Part of a series<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019ve gone over the path to process excellence maturity, what process excellence can do for your organization\u2019s business value and the merits of Lean and Six Sigma. Now, we\u2019ll discuss processes and the top questions to ask for process improvement.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll take a few liberties with this story since it\u2019s been a while, and the details are a bit hazy, but hopefully, you\u2019ll see the point.<\/p>\n In a prior role, my team was responsible for converting a government agency to our card-processing platform. In one location, an individual refused to perform the conversion until they received the \u201cSally Report,\u201d a report the current processor provided.<\/p>\n When pushed harder about the Sally Report, this individual could only explain that \u201cSally\u201d was someone who hadn\u2019t worked at the facility in several years. However, the individual still printed the report by \u201chitting F12 every morning\u201d and then delivered this report to another location.<\/p>\n After an extended time trying to hunt down details on the Sally Report, the agency noted the person to whom the original \u201cSally\u201d had been sending the report was no longer in their position, and the replacement had never used the report at all.<\/p>\n It turns out the agency produced this report for years with no purpose. The inability to recognize that previous constraints no longer existed led to waste across multiple areas and a delay in the processor conversion.<\/strong> When you\u2019re thinking about business process improvement<\/a>, perhaps the most important process improvement question is the most simple. In this instance, no one took the time to ask, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n This story leads me to my (nearly) fool-proof method for identifying areas requiring process improvement<\/a>: just ask why.<\/p>\n Similar to the \u201c5 Whys\u201d method used to identify the root cause of an issue, we base this method on simply asking a person to tell you about their process and continuing to ask \u201cwhy\u201d multiple times to determine the purpose or reason for each process step. You may feel like a toddler, but the reality is that your reason for asking is similar in that you simply want to fully understand the reasoning for a given scenario.<\/p>\n If they can provide a good, meaningful answer four or five times, you can likely leave the process step alone in the initial analysis.<\/strong> If not, it\u2019s probably an area to start looking at for a \u201cjust-do-it\u201d (JDI) project. Used in Lean, Six Sigma and Kaizen, JDI is a quick fix for when you know the solution and can make the change quickly \u2013 typically within 24 hours. However, if the solution doesn\u2019t work, you must also be able to revert to the original process just as quickly.<\/p>\n In the initial process improvement interviews, you can generally find areas to address within two or three why questions. For the Sally Report example, some answers that gave it away included:<\/p>\n The first two or three why questions often result in a confused look or a delayed response of, \u201cI guess I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n You can apply the \u201cjust ask why\u201d approach to individual process steps and overall processes. You can use it more broadly at first and then as a follow-up to help dig into a wealth of process knowledge.<\/strong><\/p>\n Questions like \u201cWhy is this process done?\u201d can help identify the business\u2019s purpose. Answers should relate to delivering business value or be subject to additional \u201cwhy\u201d questions. Other good questions include:<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note not all questions have to be why questions, but you can always follow them up with \u201cwhy?\u201d based on the answer you receive. For instance:<\/p>\n In general, more thorough process improvement questions and methodologies<\/a>, such as Lean, Six Sigma or Kaizen, can add significant value, but these may be more than your company initially needs to start its improvement journey. You can achieve excellence for business processes more quickly by identifying JDI improvement opportunities.<\/p>\n Once you implement these simple modifications, you can then further optimize the revised process through another process improvement methodology.<\/strong> We talk more about that in the final blog of the series<\/a>.<\/p>\n It may seem too simple, but when you\u2019re thinking about questions to ask for process improvement, start by asking, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n How to Identify a Process Improvement Need<\/h2>\n
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The Top Business Process Improvement Question is \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n