Process mapping involves gathering everyone involved in the process from administrators to contractors, and even front-line personnel to determine what makes that process happen: inputs, outputs, steps, and process time.
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While we believe that you already understand that process mapping has benefits, there are some benefits of process mapping that you may not even be considering.
As we mentioned above, it is important that everyone is involved in process mapping. And when this happens, everyone within the organization feels empowered to make positive changes. Ultimately, employees feel the power of collaboration and don’t feel alone in the face of a menacing problem.
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The sad truth is that it is difficult to understand why a process is taking too much money or too much time between point A and Z. This is why process mapping is so important. After all, everyone discovers exactly how the process happens, not how it is supposed to happen, or how it happens on paper.
When you are designing a process map, you will b able to discover some discrepancies that make an incredible difference in the process making everything flow smoothly.
Understanding the different business process mapping tools companies have at their disposal.
No matter if you work in a big or small company, sometimes it is difficult to see the big picture. While you may believe (as well as other employees) that everyone knows how everything works, having it on a diagram that everyone can help build and follow is a far better approach.
A finished – and improved – process map provides a clear vision of the future. It’s one thing to map how the process works in the present, but after pinpointing problems and proposing solutions, you have the ability to re-map the process to what it should be. Now, with the big picture in hand, employees are able to carry out improvements with a shared vision in mind.
While you may believe that your processes are fast and direct, the reality tends to show that this is not always the case. And in most cases, this reality only appears when you decide to use process mapping.
If you think about it, process mapping lays bare every detail of the process, putting the process under a microscope for inspection. Just like any look in a mirror, it reveals areas that need work.
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One of the main hidden benefits of process mapping is, in our opinion, the ability to discover new training opportunities for your employees.
When you create a process mapping, every employee will be able to understand all the processes immediately. Besides, this also gives you an extra advantage of figuring out the kind of training they need most.
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Simply put, process mapping is just an exercise to identify all the steps and decisions of an existing process in a diagram. The main goal of building these diagrams is to allow companies or organizations to identify improvement opportunities so that they can be more efficient.
As you can easily understand, process mapping:
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For what we have written up until now, we are certain that you already have a good grasp about process mapping and that it is a crucial tool for business owners. But why is it so important to use it?
The truth is that the main reason why you should have a mapping for all your processes is to ensure that you always exceed customer expectations. As you know, without customers you don’t have a business. But it’s not enough to meet their needs anymore; you need to actually exceed their best expectations. And the only way you can do this is to use process mapping. This way, you will be able to see exactly what you are doing, where you are doing it, how you are doing. You will be able to determine your strengths and your weaknesses and work on the latter. It may only be a matter of eliminating some steps that aren’t needed, it may include additional training for employees, it may include many other things.
Discover the different process mapping tools you can use.
Overall speaking, the main reasons why you should use process mapping are:
Simply put, a product development strategy provides a series of guidelines for creating new products or improving the performance, cost or quality of existing products.
Ultimately, when a company decides to use the product development strategy, it is doing so to meet its business goals. These may be winning business from competitors, selling more to existing customers, or even entering new markets.
A successful product development strategy can also increase revenue and profitability, but careful planning is essential to minimize the risk of costly mistakes.
The truth is that many new products that are launched to the market fail. This is why the product development strategy is considered high-risk. So, to ensure that you minimize it, you need to ensure that you set measurable goals and review progress at each stage of development, from generating ideas, through technical and commercial assessment to detailed development and launch.
So, to achieve success, you should focus on developments that meet genuine customer needs, rather than developing exciting technical features that customers do not need.
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By improving the performance of existing products, you can help your sales team win business from competitors that cannot match the new level of performance. Improved performance also enables you to increase revenue or profit by charging higher prices for a superior product.
There’s no question that most businesses are always looking to be recognized as the best ones in their field. But if there is a field where you want to gain this kind of reputation is quality.
So, with this in mind, you should set targets for quality improvement in your product development program which will help you increase sales. If you deal with companies that impose their own quality standards as a condition of purchasing, you can ensure that you qualify as an approved supplier by making necessary improvements. You may introduce materials that are more reliable or redesign the product to meet the customer’s quality specifications. Quality improvements may also help you enter markets where suppliers must meet regulatory requirements.
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Cost reduction is always a very important goal in product development. After all, lower costs give you the flexibility to lower your prices and win new business or maintain prices and increase your profit margin. Product development teams can reduce costs by using lower-cost materials, eliminating features that the market does not need or redesigning the product to simplify the manufacturing process.
Take a look at the benefits of new product development.
A product development strategy can fail to deliver its benefits at different stages in the process. When the team is generating ideas, it may not carry out enough research into market requirements, leading to developments that do not meet customer needs. During the technical assessment stages, the team must ensure that the company can turn the idea into a finished product with available technology and manufacturing resources.
