Improve productivity in your business while cutting down on costs by streamlining your workflow. Workflow includes all manners of daily processes, and is simply defined as the progression of documents and forms, as well as task delegation, from employee to employee, employee to client or from department to department. There are many ways workflow can become clogged: confusion, overly complicated approval systems, backlogged paperwork and slow communication pathways.

Drive significant productivity gains with existing resources.

Begin with what is working. You’ve heard the phrase, “If the shoe fits, wear it,” right? As cliché as it is, it still applies: If something is working, keep it up and fine tune it. Following such guidelines will ensure that you continue to get results in those areas. Now, examine what is not working to get to the root cause, as opposed to the symptoms. Ask yourself, “Why do you do it this way?” to get to the root cause of the inefficiency. It usually comes down to something unintentional — the office process was never updated, even though new software and staff have entered the picture. Typically, these “legacy systems” permeate the entire back office. Start with the basics:

• Keep only what is necessary.
• Implement regularly scheduled meetings to audit your systems. When a structured system is established and becomes part of the culture, audits can be done quickly.Continually look for ways to standardize and simplify the work area or processes.

These steps are the foundation for change. Chaos cannot be streamlined. So a baseline must be established to build better processes. Once you have created an atmosphere of organization, now you can assess whether your processes support the company objectives.

When you review your goals and determine if you have obtained them, keep in mind your processes. These processes should always support the company’s goals and objectives. What area or department had the most difficulty obtaining these goals, and why?  What are your upcoming objectives, and do your office processes support them? If not, this would be a good place to start the discussion on what to address for improvement. What area is going to give you the biggest and quickest return from streamlining?

Once the target areas or departments are selected, determine what platform is needed to develop them. Always keep in mind that any process needs to improve your customer’s needs and timelines. Customers can be internal or external. When you map your process, you can use easel paper and colored sticky notes. Write the process on the sticky note and below it put who does it, how long it takes and what tools are used, such as accounting or customer relationship software. Also include the lead time between functions. Add it up and see how close you are to customer demand. If you are like most organizations, it is not in alignment. Let’s examine addressing that challenge.

Bring people into the room who are involved with the process for mapping and brainstorming. They work with the procedures every day and will be able to tell you the issues quickly and have possible solutions. Tap into that internal knowledge. Target what you need to fix and then create a plan to make it happen. Brainstorm and create a plan before changing any technology. These changes will improve your bottom line.

Below are the eight wastes you need to eliminate when you examine ideas for improvement. These wastes cost companies thousands of dollars every year and prevent increasing your customer base. Not only are you hit with costs, you lose revenue, too.

• Waiting  — Delays in receiving information.
• Overproduction  — Producing reports no one reads or needs.
• Over-processing — Repetitive data entry.
• Motion — Searching for computer files or paper documents.
• Transportation  — Over-addressed email distribution lists.
• Defects — Data entry errors.
• Inventory — Work awaiting task completion by others.
• Underutilization of people — Unbalanced workloads due to lack of cross-training.

If the top management is not supportive and committed to this process, none of it will work and the organization will backslide into old habits and workarounds. Change starts at the top. Those organizations who can streamline their practices will have the competitive advantage. Make the commitment and help your company achieve a prosperous year!