INTRODUCTION

In Part I, you gained a better understanding of the business environment both internally and in the marketplace. It is now time to put this knowledge to use. This chapter is important because it sets the stage for everything that follows. If you pick the wrong processes to improve, then your entire effort may go down the drain. Within the processes selected, you will want to select the transactions and work that account for the bulk of the activity. Remember the guideline to try and avoid being mired in exceptions and workarounds.

Here are some examples of failure:

• A garment industry firm selected more than 60 processes to improve. There was little cooperation among the teams doing the work. The firm almost went bankrupt.

• A pharmaceutical distribution company decided to address several processes at one time. However, these did not interrelate with each other. The impact was that any benefits were outweighed by problems generated in surrounding processes.

Here are some mistakes that you can make:

• Center your attention on one process. Processes are interrelated. If you touch one process, you typically affect the surrounding processes. Moving customer ordering to the Web for e-business will then affect customer order tracking, for example.

• Spread the effort to too many processes. Not only is the effort diluted, but also the increased coordination effort can spell disaster.

• Address entire processes. This sounds like a good idea at first and is common in Six Sigma and other methods. Unfortunately, when you...