Business process optimization is a complicated process which needs time and experienced employees to implement it. A qualified manager should form a good team for it.
Who are the people you work with?
First of all, decide who will implement the project. The team should consist of the following employees:
- Project manager. Choose a person who will fulfill the tasks of a project manager. You can be a project manager yourself, or you can choose another employee. A project manager should have an experience of working with people on certain tasks. He will be responsible for ensuring that work is carried out in time, for not a single question was left without attention and for the success of the process.
- Responsible for the process. This specialist will be responsible for possible changes and extra improvements are done after the implementation of a business process optimization. This is very important for further effectiveness growth. However, this role can be also taken by you. This person should be well acquainted with all the details of the optimized business process, should be ready for extra changes in it if needed and should have a sufficient authority to convince employees to accept them. Besides that, a responsible for the process should understand the concept of effective business process design, be able to assess the efficiency of a renewed business process with the help of a system of indexes and maintain appropriate documentation on that, including the schemes of the process, describing of standard procedures and checklists.
- Users. People engaged in a business process. You shouldn’t take only the best employees who deal with the business process perfectly well. Try to form a representative selection.
- Skeptics. A team engaged in a business process optimization only wins if at least one skeptic is included in it. A skeptic is someone who calls into question the reasonability of actions offered and incites productive discussions of offered ideas.
- Team leader. If you are planning a long-term project on business process optimization, think about the involving of a group work organization expert who has an appropriate experience. Usually this role is taken by a project manager.
- IT expert. Technologies play a significant role in most business processes. That is why an IT expert will be a valuable member of your team.
Set an objective to the team
Set base rules of work for the team involved in improvement. For example, define how often you are going to meet to discuss the progress of your work and to solve current problems. Who will be responsible for certain aspects of work? How are you going to share and exchange information and to resolve conflicts?
Involve your chief manager in the process of improvement if needed. Prepare a project description and discuss time limits and types of reporting with your chief.