Business process improvement is a practical, easy way to measurably lower your cost of doing business (COGS). When you fix your operations to eliminate roadblocks and waste, you'll save time and money. It's a no-brainer. So before you start implementing new software, adding automation, and hiring new staff, you may want to look at how your people are working right now. Figure out where your issues lie and fix them, before you go any further.
Business process improvement is about finding and getting rid of these five common operational problems:
Bottlenecks, this could be a person, a machine, a network, bureaucracy; anything that blocks speed, efficiency, progress
Duplication of effort, where more than one person is doing the same thing (see “Silos”)
Silos, when information isn’t shared with the people who need it, leading to inefficiency, duplication of effort, and missed opportunities
Complexity, when too many steps are needed to accomplish a task
Lack of structure, when your people don’t have any set instructions for doing repetitive activities and make it up anew each time
Process improvement is about working smarter, not harder, and doing more with less. Every business runs on processes, and unsurprisingly, business processes done well can be a competitive advantage.