Business Process Mapping Tips #3
Business Process Mapping Tip 3
Everyday, you work on orders that go through all the main steps every time.
These are the Runners.
Twice a week, or 20% of orders use all the main steps but have a few extra steps that depends on exactly what the customer wants.
These are the Repeaters.
Runners and Repeaters often make up 95% of the work your customers ask you to deliver.
The remaining 5%or less, these are the Rarities, they sort of fit the process but they require a number of additional steps; steps that you only do occasionally.
They may be the bigger orders, the orders that require a design step. They may be orders of a particular type, that require additional paperwork, there will always be a valid reason for the extra process steps.
Exclude these. That’s right EXCLUDE the Rarities from your Process Mapping.
These Rarities are often the orders that people will declare, “we can’t improve because…”, OR “what about these orders…”
These are the 5% that often stop you from doing the improvement on the 95%.
Before you start mapping STOP, THINK!
Do we have order types which are straight forward to deliver? That we do regularly? These are the Runner & Repeaters, to be included in the process mapping.
Consider which steps are used infrequently and EXCLUDE the orders that use them. (You can always put them back in if needed)
If you can ONLY see how to improve the process for 95% of your customers; why wouldn’t you?
What if you could speed up the processes for 95% of orders, sometimes halving the delivery time, why wouldn’t you do that?
Why aim for 100%, when the 5% is holding you back.
In Summary
Tip #3 – Be Prepared to EXCLUDE the 5% that are stopping you from driving forward with improvement.
P.S. If you have any questions or thoughts on what we might cover in the tips then make comments below.
If you want to find out more about our Business Process Mapping services then call Mark on 01904 277007 for a free chat.