Optimization Should Never Stop

By definition, optimization of your business processes should never stop. I could give all of the clichéd reasons like: "in this day-and-age, business never stops changing...neither should your processes" or "your competition never stops innovating... neither should your business," but you already know all of this. The problem for medium to large organizations is that it is difficult to make changes to business processes. This is especially true for ad-hoc changes, while being confident that the modifications will have a positive effect on service and the bottom-line. Change for change sake not only does not make sense, but can have a detrimental effect on your business. Most of us already know this, which makes organizations reluctant to effect change. But this extreme reaction can also have an adverse effect.

The key is to start by focusing on a specific set of business processes. Trying to tackle the super-set will, at best, result in minor improvement, at worst, have a detrimental effect across the organization. This is especially true since most processes are inter-related. By mapping out a process subset, incorporating all of the components and variables associated with the processes, and identifying goals and key performance indicators (KPIs), implementing changes will be less risky, provide measurable results, and act as an excellent learning experience. An excellent path to process optimization is through simulation.