Business Process Improvement for Manufacturing & Service Industry by Dr. Shruti Bhat book preview-

One of the first people to describe business processes was Adam Smith (1776) in his famous example of a pin factory. Since then business processes have evolved and better defined. ​

A business process defines the various activities involved in achieving a particular goal. Business processes briefly describe the chain of events that are involved in an activity or a group of activities. It is common to use a business process if the activities have an effect on current products or data and bring about production. 

 Types of business processes include- 
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• Management processes such as Corporate governance, Strategic management, planning and implementation.
• Operational processes, which constitute the core business and create primary value stream. Typically, they include Procurement & sourcing, Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales and Customer service.
• Supporting processes, which support the operational processes and include Finance & Accounting, Recruitment & Human Resources Management, Research and Technical support.

Some examples include invoicing, product shipping details, updating information, tracking orders, allocating budgets etc. Business processes used throughout organization, at any level, are outlined in order to improve organization in an effective and efficient way. There can be several inputs in a business process but there is always only one output or specific goal- that is to help business thrive.

Business processes are used practically in any organization and throughout an organization at any level. They are used in a variety of industries such as private, public sector, government, departments, hospitals, charities etc. Business processes are, typically outlined in order to improve an organization in an effective and efficient way.

Various computer software make it possible to create business processes on a computer, however simple business processes are just as effective when written with pen and paper. Some even find it better to jot down the processes on a piece of paper, or on several small ones, in order to kick start their creativity and thinking process. It is up to the professional (and/or organization) to decide whether a software or traditional method will work best for them. Business processes work best when there is input, support and ideas from various people that are involved in the organization (or department).

Key business processes are logically grouped related tasks and activities, independent of the organization’s structure, which utilize the resources of the organization to produce specific results. They possess measurable inputs & outputs, value addition and repeatable activity.

Tip- The effective management of key business process requires- Ownership & planning, performance metrics & control, process qualification, management and improvement methodology.

A business process always begins with a customer’s need and ends with a customer’s need fulfilment.

Customer needs change, technologies change, government policies change, competition changes and what used to be a high level of performance becomes a poor one and it’s time to replace the formerly good process with a new one- only every process cycle should have this capacity of identification, in-built in its charter.

As a practicing Business Transformation expert of many years, I am happy to mention here few case studies, nay success stories. Let me share three examples-

1. A consumer goods manufacturing company redesigned its product deployment process, by means of which, it now manufactures goods and delivers them to its distribution center such that inventory uptake was reduced by 35%, while stock-out goods situation declined by 70%.
2. A pharmaceutical company created a new product development process, which reduced time to market by 75%, development costs by 45% and increased productivity by 30%.
3. An engineering goods manufacturing organization increased its product delivery targets by 350% and reduced its supply chain costs by up to 55%. Something to note in these is the simultaneous achievement of apparently incompatible goals for e.g. reducing inventory while also reducing out –of-stocks.

Traditional organizations view these as conflicting goals and trade off against another. While process managed organizations, recognize that such payoffs, are achieved by improving business processes and continually maintain their business process efficient. So how do we go about bringing on a process change?

Three main categories of business process improvement techniques, have been found to be extremely effective in managing, expanding and /or transforming businesses worldwide including USA, Canada, Latin America and the emerging economies. They are – Breakthrough improvement, Streamlined improvement and Continuous improvement. The 18 methodologies described in this book belong to one or many of these three main categories.

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In this book, you will learn about: 
​

• What is a business process? What are different types of business processes? Why improve a business process?
• 18 different business process improvement methodologies including Lean, ISO, Kaizen, Six Sigma, Capability maturity model integration (CMMI) etc.
• Advantages of each business improvement methodology. Precautions needed before implementing a methodology at your workplace.
• Strategic planning and risk assessments involved prior to implementing a business process improvement methodology.
• References of their use by startups, small companies who later on became big corporate houses and Fortune 500 companies.
• Tips to maximize positive results from executing business process improvement methodologies for your organization.

This book presents a practical way to build and improve business processes, and assists professionals whether they are learning the basics of business process improvement, planning their first improvement project, or evangelizing process-oriented thinking throughout their organization.

Dr. Shruti Bhat is an award-winning Business Excellence Leader, Global Continuous Improvement Mastermind, Best-selling Author and Speaker. She is Continuous Improvement Advisor to several start-ups, mid-size and growing firms in Canada, USA, India, Africa and Emerging markets. She has authored eight business books and is an invited speaker at several national and international conferences, symposia and workshops.​

Follow Shruti on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn

Keywords and Tags:
​#DrShrutiBhat #Manufacturing #BPM #Lean #ProcessExcellence #ContinuousImprovement #Kaizen  #QualityImprovement #BusinessProcessManagement  #ServiceIndustry  #ManufacturingManagement  #LeanInnovation  #Pharmaceutical  #LifeScience  #Food  #Beverage  #Biotechnology  #Retail  #Cosmetics  #PersonalProducts  #Chemicals  #Drugs #Engineering   #LeanManagement  #KaizenMasterclass  #LeanSixSigma  #Kanban  #FMEA  #RiskManagement  #Speaker  

Therefore, for a business to survive and grow, its business processes must evolve appropriately, to make running the business both affordable and profitable. This constant adaption is brought about by Continuous Improvement.

