Process Improvement/Lean
We help companies improve profits by eliminating everything that doesn’t add value for their Customers.
Finding it difficult to get it all done in time for your Customers?
Always up against a deadline? Do you have Customers that always want it done sooner? Employees are stretched thin trying to do a good job, but nothing ever seems to go smoothly. Re-organizing the workload and installing new software packages hasn’t given you any extra time. You know if you could do it faster you would get new Customers, as well as more work from your existing ones.
You can learn to get the same Customer work done in half the time.
Cutting the time it takes to provide Customers what they want shouldn’t be a struggle. Finding a way to get things done faster means you’ll be able to consistently beat deadlines within regular working hours. Employees will have more time to catch errors before your Customers do, and then raise the level of quality. With faster turnaround you’ll be able to respond to Customers who want it quicker, and changes won’t cause chaos in the process. Employees will accomplish more by taking ownership of their process, becoming problem solvers and implementing their own improvements. You’ll begin outperforming your competitors by using time as your edge. Sounds impossible? It’s not. Today lots of organizations are doing it, in many industries (also known as Lean Manufacturing/Lean Office).
So why haven’t you done it already?
Streamlining your process means only spending time on those things that create “value” for your Customers. The trouble is we’ve never really challenged the way we do things by asking whether the Customer would pay for that activity. Because of this, we’ve got processes that have lots of steps that waste our time, and waste the Customer’s time too. The problem is it’s hard to see this waste – if it was obvious we would have eliminated it already. We see everything we do as absolutely critical and definitely value added – because we are looking through our eyes instead of the Customers.
Apply a Three-Step Approach that will eliminate waste.
Successfully reducing waste starts with learning to see it. The first step is to find out how much time is wasted in your current processes. Second, you need to understand the sources of waste found in any process. Once you know them you will be able to create a roadmap that will identify where these wastes have crept into your processes. The third step is to follow this roadmap by launching a series of tactical events where employees apply different techniques to eliminate each of these wastes, one at a time. Companies that have used this approach have reduced throughput time (the time it takes to service a Customer) by 50% within the first year.
ISO Support Group has the expertise and the tools.
We have been helping organizations improve their processes since 1992. We have assisted many companies, from coaching and facilitating teams, in the boardroom and to the frontlines, developing hands-on field based training programs, as well as publishing e-books and newsletters on process improvement. If you’d like to learn more about how I can help you cut time out of your processes, please contact us.
WHAT IS LEAN?
Although many people have heard the term “Lean”, few really understand what it is. Being Lean means that when an Order or Contract or Request comes in from a Customer, it flows freely through your entire company until it reaches your Customer… when they asked for it and how they wanted it, with no stops along the way, in the shortest time at the least cost. Achieving this involves the relentless pursuit and elimination of waste (i.e. costs) within your business operations, always keeping the Customer in clear focus.
When you implement Lean, significant immediate improvements occur in your business performance, such as cutting the time in half to process Orders and boosting productivity by at least 30%. The long range forecast is even brighter, such as doubling of productivity in all areas (operations and administration); reducing throughput times by 75%; reducing errors reaching the Customer by 50%; and reducing time to market for new offerings by 40%. If that wasn’t enough, you’ll achieve all of the above with little or no capital investment.
There are six proven Strategies to follow on the “Lean Journey”:
- Isolate the Value Stream (…for one product or one service)
- Specifying what “value” is, from the Customer’s eyes
- Mapping the Value Stream (…from concept to launch, from order to delivery)
- Making the stream “flow” continuously
- Letting Customers “pull” value from the stream
- Seeking perfection by eliminating all waste from the Value Stream
Want to read an article describing the six proven Lean Strategies that companies are using to stay ahead of their competition? click here