Process Improvement – Where do I Start?
Many organisations offer process improvement services but what does that really mean? Let’s start with ensuring we’re clear on what a process is; it is a set of steps, or instructions, that help you achieve something. It could apply to anything but organisations routinely use well defined processes to ensure that they achieve the same ‘thing’ with consistency.
In the world of management systems, such as ISO, a process is defined as a ‘set of interrelated or interacting activities that transforms inputs into outputs’ – clear then.
When organisations offer process improvement the goal is simply to make those interrelating activities more efficient, or maybe replace them, or even remove them if the desired output can still be achieved.
Finding where a process improvement can be made is tough when you’re immersed in it. It’s human nature to want to make things work, particularly when we have any ownership in the process. It’s then difficult to objectively challenge the ‘as is’, to look for a better way, when you may have spent years conducting the process.
Very often the simple questioning of established routines can draw defensiveness from process owners and being too close to the process under scrutiny makes shaking off subjectivity and bias difficult.
Thinking out of the box, considering best practices from ‘outside’ and invariably investigating the potential role of technology is best lead by those for whom analytical objectivity is their core competence. There are no shortage of consultants willing to help.
Alternatively, those within the organisation, can be trained in the methodology to carry out the challenge. Internal audit skills, Lean Six Sigma or FMEA are well trodden routes to identify and then improve. All of which need nothing more than a challenging, open-minded approach, desire to find a better way and an understanding of the methodology.
Contact iqms Learning; we can support you in providing process improvement expertise or creating experts within your organisation with our training programs – whichever works for you