business process management Archives - Partners in Business Excellence, LLC

Does Your Business Have an Emergency Plan in Place?

March 16, 2020 By Peter Holtgreive No Comments

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Reading the news on any given day can create fear of the next big thing for us to be concerned about. Terrorist attacks, virus spread, natural disasters, workplace violence, and more can all be unsettling. While there is no possible way to plan for everything, having an emergency plan in place, and the ability to be agile and adjust, are very important.

The better documented and managed your current processes are, the easier it will be to make adjustments in order to keep things moving as seamlessly as possible.

When an emergency hits, your physical office could be shut down, supplies could be limited, income could slow or boom, demand could become higher than you can keep up with, and communication needs are heightened. A business crisis plan lays out actions to take in case of such an emergency.

How to Create an Emergency Plan

First, start by documenting processes. What are you currently doing and who is doing it? What is required for each worker to do their job? What supplies or equipment is needed? Identify your mission critical tasks and what is required for them to function.

Second, take note of your risks. What part of your processes are at risk? For example, do all supplies come from one chain? Consider what natural or man-made disasters the company may face. For example, if tornadoes are more prevalent in your area than a tsunami, you may want to make a plan for that and not others. Start with the highest risk first.

Third, create an emergency management plan. Create a plan for chain-of-command and expedited decision-making. Create a communication tree so information can be quickly spread to those who need it most.

Fourth, build your emergency plan. Decide who needs to be part of building your emergency plan and meet to do so. Consider supplies needed for both evacuation and taking shelter. Determine how to communicate the plan to employees, customers and vendors.

Document your plan and let people know how to access it. If relevant, keep disaster sheets in appropriate areas for quick access, such as near specific equipment or safety areas. Some organizations keep emergency supplies in specific places throughout the building. Be sure these are marked and accessible.

Finally, practice and reassess. Once your plan is in place, consider practicing it to work out any bugs and find any gaps in protocol. Plan for times to re-evaluate the emergency plan to update it for changes in business processes or new threats or risks.

Uncertain times will ebb and flow, so having an emergency action plan in place will help you move forward during these times with more ease. It all starts with identifying your needs and documenting your processes, which is exactly what I have expertise in. Schedule today to begin a conversation about your emergency plan.

Business Process Management

The 5 Concepts of Lean Thinking Summarized

July 10, 2018 By Peter Holtgreive No Comments

Lean thinking is really conceptualizing lean principles and how they apply to a specific enterprise. Because Lean principles started in Japan with the Toyota Production System, its primary application has been in manufacturing. Today, Lean manufacturing has been growing in interest and popularity as more and more companies look for increased agility, faster to-market production, and stream-lined processes that reduce wasteful practices. Its implementation has even spread outside of fabrication into a broader business use.

Whether in lean manufacturing or lean management in other industries, five primary principles have been established to capture the goals of lean. These concepts were captured by, and summarized here based on the book “Lean Thinking” by Womack and Jones. And while the concepts themselves are simple, the implementation takes time as perfection is the final goal.

Lean Thinking Concept 1: Value

Value is what is delivered, and set primarily by the customer. What the consumer is willing to pay should be the goal of production to meet that value and also provide profit to the producing company. For example, if a consumer is willing to pay $10 for a widget, the company should use that value as their benchmark for production, eliminating waste and improving processes to meet customer expectations.

When customers are having their expectations met and companies are making profits, this is considered perfection.

Lean Thinking Concept 2: The Value Stream

Understanding the flow of the life-cycle of a product is the only way to truly eliminate waste. The Value Stream concept examines the flow from production to disposal of any given product to find areas where value is lacking and can be improved, or where processes are wasteful. Some wasteful processes may be unavoidable due to certain circumstances such as lack of technological advances or access to resources.

The awareness that is created in regards to the wasteful processes allow them to be corrected or improved for better outcomes.

Lean Thinking Concept 3: Flow

Flow refers to the state by which all processes are in alignment making production move forward without interruption. As wasteful practices are eliminated, production increases. This includes processes that previously halted product launches and to-market deliverables, something critical in today’s market where agility, speed and quality are of tremendous value.

Flow is the state where wasteful down-time no longer exists.

Lean Thinking Concept 4: Pull

Lean concepts tend to reduce cold inventory because rather than relying on forecasting demand, they put in place communication and manufacturing methods that allow for production on the fly – as customers order.

What if “busy work” was eliminated and production only happened when a sale closed? It’s a revolutionary mindset and manufacturing concept that both increases efficiency and output.

Lean Thinking Concept 5: Perfection

While we have all been taught that nothing is perfect, lean concepts are rooted in achieving perfection through continuous improvement. When an organization truly implements lean tools and concepts, they strive to get to the root of problems, never using a “band-aid” approach for fixes, but rather really dig into data and processes, and be willing to change based on feedback. They in essence create agility in business by being perfectionists focusing on lean.

Contact me today to learn more about lean thinking and how to apply it to your business to create more efficiency and profitability. Together, we will create a continuous improvement culture and healthier bottom line.

