The approach will often depend on the maturity of the business and the nature and magnitude of the issues they are facing.

 

For start ups there is often a need to define overall roles and responsibilities and map the processes that are key to the business before process improvement can commence.

 

For more established businesses the documentation is often behind the times when it comes to current practice versus procedural content.

 

Where the objective is to address specific issues there is a need to start with the objectives for the process and to define the problems being encountered as well as the impact to the business.

 

We employ a combination of the following approaches:

 

 

 

All processes have definable inputs and outputs - this can be from internal or external sources.  Typically there are controls or regulations that need to be complied with and there will be Key Process Indicators (KPIs) that are used to measure the performance of the process.

 

Taken from the methodology attributed to Dr. W. Edwards Deming this is often called the "Deming Wheel" or "Shewhart Cycle".  The primary concept is that this is a "closed loop" approach which means that there are measurements established to determine whether what was planned achieved the objectives.  It is an iterative approach and can be repeated until the desired outcome and stability has been achieved.

 

The primary objective here is end up with a stabilized process and reduce the levels of variations.  Although this can be seen as a very formalized approach, it can be varied depending on the issues.  Just as in the Deming approach above, the "Control" phase ensures that there is feedback on the overall performance and the final deliverables of the activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, we have a number of ways that we can address the issues that you have within your business.  Typically the answer is found in combining these approaches to develop a solution that will work within your organization.  The skill is in knowing which combination will be the best fit.