For Continuous Improvement efforts to be meaningful, cost-effective, realistic and sustainable, one must use effective and accurate tools that will facilitate- identification of the business problems, augment strategic decision-making & implementation, help problem-solving, support measuring the change & sustaining process excellence.
 
This book provides deep insights into thirty vital tools necessary to meet success with your Continuous Improvement campaigns.

 
What will you learn from this book?
 
This book covers the following topics –

• Thirty important Continuous Improvement tools- Value stream mapping, Process benchmarking, Root cause analysis, 8D methodology, Process mapping, Affinity diagram, Swimlanes, Prioritization matrix, Auditing, Fault tree analysis, Reliability block diagram, Flow chart, Block diagram, Activity diagram, Conceptual data modeling, SWOT analysis, Workflow design, FMEA, Process decision program chart, Pie chart, Statistical methods (viz. Mean, Median, Mode, Check sheet, Pareto chart, Histogram, Run chart, Control chart, Scatter diagram), Policy deployment, Brainstorming, Mind mapping, CTQ trees, Cause-and-Effect diagram, PERT diagram, Gantt chart, Investigational interview techniques viz. 5 Whys, Causality, Socratic method, 5Ws 1H & Why-because analysis and Kamishibai boards.
• How to construct and strategically use these tools during all the phases of a Continuous Improvement campaign.
• Advantages, limitations and applicability of each tool at your workplace.
• Illustrative examples of using these tools during your Continuous Improvement campaigns and post face.
• Possible roadblocks on Continuous Improvement highway that champions needs to watch out for, how to tap into these tools as a vital resource to overcome roadblocks and/or prevent detours.

 
​
Who should read this book?
 
This book presents practical ways to build and improve business processes and assists professionals whether they are learning the basics of Continuous Improvement, planning their first improvement project, or evangelizing process-oriented thinking throughout their organization.
 
This book is for all professionals involved in decision-making, directing their organization’s sustainability, profitability, and expansion. If you want some new and effective ideas for improving your organization's efficiency, then this business management book is for you.
​
 
Chapter 1:

​Things do not improve on their own. There is a mechanism for improvement- PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) or DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) or DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify). The whole process is then repeated continuously, which means Continuous Improvement!
 
The Deming’s quality cycle is never ending. It is a strategy used to achieve Breakthrough and Continuous Improvements in safety, quality, morale, delivery cost and other critical business objectives. The completion of one cycle continues with the beginning of the next.
 
The success of any Continuous Improvement campaign relies on following four types: tools for data gather, tools for problem-solving, tools for decision-making, tools for strategic implementation of the campaign, tools for measuring the change and assessing ‘change is indeed an improvement’. This book presents tools belonging to all these four types.
 
Before exploring the specific tools, let us start by having a quick look at what is involved in improving a business process.
 
A business process can be anything from a process of procuring material, at the production line or serving a customer. There are three principal or key areas for process improvement, which contribute to the profitability and effectiveness of an organization. These are-

1. Reduce waste (for a manufacturing company) and/or reduce time taken to see a customer (for a service organization).
2.  The way a job is done.
3. The way any process is under taken.

 
To improve any one of these we need to:

1. Observe all our actions and the consequences.
2. Record what is observed in detail.
3. Analyze the results and take corrective and preventive actions for errors.

 
Business management team in any organization, worldwide, has two sets of problems: those of today and those of tomorrow on the supposition that there is a tomorrow for the company that hopes to stay in business.
 
To thrive, succeed and grow, the business must constantly improve productivity, product/ service quality and overall organizational effectiveness. Moreover, it is vital to note that, Productivity improvement should not be more production at the cost of more people losing jobs. Rather, productivity improvement should be win-win scenario for the business and its employees and the whole community.

​Productivity improvement should actually change the character of departments. New way of doing things should mean, more work gets done by the same number of people now trained to do their jobs better, new skills.
 
Similarly, Quality comes not from inspection, but from improved business, production and/or service processes. Total quality control means- quality of work, quality of service, quality of products, quality of information, quality of process, quality of division, quality of people, quality of company, quality of objectives and quality function deployment. Quality tools cannot remedy every quality problem, but they certainly facilitate problem solving.
 
