How To Implement Process Improvement – Information Systems Consulting Group, Inc. > Why are failures so common? > Business processes remain unchanged > How do you achieve a business process change initiative?
The ISCG and IT Guidance Framework take you step-by-step through a proven methodology that integrates business process change into the selection and implementation of a new system. But Business Process Improvement should not be a one-time undertaking. Our methodology allows IT sponsored business process improvements to live beyond the life of your initial system implementation effort. It helps you create a framework for continuous improvement that is adaptable to your organization’s entire system.
How To Implement Process Improvement
We begin by identifying business processes that are “ripe for change.” These are the most problematic processes, where opportunities exist to improve customer service, productivity, revenue, and efficiency in doing business. After analyzing the potential benefits and ROI of making various process changes, we work collaboratively with employees to develop workflow diagrams that document your current state (AS-IS), desired state (TO-BE), and proposed changes . We partner with your employees throughout this important process, providing guidance, expertise and experience to shape creative, consensus-based ideas for business process change.
All About Continuous Improvement
Workflow diagrams become an important component of your RFP, allowing potential vendors to understand your expectations for the functionality a new system should provide. They help you evaluate which system best supports your desired state, and play an important role in facilitating vendor demonstrations. Diagrams are also used during the implementation process, first during vendor discovery where refinements are made based on the specific capabilities of your chosen system, and then to guide the development of your acceptance test plan.
Workflow diagrams become important organizational knowledge, provide a guide for new employees about your operations, and also support your continuous business process improvement efforts.
The workflow diagram is a collaborative effort between ISCG and staff. The diagrams highlight improvements in the current process. The colored swimlanes show the flow of information between departments, constituencies, systems, and integration with third-party applications. To improve business processes, you need to map your current processes, analyze their effectiveness and efficiency, and plan improvements accordingly.
Read on to learn about the most important process improvement tools you need and how to use them to improve the performance of your workflows.
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Inefficiencies in your processes can lead to bottlenecks that cause delays, cost overruns, poor quality results, inaccuracies, and dissatisfied stakeholders.
Process optimization is a form of quality management that helps you identify inefficiencies early so you can take proactive steps to improve quality. By looking at the root causes of your process inefficiencies, you can identify ways to improve each current process for optimal performance.
Almost 70% of organizations are optimizing their business processes to boost productivity and lower costs, while 35% seek to improve existing products, and 38% want to increase customer satisfaction.
Not only do they make root cause analysis easier, but process improvement tools can help you create a process map for simpler operations. In addition, process automation tools can help cut inefficiencies by reducing bottlenecks caused by manual work.
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There are four main types of process improvement tools, each performing a different function in the improvement process.
A process mapping tool helps you create a highly visual process map to plan the flow of a new or current process.
By drawing a process diagram, you can get a better idea of where the process needs improvement, as well as the possible causes of any current bottlenecks.
While a diagram like this doesn’t need to be made with software, a quality tool will use a unified modeling language like Business Process Modeling and Notation (BPMN), so it’s universally understood. This makes it easier to communicate changes and align strategy and execution across your organization.
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Analysis tools help you find the root cause of your process bottlenecks. Ideal for troubleshooting, analysis tools break down the process, so it’s easy to find possible causes of negative feedback.
An improvement framework is a methodology for considering improvement solutions. Each technique serves as an improvement tool that can help you compare possible solutions to see how they measure up to your actual process performance.
Finally, automation tools provide an active process improvement solution. BPA-like tools are an affordable, easy-to-use solution that cuts out inefficient manual processes by automating workflows.
Here are some of the main tools for creating an effective process map to evaluate each step of your workflow.
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This type of diagram divides the process into what goes in, what happens during the process, what comes out, and who it concerns.
The client is the recipient of the results. While this can be a customer if the process is customer-facing, it could also be another staff member or department carrying on the next process. It could also be a supplier receiving documents or payments.
Use this process mapping technique to plan simple processes that do not include requirements. It is a great technique to use if you don’t want to implement any kind of software.
Using a set of well-known symbols, a BPMN diagram shows the flow of business activities in a process.
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This type of diagram will show possible conditions for processes that have multiple potential outcomes based on different decisions. The technique is ideal for processes that can follow different conditional paths.
A swimlane diagram uses a similar notation to a BPMN diagram but is designed to show roles and responsibilities, especially if processes cross different departments or stakeholders.
For example, if you were creating a swimlane diagram for the travel expense approval process, the swimlanes might:
Alternatively, swimlanes can refer to external stakeholders. Say you were creating a swimlane diagram for a supply chain process such as procurement. Swimlanes may include:
Continuous Improvement (kaizen): Putting It Into Practice
A fishbone diagram is a type of cause and effect diagram that looks at a particular problem and works backwards to see what caused it.
To create a cause and effect diagram like this, start with a common problem in the fish’s mouth.
Using this, you can begin to identify different aspects of the process that need improvement. You will then be able to work out which methods of improvement need to be directed to which elements of the workflow.
A 5 Why is a root cause analysis that aims to dig deep. Often, organizations deploy a process improvement method based on solving a symptom of a problem without ever really fixing the root cause.
The “funnel Model” For Improvement Aims To Explain The Alternating…
As you can see, the root of the problem is that there is only one person who is trained to order supplies. When this person does not place an order, it has continuous effect. In this case, the right improvement process is to train someone else to take that role.
Force field analysis looks at factors that help and hinder a process. This style of analysis is a good tool for deciding which process improvements to implement.
Say you’re considering implementing business process automation software to speed things up. Your force field analysis would look at the automation software factors that would help speed up the process versus those that would hinder it.
A Pareto chart follows a brainstorming session with your project team. It is designed to show the impact of different inefficiencies.
Step Work Improvement Process
A Pareto chart works on the principle that 80% of your problems come from 20% of your inefficiencies. For example, when you ask your team what’s holding them back from doing their work, you’ll find that 80% of staff members point to the top 20% of problems.
In this respect, a Pareto chart helps you prioritize process optimization, so you know where to focus process improvement efforts first.
One of the fastest ways to identify inefficiencies is to track KPI data using workflow analysis software such as .
By digitizing your workflows, you can track how they perform over time by using graphing features to identify common areas where processes are lagging.
Steps For Process Improvement
An improvement framework is a methodology that helps you plan a process improvement method and track its value before scaling up.
With an extensive library of pre-built process models and a code-free process designer, it’s easy to build and optimize numerical, automated processes.
Thanks to conditional routing and fully customizable business rules, it’s simple to automatically route business activities to the right people using automated notifications to prevent delays.
Automated record keeping keeps audit trails complete and up-to-date, while comprehensive analytics allow you to track process performance to identify room for improvement.
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In addition, more than half of all organizations agree that BPA tools reduce errors in the workflow, while 31% of business leaders agree that they reduce overall labor costs.
Online forms are now automatically validated, reducing staff costs and increasing the number of student registrations that can be processed each day.
In addition, automation accelerates the process. 78% of business leaders agree that they can save up to 30 hours a month by automating parts of their work.
Before introducing the BPA software, the contract process took seven to 10 days. Now, thanks to automatic routing, the contract process is 92% faster.
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Most importantly, automation helps you increase your growth, and 80% of business leaders agree that BPA tools move their organizations forward.
Improve your workflows
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