Process Improvement

Process Improvement is an ongoing practice and should always follow up with analyzing tangible areas of improvement. When implemented successfully, the results will measure and enhance product quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, increased productivity, development of employees' skills, efficiency, and increased profit, resulting in a higher and faster return on investment (ROI). Processes that run like clockwork can breathe life into your business (and profits), and ineffective methods can go so far as to kill your company.

Inefficient processes lead to a waste of precious employees' time.

• The time that someone spends doing an unnecessary and redundant task could've been better send to work in other valuable areas.

Working standards can drop.

• Inefficiently built processes often mean that work becomes defective. Reports and deadlines can go missing, and employees can mistake in many areas.

Productivity can take a hit.

• The bottom line in any business is the finances and productivity losses first hit this vital area. If you're paying a team to do a job that could be easily and automat, you're losing money by the minute.

How Process Improvement Works

• Business Process Improvement can work in two ways: it can flow through a structured path or take a more informal route. Either way, though, it tends to follow four common steps.

1. Process Audits, And Finding Improvement Opportunities.

• The audit is usually the best place to start process improvement efforts. Here are what you should be looking for: opportunities to improve the process and potential risk areas. It will help you strategize business improvement, especially regarding prioritizing specific regions.

• At this stage, it's a good idea to understand how tweaking a particular process will impact resources and stakeholders–which may be the organization itself, teams, individual employees, partner organizations, vendors, or customers.

2. Analysis Process That Are Currently in Use.

• Once you've established which area you want to improve, spend time analyzing the processes that are in place. You can do this through process mapping (workflows), cause/effect studies, and active surveys.

• Ask the right questions: Check if the process is a gap and where. Which steps cause delays/bottlenecks, and which ones are costly? Which steps cause quality losses?

3. Build Commitment and Support

• Process improvement isn't an instant do-over. It requires a dedicated commitment across the board, and that's why getting senior management support is crucial. Managerial support will make the difference when you explain the change in the status quo and why it is necessary.

• Improving processes takes a lot of time and resources, so ensure you get the all-important upper management approval and support.

4. Strategize Your Process Improvement Plan

• A good strategy will include the steps you've isolated as problem areas, why they are problem areas, and how you plan to improve them. Ensure that your process improvement objectives are realistic, measurable, and necessary in the context of your organization's strategic, long-term and short-term goals.