Here is a brief overview of How To Improve Business Systems!
Looking to improve, streamline or just re-map your business?
Businesses are always under the pump to stay efficient and up-to-date. But, not everyone has the capabilities or knowledge on how to improve their business systems.
Map It Out
Firstly. Map. It. Out.
A big misunderstanding when trying to fix a problem is looking at the problem itself. But sometimes the problem is triggered in earlier steps of the business process.
Try out some of these techniques to better understand your business. Let's go!
Swim Lanes
Now, this doesn't mean you have to start swimming. It's the idea of separating each lane into different parts of your business.
Also, similar to a generic flowchart, a swimlane diagram can show the flow of a process in a simple, understandable way.
Flowcharts
So, Flowcharts are swimlane diagrams without the swim lanes. Here's a quick run-down on what a flowchart is.
If you are trying to improve business systems/processes, this would be a starting point for mapping out a business. The Geek Page gives a great list of useful tools for creating flowcharts.
Business Process Modelling
The more complex mapping technique, Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) can be seen as a crazy version of a swimlane diagram. With more notations and rules, this approach is for the more dedicated analysers.
Depending on the complexity of a process, the diagram can look simple or can also get out of hand.
These mapping techniques will guide you through the steps of your business to in-turn get you to your goal to improve your business systems/processes.
Learn something new! If you are interested in reading our other topics, have a look at our thoughts page.
Analyse
Now the process is mapped out, it's time to analyse.
Cause and Effect Analysis
Ben from toolshero put it elegantly, an "analyst sums up and analyses all the potential causes and effects of the identified problem."There are 2 ways to perform a cause and effect analysis. Through The 5 Whys and/or a Fishbone Diagram. The 5 Whys strategy is asking 5 different 'Why' questions to determine the root cause.
Some Examples:
- Why is my website not receiving traffic?
- Why are customers exiting the website so fast?
Another diagram...
The Fishbone Diagram aka Ishikawa Diagram is great for identifying issues and problems. So, the 'bones' of the diagram are considered the causes and the 'head' of the diagram is the effect of those causes. A more detailed explanation can be found here.
Are there any Bottlenecks?
Bottlenecks are also good identifiers of problems in a process. This is the part of the system that slows down the workflow when the workload increases. Finding the bottlenecks in a process is another great way to determine the root cause.
Redesign & Implement
Finally, let's redesign!
Looking at all the information gathered from the previous steps, a solution can be introduced to improve the business systems/processes.
Plan out all the changes, and implement. Although one problem is fixed there may be more. So, looking at solutions to improve business processes should be performed quite regularly to ensure your business is in ship-shape.
Improve My Business Systems
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