As mentioned in Part 1 of our Operational Excellence Series, "Excellence is the consistent pursuit of the highest standards in performance, behaviors, or outcomes. It means doing things exceptionally well, not once, but all the time". Conducting business process improvements is one way organizations can aim for operational excellence.

Business process improvement is an organized method for evaluating and improving workflows to attain higher performance, quality, and efficiency. While this sounds like a simple exercise, many companies find it challenging to determine whether their current procedures are effective. Daily activities frequently operate on inertia, with routines being repeated out of habit rather than assessed for their worth. This results in ineffectiveness becoming normalized, and opportunities for improvement are often missed.

There are many different business process improvement frameworks to employ from Six Sigma DMAIC, to Lean, Kaizen, and Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) methodologies. Productive Outcomes suggests a 6-step hybrid approach that incorporates the best features of each, as outlined below.

Step 1: DEFINE the area of improvement.

This step is usually the easiest place to start. What are you trying to improve? Is the goal to improve customer satisfaction, reduce cycle time, or cut costs? Do you have specific KPIs or targets in sight?

Figuring out where to focus your efforts is part logic, part intuition. You want to make sure your improvement goals line up with the bigger picture, i.e., what your business is trying to achieve. Let the data guide you, but also remember the art of examining where to look. Analyzing performance stats, customer feedback, audit reports, or scrutinizing workflow analytics to pinpoint inefficiencies, bottlenecks, or compliance risks. These clues help you zero in on the spots where things are stuck, inefficient, or just not working as well as they should.

Approach:

• Process Mapping: Visually trace the workflow to understand each step, actor, and decision point. Tools like SIPOC or value stream mapping can be especially effective.
• Voice of the Customer (VoC): Leverage surveys, complaints, and customer journey maps to find pain points that may not show up on internal KPIs.
• Pareto Analysis: Apply the 80/20 rule to prioritize improvements with the highest potential impact.
• Root Cause Analysis: Before fixing a process, ensure you’re addressing the real issue—not just a symptom.

Thinking Outside the Box: Don’t only look for what’s broken or not working well, look for what’s unscalable. Many processes work at a small scale but collapse under the weight of growth. Analyze, question, and validate processes that depend on unwritten or informal activities. Involving people closest to the work early on often reveals insights that traditional top-down reviews miss. Sometimes an improvement isn’t just a refinement or modification, it’s a complete reconfiguration.

Step 2: DEFINE what success looks like, also known as, Point B.

Success in any context isn’t just about making changes, it’s about creating measurable, scalable, and sustainable outcomes. Before kicking off any improvement effort, it’s important to clearly define what “success” or Point B looks like in the context of your improvement goals. Linking key performance indicators or KPIs to business-level outcomes to compare, track, and assess performance over time and across departments can be a useful tool to help organizations get to Point B. Your key performance indicators (KPIs) should track both effectiveness and efficiency.

• SMART Metrics: Set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals to keep efforts focused.
• Baseline: Know your current state so progress is clearly visible and verifiable.
• Leading and Lagging Indicators: Maintain a balance between leading and lagging indicators.

Thinking Outside the Box: Redefine success as a cultural shift, not just a performance boost. A successful BPI isn’t just one that improves numbers, it’s one that builds a mindset of continuous improvement across teams. Look for signs like proactive problem-solving, improved collaboration, or frontline employees suggesting process tweaks. An organization that learns and adapts.

Step 3: ANALYZE the current state, also known as, Point A.

This phase usually starts with leadership and employee interviews. Both are required because often what leadership says is the process, and what the employees say is the process are two different things. We recommend observing the current business processes in the field as conducted by employees for maximum accuracy. It provides insight into how work actually flows, not how it's supposed to flow, often revealing hidden inefficiencies, redundancies, or risks.

Current State Approaches:

• Process Mapping: Create a visual representation of the existing process. Tools like swim lane diagrams or BPMN notation are especially useful for capturing cross-functional workflows.
• Stakeholder Interviews: Talk directly with people who execute the process. Their insights often expose real-world issues like bottlenecks, workarounds, or system constraints that metrics alone can't capture.
• Data Analysis & Performance Metrics: Analyze and review historical data to identify patterns, peak times, error rates, and rework frequency. Look for anomalies or trends that indicate deeper issues.
• Customer and Employee Feedback: Employee interviews, surveys, or feedback forms to uncover experiences or processes that cause frustration, confusion, or delay.

