Business Process Improvement is the analysis, review, and improvement of business processes to improve business performance.
Importance of Good Business Processes
For any business to be productive and profitable, its processes must be effective. But in many businesses, processes are often not as efficient as they could be.
Examples of this are when;
- The same data gets entered into different systems multiple times, increasing the possibility of mistakes.
- People use spreadsheets to track their work which creates silos of disconnected information.
- Different people use different processes to perform the same task, indicating that proper processes are not established.
- Information required in the handover from one process to the other does not flow causing delays and miscommunication.
- Email gets used as the default workflow application. This generates a lot of email and is inefficient.
Business Process Improvement projects can help businesses reduce their operational costs and work times, enhance customer service and improve the quality of their products or services.
Business Process Mapping
Business Process Improvement is done by mapping out the business process, identifying inefficiencies, redesigning the process and measuring the improvements.
Flowcharts and process maps help visualise the sequence of steps in a process with certain benchmarks or decision points and how certain processes flow into others. They can be used to map out current processes in order to design process improvements to be implemented.
An important part of business process mapping is to observe the process and gather information from workers that perform the process. This creates an accurate understanding of what tasks are involved in the process, the sequence in which they happen and what can be improved.
Business Process Workflows
A process workflow is a series of interrelated tasks that need to be completed in sequence, one after another. Workflows are normally based on standard operating procedures (SOP).
Workflows are excellent for creating repeatable processes consisting of a structured sequence of steps, to ensure that tasks are executed in the correct order by appropriate staff. Each task may have its own checklist to ensure all the steps have been followed.
Workflows provide a clear roadmap for achieving predictable outcomes to ensure a consistently high standard of quality.
Business Process Checklists
Checklists can be used to dramatically reduce errors and increase discipline to achieve consistently high-quality products and services. By providing a clear and consistent framework for carrying out tasks, checklists can improve accuracy, increase efficiency, and reduce the risk of mistakes or oversights.
By using checklists, staff are less likely to forget important steps or deviate from the established process. This will increase the quality of the work being done, as well as save time and resources in not having to re-do work or correct problems that could have been avoided.
Checklist can help to identify areas where a process can be improved. By analysing the results of completed checklists, you can see patterns and identify areas where the process can be streamlined or made more efficient. This can help your business to continually improve its processes.
Checklists can be adapted to fit the unique requirements of any business and most business processes.
Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence can help businesses improve process management by monitoring and analysing processes on a historic or real-time basis.
It can provide a business with accurate information about what work items exist, who does the work, how long it takes work to be completed, what the average wait time is and where the bottlenecks are.
This empowers a business to identify areas for improvement as well as monitoring the results of Business Process Improvement projects.
ERP and Mobility Systems
Technology can provide the means to improve business processes but Business Process Improvement must be focused on business requirements rather than on the technology that may be used to achieve the solution.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Enterprise Mobility are systems that can be used to significantly improve process processes, but they do not improves business processes of themselves. ERP and Mobility systems are only as effective as the business processes used to operate them. If a business keeps doing the same things over and over again they can only expect the same results, regardless of what system they use.
Unless business processes are corrected and improved in conjunction with ERP and Mobility system implementations, the same problems will only perpetuate.
Lean Thinking
We are not Lean consultants but we follow Lean thinking and principles in our Business Process Improvement services. Three of our consultants have extensive experience in Lean and have held leadership roles in the implementation of Lean in the companies they were managers for.
We partner with Lean consultants who have proper experience and expertise and a proven track record of success. We implement our systems to support a Lean implementation.
Experienced Team
Our team of consultants are highly experienced in operational and financials processes to help you implement Business Improvement projects in your business.
Their industry knowledge comes from practical experience over many years obtained from their work in manufacturing, distribution, contracting and construction businesses or accounting practices.
Three of our consultants have over 80 years combined experience in senior management positions (including CEO, MD, CFO, GM) in large companies turning over more than $25 million. The majority of our consultants have held managerial positions in operations, production, procurement, supply chain, logistics, sales, quality assurance, project management, construction and senior accountant.
Our Systems Support Business Process Improvement
Our systems support Business Process Improvement by providing the means to manage business processes and analyse key metrics for measuring process improvement, or the need for improvement.
Business performance is ultimately improved by measuring and analysing key performance indicators in order to manage the internal business processes that drive those indicators for the purpose of improving efficiency and achieving business objectives.
To be able to improve business processes, measure progress and make well-informed decisions, businesses need the ability to easily access and analyse the right information quickly. Our systems capture the data you need to measure and transform it into useful information and insights which empowers you to act on it.
