6 Ways To Optimise Your Operational Processes
Photo by Austin Distel https://unsplash.com/photos/RX_0vwSPiWs
Operational process optimisation is a term used to refer to the practice of boosting the efficiency of your business using process improvement. However, it should be done in line with your business goals. One of the significant reasons business owners leverage this is to reduce operational costs while improving productivity and business revenues. Furthermore, it's a quantitative tool that businesses use for better decision-making.
Areas Needing Optimisation
If process optimisation is a new concept to you, here are three places in your business that may benefit from it:
- Equipment Optimisation: It involves the installation of new equipment or parts in your machines to upgrade them. To continue using your old machines, you may need to do retrofitting. Working with metal fabrication specialist can produce the high quality replacement parts needed. Other aspects of equipment optimisation include deep mechanical, pneumatic, electrical, and software upgrades.
- Operational Procedures: Business operating procedures are affected by the people working, nature of work, and day. In most cases, operational procedures are optimised through automation.
- Control Optimisation: In a company's production process, several control loops may be used to manage a single aspect. As a result, if any of the involved controls aren't working optimally, it derails the whole process.
How To Enhance Operational Processes
Many business owners invest in operational process optimisation to remove redundancies, streamline workflows, enhance communication, and forecast changes. To help you understand how you can improve processes in your business, here are practical methods you can implement:
1. Automating Product Inspection
With today's technology, you may use intelligent systems for inspecting your products before they leave the manufacturing plant or the warehouse. In production, you need to demonstrate consistency in developing quality products. As a result, considering the kind of product in your business, you should procure top-notch inspection systems such as TDI Packsys inspection systems or similar solutions from a reputable local supplier.
Through product inspection, you can automatically ensure the safety of products with utmost precision. Defective products that affect your consumers may lead to loss of finances if affected clients sue your company. In addition, it can destroy the reputation of your business to the point of losing your loyal customers. These are some of the issues that automated product inspection can help you avoid.
Some areas where you can use machines to inspect your products are detecting metals, sorting colours, using X-ray laser beams to detect foreign materials in a product, checking weights, and inspecting labels.
2. Keep Deadlines
Deadlines are vital in eliminating confusion in business operations. Therefore, you need to set realistic and attainable deadlines to ensure that work is completed promptly.
For instance, if you produce certain products on order, you should know when your customers need them. Once you’re aware of the delivery date to your client, you now have to strategise with your management team to determine when each stage of production is to be done without putting exceeding pressure on your employees, which can affect their productivity.
Efficient monitoring of the production process ensures that your product is ready for delivery to your client at the right time. Doing so fosters confidence and trust in the client towards your business. Clear and attainable deadlines are a way of keeping your workers motivated to do their best and achieve high performance within the set period. If you're unable to meet a deadline for your client, ensure that you communicate this to them beforehand so they can adjust their own schedule.
3. Arrange For Employee Replacement At Once
It's generally said that failing to plan is planning to fail. This is true, especially when it comes to ensuring that every necessary position in the company is filled at any given time. Suppose that you have an employee who’s retiring or has handed in their resignation letter with a specified date. In that case, you need to plan for replacement early. You may need to advertise for the vacancy, conduct interviews, and get a suitable candidate to replace your retiring or resigning employee once they leave. On the other hand, you may get a replacement by promoting one of the junior workers.
On another occasion, you might have an employee who’s supposed to go on leave or take a sick day. Their position needs to be covered to ensure continuity of business processes. To accomplish that, you can use your skills management software to search from the database who has similar skills to bridge the gap.
4. Conduct Progressive Training
Training is essential for empowering your workers and improving their performance. You can have scholarship schemes for individuals who’d like to take courses deemed essential to their job. In addition, you may ask your workers to enrol in refresher courses, especially for technical jobs such as medical-related work.
This may interest you: Rebound By Recoiling
Assuming that you want to upgrade the customer management system from a manual process to a computer-based customer relationship management (CRM) system, you may have to train your team to use the new technology. Even though these training programs may cost your business some considerable amount of money, they’re worthy investments in the long run.
5. Streamline Onboarding Procedures
Onboarding your new hires is a critical part of business processes that should be done professionally. New hires who’ve been drilled thoroughly during onboarding are likely to be highly productive almost immediately. During onboarding, ensure that your recruits are equipped with relevant skills and knowledge for their role at the onset. Moreover, let them know the company culture as well as the vision and mission of the organisation.
Supplementary reading: Digital Onboarding
Important to consider is using the right people to do onboarding. If new hires don't like the onboarding phase, some may step down from their position. Therefore, leaving the task to a qualified individual who has your company’s best interests at heart should be an option.
6. Carry Out Regular Audits
Audits concerning the laid down procedures need to be done regularly. For example, if you purchase specific software, you should check whether it's being maximised to keep your processes at the optimum level. Additionally, ascertain if the new program has brought any business growth or has been a bottleneck. You may try answering the following questions:
- Does it improve process turnaround time?
- Has it introduced new gaps in the production process?
- What new measures should be taken?
Final Thoughts
The success of or lack of it in a business is determined by how efficient your processes are. Therefore, you need to keep an eye out for any gaps in your operational processes and address them as early as possible. With the strategies provided in this article and others you’ll get from similar online sources, you can make sure that your business operates optimally in the years to come.
About Author: Jerry Stuart is a quality control officer. To read more great articles, click here.
So many ways for businesses and organisations to increase efficiency and become more prolific. Businesses should start leveraging on operational processes, it will jump-start your business into accelerating growth (which is something that everyone desire!). Start now and ameliorate your processes! Now, enough money talk and let’s segue into a more musical theme! Just like how companies can leverage on operational processes, they can also leverage on Happily. Happily (or Budaya for those from Indonesia) is an amazing engagement app built for organisations to drive engagement amongst employees. It has amazing analytics and also provides activities for employees to be fully immersed in the organisation's culture and values. To find out more, click here or email info@leaderonomics.com
Be sure to check out the media below to match with the boss on how organisations can leverage on Happily:
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Tags: Hard Talk, Quality, Science & Tech, Competence, Intelligence, Systems & Structures, Intelligence Development
