Shruti Bhat PhD, MBA, Operations Excellence Expert
  • Home
  • About Shruti
  • Books
  • Insights
  • Operational Excellence
  • Research
    • Innovation Management
    • Leading Research and Development
    • Developer's Diary
  • Case Studies
  • Tools
    • Whitepapers
    • Articles >
      • Business Transformation
      • Process Improvement
      • Business Continuity
      • Change Management
      • Digital Transformation
      • Quality Improvement
    • Checklists and Templates
    • Free eBook
    • Videos
  • Blog
  • Engage Shruti
    • Consulting >
      • Operational Excellence Consulting
      • Business Transformation Consulting
      • Innovation Management Consulting
    • Workshops
  • Contact

How to Choose a Business Process Improvement or Continuous Improvement project?

1/16/2020

0 Comments

 
A business process improvement project within an organization usually starts out with statements like “We have this problem and we think this is the issue that must be sorted out”. In my experience, 9 times out of 10, the cause of the problem is radically different from what one ‘thinks’ is the issue. Hence, the precursor to choosing a process improvement project is to acknowledge that there is a problem whose root cause(s) must be first be identified before going any further with the process improvement idea.

Once you have an idea of the ‘real’ issue(s) or the ‘root cause(s)’ which must be addressed, you must establish what sort of improvement you are seeking. Because a goal provides the  context for determining as well as designing  an action plan. For example, the improvement steps to save $1000 via a process improvement campaign are obviously far different from the steps to save $100,000 or $1M - but that’s also the only way you can draw a project's finishing line and establish whether that project was a success.
​
Also, the journey for reaching goals may vary and the execution plan documents the road map for achieving the goal.
​
All popular continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, Hoshin Kanri, Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen , Kanban etc. incorporate the same focus on setting goals that are easily understood, across an organization.
​
Remember: Regardless of the Continuous Improvement methodology being employed, the goal must be set before selecting a process improvement project, because a project is largely defined by what it is supposed to accomplish.

​You may need multiple process improvement projects to achieve a set of goals or often multiple projects to achieve one single goal. A standard line of action while choosing process improvement goal is based on the study of ‘Variation Journal’.
Continuous improvement tools, 30 continuous improvement tools for investigation and business process improvement, bpm, 18 different continuous improvement methodologies to increase productivity, organizational excellence and decrease cost, business process management and continuous improvement executive guide series book, shruti bhat
Variation Journal as the name implies, is a record of process variation(s) observed throughout the lifetime of a process. Upon scrutinizing this process variation record, any process that elicits a ‘Common Cause’ variation becomes a potential candidate for improvement.

Usual process improvement project pick strategies include- selecting those processes that save maximum money, are easiest or fastest to complete, solve an obnoxious problem, or a process that adversely affects employee working, or where the process improvement is hardest to accomplish (with the idea of 'getting the hard stuff out of the way' will provide serious onward momentum for all subsequent process improvement work).

Tip: Process improvement project success depends on the goal set up, as well as, a sound execution plan before you go about implementing process changes.

In my career as a Global Continuous Improvement Leader spanning a decade, I have found that, using Agile during process change implementation, paves way to guaranteed success with process improvement campaigns.

With Agile management the execution plan becomes a series of sprints instead of one long comprehensive plan.

Tip: Note that Agile works best in environments of frequent changes or development of a new product line, where new features and obstacles are constantly introduced and need to be managed.
To learn more about how Shruti can help your organization achieve new heights or to book a Workshop, Contact Dr. Shruti Bhat via Form or WhatsApp

Follow Shruti on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn


​Keywords and Tags:
#ContinuousImprovement #QualityImprovement  #BusinessProcessManagement   #BPM
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Shruti Bhat, global leader in business turnaround, operational excellence and continuous improvement
    To contact Dr. Shruti Bhat text or WhatsApp at 1.403.969.6219

    New Book Released!

    Revolutionizing Industries with Lean Six Sigma

    Shruti's YouTube Channel ...

    Picture

    Blog Categories

    All
    3D Printing
    Agile
    Artificial Intelligence
    Automation
    Biotechnology
    Books
    Business Continuity
    Business Turnaround
    Case Studies
    Change Management
    Checklists
    Chemical Industry
    Continuous Improvement
    Design Thinking
    Digitalization
    Drug Delivery
    External News Links
    Hall Of Fame
    Healthcare
    Hoshin Kanri
    HR Development
    Innovation
    Insights
    ISO
    Just In Time
    Kaizen
    Leadership
    LEAN
    Lean Six Sigma
    Life Sciences
    Machine Learning
    Manufacturing
    Medical Devices
    Mistake Proofing
    Motivational Cards
    MSMEs
    Nanotechnology
    Operational Excellence
    Packaging
    Patents
    Personal Products
    Process Improvement
    Product Development
    Productivity Increase
    QbD
    Quality Management
    R&D Leadership
    Robotics
    Service Industry
    Six Sigma
    Strategy
    Supply Chain Logistics
    Telecom Industry
    Templates
    TQM
    Videos
    Voice Of Customer
    Whitepaper
    Workshops

    Shruti's books...

    Picture
    top ten strategic decision-making tools for operational excellence
    shruti bhat, business process management, continuous improvement
    kaizen for pharmaceutcials, medical devices and biotech industry book by Dr Shruti Bhat
    Book on Continuous improvement tools by Dr Shruti Bhat
    kaizen for leaders, continuous process improvement tool to increase profit and organizational excellence by shruti bhat
    kaizen, shruti bhat, continuous improvement, quality, operations management
    how to lead a successful business transformation
    leading organizations through crisis
    emotional intelligence
    how to overcome challenges of creating effective teams
    modular kaizen Vs Blitz kaizen
    How to increase employee engagement as a new boss

Connect with Dr. Shruti Bhat at- ​Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn​

© Copyright 1992- 2025 Dr. Shruti Bhat ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
See Terms and Conditions for details on this site usage.
Subscribe to Operational Excellence Academy YouTube Channel
​Subscribe to Operational Excellence Academy YouTube Channel
SHRUTI BHAT, CONTACT
Click to connect.
Created by Macro2Micro Media