Straight-Line Process Improvement

Students taking Geometry or Calculus will typically learn that the ‘shortest distance between any two points is a straight line.’  While this is true for mathematics and important if you have wings, it’s also true in business process improvement.

In the 1980s American businesses soon learned that the Japanese had perfected the art of process improvement and were turning out products with higher quality at a lower cost than their American competitors.   American business schools and management consultants responded by introducing sophisticated tools and templates for business improvements ultimately leading to methodologies like Six Sigma, Kaizen, and Lean Processes.

While these methodologies are well documented and have worked well for many organizations, they are often difficult to understand at the employee-service level where they need to be implemented.  My response is that one of the best ways to better understand business process improvement is to think of the flow of goods and services from the company to the customer as a line.  The straighter that line becomes, the more opportunity for process improvement.

For example: 

• Retail: Retailers often learn that grouping products together based on type or use make it easier for the consumer to find items quicker, improving customer satisfaction and often earning more of the customer wallet.   Retailers experiment with unusual placements for the benefit of suppliers often at the expense of sales and customer satisfaction

• Services: The objective should be to empower employees at every level so that the both customer and employee satisfaction improves.   Empowerment means true delegation of authority, not just responsibility.

• Professions: Professionals including doctors, attorneys and senior executives often isolate themselves from their customers and clients by employing representatives that are rarely allowed the opportunity to fully support the client.  Processes and customer satisfaction improve when these representatives are adequately trained and empowered to handle the 90% of routine inquiries as professionally as their employer.

• Governments: Traditionally, government agencies are bureaucracies, often more interested in preserving their jobs and benefits than servicing the public.   However, many cities, townships and counties have found ways to make that ‘straight-line’ work for them by empowering these public servants and allowing them to respond to individual inquiries rather than showing the public to the next line or window. 

If a business wanted to improve processes and customer satisfaction while at the same time raising their own employee satisfaction, they should start with the employee in mind.   Empower the employee to identify redundant processes, wasted and inefficient procedures and give them the authority to approve the transactions, variations and respond to customer complaints.

Straight-line process improvement works best when businesses simplify work rules and procedures so that they rely on employees understanding of the ultimate objective.  Clue in everyone in the line from product or service to the customer on the mission, principles and objectives of the organization.  Find ways to the crooked paths straight and reduce unnecessary detours along the way. 

Make a PLAN

My observation is that it really doesn’t matter the type of training, the education nor the profession, many people think little about planning.  Whether it’s a business, ministry or even vacation plans, some people really don’t understand how important it is to have a plan.

While many quote are attributed to people incorrectly, Benjamin Franklin, one of the most interesting of our Founding Fathers, was a gifted writer and publisher of “Poor Richard’s Almanack”.  In it he penned the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Yet, many fail to heed his advice. 

When my wife and I were first married, we talked often of our dreams and hopes for the future.   It wasn’t until we had been married a few years that we actually sat down and came up with a financial plan to buy a house.

A plan doesn’t have to be long or detailed it just has to be thought out.  Plans always include timelines so having a goal, a few action steps and a timeline is a great outline for most plans.    Too many of us find ourselves in situations where we can easily think of ourselves as a victim of our circumstance when it is being a victim of a lack of planning.  

Jesus was even a fan of planning as when he was talking about the cost of following him He said, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” Luke 14:28

Raise Your Prices!

People shop Wal-Mart.  Many believe that the reason people shop at Wal-Mart is because they have very low prices.  While, lower prices may motivate many people, Wal-Mart founder, Sam Walton had ten rules for his business and none of them include having the lowest prices.   Sam Walton valued things like exceeding customer expectations and appreciating both suppliers as well as employees. 

People do love value but value doesn’t mean cheap. Value is most often defined as the correlation between quality and price.  Most people have had the experience of buying something at an incredibly low price only to find that the product underperformed or often failed completely.

Remember that when it comes to price, price is more often considered the best indicator of quality.  

Studies have shown, including a popular study at the University of Michigan,  that when consumers have some uncertainty concerning a product's quality, the consumer often assumes that a higher product price indicates a higher level of quality.  Even more importantly, consumers trust brands and will pay more for products and services that are associated with brands that are well known and trusted.

When consumers do not have all the available information on a product, a significant input into their evaluation is price. A high price may indicate either bad value or good quality, whereas a low price may indicate either a good value or poor quality.  Notice that with a higher price, poor quality is typically not one of the expected outcomes.

Develop your brand if you want your customers to buy your product or service, remember your brand and recommend your company.   Your brand is a promise of the service, quality and value proposition.   Developing your brand doesn’t start with lowering the price but by improving the value.  As you improve the value, you'll have the opportunity to not only raise your price but attract more customers.