Selecting a Process to Map

April 15, 2015

Category: General

Congratulations! You’ve decided to institute business process management. It’s an exciting and rewarding journey ahead. But that first step can be intimidating. Picking an appropriate first process to map is critical in building a foundation for success. It will be the process by which your staff is introduced to a new way of doing things, and where the first inklings of a return on your investment will be seen. In most cases, the first process to be mapped, standardized, and refined has a lot to prove. How do you choose the right one?

One way to go about selecting the first process is to pick one you know really well. It makes sense that this can be a helpful way to learn your workflow automation software with a total focus on the technology and user interface. But it is highly likely that a process you are extremely familiar with has already been optimized. While automation will help you streamline and quicken the pace while ensuring nothing falls through the cracks, there are likely other processes that will deliver an even greater ROI and win over any internal skeptics.

At MedFORCE, we recommend choosing a process you are currently troubled by as a starting point.

There are several things to keep in mind when selecting one:

• Opaqueness. Look for an area of your business you feel you have no control over or little insight into. At any given time you might not know what the status is with any tasks or how activities in the flow impact outcomes. Bringing this flow into the spotlight usually surfaces a lot of opportunities for standardization as well as highlighting the proper analytics for determining success
• Falling metrics. Identify an area that used to hum along but now seems to struggle. There are many factors that could affect this including changes in regulations, requirements or staffing. In this case, it is likely there is an environmental factor that is influencing success. Breaking the process into the various parts and pieces can help you determine how to best adapt the process
• Stagnation. Is there an area in your operations that plays a crucial role in your growth objectives, but you don’t see the improvement you need? The simple task of mapping a process can be eye opening. You will likely identify several steps that can be automated, freeing up your staff’s time and attention to focus on growth
• Impact on profit. Find an area of your business where small changes in output can have a huge effect on your bottom line. These processes will deliver the fastest ROI for your workflow software.
• Bottlenecks. If there is a particular spot in a process where things can easily get hung up, internally or externally, outlining each step will help you identify ways to eliminate or work around the bottleneck. It could mean you need to redirect staff’s focus, change employee responsibility, develop parallel work streams, or front-load work effort. The act of mapping the process can help you come up with new options for solutions.
• Squeaky wheels. Most likely the processes that are at the biggest detriment to your mission are ones your employees already know about. Where people complain the most, there is usually a way to improve how the work is done.

Regardless if it’s a troubled process or one you know well and clear, once you have targeted a process, we recommend ensuring you have a “bite sized” chunk to begin with. It’s always easier to start small and build from a platform of success. Layering on complexity ensures that each individual task or building block is perfected before adding more. It will also result in the greatest ROI and establish a strong business case to keep your team motivated. Starting your road to workflow automation with an easily-defined but challenging process builds the most solid, tested, and optimized foundation to build your lean operations.

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