It also must carry out a commercial assessment to ensure that the project can generate sufficient profitable revenue to cover development, manufacturing and marketing costs. Testing the product in the market before launch can also reduce risk. By asking a selection of customers for feedback on a prototype, you can fine-tune the production version in line with market requirements.
]]>When you are a small business owner, you know that you are facing a fearless competition against gigantic multinationals. So, you need to ensure that you continuously update your products to current trends.
Simply put, the new product development process is a cycle where a new product is created. It goes from a single concept to the introduction to the market.
Everything begins with an idea. It’s as simple as that. So, you need to look at sources for new products and these may come from journals, newspapers, competitors, suppliers, employees, and, obviously, customers.
The reality is that small businesses tend to be a bit limited in what comes to technical research-based idea generation techniques. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that this stage is crucial.
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When you have a list filled with new and out of the box ideas, then you enter on phase two where you need to screen them. Ultimately, this phase serves to determine which ideas are actually viable.
To make things right, businesses need to seek opinions from multiple sources again. These may include other businesses, customers, and workers. In addition, there are other criteria that need to be taken into consideration within this stage. These include competition, legislation, and changes in technology
These are the main benefits of new product development.
This is the stage when companies need to do their research to discover the potential costs, revenues, and profits they can make from the product.
In order to do this, a business should conduct a SWOT analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are on the market. Then, you will need to set out a market strategy to identify the product’s target group.
Product development is the fourth phase of the new product development process and this is when the company or organization actually designs and manufactures the product.
Notice that the development stage actually begins a bit earlier since it is necessary to produce a prototype for market testing. Then, and depending on the results you get with this prototype, you will either start producing the product or not.
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Finally, we reached the last phase of the new product development process. his is the stage where you already have a large production and commercialization of the new product. This is when businesses should consider som campaigns to promote their new product.
As you can see, the new product development process is not as simple as you may have imagines. The reality is that due to the high competition, small businesses simply can’t afford to launch a product when they don’t even know if it is going to sell or not. So, a new product development process is very important.
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Ultimately, the expediting process needs to accomplish one of two things:
But why do you need to expedite?
Simply put, expediting is simply the reflection of problems in other areas or departments of your company. And the truth is that the search for a specific part can occur in many different circumstances. These may include:
When you want to ensure that your expediting process works well, then you need to:
As we mentioned above, when you use the expediting process a lot, then this may be a sign that your company isn’t operating well. You need to ensure that you discover the root cause to reduce the need for using the expediting process.
Discover the different types of expediting.
Simply put, the purchase order management process is a task that is common to most companies. After all, you just need to ensure that the order is raised against the right requirement that is received and processed by the supplier. You will then need to agree with a delivery date. However, it’s important to acknowledge that you should only have one person handling this task.
What we see in many occasions is too many people chasing the same supplier for the same part. And this should be prevented.
Just make sure that you make the lines of communication with the supplier clear.
Expediting: a practical example.
One of the things that you need to know is that there are many different techniques that you can use when expediting. The reality is that simply checking and confirming the due date is not enough. In other words, you can even escalate the situation to a senior director.
As a business owner, you know how communication is key. And it still is the key to what concerns your expediting process. So, you need to ensure that whoever is in charge of the task articulates at an early stage to your supplier. If this person lets things go to the limit, then the extra pressure won’t help anyone.
]]>As a business owner, you understand that you need to maintain your customers happy by providing the best services. And while you may be selling high-quality products, if you don’t send them quickly, your clients may decide to make business with another company in the future.
While many companies prefer to be in control of the entire shipping process, there are definitely some great benefits of expediting.
While you may prefer to be in charge of everything, the truth is that you need to start considering outsourcing some areas of your business. And the reason is simple: you will have more time to focus on more important areas and grow your business properly.
While we are not advising you to pick the first expedited freight company that you find, you should definitely consider checking some different expedited freight companies.
Even though you believe that you are saving a lot of money by keeping the shipping inside your business, the truth is that you really need to do the math. Just think about the trucks and vehicles you need, insurances, inspections, gas, not to mention the additional labor costs and any potential accidentals that can occur at any time. Instead of all these expenses, you can simply use an outsourced company and get your products delivered exactly as you want.
Understanding the expedite process and challenges.
One of the main benefits of expediting is that you will be able to even improve your delivery speed. After all, they are logistic experts that are used to handle all types of situations. Besides, you can be sure that they have a lot more resources at their disposal than your in-house team.
Ultimately, you will get a fast and secure shipment even when you need to deal with tight deadlines.
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The ultimate goal of most businesses is to maintain their customers happy. And if you put yourself in your customers’ shoes, then it is easy to understand that when you pay for a product, you want to get it as soon as possible. However, when you have an in-house expediting service, you may not be able to maintain this quality. So, you need to ensure that you hire a good expediting company that can help you maintain your customers happy so they come back and do more business with you.
