5 Process Improvement Strategies for Growth

I’m always on the lookout for articles about the 5 Process Improvement Strategies for Growth. Here are a few snippets:

There are very few businesses that wouldn’t benefit from implementing process improvement strategies in the modern business world.

But during a global pandemic, where reducing costs and managing remote?team members?becomes even more important, process?optimisation?is crucial.

This is a lot of resource to be spending on something that more than three-quarters of small business leaders admitted that they don’t manage effectively. With?bottlenecks,?inefficiencies, and a lack of?optimisation, managing processes can be a challenge. All too often the reasons why?process fails ?boils down to the fundamental attitude towards process from senior management.

We take a different approach. Our five simple strategies have been designed to inspire leaders to take action and own the growth of their business, even in challenging times.

How process improvement drives growth

Business process improvement?and?optimisation?is an often overlooked business growth strategy. Unlike more traditional techniques like?diversification ?or?acquisition ,?process improvement?is a simple way for small businesses to provide a better service to their customers, increasing efficiency and profit along the way.

Let’s explore our five?process improvement?strategies.

Strategy #1: Embed process

76% of UK SME leaders say they do not manage process effectively.

Conventional wisdom suggests documenting your?current processes?in files, but this doesn’t work as they often aren’t used and they quickly become out of date. Procedures that live in people’s heads don’t work either, as it creates inconsistency, errors and risks the knowledge being lost if people leave.

As you may well have found in this new pandemic world, finding out information is so much harder when you can’t just go over to someone’s desk to ask. The solution is to?embed process ?into the day-to-day running of your business. Otherwise, your?improvement efforts?will be in vain.

The answer is to make process useful. It’s not enough to work on?process mapping?if the end result is hidden away or difficult to understand. Instead, add value to the series of instructions by adding:

Embedded in this way, processes deliver real benefits both to the end users and to the wider company by eliminating key person risk. This doesn’t only apply to?existing processes?– when creating a?new process, make sure to begin with a clearly defined list of instructions from the start.

Strategy #2: Process is not there for you

Process has a bad reputation of being restrictive and controlling. However, the?root cause?of this isn’t process itself – it’s how organisations implement it. In the past, adherence to the defined procedure was key, and?process improvements?were slow to be implemented, if indeed?optimisation?was ever a focus.

While process can benefit upper management and?stakeholders, it’s not about them – instead, it’s there to help your teams do their job. That means listening to them if they have suggestions on?process improvement techniques, rather than imposing structure from the top down.

Strategy #3: Keep it simple

One of the most misunderstood?process improvement?strategies is to?keep process as simple as possible. There are so many technical terms out there –?TQM,?DMAIC, and?DMADV, to name but a few. But knowing the jargon is less important than knowing what works.

Key to?process improvement methodologies?is the concept that you should look to eliminate, amalgamate or to delegate activities where possible. This can be through?process automation, or simply through team restructuring.

If a process is complex it is harder to understand what went wrong and how to fix it. A procedure that is clear to visualise and follow through from start to finish will be more useful to your business than one that no-one can get their head around.?Continuous process improvement?is important here too – your procedures need to be up-to-date, otherwise they’ll only create more confusion.

Conclusion

Process improvement?is an underrated growth strategy for your business, but one that can have quick, tangible benefits. With our 5?process improvement?strategies you will be setting up both your processes and your wider business on the path to sustainable business growth, global pandemic or not.

Want to know more? Head on over to the full article here for more ideas and perspective. Afterwards, why not drop me an email to share your thoughts at [email protected]; or call me on 0467 749 378.

Thanks,

Robert