Business Process Improvement (BPI) is a method for evaluating the current processes of the business as a baseline to create business transformation and a streamlined future state. This is done for large processes, such as new product development, order-to-delivery or an entire supply chain; or more focused processes like recruiting, hiring or onboarding.
Business process improvement is often implemented by a skilled business process improvement consultant who works closely with clients. It involves change management and streamlining processes in departments such as Human Resources, Supply Chain, Information Technology, Operations, Customer Services, and Finance.
To help you get started, Supply Velocity’s consultants will conduct an Assessment, using Lean and Six Sigma tools / frameworks / models to achieve fast, sustainable results. In addition, every Supply Velocity consultant is experienced in facilitating cross-functional teams to ensure the team does not get bogged down in conflicting ideas and objectives.
Are Inefficient Processes Holding You Back?
Often, poor business performance is a direct result of process inefficiency, not employee capability. As companies and marketplaces become more complex, processes that once worked can fail to meet new demands. Additionally, start-ups and small businesses grow out of their processes. What worked with a small team can fail the customer and employees when new customers and employees are added. Here are common business process improvement examples and problem areas we identify and address:
- Long order lead times and poor on-time delivery
- Complex processes with a critical bottleneck, many steps, hand-offs, and rework
- A highly reactive organizational culture
- Misaligned organizational structure with confusing roles
- Lack of standardization and process discipline
- Poor and inconsistent product or service quality
- Difficult to do business with
- Poor customer service and internal communications
Our Methodology: A Clear Path to a Better Future State
The first step of BPI is Business Process Modeling. This structured methodology provides the roadmap to optimize your operations and achieve lasting transformation, which can take from a few weeks to a few months.
The Steps of Business Process Modeling:
- Map the Current State
- The current state represents what we call the ‘good the bad and the ugly’. It includes all possible variations of the process including the informal steps people can take to workaround a slow and inefficient process.
- It is easy for people to want to map the how-to or future state but it is important that the first step to be only the current state.
- Once complete, the team can clearly agree on the process’s current state and the issues plaguing it.
- These small agreements (everyone agrees the current state map represents what happens now) can create early alignment to help with more difficult decision making later.
- Sort the Map
- The map is marked to identify and highlight non-value-added steps within the process.
- We use three colors: Red = non-value-added and should be eliminated, Yellow is non-value-added to the customer but is necessary for the business, Green is value-added to the customer.
- When sorting, everyone has a ‘vote’. If there is disagreement it gets worked out so each step in the process is either red, yellow or green.
- This is another example of getting aligned.
- Brainstorm Ideas to Eliminate Waste
- This step focuses on simplification, efficiency, and potential workflow automation.
- Some improvements can be simply ‘stop doing it’. Others require policy changes or moving a step earlier or later in the process. This may involve shifting the work to a different role in the company. For example we may move work off of a Sales Representative to Administrative support.
- Other higher cost improvements may include new software or machinery, or modifying software.
- We always prefer the simpler, lower-investment ideas.
- Prioritize Ideas
- Ideas are ranked based on Benefit versus Difficulty-to-Implement.
- We start with the easy-to-do and high benefit ideas.
- High benefit but high cost require additional evaluation to ensure return-on-investment.
- Low benefit and easy-to-implement can get done any time.
- Low benefit and difficult ideas are saved for future evaluation or discarded.
- Design the Future State Map
- This step can seem complex but the easiest way to create the future state is to simply remove the non-value-added steps (red) identified and eliminated in steps 3 and 4.
- Create an Implementation Plan
- This becomes your formal business process improvement plan and roll-out strategy.
- We create a detailed action register to track the completion and implementation of the ideas that eliminate the non-value-added steps.
Beyond Implementation: Sustaining Your Gains
After Business Process Improvement is implemented, you must sustain the gains. This is key to true business transformation. Sustainment requires measuring the performance of processes through Balanced Scorecards and monthly Scorecard reviews. This cadence of measurement and action creates a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement and ongoing optimization.
Meeting Internal Goals & Metrics:
- Greater capacity and throughput
- Improved labor productivity
- Less rework and reduced scrap
Meeting External Customer Requirements:
- On-time delivery
- Improved quality
- Easy to do business with, creating a sustainable competitive advantage.
