While working on various projects I’ve learned that when exploring process improvements most people tend to jump into the details. Getting straight to the specific tasks and activities causes many issues, most serious is the tendency to get stuck doing things the way they always have been. How many times have you asked “why do it like this”, only to get the “because that’s the way we’ve always done it” response. When looking at processes and efficiency improvement it’s important to look at it from a results oriented perspective defining inputs, activities, and outputs.
What is a Process
A process is made up of four components.
- Inputs or Requirements. The inputs or requirements are the required pieces of information to meet the desired results.
- Activities or tasks, actions and procedures. The activities are the specific tasks that take the inputs and convert them to the desired outcome.
- Outputs or Results. The outputs are the desired result. In a larger process the output is what is the input to the next step of the process.
- Maintenance. Maintenance is the management oversight to ensure the process is operating effectively. This includes setting appropriate expectations, defining accountability, effective communication, and reporting. The maintenance activities encompass all components of the process.
Many conversation I’ve had on improving processes start and stay in step two. There is often very little consideration for the the other three aspects. If inputs, outputs, and maintenance are not considered the process will most surely fail, or at the very least be inefficient. It is important to understand each of these components and relay them in terms that makes sense. You will not get what you are looking for by asking for inputs and outputs. However, you should see better results by looking for requirements and results.
Designing a Process or Solution
To design an effective process you actually start at the end. What is the desired output, or result? In other words, what problem are you trying to solve. Once you define a satisfactory result, you must look at what pieces of information you need to get to this outcome. When working between departments it is increasingly important to clearly define your inputs or requirements. Only once you have clearly defined your desired outcome and your necessary inputs do you discuss activities. The activities should be defined based on the most efficient and minimum number of actions necessary to convert the inputs into the outputs.
The number of times you go through the design process depends on the scope of your solution. If you’re looking at something basic, you may be able to achieve the results in one process. However, the larger the problem the more sub-processes you have to make up the overall process. For example, the process to hire a new employee is made up of many sub-processes. You have the process to define the job description, the process to gain financial approval, the process to post the job, etc. You always want to start your design process at the highest level and work down to the lowest level.
A Fast Food Drive Through Example
The problem that the fast food restaurant must solve is getting the on-the-go customer their food more quickly and efficiently. If you started defining a solution to this problem by jumping into activities you’d be stuck on preexisting constraints. You would try to come up with ways to speed up payment, or speed up food preparation, etc. These incremental improvements are helpful but don’t solve the initial problem. By taking an unconstrained approach to the problem the drive-through solution makes sense.
With the drive-through solution identified the next step is to consider the desired output. The output of a drive-through window would be a completed order. Now we must identify what is needed to provide a completed order. Obviously, we need the order. With the input and output defined we would then focus on the activities. With this example, the activities would follow the existing food preparation procedures. Our high-level drive through process has been designed.
Inputs = An order being placed
Activities = Preparing food and payment
Outputs = A complete order
Once the documentation, and maintenance activities are complete the fast food restaurant can implement the drive through. With the process in a production state, the maintenance activities should allow for the identification of improvements and additional efficiencies. I would imagine this is how the ordering speaker, two window setups, and order display screens were created.
If we wanted to look at additional improvements to the drive-through process we would go through the design process again. What is the problem? Perhaps order quality. How many times have you driven away only to discover that your order is incomplete? By going through the design process you should be able to come up with processes, or improvements that help improve order quality.