Cutting the Fat out of Marketing Using Workflow Analysis and Risk Assessment to Increase Operational Efficiency

Recently, I undertook a project to review process and workflow within my department as the time it was taking to complete projects has been on the rise.  Like many of you I’m trying to do more work, with less people and efficiency has become king!  I’ve become a bit of an expert as this because this has been a challenge for most of the companies I’ve worked for.  I’ve created a systematic approach to cutting out the fat that others may benefit from, so I thought I’d share.  And I hate it when I’m trying to research and people provide general theories that are so pie in the sky that you can’t use them.  So I’ll give you everything I used and if it works for you great!  If not, let me know what challenges you are facing and I’d be happy to provide input.  And don’t worry, I’m not selling anything.  I have a great job but enjoy helping others.

So here’s my recipe for success:

Step One: Create an As-Is Value Stream, Document what you are doing now

Important:  Pick a manageable process to start with.  Don’t pick something that has tons of steps and variation the first go round.  Pick something that impacts the company’s objectives, but in a small way first.

If you are unsure of how to do this check out my post on A Picture Says a Thousands Words| Documenting Your Workflows.

Step Two: Create a Transitional Value Stream, Document inefficiencies

Look for bottlenecks in your process.  These can be areas where work seems to pile up and have heavy delay times, or areas where the work gets trapped in a loop that goes back through several times.  In marketing, this usually happens with reviews and approvals.  If your process only shows it going through once or twice that’s great, but I usually see anywhere from 4-12 times through the same circle.

Look for unnecessary steps.  Are there any steps which can be eliminated?  I see this when a company has been doing things a certain way for years and years and it has just become a habit that is hard to break.  Can any steps be combined and handled by a single individual, a single document, or a single process?

Look for steps that are happening after one another, but are not dependent.  In marketing this happens a lot with graphic design teams and copy writing team.  The designers wait to start designing until copy is final.  This is great if you have time to wait, but if you don’t the general layout template can be created independent of the final copy if you give a general word-count guideline to both groups.

Look for steps that are missing.  Sometimes there is a critical step that is not being done which causes bottlenecks later.  Perhaps it is a kick-off meeting to get everyone on the same page, or a document that could be added that would streamline the process downstream.

Look for waste.  These are parts of the process that do not add value to your customer.  Value is anything your customer is willing to pay money for.  At the end of the day, every cost that goes into a project is paid for by your customer in the cost of your product.  Is your customer willing to pay for a lengthy review process?  Probably not.  They only care if the piece you’ve created speaks to their needs and wants in a time frame that is fulfilled when they need it, not how you got it done.

I find it extremely helpful to chunk the process and break up each area that is interrelated.  Then I look at them separately, rather than as a whole.

Step 3: Brainstorm Improvements

Think about ways you can reduce or eliminate these bottlenecks.  Why is the work getting trapped there?  Is it not correct the first time its done?  If so, how can you get it done right the first time.  Are there too many people involved?  If so, kick out people who are just there to make them feel involved or change it to an FYI versus an approval.  There are many, many reasons why this happens.  Your job is to find a way to stop it or at least significantly reduce it. What steps can I eliminate?  What steps do I need to add? How can I separate non-dependent processes?  Document how you want to stream line each area you’ve noted for improvement.

Step 4: Create a Future State Value Stream, Document the future process

Now, go back into Visio and create your new process.  Provide timeline estimates for how long you think it will take for each new step or streamlined step.

Now, I’ve been doing this for a few years now and I’ve guessed fairly accurately along the way.  But recently I learned how to actually provide some fidelity to my guesses so I can confidently say that the future state is better than the as is state.

Step 5: Analyze Your New Process, Pseudo reality-check

Bear with me while I geek out a little. I’ve been documenting workflows for years, but never really had a way to say with any real certainty that the process was better before testing it with the team.  I’m not a huge math junkie, but I took a Risk Assessment class for my MBA and learned some ways for the non-math geek to be able to apply statistical analysis to your process.  Really cool!

So here we go, throughout this process you have put some statistics down and you’ve guessed at how much better you think it will be.  Why not take your process for a little test-drive?  I like to use the @Risk Excel plug-in by Palisade Decision Tools for this.  I assign a best-case, worst-case, and most-likely case timeframe to each step and use a PERT distribution.  Then I look for steps that are correlated and assign a correlation, .8 for strong, .5 for somewhat correlated, and -.8 for a strong inverse correlation.  Next, I use a RiskSim table to assign the probability of re-work and the timeframe re-work will take.  After I have all the inputs to the process put in, I run the simulation 20,000 iterations.  Sometimes, I find that I messed up my excel sheet and have to adjust.  But in the end, I find out some really cool stuff.

Here are some examples: Which steps in the process have the biggest impact on your total process time.  Why does that matter?  Well you know you need to really keep those in check or your process will take the maximum time to finish.  How sensitive is your process? How beneficial is it to be able to say, as a result of the simulation we can with 95% confidence expect the process to be completed +/- 1.55 days of the mean of 15 days with a 2% error margin. Pretty powerful if you ask me.

After all this is done, I put together a document to “sell” the new process.  Here’s the table of contents for the last one I did.

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Project Definition
• Project Background
• Statement of Business Needs/Requirements
• Objectives
• Implementation Plan and Target
• Schedule Re-occurring Review Meetings
• Create Project Definition Document
• Create Project Naming Convention To Facilitate Supermarket Project Assignments.
• Separate Non-Dependant Processes’
• Train Staff on New Process Methodologies & Get Buy-in
• 60-Day Transition Phase
• Process Refinement Phase
• Project Scope and Timeframe
• Project Details
• Project Costs (Including Initial Support)
• Tangible Benefits
• Time Evaluation
• Intangible Benefits
• Risk Analysis
• Sensitivity Analysis
• Modeling Details
• Implementation Implications/Issues

So now, what?  Prepare for objections and sell your idea.

I’ve included some sample documents below.  I’m still trying to figure out how to include the entire report and supporting excel documents that I did.  Darn, wordpress!  If you want it, email me at nichole@nicholekelly.com and I’d be happy to share. You’ll notice my copy of @Risk is  from Loyola College where I’m working on my MBA in Marketing and discovered this valuable tool.

Related posts:

1. A Picture Says a Thousands Words| Documenting Your Workflows.
2. Is Marketing Integration Just Another Buzz Word?
3. Why Mid-Size Companies with Conservative Cultures will Fail in Today’s Economy

Tagged as: Marketing Operations, Risk Assessment, Workflow Analysis