Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2011

The Generic Business Process

Many business don't see how they can make improvements. "We don't have a process, every project is bespoke!" is a usual response. However if you stand back far enough you can see your process. Most businesses progress their orders through similar steps, or stages. If you can identify these steps then you have identified the overview of your process. The bits in-between the steps might be different on each 'project', but as long as you can identify the correct deliverables at the end of each stage then you will be able to make gains. The handover is usually a critical point in a process to reduce lead time and improve quality. You may not need to flog the continuous improvement ethos on the bits in-between! If you find your generic process then you can find a route to make improvements. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

Use Stepping Stones

Often we want improvements to work in certain way. When we let other people do it their way there is a chance that they create something that isn't perfect, hopefully it is functional, but what can we do about it? If we have something looming in the background then we can use their offering as a stepping stone to our final solution. We may not get it 100% identical, but 97% is surely better than a lack of implementation. Their input into their solution increases their buy in to the change. It's like the story of boiling a frog - if you do it slowly you can boil the frog, if you go too quickly the frog jumps away. Sometimes using multiple stepping stones is needed because people may find change harder than we do. The key is finding tiny steps to take. Stepping stones can sometimes be the only option we have. If you need to make changes but are struggling to get your team on board then consider using stepping stones to help them make their journey. This is an esp