Business Process Optimization – Benefits, Steps, and Examples

There is no business in this world that doesn’t require process optimization. When one starts a business, it comes with tons of problems, bottlenecks and issues that you need to solve on a daily basis. In your professional or entrepreneurial journey, you would have to learn about process optimization at least once in a lifetime.

What is Process Optimization?

Process optimization is, as the name suggests, a discipline to increase the efficiency of all the factors included in a process without changing the quality of the outcome. It is a common practice done around the world. You can minimize cost and save time along with an increased amount of output if process optimization is done right. It is majorly used in industrial decision making.

What is business process optimization?

Business Process Optimization is a practice that falls under the umbrella of business process management (BPM). It is used by organizations to optimize the outcomes by analyzing the processes. Businesses gain both monetary and non-monetary benefits out of it. Also, note that BPM is not the same as RPA. There is a difference between BPM and RPA.

Benefits of business process optimization:

Business process optimization is a rewarding discipline adopted by businesses around the world. Here are some of the benefits of business process optimization:

• It reduces redundancy

  When you are running a business, you need to take care of the little redundancies and gaps in the processes. When you start optimizing the business processes, you will be able to point out all the redundancies and remove them.

• Greater adaptability  

  We live in an era where the consumer dynamics will change so rapidly that you won’t get time to prepare yourself. Change is coming in faster than ever. Business Process Optimization will give you a chance to adapt to changing customer demand dynamics and competitive landscape. This way you can also understand your business from your customers’ point of view.

• Easy to take initiatives

  If the business processes are optimized, the foundation of your business will become strong. It would lead to the smooth running of the business. Once you have achieved that, it becomes easier to take new initiatives. Even if these initiatives result in becoming a failure, you can come back to your older optimized structure.

• Discover and Standardise new processes

  While old processes get better through this discipline, there are high chances that you will be able to discover new processes and standardize them as well. There are certain hidden processes like approval of a task or stamping a document. So in a way, business process optimization will help you understand your own business better. Processes that are not fixed and standardized by businesses are called Shadow processes. These kinds of processes are the reason why your workflow gets cluttered. The shadow process slows down the whole process.

• Feedback

  You will be able to get a quantitative measure to analyze your business processes. Constant feedback will help you get accurate data of your business processes. This would enable you to make decisions that are backed by strong data and numbers.

Steps of implementing business process optimization

There are certain steps involved in business process optimization. Just like anything else in the world you must plan out this discipline before trying to implement it. Here are the Steps to implementing business process optimization.

Step 1: Observe

The first step to business process optimization is observing the problematic processes. Some of the traits of these processes are that they are slow, cluttered, non-functional or with too many bottlenecks. If you find these characteristics in any of your processes, they are the ones to target.

Step 2: Find the problems

Pinpoint the problems. Think of this as a challenge. You are challenged to find a problem with something. Imagine all the smallest of the details and make a list of it. Some of these problems will be easy to solve, some will be tough and some will be impossible.

Step 3: List down the solution

Make a list of all the possible solutions to these problems. As mentioned earlier, some discrepancies would not be in your control. E.g. – The time taken by the developer to write certain lines of code. You can’t keep pushing the limits of the people. So you’ll have to deal with this problem in another manner.

Step 4: Implement the solution

Get ready to implement all those solutions that you have come up with. It is crucial to involve all the stakeholders in the process optimization while implementing the solution.

Step 5: Monitor

Analyze the performance of the process. Compare the quantitative and qualitative factors with the earlier process. Monitoring these processes will help you gain an understanding of how processes work in your business. It would help you in business process optimization in the long run.

Example of Business Process Optimization

Let’s see a real-life example of business process optimization.

Imagine you own a company of 25 people including you. It is an ad agency with 10 copywriters and 10 account managers and 4 Human resources people. You are observing the processes and feel like there is a need to fill some gaps in the HR process.

You are planning to optimize the processes of the Human Resource department. First you’ll have to identify the processes that are problematic. You see that Tom from HR is managing recruitment and it takes a long time for him to get a candidate for the interview. You need to optimize this process. Start looking at what Tom does. Make a list. Identify the potential problems like he approaches good candidates on different job portals.

Make a list of the solution:

• Automate this messaging process. 

• Tell Tom to write a script that would help him talk with these people. 

• Make changes in the way you describe your job

• Give recommendation bonus to people in your company

These are some of the solutions that you have gathered. Find out the most feasible one for you and implement it. It would surely result in optimization. This was a way of developing a business process optimization strategy.

In real life, scenarios might not be this simple. There might be problems with the process at a level that you can’t solve. These times call for the help of business process automation experts. That’s when we come into play. Fasproc is the fastest process automation tool that would help you design unlimited processes with simple features like drag and drop. Imagine having the power to design customized processes within minutes. Fasproc is still in a developing stage and we are planning to launch it soon. Since you have made it this far in this blog, we welcome you to be a part of the beta list. We can assure you that as we began this journey, you are in for a ride.

Conclusion

Processes stay in a constant state of improvement. It is impossible to create a perfect process. All you can do is take your chances to get closer to a perfect process. Make sure you don’t hold back in taking calculated risks to improve your processes. Try new things. Experiment with tools. You will succeed or you will learn. If you have any questions regarding business process optimization, let us know below in the comment section.