Creating a Balanced Performance Scorecard:
Balanced performance scorecards often use different categories of metrics. These include metrics that fit in the five categories below.
- Operational efficiency
- Financial performance
- Customer success
- Employee satisfaction
- Innovation
Optimization Journey Starts with a BPI Assessment
Personnel are usually aware of problems but often don’t understand the root causes, and their daily work demands don’t provide an opportunity to make the necessary changes. It can be a classic example of not being able to “see the forest for the trees.”
Supply Velocity’s Assessment is the starting point for our consulting services and one of our most popular offerings. It includes a targeted assessment of core processes, interviews, a facility review, and data analysis. Our consultants develop a list of prioritized recommendations supported by data, and provide a roadmap for implementation, timing, requirements, and return-on-investment.
Why Start with Our Assessment?
- 90% of our new clients choose to have an Assessment
- 80% of Assessments result in using Supply Velocity for implementation
- Clients invite us back for an average of 4 more projects
- 95% of our sales come from referrals
A typical Assessment is a 2 to 4-day process involving:
- Interviews with key personnel (executives, managers, and individual contributors)
- Analyzing financial and operational data
- Facility tours and direct observation
The onsite portion is swift and hands-on. Our business process consultants engage with your workforce to ensure they are involved and comfortable, and to recommend key personnel for the project teams.
A Legacy of Business Process Improvement Methodologies
The methodology for Business Process Improvement has built up over decades, starting with the quality revolution and including various business process improvement methodologies and best practices:
- The quality revolution in Japan (Juran and Deming), circa 1950
- Toyota Production System (TPS), 1950’s to 1970’s
- Six Sigma developed at Motorola, 1980’s
- Business Process Reengineering (BPM), 1990’s
- The combination of these into a unified lean six sigma approach in manufacturing, warehouse, supply chain and services, 1990’s – today
Variations include Business Process Reengineering (BPR) or Business Process Management (BPM). As the scope increases, BPM looks at an entire business process to create a workflow that is more effective, efficient, and capable of adapting to a rapidly changing business environment and new market demands.
More on Business Process Improvement
“In a time of volatile supply chain disruption, Supply Velocity is helping us develop Demand and Supply Planning processes to proactively tackle these new challenges. They are genuine partners, working with our team, facilitating and teaching.”
“We are pleased that Essex selected Supply Velocity, Inc. as our Lean Implementation Partner. At one facility, we have saved over $350,000 in work-in-process inventory, reduced throughput time from 2 weeks to minutes and increased inventory turns 3 to 8 times per year. All these results are in just 6 months. Our return of investment is very high.”
“Mitch Millstein and his team helped guide our shop fabrication division in the re-layout of our custom pipe and steel fabrication facility when we moved into a new building. It is not only the results but how he helped. We were involved in every step. I personally did time studies and was able to see the non-value added steps required to manufacture in our old layout. When we created our new layout, everyone was involved, from the executive team to our direct labor force. With Mitch’s help we increased our throughput by a 3x multiple, while providing more competitive prices to our clients as a result of the efficiency improvements.This has enabled us to not only make more money but also to expand our commercial reach and serve more, and larger customers. I would recommend Supply Velocity to any company that wants to make improvement in supply chain and operations.”
“For several years we have worked with Supply Velocity to support us with their expertise on Lean Operations and Supply Chain Management. Supply Velocity has helped us implement Lean, improve our inventory systems, and educate our people. They are professionals who are always available to help us as needed.”
“We used Supply Velocity to rethink our sales process. By analyzing the entire process we found wasted time in our Sales, Admin and Operations departments. Streamlining this process created extra time for each Sales Rep, allowing them to spend more time with Customers and increase the value we add. Gross profit margins are up 40%!We are now using Supply Velocity to help us rethink our entire Strategic Plan.”
“Supply Velocity created visibility within our Assurance Services Group… visibility of performance, Client-service, employee satisfaction and processing time. Using the Supply Velocity System, Audit Report Cycle time is down over 50%. We are using his strategies to create greater Client loyalty.”
“Supply Velocity gave us the tools to analyze our business and processes based on the facts and numbers versus our perceptions. Our common quote was “Let the numbers lead us”. The key for our organization was how quickly we moved from classroom to actual project initiation. We were able to jump in, start using the tools and see a difference right away.
The get-into-action approach was good for our culture.”
