when starting a process improvement, could you tell me in general what are the basic steps that we should do? Saving Changes...
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Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
While this is very high level here goes.
The first step is to understand the gap between where the company is today vs. where it wants to be. This is not always easy to determine. I like to start with the strategic objectives of the organization. Typically these will need some work to get them into a operationally quantifiable terms and in terms of delivering value to stakeholders (customers, owners, employees, etc.). Next, identify the areas of the organization that would need to be changed in order to achieve the objectives. These should be end-to-end cross functional processes not departments. Once these have been identified organanize a cross funcitional team of people who represent these functions and collectively share with them the quantified objectives and then woek with them to define how the current process works today and how it would need to be changed in order to achieve the objectives. When you have finished you will have a detail map of how processes work now, how deficiencies and improvements can be made to contribute to achieving strategic objectives and what the new process would look like interms of people, technology, policy and procedures.
Send me your email address at [email protected] and I will send you a complementary copy of my book on business process improvement.
Also, take some time to read some books on Six Sigma.
Good Luck
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Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Anonymous, your question is short, but the answer is not..! Mr. Wood's response to your post is excellent and concise. I would recommend that you read Mr. Wood's book, "The Helix Factor". It is an excellent read that you can finish over a weekend, share with your colleagues, and apply in the workplace. Do have plenty of post-it notes as you read. I would also recommend that you read, "Kaizen", by Masaaki Imai or any other bok on Kaizen and order or create the Kaizen poster - "The 10 Commandments of Improvement" all of which you cand find on Google with the search term, "Kaizen books". Starting process improvement is grand, maintain continuous process improvement in glorious. Congratulations..! -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
Hi Mark, I was looking at BOT's web site. Looks like some great stuff.
Can you email me your email address. I would like to chat with you and learn more about the product line.
