What to Know About Business Process Improvement
Every company uses different processes to perform a variety of tasks. Think of a coffee shop, for instance. There are many more processes involved in running a coffee shop than merely taking orders and delivering those orders to customers.
A typical coffee shop consists of dozens and dozens of processes. There is the process involved with brewing fresh coffee, the process involved with keeping the store clean, the process of buying replacement coffee from the wholesaler, and the process of setting up the store for business each day. Through this framework, we can understand the way a company functions as basically a series of particular processes.
Each of these processes can be analyzed and broken down into the steps needed to finish the task. This is the beginning of process improvement: analyzing a given process by looking at its steps and thinking about how it might be improved.
The Five Steps of Business Process Improvement
The BPI process follows five distinct steps:
- Identify the process you’d like to improve.
- Analyze the process — What value does it provide the company and the client? What individual steps make up this process? Work with your team to brainstorm solutions and improvements, and develop a plan of action.
- Recruit the right team and raise the funds needed to implement your plan. Be sure to assemble the team members with the skill sets best suited to the job at hand.
- Implement your plan.
- Review and Revise — Another way you could look at this (most important) step is that you’re simply looping back to step 2. After all, any company can try something new every once in a while. But, as with performance management, if you’re not continuously evaluating what works and what could be improved, you’re not truly changing. You’re not improving how you improve.
Boxelder’s Approach to Business Process Improvement
An experienced consulting firm knows how things are done by industry leaders. Hiring an outside BPI partner can provide an essential degree of objectivity in assessing your current processes, identifying and prioritizing opportunities for process improvement, and designing and implementing BPI solutions.
The team at Boxelder Consulting can assist you as you attempt to improve processes within your company and achieve optimal results. Boxelder Consulting is available to provide a wide range of services related to business process improvement.
We can assist by:
- Providing in-depth financial analysis to produce improvements which are maximally cost-effective,
- Providing a company-wide assessment to determine which processes need the most improvement,
- Assisting with analysis of specific processes to determine a course of action,
- Assisting with identifying the proper skill set needed to effect the desired changes, and
- Assisting with review and revision.
Plus, because of our integrated approach to business consulting, we can leverage the vast experience of our lawyers, CPAs, tax specialists, bookkeepers, and business experts to implement lasting changes at your company. Reach out today for a free consultation.