Gareth Turner
As businesses grow and evolve, maintaining and improving efficiency becomes ever more critical. When processes begin to lag behind, the question often arises: Should we focus on improving our current processes or embark on a complete redesign? The answer depends on your specific challenges, resources, and long-term objectives– but does it?
Process improvement is all about making incremental changes within existing…processes. Rather than completely overhauling a system, it’s about refining specific aspects, such as reducing waste, improving quality, or streamlining certain steps. It’s a gradual, systematic approach that optimises what is already in place.
Imagine a scenario where you rearrange desks in an office to make better use of the available space. You’re not rethinking the entire layout, just making a few adjustments to improve efficiency. This type of change is usually driven by specific pain points and tends to be reactive, addressing issues that require immediate attention.
One of the major advantages of process improvement is that it carries relatively low risk. By focusing on small, continuous changes, you avoid the disruption that often accompanies more radical transformations. This makes it an ideal approach when you’re looking for steady, incremental gains in efficiency and productivity. But is it low risk because this is easy to sell and easy to quantify? Should we have still been looking for process improvements at Blockbuster in 2009?
Process redesign takes a more radical approach. It’s about completely rethinking how a process operates from start to finish. This often requires questioning existing assumptions and reimagining workflows to create a new, more efficient system.
To put it in perspective, imagine redesigning an entire office space to better meet the needs of the workforce, rather than simply moving desks around. Thank you Paul Wong for the inspiration on this.
Process redesign is strategic and takes a holistic view of the entire system (or business), considering not just individual components but how everything works together.
Because this approach is so far-reaching, it involves greater complexity and carries higher risk. However, the potential rewards can be substantial. Process redesign often leads to major improvements in cost, quality, speed, and overall service…. So why don’t we do it?
Usually because – if it “ain’t broke don’t fix it!“…but if we don’t look at it, it wont get better…
Logic dictates that the best way to board a plane is window seats, followed by middle, followed by aisle, from the back.
Planes get boarded in about 30mins normally, but with the above redesigned process, this could be 10 - it ain’t broke, but we should definitely do it better!
Deciding between process improvement and process redesign largely depends on your current circumstances. If your existing processes are functioning reasonably well but need refining, process improvement is likely the best choice. Key word, likely.
On the other hand, if your current processes are fundamentally flawed process redesign is the better route. But that’s obvious.
We should be thinking about redesigning our processes from the ground up consistently! Constantly challenge “this is the way we’ve always done it”, without that challenge, how do you look to add technology into your business? Again, not the latest version of *insert CRM here* but AI or robotic process automation, how to get your people focusing on the value add and not the non-value add but essential?
Both process improvement and process redesign provide valuable ways to optimise business operations, but each is suited to different situations. As I’ve seen in my work with clients, process improvement is often easier to implement because it focuses on specific, well-defined issues that can be addressed relatively quickly. And it’s easier to sell.
However, you need to implement regular reviews of process and think outside the box when it comes to value add, and I’d certainly recommend getting outside help to challenge you on this – wood from trees, you don’t know what you don’t know etc…
