Example of Efficiency…

About 20 years ago, I was a salesperson for a large computer company. I wasn’t a participant in this story, I was just an observer.

I heard that the president of the company mandated that all divisions cut costs by an order of magnitude in a single fiscal year. I remember thinking at the time that a ten fold decrease in costs was impossible.

At the end of their fiscal year, they put out the word that they had been successful. I would imagine that some divisions did well and others did not. I did uncover their strategy and here is how they did it…

They followed these 5 steps to shorten their process cycle times:

• Document the process – Each division documented their processes.
• Prove that you have the correct process – Each division had to try to run the defined process to prove that they had the definitions correct.
• Run the process – They ran their proven processes.
• Measure – They measured how long each process was taking.
• Improve the process – They attempted to improve the process.

They ran the new process and measured the difference. This allowed them to either roll back or move forward.

Remember, this was 20 years ago and processes weren’t very efficient to begin with. Of course, there were other cost cuts that added to that number.

Our thoughts…

I believe that this is a sound strategy and I still recommend it to our new customers.

I see Process Optimization as having 2 key components – There is a Manual component that you can continue to improve to shorten process cycle times and there is an Automation component that allows software to perform mundane tasks within your processes to further shorten your process cycle times. In addition, the automation software provides control over how long steps will take, provides process metrics and provides visibility into the status of your processes.
Results – Your Company is more Efficient.

Your Thoughts…