Process Level Improvements: 5 Metrics that Matter

While companies are trying to cope up with the quality management principles, process-level improvements is the one that requires continuous efforts.

The term process improvement itself implies making processes better and efficient with the time. It may be due to any change. Most importantly, it involves breaking down complex processes into easily manageable workflows. It requires organizations to be proactive towards process-level challenges.

The process level improvements may vary from organization to organization, including:

1. Change in the approach
2. Change in the methodology
3. Improvement in terms of eliminating unnecessary processes
4. Improvement in terms of process categorization
5. Addition of sub-processes
6. Revision in the way operations are managed
7. Implementation of new practices and tools

Why is Process Improvement critical for business success?

Businesses need to do things in a better and improved way to be successful. They are likely to lag if they are not paying attention to the process-level improvements since it could lead to unsatisfied customers, disengaged employees, and unnecessary delays in product delivery.

As Idowu Koyenikan rightly quoted that
“If you quit on the process, you are quitting on the result.”

If you are not focusing on process-level improvements, you may end up facing several problems such as:

1. Customer complaints regarding inferior quality product or service
2. Dissatisfaction among the team members
3. Redundancy of the work or incomplete tasks
4. Increased costs of quality
5. Wastage of resources
6. Unnecessary delays in the production or time to market.

What types of processes should be improved?

Can you name any particular process that needs no improvements? Every process needs some or other strategic improvement for better results or outcomes. And, the process can be both formal and informal.

The critical point to remember is that no matters how many different processes there are – the one thing they have in common is the ability to improve and perform better.

Process Level Improvements: 5 Metrics that Matter

Ensuring process-level improvements can work wonders for 5 Metrics that matter for business growth. Let’s quickly have a look at those metrics:

1. Efficiency and Productivity

   Maintaining a consistency in the process-level improvements helps to keep the inefficiencies minimum and productivity maximum. The advanced quality management systems come with analytics to help you evaluate the process performance metrics. It often helps you to identify the areas that require significant improvements for better outcomes.

   The simple and straightforward rule here is – Improve processes to improve productivity and efficiency in your organization.

2. Time-to-Market and Competitive Advantage

   When you will make improvements at the process level; you are likely to decrease the product time-to-market. It will give you a competitive advantage. You will also gain customer loyalty with quality deliverables on time. Also, process-level improvements can help organizations to be more proactive in managing operational issues and maintain excellence.

   Achieve a continuous flow of value to your customers by aligning the process-level improvements with your quality objectives. It is a real improvement deal that every organization needs to make.

3. Product Quality

   If you are unable to identify your product’s quality improvements; it’s probably because your processes are not sufficient enough. You must evaluate your process performance regularly to determine the slightest of changes that could bring a world of difference in outcomes. Only then you will be able to make your processes powerful enough to manage the issues related to integration, performance, security, and much more to ensure product quality.

   To put simply, process-level improvements can lead to the higher quality product when managed and maintained regularly.

4. Customer Satisfaction

   Aligning the everyday processes with quality goals help you deliver the right product to your customers on time, ensuring higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty. Always remembers happy customers are the most valuable asset for a business since they are likely to return for more. If you can retain your customers, you are likely to experience remarkable growth for your business revenue.

   So, improving your processes can help the product quality that will eventually increase happy customers and revenue.

5. Employee Satisfaction

   Inefficient processes are one of the most substantial reasons to make your employees dissatisfied. No-one likes to be a part of a system that could fail anytime due to inefficiencies. It’s more likely to kill their interest in the work. Make sure your business process is not weak to keep your employees’ morale boosted.

   Therefore, process level improvements are essential to keep your employees motivated and engaged.

Streamlining Process Level Improvements

The commitment and plans for process-level improvements won’t work unless you are putting them in action. The best practices you need to implement right away for ensuring continuous improvements in the processes are:

1. It will help if you create a detailed plan for the process, considering every vital step so as to head for practical improvement.
2. You must analyze the process to understand the problems people may have and what alternatives may come your way
3. After analyzing the process, it’s time to actually redesign the process with significant improvements.
4. The next step calls for accommodating the resources required based on the redesigned process.
5. Is everything in place? Communicate the upcoming change to the affected team members and implement the same.
6. Lastly, you must review the process after making improvements to realize its effectiveness.

What if you can standardize the process level improvements? Sounds great, right? The increased emphasis on quality and continuous improvements is convincing enough to invest in the next-generation quality management software like Qualityze to maintain the consistency in quality and process improvements.

To summarize:

Companies need to realize the significance of process-level improvements for their quality objectives. It should be an ongoing endeavor for every company to comply not only with the regulatory requirements but also with the customer requirements for improved satisfaction.

If you want to understand more about the process level improvements and their significance in your quality management processes, get in touch with the Qualityze customer success team, and we will right there for you.