| More than ever, speed is becoming the major
competitive advantage of business. Speed can be
described in a number of ways. It could be the
speed at which you meet external challenges,
such as using the Internet, or the speed at
which you identify and seize new customer
trends. It can also mean the speed of delivery
of your products and services, or the speed of a
particular business process such as accounts
receivable, batch reactor residence time,
railcar loading, patient waiting time, project
delivery, or sales quoting time.
If you consider your organization, what do
you believe to be the areas where things just
take too long? Do you even know? Have you asked
your customers? Being able to meet increasing
customer demands for speed is a constant
challenge. Technology has improved delivery
speed, but people expect to have things now,
faster, better, cheaper.
- McDonalds performed a study on its
drive-through windows and determined that if
they could speed up delivery by just 6
seconds per transaction, they could sell
millions more.
- B.F. Goodrich determined that if they
could reduce the time it took to dump a
batch of product from one vessel to another
by just 28 seconds, they could make 1 more
batch per day, providing thousands of extra
dollars in income.
- Monsanto decreased bottle fill time by a
fraction of a second and sold millions more
gallons of
Examples abound from every industry where
people are continuously chipping away at the
time it takes to perform every conceivable task.
The results are often astounding, saving money
for companies, improving morale of employees
(because things work better with less delays),
and boosting customer satisfaction.
So, how do you go about improving the speed
at which things get done around your
organization? The process used to gain
improvement is often called Cycle Time Reduction
or Process Mapping and is implemented in 8
steps.
- Identify Opportunities-Identify the core
processes that add value for your customers.
These would be areas where customers,
employees, or suppliers have voiced concerns
and where doing things more effectively or
efficiently could produce better results.
- Form Teams -What is the scope of the
project? When do we want to see results? Who
will facilitate the process? Who will make
up the team or teams? How will success be
measured? What kinds of skills are needed?
What type of training do we need?
Essentially, this step helps you to develop
a plan.
- Analyze the Current Process-Develop a
map of the process as it exists today.
Follow the product through the cycle and
then go back and follow the people.
Separating people and products identifies
different issues.
- Develop the New Process-After gaining a
complete understanding of where you are, you
and your team are now ready to develop the
process as you think it can be-your vision
of the improved process.
- Identify Root Causes and Proposed
Solutions-Now you have the framework to
identify all the obstacles between the
existing process and the improved process.
Identify areas where the new process
simplifies, eliminates waste and integrates
key steps. Identify solutions that will
improve SPEED.
- Test-Test the new process and new
procedures. Train employees and help them
deal with change. Use input from field
employees to further refine and fine-tune
the new process.
- Measure Results-Report the progress of
the new process. Be sure to place graphs in
highly visible locations so employees see
that the changes they are making are getting
results.
- Recognition and Continuous
Improvement-Provide recognition to the
improvement teams and employees for making
changes that benefit customers, the company,
and themselves. Lastly, don't stop here, be
sure to evaluate and identify new areas for
improvement where your processes can be
improved. Positive results are guaranteed!
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