Business Process Improvement

Process Improvement – Essential Steps

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Improving business processes requires companies to first understand their existing processes. While this sounds obvious, senior management will often stipulate that a particular process or series of processes need to be improved based upon their understanding of these processes. However, their understanding and the reality at the coal-face, are more often than not, miles apart.

In order to improve any operational process and provide greater customer value, the process first needs to be understood, and the easiest way to understand a process is by drawing or mapping it. So, step 1 is to map the existing process and gain consensus that “this is how we do it”, i.e. the “current” state. Once you’ve mapped your “current” state, it is essential to then map your “future” and “ideal” states, where the former is how you envisage the revised processes to be in the short to medium term. The “ideal” represents the ultimate long-term goal (perfection), which should serve as a guide or reminder for future improvement efforts. Read more →

What are your People Management Priorities for 2016?

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The start of a new year prompts many of us to think about our goals and priorities for the year. Indeed, we’ll be working with the management teams of several of our established clients over the coming weeks to help them clarify their priorities, particularly in respect of their people management strategies.

Based on our recent work, here are a few common themes we expect to emerge (in no particular order):

1. Clarifying vision and strategy – Sure, a regular paypacket is a good “satisfier” for many, but to really optimise the efforts of your people it needs to be clear just where the team/business is heading, how you plan to get there and what role you are asking them to play in helping you get there. Ideally, formulation of vision and strategy will be a joint effort in order to encourage further “buy in”. Once you have a clear vision and strategy, be sure to review to ensure people-management practices are aligned (eg. if it’s part of the strategy to be number 1 in customer service, staff bonus/incentive plans shouldn’t be entirely about sales volume). Read more →

Business Strategy Consulting

Aligning Sales Strategy with Business Strategy

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Sales strategy must be aligned to the business strategy… That sounds like common sense… however Wayne claims it doesn’t happen in many businesses and their bottom line suffers as a result.

“It’s a matter of making sure that whatever the business strategy you deploy in order to win at business your sales processes should reflect that”.

View Wayne’s latest appearance on Strategic Selling Group for further insight on this subject or watch the video below:

 

Quality management consultants

The Changing Quality Management System Standard ISO 9001

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The Quality Management System Standard ISO 9001 is changing this Year, how can you prepare?

ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems – Requirements) is currently under review. The Final Draft of the Standard is now available for purchase and the upgraded version of the new Standard is scheduled for release in September 2015.

WHY?

All ISO Standards are reviewed periodically to ensure that they are current and relevant in the marketplace. ISO 9001 was previously reviewed in 2000 and 2008. The new 2015 version however will introduce a framework that will be common to other management system standards as they are reviewed and released. Read more →

LEAN Misconceptions – Only for ‘Big’ Organisations

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LEAN Misconceptions – Part 5

The Lean Philosophy has been around for many years, but unfortunately it is not always understood, predominantly because Lean is thought to be:

  1. A cost reduction exercise
  2. A process to reduce the number of employees
  3. Only applicable to ‘manufacturing’ organisations
  4. An ‘operational’ issue that can be solved by the ‘operations people’
  5. Only for ‘big’ organisations.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

In this series of articles, I will discuss each of these misconceptions and demonstrate that Lean is about business; any and every business. A Lean business strives to understand what the customer really values, and then maximises customer value. Lean is not a short-term fad, but a long-term commitment towards continual improvement that involves every system, every process, every department and every employee within the organisation, irrespective of it’s size.

Misconception # 5: Lean is only for ‘big’ organisations

Lean is applicable in EVERY organisation as long as there is an understanding that every function or service provided by any person, department or organisation is a process that can be documented, standardised, and most importantly, improved. Improving any process necessitates the identification of waste within the process, where waste is defined as any activity that adds no value as seen from the customer’s perspective, i.e. the extra (wasted) time, labour and materials spent producing the product or service. Using the above premise and the fact that no business process is waste-free, Lean can be implemented in any environment, as every business process can be analysed and improved. Read more →

Business Process Improvement

LEAN Misconceptions – Operational Issues

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LEAN Misconceptions – Part 4

The Lean Philosophy has been around for many years, but unfortunately it is not always understood, predominantly because Lean is thought to be:

  1. A cost reduction exercise
  2. A process to reduce the number of employees
  3. Only applicable to ‘manufacturing’ organisations
  4. An ‘operational’ issue that can be solved by the ‘operations people’
  5. Only for ‘big’ organisations.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

In this series of articles, I will discuss each of these misconceptions and demonstrate that Lean is about business; any and every business. A Lean business strives to understand what the customer really values, and then maximises customer value. Lean is not a short-term fad, but a long-term commitment towards continual improvement that involves every system, every process, every department and every employee within the organisation, irrespective of it’s size.

Misconception # 4: Lean is an ‘operational’ issue that can be solved by ‘operations people’

Largely due to the fact that Lean “grew up” in the manufacturing industry (see Lean Misconception #3), there is still a strong belief by many managers and business owners that Lean is an ‘operational’ issue that can be solved by the ‘operations people’…..nothing could be further from the truth.

In very broad terms, Lean consists of two components….. technical and strategic, often referred to as the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sides of Lean. Firstly the technical side.

Read more →

New Inform Partners

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We are pleased to announce the addition of Mike Karle and Greg Mitchell as partners in our consulting practise.

“With their extensive backgrounds in their respective areas of expertise, Mike and Greg will play an integral role in growing Inform’s consulting practice,” said Founding Partner Wayne Moloney. “Mike and Greg have been consulting with Inform for a number of years and their increased involvement with the development of the practise, helping develop and deliver personalised expert services, will be a tremendous benefit to our clients”.