When you have a good expediting service, then you can be sure that you will not only maintain your current customers as you will get more and more new customers. There’s nothing like focusing on the main aspects of your business to make it profitable and more successful than ever.
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To ensure that you are providing the best 5 Tips For Successful Small Business Employee Training, we decided to give you a hand-full of tips.
The truth is that most employers ten to forget that simply providing all kinds of training to their employees is not right. It is important to actually create a plan so that you can provide the training includes different skills and different types of training.
When you are creating a plan, you should first focus on what you need your employees to know. Then, you should start with the simplest information and then lead up to more advanced training.
Learn how to create a training plan.
One of the things that some business owners still believe is that training isn’t continuous. As long as their employees know how to do their jobs, there’s no need for more training.
However, the truth is that things keep changing as well as the ways or methods used also involve to decrease costs and save time. So, you should consider hosting regular training sessions for your employees so they can be up to date on what is going on in your industry.
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As a business owner, you have a lot on your mind. And this is why you have managers who are responsible for each department.
One of the things that you should consider regarding employee training is that you can use highly-skilled employees as trainers. This won’t only allow your employees to build a better relationship and improve communication within the business as they will see it as a reward. For the ones that are learning, they see that the company allows its employees to grow. For you, you will be saving a lot of money and time.
When a highly-qualified employee is ill and skips the day, you may notice that other employees don’t have the same productivity. They don’t know how to proceed or to who they can turn to when they have a problem. And while this can be just one day, your employee may break a leg and be absent for some weeks. So, what will you do then?
One of the things that you should consider doing is to cross train workers. This way, besides knowing how to do their tasks, they also know how to do others’ tasks.
Check out how to create a training matrix in Microsoft Excel.
When you are considering employee training, then you want to make sure that you establish training goals. This is the only way that you have to know if the training program is working or not.
You might set a simple or complex goal. For example, your goal might be for all employees to read the training instructions for a piece of equipment. Or, you might set a goal for employees to use the equipment without supervision within two weeks of reading the instructions.
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Simply put, Kanban is a tool that is used to organize work to improve efficiency. Kanban encourages work to be broken down into manageable chunks and uses a board to visualize the work in progress through the workflow.
Notice that the Kanban limits the amount of work allowed in any on condition.
What is a two bin Kanban system?
Scrum is another tool that you can use to organize work into small and manageable pieces that can be completed by a cross-functional team within a prescribed time period (called a sprint, generally 2-4 weeks long). To plan, organize, administer, and optimize this process, Scrum relies on at least three prescribed roles: the Product Owner (responsible for initial planning, prioritizing, and communication with the rest of the company), the Scrum Master (responsible for overseeing the process during each sprint), and the Team Members (responsible to carry out the purpose of each sprint, such as producing software code.)
Notice that scrum also uses a board to visually represent the workflow. However, Scrum limits the amount of time allowed to accomplish a specific amount of work.
Agile is like the umbrella that describes a project management methodology that breaks down large complex projects into smaller manageable chunks.
As we already mentioned above, both Kanban and Scrum are two different agile project management methodologies with some differences. But they also share similarities. “Both methods use a physical board (Kanban Scrum board), or digital replication of one, where people move work between roughly three categories: 1) work [that needs to be done], 2) work that is in progress, and 3) work that has been completed.”
While we just saw the similarities that these two methodologies share, it is also true that they have some differences.
According to Jessica D’Amato, VP of Project Management at Atlanta, GA.-based Dragon Army, the Scrum methodology breaks down the development cycle time-limited work periods, called sprints, which usually lasts for two weeks. According to her, “Project managers plan what initiatives will be done within the two-week sprints, as well as hold daily meetings (aka stand-ups) to check in with the team on how the project is moving along. Managers also use these stand-ups to demo new releases to the client prior to launch.”
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So, we can then state that in Scrum, there are at least 3 different prescribed roles:
And if you think about Kanban vs Scrum, Kanban doesn’t have such a pre-defined structured framework. In fact, “Kanban is less structured and is based on a list (aka backlog) of items to do. Kanban doesn’t have a set timeframe for when items need to be done. Instead, this methodology is managed by priority of items (i.e. tickets/cards) on a Kanban Board. The board has different columns which let managers know the status of an item being worked on, including to-do’s, in-progress and complete tasks.”
And in case this wasn’t enough to set the Kanban vs Scrum difference, we can also take a look at what Joe Garner, Project Manager at Teterboro, NJ.-based Computer Design & Integration LLC, said about Kanban: “Kanban is a method to manage the creation of products with the vision of continual delivery while not oversubscribing development teams. Kanban is meant to be an enhancement to existing organizational processes for continued improvement while not totally changing organization’s existing systems.”
