Non-technology improvements are independent of scale (anyone can do them), are potential DIY initiatives and are worth the effort. You can improve a process by as much as 10%-25% by focusing on the non-technology aspects of the process and the people:
For the process you need to look at its steps, controls, paper flows, etc, and how current technology is used. For the people you need to look at their skills and knowledge, ie: what they do, how they do it. And for a process improvement to be effective it needs to achieve at least one of the following:
- Allow the organisation (or parts thereof) to focus on its core activities
- Enhance the skills and knowledge of the people within the organisation/process
- Provide information useful for managing the organisation/process
- Improve the responsiveness of the process (eg. turnaround time, accuracy)
- Help to define roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within the organisation/process
- Enable the process or the people to be monitored and measured for performance
- Reduce headcount, related expenses, systems costs or overheads
- Leverage buying power for the organisation
- Improve the utilisation of current technology
- Enhance or leverage capabilities for smaller units within the organisation
- Improve service levels for the organisation/process
- Eliminate activities that add no value within the process
- Eliminate organisational layers and thereby reducing the cost and improving the responsiveness of the process
- Establish a foundation to support the organisations growth
