Over-employment is a primary cause of office/service process defects. 

STREAMLINING
Reducing office/service (O/S) work complexity by 20 – 40%

Why is there so much wasted activity in office and service environments? Here’s just a sampling of the reasons.

• Because processes were never formally designed: People have figured out the best way for themselves to accomplish their work. But that doesn’t mean it’s done the best possible way. Nor does that mean it’s prepared to hand-off to the next person working on it. Nor does it mean that information has been properly captured, stored and transmitted.
• Because over time work problems become “just how we do things.” It’s amazing how problem work becomes so habitual that no one can see the problem.
• Because work has been designed a function at a time:  O/S work is inherently cross-functional, and majority of wasted time and effort occurs in the handoffs from function to function.
• Because work has been designed using a manufacturing-based process approach:  Manufacturing-based process approaches including Lean, Six Sigma and TOC focus the majority of their attention on how work is performed, as they should. However, in the O/S space, what work is done by who with what enabling technology matters far more than how (which is still important, but much less so). Process specialists can polish the O/S how until it positively shines, but if the wrong work is being done by the wrong functions it doesn’t matter much.
• Because no one cares enough to fix it:  How many times have we heard, “Hey, it’s just the office.” The fact that less than 10% of U.S. workers are employed in manufacturing jobs, with the majority in the O/S, should be a very loud wake-up call.
• Because no one’s responsible: Leaving each function responsible for its own processes creates mega-problems in cross-functional O/S settings. But who’s going to take charge of O/S process to see that the pieces fit together? COOs have to become a lot more process-concerned.

Can you afford to waste 20% to 40% of O/S staff time? 

Reducing work complexity eliminates substantial work while simplifying more. That frees up substantial staff time.

In fact, on average we’re able to show clients how they could reduce O/S staffing by 15%, sometimes more.

Over-employment contributes mightily to O/S malfunction    
Because most O/S work has been designed one function or silo at a time, instead of cross-functionally as it should, most functions need extra pairs of hands. That leads to work redundancy and worse yet, extra, non-value adding “touches” of work, which are actually value-subtracting because each “touch” introduces a potential for error.

What about substituting automation technology for process design?    
Companies that do grasp the inefficiency of their O/S work often seek redress by “throwing technology” at their problems. They might turn to sophisticated BPM (business process management) system, which actually manages data, not people. Or a CRM system. Or a procurement system. Or whatever. None work by themselves because technology’s role is enabling improved process design, not substituting for process design. Implementing automation technology to accelerate bad process is so common that it’s spawned the catchy phrase, “Automating a cow path.”

In fact, this “technology first” approach to office process typically increases staffing requirements rather than reducing staff size.

Of course, redesigning office process does require some investment, and most senior managers are reflexively averse to “spending money to save money.” The good news is that properly executed O/S process redesign provides almost immediate payback–then becomes an annuity that continues paying off indefinitely.

The Visual Workflow “trifecta”

You might assume that fewer office employees would accomplish less work. Don’t. Streamlining process accelerates work by eliminating stops and delays.

You might also assume that having fewer people would decrease work quality. Not so. Properly designing O/S work eliminates sources of work defects, which typically lie “in the seams” between employees, between functions, and between workers and external stakeholders including customers and suppliers.

And it might not be obvious that cleaning up office process would significantly and positively affect customer relationships. But when companies try to be customer-friendly, most focus on improving the customer experience at point of contact, not all the support work required to build and maintain customer relationships. In fact, what happens out of customers’ sight usually affects their experience as much or more than direct contact. In some sectors, such as financial services, back office process can become a dominant factor affecting customer experience. And as business continues migrating to the web, the balance of importance between point-of-contact and behind the scenes keeps shifting towards the latter.

Visual Workflow does in fact reduce cost, increase capacity and strengthen customer relationships simultaneously.