Operations in organizations are made up of small processes. This means that the failure of one or more processes may impact an entire operation. At a not-for-profit organization, for instance, when the fundraising department isn’t collecting enough money, it affects the organization’s reach due to limited funds. This opportunity calls for process improvement of operational processes.
Process improvement is the act of enhancing the existing way of doing things to improve effectiveness and efficiency. The goal is to make the business Operations more effective and efficient, one process at a time. Instead of dismantling and redoing the entire initiative, the process improvement activity focuses on the areas that need improvement.
To uncover inefficiencies or ineffectiveness, a process improvement plan is needed. Typically, process improvement occurs in steps, starting with mapping the processes to define the scope of the project.
With individual processes’ strengths and constraints accounted for, a detailed process improvement plan is then outlined. This plan covers the identified challenges and the proposed solutions. For a nonprofit struggling to raise enough funds, for example, challenges might be a failure to cultivate new donors due to poor prospecting. The proposed solution may be to train team members on the latest donor acquisition practices.
With the challenges uncovered, the causes identified, and solutions proposed, it’s time for a redesign. The redesign step typically begins with easy-to-fix problems and moves to solving problems that may require expert knowledge. In the nonprofit example, having proposed the training of the donor acquisition team, it may be decided that an external marketing consultant be hired to train them.
With challenges and potential solutions mapped out, it's then time to assign roles. In the marketing training example, the team directly responsible for acquiring new donors is the primary target for the training. If it’s found that expanding on established roles is what’s needed to enhance fundraising effectiveness, those who regularly interact with donors may receive the training.
With what is to be done and by whom identified, it’s time for process improvement implementation! This is where each team member gets to work, performing the assigned roles. An implementation plan typically lists all steps involved in the process improvement, the persons responsible and the projected start and end dates of each task.
Process development is a never-ending endeavor. As such, savvy organizations are always looking for ways to improve processes. One organization may continue to explore ways to make tasks less repetitive or less time-consuming, while another may want to achieve peak employee performance. That’s why even with the implementation of the proposed solutions, monitoring processes and continual improvement are essential.
Process improvement can take one of several approaches. There’s Kaizen, a process of making small changes in business operations. Then there’s Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA), which takes process improvement through an endless loop, where a challenge is defined followed by the creation of a potential solution, which is tested for effectiveness and then implemented.
The sooner an organization engages in process improvement, the better. This helps an organization to catch and fix errors early, reducing the costs associated with inefficiencies. The trick is to make communication easier, encouraging participants to give feedback. Since process improvement is not a set-and-forget affair, feedback may also be useful during subsequent process improvement endeavors.
Process improvement is the act of enhancing the existing way of doing things to improve effectiveness and efficiency. The goal is to make the business Operations more effective and efficient, one process at a time. Instead of dismantling and redoing the entire initiative, the process improvement activity focuses on the areas that need improvement.
To uncover inefficiencies or ineffectiveness, a process improvement plan is needed. Typically, process improvement occurs in steps, starting with mapping the processes to define the scope of the project.
With individual processes’ strengths and constraints accounted for, a detailed process improvement plan is then outlined. This plan covers the identified challenges and the proposed solutions. For a nonprofit struggling to raise enough funds, for example, challenges might be a failure to cultivate new donors due to poor prospecting. The proposed solution may be to train team members on the latest donor acquisition practices.
With the challenges uncovered, the causes identified, and solutions proposed, it’s time for a redesign. The redesign step typically begins with easy-to-fix problems and moves to solving problems that may require expert knowledge. In the nonprofit example, having proposed the training of the donor acquisition team, it may be decided that an external marketing consultant be hired to train them.
With challenges and potential solutions mapped out, it's then time to assign roles. In the marketing training example, the team directly responsible for acquiring new donors is the primary target for the training. If it’s found that expanding on established roles is what’s needed to enhance fundraising effectiveness, those who regularly interact with donors may receive the training.
With what is to be done and by whom identified, it’s time for process improvement implementation! This is where each team member gets to work, performing the assigned roles. An implementation plan typically lists all steps involved in the process improvement, the persons responsible and the projected start and end dates of each task.
Process development is a never-ending endeavor. As such, savvy organizations are always looking for ways to improve processes. One organization may continue to explore ways to make tasks less repetitive or less time-consuming, while another may want to achieve peak employee performance. That’s why even with the implementation of the proposed solutions, monitoring processes and continual improvement are essential.
Process improvement can take one of several approaches. There’s Kaizen, a process of making small changes in business operations. Then there’s Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA), which takes process improvement through an endless loop, where a challenge is defined followed by the creation of a potential solution, which is tested for effectiveness and then implemented.
The sooner an organization engages in process improvement, the better. This helps an organization to catch and fix errors early, reducing the costs associated with inefficiencies. The trick is to make communication easier, encouraging participants to give feedback. Since process improvement is not a set-and-forget affair, feedback may also be useful during subsequent process improvement endeavors.