![]() ![]() This is not ignorance on anyone’s part because there’s a lot of disagreement on what a process is between industries. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST MISUNDERSTANDING PEOPLE HAVE ABOUT PROCESS?Ĭhris: I think that they don’t know what a process is. When a third party comes in and says, “We’re going to put these canned processes in place,” and they are alien to the company, it is coming from the wrong direction. I’ve seen clients whose eyes open up, and they say, “Wow! We see real improvement by looking at it that way rather than coming in with a complicated or prepackaged method. Come up with ways to measure that, and then you see where your problems are. The car is supposed to go forward and not backward when I press the gas,” these kinds of simple things. I’m supposed to make a product that does a certain thing. Let’s reduce it further: “I’m supposed to deliver code that works. They may not be doing that the problem’s with management, but they know what they should be doing. Whether it’s a two-person machine shop or a 300 person process management firm, everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing, at least theoretically. THEY JUST HAVEN’T TAKEN THE TIME TO DO WHAT YOU JUST SAID TO DO, AND THAT IS LOOKING AT WHAT THE GOAL IS AND THEN COMING UP WITH A METRIC THAT MEASURES IT.Ĭhris: I think you need to step back from the complicated consultant-speak of “process management” and recognize it just measures what you’re supposed to do. I’VE SEEN SO MANY ORGANIZATIONS GO OFF ON TANGENTS WHEN IT COMES TO METRICS. That will improve those processes, which then results in a cascade effect upward to improve the quality of the delivery of product or service. Once you identify the processes, you can then come up with simple metrics based on what people do. It might be looking at employee feedback or employee performance. It might be looking at exit interview data. But how do you make sure that you have good employees? It might be the turnover rate. Another metric is inspecting incoming items.Īnother process might be human resources. If I’m supposed to purchase good materials, what can I do wrong that would prevent that? What am I supposed to do right? And then what measure do you put in place? It might be simple: measure purchase order errors or clerical errors. So then you measure it based on that simple, plain English sentence. If I work in purchasing, what am I supposed to do? What are my goals? Well, I’m supposed to buy good products, good materials. ![]() Though if you identify purchasing as a process, and your purchasing activity has an objective, and then you come up with a simple measure, you can catch the problems early. We find out that the raw materials were bad, and you have to go back and find out that purchasing ordered the wrong materials. Oftentimes a product may fail in inspection, or heaven forbid the customer rejects it, and it comes back. I’ll give you a good example relative to purchasing. ![]() Once they have identified the processes that are meaningful to them, they can come up with real-language ways to measure the processes and the things that are written in a simple way that could be understood by everybody in the company, in the language of the people that are using them. By “language,” I mean the company’s common terminology, the jargon that they use. By teaching them to understand that it doesn’t have to be that complicated, that they can identify these processes in whatever language it is that they are using in their company. Many companies hadn’t identified their processes properly. I discovered this from working with 200+ ISO 9001 clients around the world. It wasn’t something I thought of originally. It’s the thing that I found is most problematic for companies because when they have not properly identified their processes, they then go off in the wrong direction, measuring the wrong thing or measuring something that doesn’t give that much return of investment for their time and energy. WHAT IS YOUR BEST PROCESS IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY THAT HAS WORKED WELL FOR YOU?Ĭhris: I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks for companies is identifying processes. Chris Paris: ISO consultant and founder of Oxebridge Quality Resources International.Īt Forward Thinking Workplaces, we are discovering the people, insights, and strategies that lead to Forward Thinking minds, leaders, and workplaces of the future - today! ![]()
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