Thinking Outside the Box: Don’t just analyze how or why something happens. Many inefficiencies are rooted in assumptions, constraints, or siloed decision-making. Ask provocative questions: Why do we do it this way? What would happen if we didn’t? Observing the process in real motion reveals inefficiencies not outlined on paper.

Step 4: ASSESS the root causes of bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or waste.

Once you've mapped and analyzed your current state, the next step is to really dig deep and understand why problems exist. This involves asking why? It’s not such a straightforward process and knowing what area or specific process to focus on may be difficult to pinpoint at first. Working backwards from Point B (where success lives) is a good starting point coupled with information collected in Step 3. Asking questions helps to identify bottlenecks, delays, and or discover what did or didn’t happen. Then following symptoms of underlying issues will help identify root causes. Once you’ve identified the root cause, you’ll want to validate your findings.

Root Cause Analysis:

• The 5 Whys Method: A simple yet powerful technique where you ask “why” repeatedly to reveal layers of symptoms and uncover the true cause of a problem.
• Fishbone Diagram: Visually organize potential causes into categories.
• Process Data Review: Analyze timestamps, task durations, and queue times to find where slowdowns occur. Look for high variation or frequent handoffs that highlight inefficiencies.
• Observation & Firsthand Validation: Go to the source and see the process in action. Talk to frontline employees. Sometimes what seems inefficient is an adaptation to a bigger issue.

Thinking Outside the Box: Consider cultural or behavioral root causes. Is there a fear of change? A lack of ownership? Misaligned incentives? Many process issues are human, not mechanical. Challenge longstanding practices that “have always been done this way”. Fresh eyes can reveal blind spots your team has learned to work around. Invite someone outside the team to review the process.

Step 5: IMPROVE the issues discovered.

With root causes identified, the focus shifts to developing targeted business solutions that align with your organization’s improvement goals to get you to Point B . The "Improve" phase is where ideas for improvement become action.

Approach:

• Design the “Future State” Process Map: Create a revised version of the process that incorporates improvements and removes non-value-adding steps. Validate this with stakeholders before rollout.
• Check Full Implementation: Test improvements in a controlled environment or with a small group. Gather feedback, measure outcomes, and refine the process before scaling.
• Involve the Right People: Engage frontline staff, not just management, in developing and testing solutions. They understand the practical realities and can spot unintended consequences early.

Thinking Outside the Box: Sometimes it’s about doing less, not more. Eliminate unnecessary steps or processes. Build flexibility into the new process, not just efficiency. Encourage a test-learn-adapt mindset. Improving business processes is rarely a one-time fix, it’s a cycle of enhancement and creative change.

Step 6: CONTROL a.k.a. Continuous Improvement of the Process

Improving a business process doesn’t end with implementation, it continues with control and continuous improvement. Without proper carry-through, even the best solutions can drift off course over time. This phase ensures that gains are sustained, progress is monitored, and organizations stay flexible and adaptable in the face of change.

Sustainable Approach:

• Standardize the Improved Process: Clearly document the new processes, roles, responsibilities, workflows, and KPIs. Embed it into SOPs, training, and performance expectations so it becomes part of your organization’s culture.
• Monitor with Control Plans: Use dashboards, KPIs, or control charts to track ongoing performance. Establish clear thresholds that trigger action if things start to deviate.
• Audit and Review Regularly: Schedule periodic reviews of the improved process to ensure adherence and identify emerging issues.
• Ownership: Assign process owners who are accountable for performance and responsible for continuous monitoring.

Continuous Improvement Strategies

• Encourage Ongoing Feedback: Create formal or informal communication channels for team members to share ideas or flag problems early.
• Foster a Culture of Learning: Celebrate improvements, as well as results.
• Leverage Lessons Learned: Every improvement project should feed into a knowledge base. What worked? What didn’t? What could be applied elsewhere in the organization?

Thinking Outside the Box: Make continuous improvement a habit, not just a project. Integrating BPI thinking into everyday operations teaches teams how to recognize inefficiencies on their own. Develop recognition programs to keep engagement high, and reward small wins to encourage cultural shifts.

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