Take order processing as an example. Your customer sees: “I order an item, you give me the item, and I pay for the item.” Simple, right? Whatever the customer doesn’t see — what goes on inside your own four walls — the customer doesn’t care about. You have to add to the perception of value in the customer’s mind and you only do that by making your operations more efficient.

How many hands will touch an order form between the customer and shipping in your firm? Are all of those hands necessary? Do you really need to send a copy of the PO to four different departments? Or are you needlessly delaying the processing of orders by requiring four department heads to sign (or initial) and date PO’s before production begins acting on them?

Remember, if a step in a process doesn’t make the customer’s life better, if it’s not adding value, it probably shouldn’t be in there. Keep in mind that no one’s operations can possibly be 100% efficient but going from, say, 25% to 50% is something your customers will definitely notice.