Formal process excellence approaches and methodologies are around for many years . Whether it had been Statistical Process Control within the earlier a part of the last century or Lean and 6 Sigma towards the top of it, we’ve always been arising with news thanks to improve how we improve.
Many of the methodologies for process improvement have their origins in manufacturing, practitioners know that these disciplines are often applied to only about every sort of compute there.
Here are five emerging areas:
#1: Law firms and legal departments
The bar is jumping on the “continuous-improvement-process-management-Lean-Six Sigma” bandwagon during a big way. it had been an industry that until recently enjoyed large margins and seemed resistant to the traditional cost pressures to which most businesses are subject. That changed in 2008 with the beginning of the worldwide recession as companies put their legal advisors and costs under greater scrutiny.
Now, with the us suffering a glut of lawyers on the market, disruption from low cost providers reception and abroad, and competition from online resources (for instance, websites that make standard legal contracts freely available) the pressure is on lawyers to enhance their efficiency and reduce costs. Clients – whether in house legal departments or individuals – are not any longer willing to pay by the hour; fixed fee work has become de rigeur adding additional incentives for lawyers to seek out ways to urge their jobs wiped out less time and for fewer money. (We wrote a piece of writing that appears in additional detail at the subject here).
#2: Healthcare
Generally, the healthcare processes were well and truly broken, it’s a fact that’s been confirmed by the industry itself. In our February 2013 “Future of PEX” survey of over 900 process professionals, those in healthcare cited “broken processes” together of the most important barriers to vary .
Process improvement methodologies like Lean and 6 Sigma have already been applied to great success within the industry. The Virginia Mason Hospital, a Seattle-based teaching hospital, as an example , has been applying lean principles to “increase patient safety and quality of care, and reduce costs” for over a decade. The hospital now its looking to implement Lean.
#3: Shared Services & Outsourcing
Many companies over the last decade, have enjoyed huge benefits by outsourcing to low-cost countries or creating shared service centers. While initially the value savings and efficiency gains may are achieved just by changing the operational found out.
In a whitepaper, consultant Dan French, argues that Shared services has entered a ‘third wave’ where the main target is now on continuous improvement (the first ‘wave’ was all about “transactional consolidation” – i.e. putting systems and other people together – and therefore the second ‘wave’ focused on process standardization).
“As continuous improvement is becoming the common agenda the large bang transformation programs complete”. “Organisations are building structures, responsibility and accountability for global process leadership”.
#4: IT Management
Since the beginning of the 2008 global recession, all parts of companies are struggling to save lots of costs and increase efficiency. The challenge has always been, though, how are you able to cut costs while maintaining the standard and reliability of your services and products?
The role of the knowledge Technology department, especially , has become critical to all or any aspects of business operations. IT problems of reliability and quality can’t only affect overall business productivity but can even accompany reputational risks because it glitches can have a serious impact on customers. (For instance, IT glitches at several banks within the uk have led to customers being unable to access the cash in their accounts – a comparatively critical service for a bank to provide!)
Consultant Peter Waterhouse elucidates that the very core principles of Lean management “To better enable the IT to locate and reduce anything that’s wasteful within IT management.”
Management consultants McKinsey claim that applying Lean principles thereto management may result in dramatic improvements to performance and productivity. In 50 recent data center transformations the consultancy has worked on, McKinsey says that the typical SLA compliance has risen by 5-10 percent and therefore the average time to revive services by 50-80 percent.
#5: Customer experience management
Forrester Research says that we are now living within the “Age of the Customer.” Customers have more choice and knowledge than ever before about the businesses they prefer to work with leading to a radical kind of transparency about the standard of a product or service. A poor customer experience, as result, can mean the loss of not just a private customer or their immediate network but a way wider network as poor reviews on websites spell disaster for a corporation .
While there are many aspects to making an honest customer experience, processes are the critical underpinning to how your company delivers goods and services. A Customer Management IQ survey’s finding of that “broken processes” are seen by customer executives together of the most important impediments to providing superior customer service.
See full story on processexcellencenetwork.com