Blog Business Process Management

What is a Kaizen Business System and Why Does it Matter?

May 8, 2018 By Peter Holtgreive No Comments

A Kaizen Business System is a productivity philosophy in business, related to Continuous Improvement, and often demonstrated through Lean Management. It focuses on business processes and searches for inefficiencies, seeking to explore them in ways that get to the root of the problem to implement long-lasting change, profitability, high service levels and less waste. It creates a standard and culture for excellence and innovation.

Kaizen is a Japanese term that generally translates to “change for the better” and business owners who employ its strategies can see better relationships with vendors, employees and customers. These relationships create real results in quality, efficiency, productivity and more.

The Tools in a Kaizen Business System

A Kaizen Business System is more of a philosophy and set of tools implemented to create an outcome, than a tangible, or even software-based program, but tangible equipment and software can be used within it.

Overall, continuous improvement is robust and thorough, which also means time consuming in some cases, however, it does create complete, holistic and lasting results. This type of process creates more “buy in”, and produces a tangible outcome, not just theory. To get to its objectives, several tools are typically implemented, usually at the hands of an experienced Kaizen Business System Consultant. These steps can include:

Sort. Determine what you have and what you need. This can be skills, employees, materials, equipment, vendors, etc. Sorting is taking an inventory to determine the real gap and how to correct it.

Standardization. Examining processes and looking for redundancies and inefficiencies, then creating an organized and repeatable business process. This is huge in many businesses as department cross-over may have different people doing the same task, and/or doing it differently. It can make employee training problematic, data collection incomplete, and can even halt production.

Measuring. Measuring data helps determine if a business process is efficient and if it can be duplicated, predictable, consistent and used for decision-making. Without quantifiable data, decision-making is really just a guess and can lead to loss in productivity, profitability, and quality.

Compare. When you have data, you can compare it against your goals, objectives, and standards of operation. From the comparisons, you can address the performance gaps and improve your desired results. Again, without data, you are making a guess as to what the gap is, and therefore ineffectively addressing it.

Innovation. Work smarter, not harder and continually look for what isn’t working or what may work better. Innovation culture starts with the desire to grow, and growth doesn’t happen without addressing failures and inefficiencies. Getting to the true cause of a problem creates real solutions.

Sustainability. Really getting clear on processes helps create business processes and a continuous improvement culture that is sustainable and reliable, even in the face of change. When questions are asked and processes are viewed objectively, it cuts through “band-aid” fixes sure to fail.

Overall, continuous improvement, Kaizen business system, and business process improvement are one in the same, implementing a full breadth of tools, techniques and philosophies resulting in better outcomes. As a Kaizen business system consultant, PBEX, LLC is ready to dig in and really understand your processes to create standardized, sustainable, profitable and agile business processes for your growth. Contact Peter Holtgreive today to learn more or to get started.

Blog Business Process Management

How Lean Management Consulting Works

April 10, 2018 By Peter Holtgreive No Comments

Lean management consulting and change management sit on the forefront of the most innovative leaders. Why? Because true innovation requires agility – a cornerstone in lean management, but without the cultural attribute of continuous improvement and the ability to get to the root of a problem or process and effectively manage the change for long term results, it is useless.

The best lean management consultants understand how lean tools work and are implemented effectively while also understanding the culture that is required to sustain it. And while the lean tools are simple and also revolutionary, the lean coach must be skilled in communication, training and strategy.

How do lean management consulting firms work?

Through Collaboration

Remember back to high school if you can and think about a time when you were assigned to work on a group project. What were your feelings about it? Where you excited to collaborate? Or did you find yourself loathing it, offering to do all the work so you could control the outcome, or accepting someone else’s leadership so you could sit back?

In business, the same games exist, and we understand why. Collaboration feels hard; some feel heard while others feel left out; some excel while others just accept the outcome without involved resigned to the belief that what they contribute doesn’t matter.

However, with collaboration we discover a greater buy-in by all involved. This creates true employee engagement leading to faster results and increased understanding.

Through Understanding

By getting to the root cause of concerns and asking questions to get to the real waste in processes, lean management consultants are able to make lasting shifts. For example, if wasteful spending on oversized envelopes (a real situation we’ve encountered) is due to the fact that the original supplier went out of business and no one knows or questions that, no resolution will result.

A third party, or “fresh eyes”, or in our case, a trained and professional eye, can more easily spot redundancies and inefficiencies in business processes and, using Lean tools will implement solutions for change.

With Real Results

Working with PBEX lean management consulting specialist Peter Holtgreive, clients have seen:

Improvement in Safety Performance (average 30-60%)

Set-up Time Reduction (average 60-80%)

Increased Productivity (average 20-50%)

Reduction in Quality Defects (average 50-100%)

More Floor Space (average 70-50%)

Less Dead Inventory (average 40-75%)

Overall, lean management consultants provide a complete review and analysis of the business processes that create efficiency and profitability, and the barriers to them.

Contact me today to learn more about lean management consulting services and how I help businesses simplify and improve the way they do business to better grow and manage. Together, we will create a continuous improvement culture and healthier bottom line.