The Road to the Perfect Process

1. The Road to the Perfect Process

2. The Perfect Transaction • Is completed entirely by one person • Is completed one at a time (no batching) • Is completed as soon as the request is made • Is completed without interruption • Is completed with the information provided • Is completed correctly • It never returns

3. Poor Information Missing information Inaccurate information Assumptions Poor information flow Hand-offs Waiting Poor sequence Confusion on flow Linear processing Organizational structure Information/Knowledge silos Barriers to the perfect transaction

4. Eliminating missing information • Can be the result of long lead times, and usually the cause of longer lead times (Catch 22) • Require all information from the customer before the job launches (don’t enable bad behavior) • Put in hard stops that don’t allow partial information (online hotel reservations)

5. Eliminating inaccurate Information • Use menus where a small number of choices exist • Only collect the information you need • Clearly define the information you need • Create a review process with the customer before the job launches • Create and report on measurements for information accuracy

6. Assumptions • Assumptions are usually the result of incomplete information, or information that does not arrive when it should • Assumptions will usually add defects to the process • Reduce the need for assumptions by getting the right information at the right time

7. Poor information flow • Reducing hand-offs will reduce waits • Relentlessly challenge why fewer people can’t perform more of them in sequence • Provide training or permission to help reduce the number of functions in the process. This increases accountability.

8. Poor information flow • Making every effort to insure clear, accurate information is gathered at the earliest possible step of the process • Concurrency – can some parts of the process be done simultaneously? • Do we have a standard process, or is it different every time we do it?

9. Poor information flow • Structure/silos – do they know what I need to make the process work, do I know what they need? • Is control affecting the process. This is mine, you can’t have it? • Is trust (you can’t be trusted to do this job correctly) an issue?

10. Preparing your road map • Identify every step of the transactional process, and clearly assign responsibility for completing each task, making each decision • Sequence the steps in a swimlane map and focus on eliminating as many non-value steps as possible • Connect value-added steps together while reducing handoffs, and rework.