Look at all of the waste in your processes and systems, where does it all come from. Known as Muda at Toyota.

Creating marketing and sales processes then putting them into an automated system is all the rage (and it is very important).?One place often neglected to have a huge impact is in the very mundane day to day operations of running a business. ?Today I am sharing a real example around paperwork and its impact to an organization.?The visual shows the 7 + 1 types of waste which Toyota brought to this world with numerous other methods (like value stream mapping)

I have posted on using SIPOC (with user story embedded) to map out a process and a value stream map to visualize / quantify impact. Today I will explain several wastes identified with some solution’s around resolving them from a current client pertaining to paperwork required to run the business.

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The current process is as follows:?

Intake:?Client intake forms done on paper, then delivered to someone who creates a spreadsheet with key fields from the paper documents then store the spreadsheet into one drive. ?They scan the paper docs and store them in one drive. Some of these documents need signatures which is done on paper. ?

?During service provided other information is taken in during the service provided on paper and once again typed into a spreadsheet.?Reports are generated by taking multiple spreadsheets and creating a new spreadsheet for each report.

?Out take end of service provided: At the end of the program, they have an entire out take set of documents done on paper which are once again put into spreadsheets.??

?MUDA identified and proposed solutions:

?Intake:?

Overprocessing: Paper filled out then typed into a spreadsheet.

Rework: About 80% of forms are accurate and require rework.

Waiting / Transportation / Motion: Paperwork is done remotely then delivered to centralized office for another person to create multiple spreadsheets.

Potential of people: Manual & redundant data entry can be eliminated allowing these individual’s work on more value add to end clients.

Solutions:

?1) ?Form assembly web data entry feed into SFDC CRM. Replace both paper and xls creation.

2) Paper format changed so scansnap or digital image capture can be used to digitize and feed into SFDC.

3) Conga document creation from fields, route for e signature in place of signing a piece of paper.

?During Service Provided & out take

?Same waste and solutions as above from new information created during service provided plus:

?Reports:

Overprocessing / waiting/ potential of people : Creating spreadsheets from spreadsheets versus running a defined report.

Solutions:

1) SFDC reports and dashboards autogenerated based on triggered events.?

2) Conga document creation sent to clients based on triggered events

?This example is only one small part of the client’s operations in which six out of the eight types of waste have been identified.?Just the intake alone is calculated to save 300 hours by removing the reentry of data from paper to a spreadsheet.?This does not include the 20% rework time for forms not complete and accurate. ?This is also only one of many programs that this client has running in parallel. ?We are still calculating the reporting and out take impacts.?

?The approach is:

1) SIPOC (with user story) as is and desired future process. ?

2) Value stream identify and quantify waste.

3) Design / ideate an improved process / system with impact.?

4) Present a visual story showing waste current state and improves future state.

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This approach gets buy in from the top (they see the waste) and down into the org since they are part of designing the desired future state knowing how painful the current state is.?Everyone can visually see and quantify impact, and they are all involved across the various departments of the organization.

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