FEATURE R CHALLENGE:
WITHOUT CUTTING VALUE Martin Green, Director, Bourton Group
years and spent time analysing and improving their processes. In the words of one senior manager, reviewing work that had been carried out analysing a particular process: “I can’t believe how little of our time is spent actually collecting taxes”.
In our experience there is typically a lack of distinction between process, procedure and, the archenemy of effective process, bureaucracy or red tape. In many organisations, especially large ones, process, procedure and bureaucracy have become so intertwined that it is almost impossible to distinguish one from the other. None of this would really matter if the service delivered was improved and the cost of serving the customer was lowered, but in nearly every case exactly the opposite is achieved.
Bureaucracy typically comes about when the fundamental understanding of the processes in the organisation, and what they are trying to achieve, is vague or even lost, often having been replaced by a raft of procedures added over the years to ‘fix’ issues that have arisen, or to take account of changes in internal structure or in the market. What’s left is often a patchwork quilt of procedures masquerading as a process. Usually, in these circumstances, the staff doing the work, and those managing it, have a poor and inconsistent understanding of how it all ‘fits’ together – making working effectively, tackling issues and driving improvements difficult. Worse still, some of the measures and targets can actually drive the wrong behaviours and be counter-productive to meeting the needs of customers. Contact Centres that continue to set targets that are driven by length of call, for instance, completely miss the fact that most callers are interested in ‘first time resolution’ of their request or problem. Moreover, there should also be a focus on whether it is intended demand (i.e. a call we want) and, if it is not, understanding the issue to enable any root causes to be tackled – rather than getting quickly onto the next call for the sake of the targets. Lean has many tools to support an organisation in building a robust process framework that will provide the value/output that the customer needs and
ensure that, by harnessing the efforts of all staff, waste is driven from the processes and activities in the organisation and kept out.
IT’S A COMMITMENT FOR THE LONG TERM – SO BUILD INTERNAL
CAPABILITY AND INVOLVE EVERYONE TO DELIVER FAST AND SUSTAINABLE IMPROVEMENT
The simple message here is that, if your improvements are to be sustainable, you must develop people at all levels of the organisation to be able to champion, lead, manage, facilitate and participate in improvement activity. It is not just about training courses or tools and techniques (though they are needed); it’s as much about learning, understanding and application.
In 1999, Siemens Business Services and National Savings & Investments joined together in one of the largest ever PPPs when NS&I transferred the whole of its operations (some 4,000 staff) to its private sector outsource partner. With a contract based on an assumption of significant productivity savings, Siemens found that investment in technology and traditional cost cutting generated improvement, but not enough. Crucial to meeting both service delivery targets and reducing costs was a major investment of time in building internal improvement capability and enabling all staff to get involved. Eleven years into the relationship this is now paying real dividends for both parties.
Common factors in organisations that are successful in implementing and sustaining Lean are typically: • assigning their best people to be involved in the initial
implementation (not just who is ‘spare’)
• a clear deployment plan and adequately resourced programme office
• ensuring leaders and managers are trained, and expected, to champion and lead the
SUSTAINABLE FM | NOVEMBER 2010 |39
implementation (not just leave it to the ‘project team’)
• an appropriate programme of awareness and skills development for the whole organisation
• progressive involvement of everyone in improvement activity – with a balance of top down and bottom up improvement activity
• initial expert advice (if needed) – but ensuring a real focus on knowledge and skills transfer from the outset
Poor processes are likely to be the single biggest risk to an organisation’s performance, financial health, efficiency, reputation, employee morale and safety. Not internal organisation structures and not lack of IT systems. Fixing poor processes takes time and effort, though there are typically substantial short term, as well as long term, benefits. The level of active involvement and drive of the senior team from the outset will dictate the pace at which benefits are realised. There are always many demands on their time. Perhaps the financial pressures we currently face will be the trigger that leads organisations to take process improvement more seriously.
www.bourton.co.uk Tel: 01926 633333
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