There is increasing recognition that Continuous Improvement offers more than just operational improvement in performance. If Continuous Improvement efforts can be sustained over the long term, the opportunity exists for considerable strategic advantage, as organizations move on from bringing and maintaining their processes in control to improving them and developing totally new ones.
 
Recent survey data suggests that 65% of companies consider Continuous Improvement to be strategic importance and around 50% have instituted some form of systematic program to apply these concepts.
 
A further 19% claim to have a widespread and sustained process of Continuous Improvement in operation and of those firms using Continuous Improvement, 89% claim it has had an impact on productivity, quality, delivery performance or a combination of these- such is the power of Continuous Improvement !
 
To improve a process, you need to have a clear picture of what is ‘actually’ happening, not what you ‘think’ is happening or what is happening in ‘theory’; but how the process is actually working.
 
Therefore, tools are essential ingredients of a process and basic instruments for the success of a business process Improvement program. Many companies have used tools without giving enough thought to their selection and have then experienced barriers to progress.
 
So, how do you choose the correct tool?  Choice of tool will depend on-

• What do you want to measure?
• What do you want to achieve?
• What form does the data take?
• What do you want to do with the results? 

Dr. Shruti Bhat is an award-winning Business Excellence Leader, Global Continuous Improvement Mastermind, Best-selling Author and Speaker. She is Continuous Improvement Advisor to several start-ups, mid-size and growing firms in Canada, USA, India, Africa and Emerging markets. She has authored eight business books and is an invited speaker at several national and international conferences, symposia and workshops.


​Follow Shruti on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
 
​Keywords and Tags:
​#DrShrutiBhat    #Lean #ProcessExcellence  #ContinuousImprovement #Kaizen  #QualityImprovement  #Innovation  #Quality  #eLearning  #Business  #BusinessProcessManagement  #ServiceIndustry  #ManufacturingManagement  #LeanInnovation  #Pharmaceutical  #LifeScience  #Food  #Beverage  #Biotechnology  #Retail  #Cosmetics  #PersonalProducts  #Chemicals  #Drugs #Engineering #BPM  #LeanManagement  #KaizenMasterclass  #LeanSixSigma  #Kanban  #FMEA  #RiskManagement  #Speaker  

Kaizen for Leaders: A Continual Improvement Tool to Increase Profit & Organizational Excellence is the eighth book of ‘Business Process Management Systems and Continuous Improvement Executive Guide Series.

What will you learn from this book?

This book covers the following topics:

• Business process improvement lifecycle.
• How to win process improvement campaigns.
• Roadmap to process improvement methodology selection
• Business process mapping, process modeling, process redesign/ reengineering.
• Decision matrix for selecting process improvement methodology for your workplace.
• Action plan- for doing methodology implementation right!
• Qualifying ‘new’ business process and efficiency measurement metrics.
• Maintaining ‘continued’ operational excellence with the ‘new’ process.
• Illustrative examples of process improvement methodology recommendations for- Healthcare organization, Facility management of a manufacturing company, IT department of non-profits, manufacturing and technology companies, Customer service department of a service organization
• Frequently asked questions and tips to maximize output from continuous improvement campaigns.

​
Who should read this book?

This book presents practical ways to build and improve business processes and assists professionals whether they are learning the basics of business process improvement (or Continuous improvement), planning their first improvement project, or evangelizing process- oriented thinking throughout their organization.

This book is for Agile entrepreneurs, Leaders, QA (Quality Assurance) managers, Management consultants, Production supervisors, Manufacturing heads, CEOs, Directors and all Managers involved in decision-making, directing their organization’s sustainability, profitability, and expansion.
This book answers questions on business process management, which would help managers improve business situations in their new role as a Business Analyst, Project Manager, Change Management or Process Improvement Expert.

This book is for “all business readers” who wish to apply these methodologies to their workplace, like to read, and self-develop to become ‘better’ at whatever they are doing.


About the author:

Shruti Bhat PhD MBA Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
Over the past eighteen years, Shruti has successfully led over 450 Continuous Improvement projects in big & small organizations world wide. She specializes in business transformation of sick units. Shruti has proficiency in Continuous Improvement for Innovation management, Research & Development, Human Resources (HR), Manufacturing, Quality, Intellectual Property, Sales and Service functions; additional case studies on Shruti's blog www.DrShrutiBhat.com. Shruti has helped build enterprise teams and coached more than 12000 employees worldwide.

​Follow Shruti on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn

​​Follow Shruti on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn

#DrShrutiBhat  #Success 

​​Modular Kaizen Vs Kaizen Blitz: How to Choose between these two Kaizen Business Process Improvement Methodologies for Accelerated Productivity, Profitability and Organizational Excellence is the seventh book of Business Process Management and Continuous Improvement Executive Guide Series.

Keywords and tags:
​#ModularKaizen   #BlitzKaizen   #KaizenEvents    #BusinessProcessImprovement   #ContinuousImprovement