“Our experience with Supply Velocity was one of the best values we have ever had from a consulting project. Cyril Narishkin brought a structured lean methodology, invaluable experience and engaging facilitation skills to help us streamline a very complex and disjointed sales order process. Just as importantly, our team now has the knowledge and process competencies to address other business improvement opportunities going forward.”
“In the spring of 2003, the St. Louis Area Chapter of the American Red Cross engaged Supply Velocity, Inc. to perform a study and make recommendations to streamline office processes, maximize cash flow in purchasing and warehousing and restructure and enhance our maintenance department. Supply Velocity, Inc.’s process was methodical, flexible, staff-oriented, inclusive and, above all, trackable.In the last six months, our Chapter has realized expense savings of over $380,000 annually, and significant improvement in intra-company service levels has been attained. Supply Velocity, Inc. will return to the Chapter periodically throughout the next 18 months to audit our newly implemented processes. We have been pleased with our results and Supply Velocity, Inc.’s professionalism.”
“Closure Medical recently completed a major reorganization in order to enhance our ability to rapidly create innovative medical devices. We hired Supply Velocity to help us map out the process and service flows of the new organization that would maximize our product development process (PDP). In four weeks, Supply Velocity helped us envision a new PDP structure, develop measures and accountability for each step, and gain consensus within the organization. Supply Velocity’s focus on speed and accountability helped us complete a critical project in a timely fashion.”
“C&R was struggling with labor productivity. The construction crews were often missing materials that they needed to do their work. This caused significant idle time. Supply Velocity, Inc. and C&R used value stream mapping and visual management tools to make dramatic improvements in operations. Most importantly, two years later C&R is sustaining and improving on the implementation. C&R’s return on investment was 11:1. C&R had a record year last year in both sales and profits and would not have been able to pull it off without the changes Supply Velocity, Inc. helped us make.”
“Supply Velocity’s Lean Six Sigma System has given us new tools to help improve our sales performance. We have learned new ways to analyze our business which makes problem solving more accurate and has made us better leaders.”
“Supply Velocity is driving instrumental change in our inventory management processes. This is critical for us to be competitive in a supply chain environment with numerous disruptions. They are making change happen, which can be challenging in a 182 year old organization.”
“Isolating a problem, finding short, and long term solutions with measurable results is what was promised and results is what was delivered by Supply Velocity. Upon launch of the Lean Six Sigma Selling System, we knew more about our customers, our products, and were able to create a solid plan to increase sales of our most profitable products. Within months of implementation, our booked sales jumped 60% and our most valued customers were getting direct, active, and calculable attention.”
“I am thrilled to provide this testimonial for Supply Velocity and their outstanding work in implementing Lean Warehouses and processes at Crescent Parts & Equipment through the COVID pandemic. With their data-first focus and Mitch’s exceptional coaching and experience, they transformed our business into a more supply chain-oriented organization, enabling us to grow while prioritizing employee safety and creating a better work environment. Supply Velocity’s expertise in Lean methodologies and their comprehensive evaluation of our customers have been instrumental in optimizing our operations and increasing customer satisfaction. We highly recommend Supply Velocity to any company seeking to implement Lean processes and enhance their supply chain efficiency.”
“We engaged with Supply Velocity to help us embed process improvement at all levels of the business. Our team learned from Mitch to let the data drive decisions, to use Lean tools to help us see our processes critically and objectively, and to create a control plan to manage all of the tasks that were the outcome of the data study.The project turned out to be very significant to the company and most importantly, our customers. We reduced our customer wait times by 40%, and cut in half the labor cost to fulfill customer orders.
Some results are not able to be measured. However, as a result of this project, we have started to build a Lean mindset and culture, which is part of our strategic mission to save our customers money. Supply Velocity has been a valued partner in this mission.”
“The role of the Erie Insurance Marketing Department has been evolving over the past several years – from a support role to a more critical role of driving growth in our organization. Because of our increased workload and desire to prioritize the most critical projects, we hired Supply Velocity to teach us the skills of Lean Six Sigma.Participants included the Promotions, Market Research and Agency Licensing sections of the Marketing Department.
We learned valuable tools to help us to prioritize based on the voice of the customer.
