I've been reviewing processes for many years and never cease to be amazed by the amount of waste (inefficiency) that I find. I've produced a couple of slides to summarise my approach and provide a check list of the key things to look out for that will give you a good indication if there is waste in your processes. I hope you find them useful. Please use the following link to check out my full article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-your-processes-need-waste-disposal-unit-jon-stephenson

1. Business Transformation – do your processes need a Waste Disposal Unit?!
• Look out for the warning signs and the different types of waste – described on the next slide
• Review and document your end-to-end processes – focus on journeys happening 80% of the time
• Include volumes & timings for each step – so you can quantify the impact and prioritise your actions
• Remove the low-hanging fruit as quick wins – but you will still need to manage the cultural change
• Assess the remaining waste in your processes – if it’s been designed in, you’ll need to design it out
• Determine if it is a legal or a regulatory requirement – address the ‘how’ and influence the ‘why’
• Don’t automate a poor process
– you need to make it efficient first
• Make sure benefits are realised
– lower costs, increased capacity, better
…customer service, and job enrichment
• Log any waste you’ve retained
– record the reasons and review regularly
• Celebrate and share successes
– show them it wasn’t a waste of time!
Jon Stephenson
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stephensonjon

2. Business Transformation – do your processes need a Waste Disposal Unit?
Warning signs
• Growing Customer Service/Support teams
• Departments working in silos
• Changes that cause work for other teams
• Poor error rates and lots of rework
• High levels of customer dissatisfaction
• Focus is on quality control, not assurance
• “We’ve always done it like that!”
• Processes out of sync with values & goals
• No work instructions or process maps
• Lack of end-to-end process measures
• People creating their own spreadsheets
• Under or over-utilisation of resources
• High people turnover and absence
Types of waste
• Structure
– handovers, queuing, delays
• Workflow
– logging, sorting, batching, allocating, filing
• Quality Control
– checking and rework
• Design
– over-specification, data input onto multiple
IT systems, and duplication of work
Jon Stephenson
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stephensonjon