Process Improvement, I Love It and You Should Too

In a previous article, I answered the question “Of All The Careers, Why Project Management?” Within that, I alluded to process improvement as well. Which also coincides with problem-solving, but let’s concentrate on the former first.

Digging deeper into discovering my sweet spot–the intersection of my strengths and passion–lies process improvements or improvements in general. I am a continual improvement advocate. Just like I believe I can always improve myself as an individual, I believe there is always room for improvements within organizations… as long as there is an ROI (return on investment). My goal has always been to introduce efficiencies, reduce wasted time, and make jobs easier.

Process Improvement Defined

According to BusinessDictionary.com, process improvement is the systematic approach to the closing of a process or system performance gaps through streamlining and cycle time reduction, and identification and elimination of causes of below specifications quality, process variation, and non-value-adding activities.

There are several methodologies to execute improvements, such as Deming Cycle, ITIL, ABPMP, Six Sigma, Lean, and TQM. The overall take on improvement is to be proactive, identify areas of improvement, analyze the current way, map a more efficient way, define metrics, execute, improve, rinse, and repeat.

Why are improvements important?

The analogy I have always used was comparing a Fire Marshall and a Fire Fighter. If we concentrate more on the role of the Fire Marshall, being prepared for or preventing a fire, we won’t need to be putting out as many fires and the ones we do deal with will take less time.

• Save money. Whether it has to do with specific items or enabling your human resources to accomplish more.
• Reduce headcount. This isn’t even necessarily meaning layoffs, but preventing “throwing bodies at a problem” whether that is with existing resources or hiring new, not necessarily needed, resources.
• Reduce wasted time. One of the biggest improvements I have found to reduce wasted time is documentation. The last thing you want is for your team to spend 5 hours trying to solve a problem that has been solved before and could have even been avoided. If you document it the first time, it saves so much more time in the end. This gives time back to your team to accomplish even more.
• Competitive / Comparative Advantage. Using the services industry as an example, process improvements could enable:
  • consistent delivery
  • more up-time
  • respond more quickly and pivot
  • increased SLA (service level agreement) compliance, less monetary penalties
  • increased margins
  • client referrals
• Scalability. Do you want to hire more human resources? Grow your clientele? Add more services and/or products? The more scalable you are, the easier this is to achieve.
• And much more…

Quotes

• “Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” Kim Collins”Perfection is the enemy of progress.” Winston Churchill
• “Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures.” Tom Peters
• “There is always space for improvement, no matter how long you’ve been in the business.” Oscar De La Hoya
• “Never be afraid to fail. Failure is only a stepping stone to improvement. Never be overconfident because that will block your improvement.” Tony Jaa
• “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” W.E. Deming
• “Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.” Tom Peters
• “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Benjamin Franklin
• “Without change, there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.” William Pollard

My Experience

The catalyst for this was in my first role as a manager. I managed the Logistics, Store Control, and Shipping and Receiving departments. In that role, I strived to make mine and my team’s jobs easier and more efficient. I increased receiving efficiency by assigning individuals to specific departments and they learned to be subject matter experts. The team and I lowered our inventory error rate after I created actions off of daily reports. I initiated projects to organize all the stockrooms. From the recognition and success, I found my passion.

Even if it was not my main role, I have always tried ways to improve processes and introduce efficiencies. Most recently, I have excelled in implementing and improving up ITIL best practices, establishing project management standard frameworks, and creating needed supporting documentation. This has been accomplished through expert and referent power. My next career step is to add legitimate power to the mix to be a more successful change agent and to mentor others.

• Expert Power – one’s experiences, skills or knowledge.
• Referent Power – being trusted and respected.
• Legitimate Power – having a position of power in an organization.

My Accomplishments

• I am spearheading the Project Management Implementation Improvement Initiative (PMI3), The focus is to improve over 64 processes and create a standard framework to increase efficiency and consistency. The end goal to provide more time within the schedule for planning and testing. After brainstorming with 25 Project Managers and delivering a proposal document to leadership. (more)
• I reduced IT Service Manager and Quality Manager time and cost by 50% by improving the efficiency of manual KPI reporting metrics. This allowed the QM to have a greater scope of other responsibilities. (more)
• I improved efficiency by 80% through automation of reporting performance metrics. I led application, integration, and service management teams to ensure SLA/KPI adherence allowing the IT Service Manager to focus on roadmap and client strategy improvement opportunities. (more)
• I achieved Quarterly Rewards & Recognition Award for leading a standardized project management framework project, improving processes and methodologies allowing for streamlined timelines and more consistency by authoring guidelines, processes, procedures, templates, and controls. (more)

So here is a question to the community:

“What is your sweet spot?

Thank you for your time,