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.

Here is the process I use to document workflows.  It’s not perfect, but I find it to be fairly effective.

Supplies:

• A very large roll of brown craft paper
• Several packs of different colored Post-Its
• Roll of string or that curly ribbon for gifts
• Scissors
• Sharpies – The wider the better – But needs to write legibly on said Post-Its
• Tape
• Three-ring binder
• Three-hole punch
• Optional – Pictures of people who are involved in the process (you’ll need several copies of each photo

Schedule a meeting with anyone who has input in the process.  You can do this as an entire group or if you have a decent grasp on the start, middle and end you can set up timeframes for each person to go through their part.  I like to do this in a fairly informal setting.  Bring in bean bag chairs, beach chairs, something to lighten the mood.  Typically this meeting takes awhile!  Depending on the length of your process it can be from 1 hour to several 2-3 hour sessions.  Anything beyond 2-3 hours and you will be staring at a group of Zombies!

Before the meeting cover a large wall or space with brown craft paper and get your supplies in order.

Now that you have everyone together tell them that your goal is to find out every step in the process you are working on.  Recently, I reviewed small projects that require copywriting, artwork, and printing.  It was a fairly simple process but it was riddled with inefficiencies.  Ask them to bring copies of any documents/forms that are produced in the process and define someone to be the runner to get things that are forgotten.  There will be some!

Assign a person to be your scribe, this person writes everything on the Post-It Notes.  Assign a person to be an Artist, this person organizes everything into a pretty picture on your brown paper.

Then ask how is this process started, who does that, how do they do it, how long does it take, is a document or form used?  What percentage of the time is it complete and accurate? Write all of these answers on your post its.  I how found that using different colors for each of these questions and stacking them helps bring clarity.  If you have pictures of who does it then tape that to a post it.  If there is a document produced or form used label it with a number on the post it and then place the document in a 3-ring binder.  Place the post-its on the brown paper at the far left side.  Then go to the next step and ask the same questions.  Then the next step, and on and on until the process is complete.  Make sure you are consistent in how you document.  For example, turn the post it so it looks like a diamond, for a decision which has to require a yes or no answer.  Just a thought, but I typically start by documenting either the all yes track or the all no track and then work back to fill out the other track.  It just makes it easier. Then I take my string or ribbon and start connecting post-its.  This shows information and work flow from one post-it to the next.  I’ve also created stickers that are arrows, but it gets cumbersome throwing all those stickers up there and string or ribbon is so much faster.

I’ve actually created an area, that is now called the Brown Bag room because I use brown paper so much! You will find that you move Post-its around a bunch because there will be a little bit of debate and controversy.  I have found that you have three types of people in the room.  Contributors, those who provide specific input that is relevant and useful.  Dead Heads, those who say nothing unless they are asked.  And, the infamous Askhole, the person who asks a million meaningless questions generally just to hear themselves talk and feel important, contradict others in the group and generally just make you want to punch them in the face.  Twice.  Now, it is possible to have some people who at times are more than one of these, but it’s rare. As a facilitator it is your job to keep everyone engaged and get the Askhole to shut up.  In a nice, professional way of course!  I do this by giving them a job to keep them occupied.  Hey, can you be another scribe?  We’re getting a little backed up here.

Once you have the entire process documented, take a picture with a high resolution camera.  Then go to your computer and redraw the workflow in Visio.  Now you might say this is a bit inefficient, but the large visual picture really helps get the group engaged.  So, I permit the efficiency for the effectiveness.

Next I go back to my desk I go into our tracking system and start to verify or adjust the “how long does it take section” based on actual projects.  I find that people tend to underestimate this category.  And they overestimate the percent complete and accurate category, so I put some reality into that estimate as well.  People don’t mean to lie, it’s just that it typically takes way longer than anyone realizes and they like to think that they do things right and many times they don’t.

Then I update the document with the numbers I came up with from the reality check and move to the next step.  For the complete process look at “Cutting the Fat out of Marketing| Using Workflow Analysis and Risk Assessment to Increase Operational Efficiency”.