Tips for Redesigning a Business Process

Change the process in ways that provide value that the customer wants--for example, more speed and efficiency, more accuracy, less cost, or a singe point of contact between customers and your company.

The following list of tips can aid in the redesign of a business process:

• Change the process in ways that provide value that the customer wants--for example, more speed and efficiency, more accuracy, less cost, or a singe point of contact between customers and your company.
• Don't be constrained by current job titles, responsibilities, and locations.  If you need to create a new position to make the process flow as effectively as possible, consider doing so.
• Attack the biggest time-wasters in the process first--such as points where there is extensive waiting, moving, or rework.
• Examine the logic behind the current sequence of steps in the process. Ask yourself whether the process would work more quickly or efficiently if you rearranged the steps.
• Look for opportunities to remove unnecessary reviews of completed work.  When people know that their work will be reviewed multiple times, the incentive to git it right the first time diminishes.
• To decrease the number of steps in a process, eliminate sign offs or approvals by individuals on activities they don't know much about.  Instead push decision making down to where the work is actually being done.
• Identify opportunities to simplify steps that are unnecessarily complex.
• Involve as few people as possible in performing a process.   You'll reduce the number of potential bottlenecks and other problems.
• Identify problem points in the process by asking the people involved where they experience frustration, and by asking what precisely, frustrates them.  Answers might include "When this part of the work gets to me, there's missing information."
• To identify bottlenecks in the current process, increase the inputs flowing through it, and accelerate the speed at which the process is performed.  Bottlenecks will become more noticeable under these conditions.

ACTION POINT: Consider the tips above when reviewing and redesigning a process.