designecentral

“Time is Money” – Benjamin Franklin

We all see our time going faster and faster when we are busy, but once things slow down time cannot go fast enough.  What a title, “Time is Money: Ways to Improve Both”, who came up with this – well me.  I thought about a topic that helps companies improve their Business Process and came down to “How can I Save Money?”  or “How can I Improve my Time Management?”.   This article is about how we can look into our current processes today and by improving will provide more profits and if at all possible more time – specifically to us getting a life.

You have the Business Processes documented, but have you observed it in action, evaluated, and received or encouraged input to improve?  Your Business Process is a Living Document, one that constantly evolves with your company.  You cannot let this document become stagnate or something that never changes.

I’m offering some insightful topics to consider as I do in every New Consulting Project which I have undertaken and will.  Focusing on what a Business Process is designed for – begins with a Customer’s need and ends with a Customer’s need fulfilled.

Observation

Become an Observer, watching your Team at work.  The first thing I do as a Consultant coming in on a New Project is being observant, in the background observing what people do and how they do it.  Sit back and just take notes, ask “Why”.  To understand the Person’s responsibilities as they perceive, not the one that was written on the Job Responsibility document, but the one they have settled in to.  Ask them why are they doing it that way, or why that software, or what could be done to improve.  Asking them their options of what could improve their process, either being different software or rearranging something, just ask.

Everyone’s Input Counts

Every person in your company needs to provide their insight on how the Process affects them.  As a Business Owner you do not do every task within your company so gaining this from those that do – important.  They are the ones you need to gain “Buy-In” otherwise that process will never be successfully implemented.

Evaluation

Now that you have spent the time to Observe and gather the Teams Input it is now time for you to evaluate the results.  Taking each stage compare the current process with what you have learned, modify as needed, then post to a “Wiki” type site to gain future input.  A Wiki is a website that uses Wiki Software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified editing tool.  Some of you may have discovered of Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org.

Utilizing this method will provide better input from your Team, gain the future advantage of “Buy-In” as they now feel a part of the process not just the doer, and your time re-entering their notes.

BETA Implementation

I have used a term from the software industry to identify this next stage in the improvement process, but basically you need to implement these new improved processes, test to see if they do work, re-evaluate, modify…repeat.  As I stated before the Business Process is a Living Process ever morphing into something new as your company grows.

Goal

Our goal of this exercise is to have a well designed Business Process which increases effectiveness (value for our Customer) and increases our efficiency (less costs for our company).  You may have found some unnecessary activities to eliminate but not at the cost of adding value for the Customer.  Keep in mind that this is a Team Effort not just one person responsibility.

Come back for more on this same topic where we will extract detail information about each of the above stages.  We hope you take the time now to learn and implement tools to manage your business processes to ensure a well-managed and successful business.