Recently I wrote about how critical it is for businesses which are competing against world class competition, to be looking inward at the quality of their internal processes. It is my observation that most North American companies and organizations in general, are offering and delivering their goods and or services with outmoded processes! I suggested that most companies and organizations need to consider a process of “Deep Change” within their organizations that will allow them to better align their offerings to the needs of their customers and engage in a reengineered delivery system that provides those goods and or services at better value to their customers.
The first step in a “Deep Change” process, assuming that an organizational paradigm shift has occurred recognizing the need for such a change has been made, is looking at your business or organization as a collection of processes. This message of “Deep Change” should resonate with all businesses and organizations regardless of whether the business is in manufacturing, law, insurance, distribution or health delivery! The management team should delineate each major super process such as Finance (audit, costing, banking, etc.); Customer (sales, marketing, customer service, etc.); Operations (estimating, processing, engineering, manufacturing, quality, etc.) and Human Relations (benefits and employee development.) It should be obvious that each of these “Super” processes is comprised of supporting processes which are also comprised of supporting processes.
What exactly is a process? Simply put, a process is a series of steps that have been designed and assembled to bring about something of value to your customer or client. Take this one level deeper and consider that every step of a process has an input and an output. My bet is that most companies that have not looked at their organizations as a process based environment. Steps for both internal and external deliveries within their processes have been developed by people who found simply the easiest way (within their capability or personality idiosyncrasies) to accomplish a job, not necessarily the most effective way for either your organization or the most beneficial way for your customer.
Why is that so? Think about the capability of the people whom you have asked to participate in your process steps. Have they been adequately trained to think about your customer’s needs (both internal and external?) Do they have the requisite skills to work at world class levels? Do they have a personality that promotes teamwork? Team environments are a crucial component of a 21st century delivery system! Do they understand that what they deliver to their internal customer needs to be timely and accurate because any unnecessary delays for error checking and rework is non value added work who’s cost must be passed on to your customer (i.e. in overhead allocations!)
Once a company begins to think of itself as a collection of processes, these processes can be clearly identified, mapped out step by step and then analyzed for their effectiveness with respect to the outputs that they deliver and to their efficiencies of delivery systems. This is where and when the real fun begins, companies and organizations are now ready to engage in process improvement. Process improvement is all about bringing goods and services to your customers that deliver the most value in the most effective ways possible!
The point with which I want to close is that the idea of a “Process Based Enterprise” is universal to any organization! A “Processed Based Environment” and its application is relevant and potentially the most effective business system for anyone who applies its lessons. Within this perspective exists the potential for company and personal life altering paradigm shifts. Organizations that are processed based and engage in facilitated process improvement “will” create an environment with greater employee job satisfaction and greater organizational profitability.