In this blog series called “3 P’s That = Success,” we have covered the first principle for building a world class, profitable organization which is focused on People and this time we’ll talk PROCESS. We’ll conclude the series with Product.
PROCESS
The privately held Aerospace Company I worked for had “Obtain Capital Equipment” as their number two business philosophy. This falls into the broader category of Process and Systems. Obtaining the best equipment your budget can afford is an important strategy but, in my opinion, not as important as the process and procedures you put in place to most efficiently run that equipment or the supporting functions throughout the organization. With regards to a process or system that directly pertains to capital equipment, here is one question to ask. Does my company have a “preventative maintenance” culture or a “break-fix” mentality? Both require down time but it is far better to plan that down time than to be forced into it while in the middle of a production run!
Many organizations may get the People principle correct but fail in the Process category as they grow or evolve. A bad system compounded over the long run will not only cause problems for a company in terms of profit but will destroy good people. Fire fighting becomes the norm instead of fire prevention. How many times have you heard of companies being bogged down and frustrated with their ERP system? Many times, leaders believe a new ERP system will solve all their problems. But if you layer an ERP system over a disconnected process to begin with, you have just added insult to injury and will frustrate your best people. Everyone has to work twice to three times as hard when processes are broken or not best in class. If you have not implemented any LEAN principals or are not ISO certified, it’s not the end of the world. My advice is to simply start by Flow Charting every process within your organization and then start asking the “WHY” questions. LEAN principles would refer to Flow Charting as Process Mapping. Why do we do it this way? If the answer is, “We have always done it this way,” or “I don’t know, that’s what my boss told me to do,” then that is a big clue there may be some hidden profit somewhere in the process. What you may find is either too much indirect time or excess inventory.
The key to successful Flow Charting is to involve all the stakeholders in the process and also those affected by the process. It needs to be well understood that the goal to Flow Charting is continuous improvement. Once you have answered all the why questions and Flow Charted the best path, train everyone to it and periodically review it and keep improving on your process. To simply sum up an ISO certification is to just, “Do what you say and say what you do.”
In the next and final blog of this series, we will explore the principle of Product. If you’d like to read the previous posts, please click the links below.
Blog Series Links: