Process Improvement Methodology

Improvements in physical processes are at the heart of profitability and customer satisfaction, and that’s what we do. We evaluate processes, procedures, organizational structures, and use of technology, and improve them to work best for our clients. We begin by flowcharting major business processes. Then we identify design opportunities and performance opportunities. We look for and eliminate the following:

1. Unnecessary administrative tasks, approvals or paperwork.
2. Duplication of identical activities performed at different points in the process.
3. Backward flows or recycling of work.
4. Unused data.
5. Overly complex processes or bottlenecks.
6. Excessive cycle time.

We improve the processes, as appropriate, by:

1. Making steps parallel rather than sequential.
2. Grouping non-connected sequential steps together so they can be performed all at once.
3. Standardizing the process; using the single best practice throughout the process.
4. Error proofing the process by providing easily understood, complete procedures.
5. Improving the performance of an individual task by choosing a better algorithm, etc.
6. Introducing new technology (for these types of process improvements):
   Automational - eliminating human labor from a process
   Informational - capturing process information for the purpose of understanding
   Sequential - changing process sequence, or enabling parallelism
   Tracking - closely monitoring process status and objects
   Analytical - improving analysis of information and decision making
   Geographical - coordinating processes across distances
   Integrative - capturing and distributing intellectual assets
   Disintermediating - eliminating intermediaries from a process

As you can see, this is not rocket science, it’s just common sense. But, without someone dedicated to applying these techniques, and having an outsider’s perspective, processes tend to stagnate. Using these techniques at Prudential on their retirement benefit claims process, we enabled a 50% staff reduction and reduced average queue time from 20 days to 1 day, a big return for a small investment. Process improvement engagements come down to practical matters: improving service quality, reducing costs, and increasing revenue. And practical matters are easily measured - in results.

In manufacturing firms, these processes are likely candidates for improvement:

•  Production scheduling
•  Material planning
•  Engineering changes
•  Inventory record accuracy
•  Bill of material accuracy
•  Routings accuracy
•  Item data accuracy
•  Work center data accuracy

Consider contracting our services to improve some of your major business processes, perhaps those in deepest trouble, those having greatest customer impact, or those most feasible to do now. We would be happy to make an initial call at no charge to further explore how you company might benefit from any of our services. It is typical to recoup our fee from first year savings.