Safety
Safety is a more significant challenge for some types of organizations than others, but every organization should pay attention to the safety of its workers and guests. This is one area where front-line workers can be extremely valuable; they see the risks firsthand. Process improvement examples that improve safety include:
- Employee awareness and training
- Workplace standardization and organization
- A well-documented and streamlined process for reporting hazards
- Automation that reduces safety or ergonomic risks
- A method for analyzing close calls or near misses
- Signage or other visual indicators of potential hazards
Customer Satisfaction
Every person in the organization has a role to play when it comes to customer satisfaction. Whether it is by creating products that maximize customer value, delivering support or services, insisting on excellent quality, or setting competitive prices, customer satisfaction is a team effort. Ideas for improving the customer experience include:
- Optimizing auto attendants to route customers to the help they need quickly
- Enhanced customer communications and content
- Implementing a structured approach to handling complains
- Skills-based contact center routing
- Transactional promoter score surveys
Your front-line employees know what your customers love and hate about working with your customers. Tap into this valuable resource to find areas for improvement.
Efficiency
Efficient companies practice operational excellence and get the most out of every resource. When organizations are inefficient, employees waste time and effort on tasks that don’t add value, resources are wasted, and growth opportunities are missed. Ideas for improving productivity include:
- Eliminating duplicate work, like entering the same data into multiple systems
- Limiting meetings to those that are necessary and effective
- Streamlining approval processes
- Making sure that equipment and supplies are stored where they are needed
Process Improvement
All of the above examples represent ideas for improving business processes, but it is also wise to consider how you can improve your approach to improvement. Effective communications and documentation will help you accelerate the pace of positive change. You might think about the following:
- Frequently communicating strategic goals and annual objectives
- Deploying improvement management software
- Using digital wallboards to visualize work-in-progress
- Using daily huddle meetings to structure the day’s improvement activities
- Measuring employee engagement and activity
- Improving cross-functional information sharing and collaboration
Improvement Techniques
Once your team is prolific at identifying opportunities for improvement, you’ll want to ensure they know the most helpful techniques for implementing the ideas.
PDSA: PDSA is a structured cycle for improvement. The steps are:
Plan: Define the problem and identify possible solutions.
Do: Experiment by implementing one solution.
Study: Analyze the results of the experiment.
Act: If the experiment was successful, add it to the standard operation. If not, begin again.
The 5 Whys: The 5 whys is a problem-solving technique for finding the root cause of an issue. Simply stating a problem and then asking why five times or so will usually get to the bottom of the situation.
5S: 5S is a workplace organization technique for improving safety and efficiency. The steps are sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain.
Catchball: Catchball is a technique borrowed from the Lean business methodology. Someone, usually a leader or manager, starts the “ball” rolling by sharing an idea and asking for feedback. Then, others add their thoughts and pass the idea up and down the layers of the origination until it is refined and a consensus is achieved.
A3 Problem Solving: A3 problem solving is a structured technique for defining and solving problems. On a single sheet of paper, the team determines the current state, identifies the desired state, selects performance measurements, develops an implementation plan, and tracks the results.
Business process improvement is critical for success in today’s competitive landscape, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Small process changes implemented by employees can have a significant impact on results. Armed with process improvement software, a few problem-solving techniques, and the full support of leadership, your team will exceed all expectations.