Business and Marketing

With the economy faltering, hesitant customers and suppliers are reluctant, for all companies on the sustainable benefits. In face of these market forces, companies often sell their way to higher profits. While managers and employees cannot do much on external forces, they can have a major impact internally.

Given the declining profits, companies always try to costs by cutting staff, and suppliers more slowly, or “cheating” the customer by using inferior materials. This link between the qualities can cripple and even kill a company in the long term.

The result of deficits makes any search for a quick fix. Looking for cheap tricks that harm the reputation of the company held on ways to simplify, streamline and optimize business processes costs, increase profits and cut to pay retention.

There is a better way that will not last forever or cost a fortune.

1. Simplify

Each workspace gathers outside the modern equipment and materials. Keeping the junk that is costs money and confuses the work area. To reduce costs and increase profits, start by going all over and threw everything that is not on the current work is done, you. Once the clutter is gone, it is easier to optimize the workflow.

Then, organize and label materials and equipment in accordance places. It is not uncommon for all study materials will be distributed on the job, making it difficult to find what is necessary when necessary.

2. Streamline

The next step is for businesses by removing barriers and overhauls work on strength and minimize delays in streamlining workflow. All businesses suffer from the syndrome produces Lazy (LPS). While employees working on the product or service may be three minutes of each hour, the product is the other 57 min (3-57 rules) is inactive. Therefore, time is of the order to delivery of weeks rather than hours, minutes or hours instead of minutes instead of seconds.

Take this test: Take a customer order from start to delivery notes and the short time that condition. Notice how much time they spend in an inbox or outbox, or a queue somewhere. Notice how long it is expected the next stage of his journey. The order spends 95 percent of its time waiting for something to happen.

Do employees wear pedometers and record how far they walk each day. Then you arrange to reduce the materials and equipment for their trip in half. With this technology in a hospital lab 2400 square feet revealed that technicians completed three to four miles a day. Rethinking the work area to 400 square feet for other uses. More after the transformation of space for devices of large volumes of the arrival area, they could travel to almost 60 percent lower. In one year, the savings per technician, the distance from Denver to Pittsburgh. Also stores seven hours a day.

Another option for manufacturers is to stop more than can be used. A magazine had expressed a printer that can print a million magazines every day, but the binding cannot handle 200,000 per day. The 800,000 to five days should be stored. These unbound journals took place and were the subject forklift damage that has resulted in scrap and reprints. Prints only 200,000 per day paid the press to more orders in less time and at the same time meet the needs of bookbinding.

Tip: Make your products or services faster, not your people.

Simplify and streamline the workflow, the cost of 20 percent or more and double-cut productivity. Curiously, firms can be faster without working harder. Simplifying and reducing errors and the high cost of repair up to 50 percent. It is a simple way to start saving costs and benefits.

3. Optimize

After work and the workflow has been simplified and streamlined, it’s time to start optimizing work processes. Every company makes mistakes, errors, defects, malfunctions and failures, revise, scrap, and lost profits. To optimize the delivery of goods or services, start counting and classifying errors, mistakes or shortcomings.

Count how many there are errors in the product or service from the initial sale to customer acceptance.

How many times a day does fast food does not quite on the order of disks in the window? How many products require a deficiency or excess of screws and nuts for mounting?

Sort: What is the most common type of error, mistakes or shortcomings? Where they are most often? At what stage in the process? How many of each type of error is discovered? By classifying defects in a variety of ways, it is easy to discover that it does not spread everywhere; they clustered in a few key areas. Only four of 100 shares rise more than 50 percent of all faults, errors, defects, scrap, rework and loss of profits (Rule 40-50).

A mobile phone company had a lot of errors for each day. Only six errors on 200 types of errors accounted for 90 percent of all errors encountered. A hospital in New England had three wrong side of brain surgery in one year. Not that many mistakes, but probably expensive. Although it may seem easy to blame the staff surgeon or nursing, the cause lies elsewhere.

People make mistakes, make process.

Properly designed, a process will not allow a person to commit an error. This is called protection against errors. Most modern cars will not start if the driver has his foot on the brake and the parking gear or neutral. This is wrong proofing. The receptacles have a thickness and thin, so they are fully inserted into sockets. Error Proofing! Grocery shoppers use shopping lists to ensure they get everything they need in one trip. Error Proofing!

Tip: Attach your process, not your people.

By mistake to concentrate improved narrow categories, it is easy to identify the causes and possible solutions. Curiously, one rarely needs more money or more people or more training. Change the process to avoid problems often solves the problem.

A company stamp, an online postage service, which not only postage, but the test addresses before something has changed. Yields reduced by 75 percent. And it confirms free shipping!

Double your winnings

Although the company is unable to control what happens in the economy, they can control what happens inside the company. Even profitable businesses is to spend $ 25 – $ 40 to $ 100 on their “fix-it” factory. For simplification, streamlining and optimizing the operations of each company can reduce these numbers for $ 5 – $ 10 per $ 100. Add 20 percent or more could fall to the bottom line easily double your profits. And it does not last forever. Dynamic application of these principles can reduce costs at these levels in six to twelve months.

Tip: You do not fix everything, just start with the most important.

The good news is that any company can now start with the simplification and streamlining. These two steps will provide half the gains of the distance to the target.

So today has started, even if it does work area clean. Discuss these ideas with colleagues. Stop waiting for authorization to work better, smoother and faster.