagement recovered $6.9M in annual savings. A sponsored programs receivables project at a university health system recovered $6M in aged receivables. These are not methodology demonstrations — they're results from engagements where the work was done, the baseline was measured, and the improvement was documented.
See How We Structure Every Engagement →Define
We get precise about the problem before touching a solution. Scope, stakeholders, financial impact, and success criteria — all established through structured discovery including leadership interviews and Voice of the Customer analysis. A well-defined problem is already halfway solved. A poorly defined problem generates activity without results.
Measure
Baseline the current state with real data. Cycle times, error rates, throughput, defect rates — quantified and documented so we know exactly what we're improving and can prove the improvement later. Most organizations have more data than they use and less of the right data than they need. We identify which is which.
Analyze
Root cause analysis using data, not the most popular theory. Value stream mapping, Ishikawa diagrams, process capability analysis, regression, and hypothesis testing to find what's actually driving the problem. This is where we earn the right to make recommendations.
Improve
Design and pilot solutions targeted at verified root causes. We run experiments, validate results against the baseline, and implement with your team — not handed off in a slide deck. Nothing goes to full implementation without pilot validation.
Control
Build the monitoring systems, control charts, and standard operating procedures that keep gains from eroding. Then train your team to manage them independently. The engagement doesn't end when the improvement is implemented. It ends when your team can sustain it without us.
Documented Results
The same methodology. Different industries. Consistent pattern of results.
Annual savings from claims process redesign and embedded controls. Seven root causes identified. Full financial recovery within 14 months.
Aged sponsored programs receivables recovered through authorization workflow redesign and control plan. Recovered within first engagement year.
Annualized cost reduction from exception queue redesign. Cycle time reduced from 3–4x industry standard to within standard.
The pattern across every engagement: the root cause is almost never what leadership initially assumes it is. The visible symptom — the aging exception queue, the rising denial rate, the late reports — is real. The source is usually three or four steps upstream, in a process gap that nobody owns.
— Bob Buckwalter, CSSBB — Windy Hill PartnersFrequently Asked Questions
Questions we hear on every sales call.
What's the difference between Lean and Six Sigma?
Lean focuses on eliminating waste and improving flow — reducing steps, handoffs, wait times, and inventory that don't add value. Six Sigma focuses on reducing variation — bringing processes into statistical control so outputs are consistent. DMAIC combines both. In practice, most operational problems have both a waste component and a variation component, which is why the combined methodology is more powerful than either alone.
How do you know if a process is a good candidate for DMAIC?
A good DMAIC candidate has measurable outputs, repeating failure modes, and enough transaction volume to make variation statistically significant. If the problem happens once, it's probably not a process problem — it's an event. If the same failure keeps recurring, DMAIC is almost certainly the right approach. Most of the problems our clients bring us have been recurring for years.
Do you need to collect a lot of data before starting?
Not necessarily. The Measure phase is designed to collect the right data — not all available data. We start with what exists, identify gaps, and collect targeted data to answer specific questions about process performance. Most organizations have more useful data than they realize and less of the right data than they need.
How is your approach different from a standard management consultant?
Standard management consultants typically analyze a situation, develop recommendations, and deliver a report. DMAIC is a structured methodology for implementation, not a recommendation framework. We stay through implementation, manage the resistance we encounter in real time, and don't hand off a solution and leave. The control plan and sustainment infrastructure are built into every engagement.
What happens after the engagement ends?
You run the process independently. That's the goal from day one. We build the control plan, train your team on the monitoring system, and document everything so the knowledge stays with the organization — not with the consultant. Engagements that create dependency aren't successful engagements.
Ready to find the root cause?
Tell us what problem keeps coming back. We'll tell you what we think is actually driving it — and what it would take to fix it permanently.
Start a Conversation →