April 13, 2025
For years we’ve discussed with our partners, leaders, and employees our commitment to Lean Six Sigma practices. We’ve said that the practices help businesses run more efficiently, save money in the long term, conserve resources, and contribute to best practices overall. We know this based on data, and always support the effectiveness of this within regular reviews. In result, we often see small, consistent habits paying large dividends over time.
This quarter, after an exciting visit with our Huston Team, we got to see the pay off of a commitment to lean practices converge with our commitment to hiring the right people. The result is a dream for anyone who loves simple, effective solutions.
It’s hard not to brag about Team Small, but Mighty operating in our southern region. The team, as a whole, not only understands the needs of the client, but also understands how to execute and deliver on those needs. Since the team operates almost entirely under the GLC Hospitality Service, there are certain assumptions that spending is determined by the costs of physical goods, such as food. This year, the Mighty Team challenged that assumption with outstanding results.
In an effort to cut waste, the team first determined to move to an online ordering platform in January 2025. This option also offered the staff more variety in their daily choices. While this switch worked well on the whole, our team was slow to call attention to the success of this change. There were some initial issues with ordering glitches and occasional delays with delivery. Another issue arose as busy individuals could miss ordering windows due to any number of demands and distractions- the result being that on the most hectic of days, a person could also be found hungry and at a loss for solutions.
With the system working well, but determined to make it better, manager Sheila Clissold met with the office administrator. “We discussed some options to address these issues”, she said. “The main goal is to make sure everyone has an avenue to eat, so we decided that we would order a few extra lunches from our regular vendors to provide for these employees when needed. We needed to take dietary restrictions into account since we don’t really know who might be in need of these meals. The restrictions we want to accommodate are Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegetarian and Vegan.”
Knowing the needs of the office, and keeping individual needs in account, Sheila recounts “We decided to order 5 box lunch meals on Monday and Wednesday and 3 on Friday since Friday is a heavier remote work day.”
This system continued to work well. However, not well enough to an eye trained for excellence. Sheila worked closely with the office and our own Event Planner, Candy. They took details into account such as timing, delivery fees, and the balance of schedules- knowing that minutes matter in a thriving office environment and that dollars add up over time. A working system was not a system perfected, and they noticed another opportunity for Lean practices.
Food was still being discarded regularly, due less to lack of need, and more to individual dietary restraints. Food restrictions ranging from allergies, to preference, to pregnancy meant there were many reasons that food might be denied rather than consumed. Sheila and Candy took this under scrutiny. The solution they found was simple, if not immediately obvious.
They decided that “we could order a salad with the cheese, protein, and croutons on the side, and it would meet the needs for all of our dietary restrictions while still providing for someone who does not have any restrictions.” This new system meant that there was little or no waste most days. In further Lean success Sheila said “This allowed us to reduce the number of meals we ordered from 5 down to 3 on Monday and Wednesday and from 3 down to 2 on Fridays.”
As the First Quarter of 2025 came to a close, and this cost-saving, waste-slashing system fell into place with success, CEO, Mike Hayes, reviewed the work of the team with excitement. The team had embraced the full Consider It Done commitment all to the benefit of the Partner.
The Hospitality Team based in Houston had not set out with a specific 2025 commitment to Lean Six Sigma practices in mind. They simply saw an opportunity for improvement and savings and they took it. Instead of settling for “good enough”, they continued to improve. The team took action, based on their years of experience. They chose to fix what wasn’t broken. They acted with intelligence, and now they get full ownership of that win.
To those familiar with business practices, the problem that Sheila and her team took on is a classic example of “The Newsboy Problem”. They resolved to maximize profits by minimizing waste. They knew their audience and matched the inventory of the demand. The satisfaction can be found in anyone who enjoys efficiency.
So, as we gush about the success of our team in saving the client from loss in caterers and discarded meals, the question remains: how much savings were actually passed on to the client? Small changes add up over time, but this change was made over the course of only a few months.
With those changes in place, and even as they refined the system, our team was able to save the client well over $17,000 in expenses that they had paid for the same services in the same quarter last year!
We anticipate those dollars to continue to compound over the next three quarters of the year. The savings, in the meantime, are being delivered right back to the client, who are now enjoying passing those funds back to their own staff. They’ve been able to provide new events at Valentine's Day and upcoming Cinco De Mayo, all of which the Hospitality Team can arrange, knowing that their work made it possible. We know that the Hospitality our team provides will help to attract and retain significant talent, a mark of the prominence of the firm.
We highlight Team Small, but Mighty because they didn’t settle for the status quo. They didn’t wait for a directive to improve. As much as we love using data and statistics to support our work, they didn’t need an equation to follow their own capable instincts. Where many people would see waste and accept it as an unavoidable consequence, they pushed for better. Our third party teams examine what is done, and rather than put off a solution or deflecting responsibility, they act. Now, their determination to Consider It Done can be enjoyed by the firm, the partners, and our much satisfied team at GLC.