Process Relationships and Improvement Opportunities

In the previous article, we discussed the two types of goals we can create: something we strive for ( Projection ) or something we start from ( Position ) goals. Another idea Cyndi Crother, author of Catch , presented was how the greatest improvement can be found in the relationships between processes or manufacturing cells and not in the processes or cells themselves.

This is in line with lean thinking when we look at the difference between value added and non-value added work. We traditionally look at the value added components of a process and often ignore the connections between activities or processes, which is where the non-value added work is occurring. But if we examine the waste preventing us from working smarter we see half or four wastes that are directly related to process relationships: Transportation, Delay, Oversight, and Inventory. So what do we need to do to improve these relationships? Engage others.

Engagement Builds Relationships

I just finished Follow This Path by Curt Coffman and Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina. Their book explains how to drive growth by engaging your management, employees and customers. By engagement we mean developing an emotional involvement or commitment to the organization. Great organizations become great by developing emotional commitments to their brands, products, and ultimately the organization itself.

Imagine what you could accomplish with a legion of emotionally committed employees. This emotional involvement is infectious and soon would spread to your customers, who in turn become emotionally involved with your products. Your customers become committed repeat buyers and spread the word to others. It’s viral marketing; spreading the good feelings your organization brings to others. It is a lot like leading teams. Engagement is very powerful stuff.

Engagement Fosters Communication

Engagement brings everyone closer together through communication. In order to engage others we must tap into the heart and be willing to communicate the feelings that drive our behaviors. Do you think of the heart and emotions as non-value added work versus the brain which focuses on the value added work?

We build inventory “just in case” because we are afraid of what can happen. We inspect and oversee employees because we don’t trust their work. We accept delays and interruptions in a process because we have always done it that way. These are not symptoms of using our brain to solve a problem. Instead these are emotional reactions.

Great organizations acknowledge the power of emotions and therefore build channels for interaction, communication, and handling of our emotional states. When we are improving a process situation we must understand the value added or brain piece and change our thinking that the heart is non-value added if we are to achieve global improvement. Separating one from the other is just sub-optimization.

Engaged employees are not afraid to communicate the waste they see around them. Engaged employees engage customers. Engaged employees communicate using their brain and their heart to bring everyone closer together.

Your Engagement Experience

What is your engagement experience at your work? I am talking about your “Company Experience”. How would you describe the experience your customers have when they call to ask questions or order a product? Is it good, great, emotional, fulfilling, exciting, fun, or enjoyable? How do you engage your customers? These are good questions to ask yourself.

We end up compensating for weak relationships with non-value added work (waste). The waste supports our independence and creates silos of work. If your work or the organization you work at is not fun and enjoyable then there will be all sorts of non-value added activities that are conducted to support this low level of engagement. As you increase engagement you end up tearing down the barriers to those silos.

This week we have looked at how the greatest improvement opportunities are found in the relationships between processes or manufacturing cells. We have seen how engaged workers are more fun to be around. Engaged customers are more profitable to be around. And, the only way to truly make your workplace more fun and enjoyable is to reduce the non-value added work that supports the lack of engagement, poor relationships, and unhappy customers in the first place.

To learn more about implementing continuous process improvement within your organization, attend the next improvement class How to Align a System of People and Processes for Results . Or, Learn How to Create Well-Defined Processes and to document processes.

SO 9000 Quality Auditor classes are forming now for Internal Auditor or Lead Auditor. Call for information on having your own private in-house classes today.

    Email     Print    Subscribe     

Posted on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 under Business Process Improvement

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Originally published by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title Process Relationships and Improvement Opportunities.

This and more articles like this can be found at www.bizmanualz.com. This article may be reprinted freely as long as this resource box is left intact.