I firmly believe these skills made a difference in how we work every day. We are moving new projects forward, eliminating or changing ineffective processes, and we are a much stronger department. We continue to use the tools to help us with our highly-complex and time-consuming projects. Supply Velocity helped us to accomplish our goals.”
“In 2015 we began working with Dr. Mitch Millstein to optimize our inventory locations supporting e-commerce and in-store inventory needs. From this work we developed a new omni-channel warehousing and inventory plan that entirely redefined our approach to warehousing, inventory management, store distribution and fulfillment. As a result of the analyses by Dr. Millstein we have begun the move to an improved omni-channel design by reassigning MSAs to new warehouses, greater leveraging of in-store inventories to satisfy e-commerce demands, and exploring acquisitions of new warehousing space in strategic locations. We have already seen an improvement of $300,000 from both more efficient shipping strategies due to better inventory management.”
“Supply Velocity has helped Clean succeed in a number of ways. First, they provided the education that kicked off our Lean Process Improvement journey. They also facilitated a number of large supply chain and process improvement projects including: 1) building quality into our direct-labor productivity incentive program, 2) designing the layout of our garment warehouse, and 3) streamlining our route service process.We have integrated the methods that Supply Velocity taught us into our management and strategic planning. In the process our quality measurement has improved 22% from 2013 to 2015, we have reduced required annual labor by 2200 hours from the garment facility layout project and we’ve seen 50% decrease in error rate. Obviously the numbers speak for themselves, but just as important, Supply Velocity has been fun to work and have become true partners. They have “taught us how to fish” so our internal teams are able to implement change on their own, with the skills we learned from Supply Velocity. This relationship has been invaluable.”
“Supply Velocity has provided the technical expertise and political capital to move our project forward. They have just the right amount of push and the right amount of support. Supply Velocity has helped us make real changes to improve efficiencies in logistics without jeopardizing our performance. We’re happy and our customers are happy.”
“Many thanks to all three Supply Velocity presenters. I think you guys took a very difficult time for learning and capitalized on everyone’s time and training needs. I truly hope this helps your business as this was a considerable undertaking on the part of Supply Velocity. Outstanding!!”
“Anheuser-Busch Precision Printing had been implementing Lean Operations on our own for the past two years. We needed to move faster and partnered with Supply Velocity, Inc. Through Supply Velocity, Inc.’s mathematical workflow balancing and visual management tools, dramatic improvements were achieved. The entire converting operation was rearranged based on Lean principles. The result is a 20.6% productivity improvement, enabling us to operate with 23 fewer people in production.”
“We are using Supply Velocity’s Lean Six Sigma methods to analyze a variety of processes including rationalizing SKUs (stock-keeping-units). By using math to evaluate SKUs we took some of the emotion out of our decisions. We expect significant increases in sales and productivity from reducing poor performing SKUs.”
“Your process encourages this group to work together, better communicate and have fun doing it.”
“In thirty years of hiring consultants, Supply Velocity, Inc. was the first to tell me what they were going to do, set a price they stuck to and substantially exceed my expectations. I have recommended them to friends and acquaintances. They were true partners in assisting with the turnaround of an acquisition we had been struggling with for two years.Their math-based technology, solid down-to-earth facilitation skills, and positive, patient and enthusiastic attitude combined to make our implementation of Lean a very rewarding experience.
We increased our production by 50% in the first month of implementation and continue to see improvements. Improvements have not only been realized in productivity, but also in quality and morale. We have increased profitability by $2M on flat sales of $10M.
Based on Supply Velocity, Inc.’s integrity and our results, I will continue to refer them to others and utilize them in the future as we expand our company through acquisitions.”
“We used Supply Velocity on our Warehouse optimization project. One of the key characteristics of Supply Velocity is that they listened to our requirements and provided a clear path for our Warehouse processes using lean tools and our future sales growth as objectives.”
“Myerson engaged Supply Velocity, specifically Ray Davis to visit our plant in Trinidad to conduct a two day assessment of our production procedures and provide us feedback on areas for improvement and where applicable, areas for future analysis.Put simply, we got everything we paid for and in addition to more in depth analysis, we got specific tasks that were immediately actionable. Our local management team found Ray to be engaging, highly credible and insightful based on his wide experience. In other words the cultural differences and lack of specific industry knowledge weren’t impediments to things we could implement immediately and on our own. In a nutshell it was money well spent and will pay itself back many times over.”