Daniel Lock's blog

Welcome to the August 2009 edition of Strategic Innovationnewsletter, a free monthly newsletter on leadership, strategy and innovation. Delivered on the first Tuesday of each month.

Back issues are archived for free downloading at www.DanielLockConsulting.com.

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Tips for improving business processes

• Streamlining suggests the trimming of waste and excess, attention to every little detail that might lead to improved performance and quality.
• Streamlining provides a smooth flow.
• With streamlining, the process will operate with the least disturbance to its surroundings.
• Improvement of a process means changing a process to make it more effective, efficient, and adaptable.
• Preventing means you change the process to ensure that errors never reach the customer.

The 10 cornerstone tools to streamlining

 1. Eliminate bureaucracy

Bureaucracy occurs as organizations grow, because as each manager gets busier they hire someone new, which is fine, except they don’t hand off the decision making authority. After a few years of this ‘up and down the chain’ movement, you have bureaucracy.

2. Eliminate duplication

One of the most common places where duplication can be identified is in reporting or information. Always strive for having one point of truth, which can be accessed on demand, rather than having someone prepare this information.

3. Determine what adds value to the process

Evaluate every activity in the business process to determine its contribution to 
meeting customer requirements.

4. Simplify

As humans we have an innate tendency to over complicate things. The quickest way to simplify, is to ask the key question: “What are we trying to do?” In other words, if in doubt start with objectives. Confusion and complexity usually come about through a discussion of alternatives before the objectives have been understood.

5. Think Rapid Response

Determine ways to compress cycle time to meet or exceed customer expectations and minimize storage costs. All ‘waiting’ time is wasted time. Waiting doesn’t add value to the customer; it makes them think you have forgotten them. 

6. Use software and systems properly

Make effective use of capital equipment and the working environment to improve overall performance. There is a saying in the property development game about using land for the ‘highest and best use’, apply this to systems, equipment and software too.

The corollary of this is to not become technology centric. Rather technology must enable us to improve the process not introduce more problems.

7. Make it difficult to do the activity incorrectly

Then you don’t need quality checking, because it’s already done. Think of those ‘mandatory for completion’ fields in applications.

8. Reduce the complexity of the way we write and talk

Enough said.

9. Standardise – select a single way to do the activity

This means involving the key players in defining the ‘operational definitions’ and agreeing that there is in fact a best practice and consistent approach on how to do a particular task.

10. Involve your suppliers in your business

Create a structure and policy that encourages supplier feedback and partnership ‘big picture’ improvement – look for creative ways to drastically change the process to automate and mechanise. 
  

Technique of the month: Involve your people

Process is all about people. People running the process know more about your business processes than the CEO ever will. But remember to follow these three key rights of the worker, and they will be loyal to the end;

• I know what to do
• I know how to do it
• I know how I am going against targets set for me