The result? The vast majority of the time, the project doesn't live up to expectations - it exceeds the budget, takes longer to plan than to finish, or fails to meet the original goals. We have all seen it happen: An organization buys a shiny new piece of technology and then tries to implement it without first having looked hard at its own processes and people. With their methods purposely redesigned, the department was able to implement a technology solution to facilitate their process rather than experience the previous pain and high cost. We also uncovered several areas where the unit incurred additional costs to support processes that had no apparent value. In another example, we discovered where adherence to an outdated policy significantly slowed the process. We found areas where inconsistent practices were causing inefficiency and developed solutions to bring them into alignment. Before this department invested in yet another system, an executive of the unit reached out to me to get a better understanding of their processes and how they could be improved in a way that would make the system implementation a success.Īfter a few weeks of working with the department, we helped them develop a holistic end-to-end process that significantly improved their service delivery while reducing the administrative cost to them and their customers. Several IT systems had been purchased and implemented to address these issues, which actually exacerbated the problems. Their processes were perceived as cumbersome, costly, frustrating, and antithetical to their stated objectives. In a recent consultation, the Process Innovation group at The University of Maryland, College Park, dealt with a department widely considered inefficient and difficult to work with.
Understanding the process from beginning to end is the best way to ensure that you make the right decisions, and becoming aware of some common challenges should help you avoid them.Tips and lessons learned from a process improvement team's experience and observations made while facilitating or mentoring other groups address some of these problems.Both novices and those steeped in process improvement find themselves making common mistakes.
0 kommentar(er)