When you are looking to establish the difference between Kanban vs Scrum jira, then it is important to keep in mind that Kanban tends to be a model that presents change through additional improvements. This process delivers a clear vision of what you are doing right now. So, you can easily understand the importance of the Kanban Board displaying the workflow bit also optimizing tasks between different teams.
However, there are some cons as well. The truth is that the implementation of such framework can also lead to poorer productivity. After all, Kanban isn’t focused on either cross-functional teams or doesn’t use sprints. And you know that time is crucial for businesses.
Check out the 4 components of an effective process map. [ http://valuestreamguru.com/4-components-of-an-effective-process-map/ ]
One of the best pros of using Scrum is the fact that this methodology can provide high transparency and visibility of projects. So, it will be easier to accommodate changes. Besides, it is also important to notice that Scrum can help define roles as well as promote better collaboration. Therefore, when you use this methodology, you can actually get a project completed much faster.
On the downside, when you use Scrum, you will need to breakdown complicated tasks into smaller chunks. But this can lead to poorly defined tasks. In the worst-case scenario, this can even lead to a point where project requirement increases due to lack of direction.
Simply put, Agile focuses on the fact that there are ever-changing business requirements and needs to create a product to be consumed and shipped in smaller releasable units. With this in mind, this methodology focuses on strong teamwork, accountability, and transparency.
However, the main problem with Agile is the fact that while it adds room and flexibility for continuous improvement, this can have a negative impact on the final product quality and even on the delivery dates.
When you are looking to choose the best methodology for your organization, the best thing you can do is start with the Agile framework first. Then, as you look at your business requirements, you will be able to better decide which one works best for you.
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And this is why you need a software for value stream mapping. The truth is that with a software for value stream mapping, you will be able to identify and better coordinate all impacted operational teams and process segments that are crucial to the development process.
There are no questions that using software for value stream mapping can help your business tremendously.
One of the main benefits is the fact that you and your employees will better understand the voice of the customer. The truth is that when you use such software, you will be able to identify what the customer is asking, what he values, what he needs, and how to achieve it the most efficiently.
These are the 4 components of an effective process map.
More than this, you will notice that both leaders, stakeholders, and team members will have a unified view that allows your business to gain a more holistic understanding of the overall process as well as their respective roles and contributions to the finished product.
When this occurs, they will be able to see their individual contributions as more significant, essential, and valued to the product delivery process. When you don’t use software for value stream mapping, your staff tends to lose the overall perspective of long-term goals as well as the value of their respective roles.
Check out the best process mapping tools you can use.
One of the things that it is important to keep in mind is that while you may be using software for value stream mapping, there will always be some changes for given segments of the process. These may vary depending on who shows up to work, their workload, their mood, among other factors. But while this happens, there is still a holistic view of the entire process.
This ends up resulting in improved processes and a better understanding. So, ultimately, you will see a reduction in firefighting issues which could prevent accurate plan schedules and product delivery.
Learn more about process mapping.
It is also important to notice that using software for value stream mapping is the most efficient way that you have to record the current state of things.
Ultimately, everyone benefits from software for value stream mapping. However, you should keep in mind that when you are creating a value stream mapping, you need to know the key objectives as well as the people who need to be present to ensure they are met. Notice that if the value stream mapping incorporates strategic changes, it needs to be made up of the appropriate level of leadership. On the other hand, if your objective is more tactical, you’ll need to have the appropriate team members who can execute those types of tactical changes.
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It is also important to keep in mind that a third-party logistics provider can also be involved to ensure that the buyer has the required level of inventory by adjusting the demand and supply gaps. So, as you can easily understand, when you are using the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), it will be less likely that a business will unintentionally become out of stock of a good and reduces inventory in the supply chain.
The reality is that using the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) can bring a lot of benefits. If you think on the side of the vendor, you can then easily see that considering that the vendor is the one responsible for supplying the customer when the items are needed, this can then lead to lower inventory levels, removal of safety stock, and reduction in purchasing-related admin costs.
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So, with the use of the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), the customer will be able to have significant safety stock since the supplier manages the resupply lead times. So, this obviously leads to huge cost savings.
Besides, it is also worth noting that the customer will also be able to take advantage of reduced purchasing costs. After all, the vendor receives data and not actual purchase orders. So, the purchasing department has to spend less time calculating and producing purchase orders.
Still in what concerns cos savings, this can also lead to lower inventories which means reducing the need for warehouse space and warehouse resources.
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So, what about the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) benefits for the supplier or manufacturer?
The reality is that the supplier or manufacturer can also gain some benefits since they can access a customer’s point of sale (POS)data making their forecasting easier.
Besides, it is worth noting that manufacturers can also work their customers’ promotional plans into forecasting models. So, this means that enough stock will b available when their promotions are running.
Ultimately, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), when used correctly, is one of the best ways that you have to ensure that your customers have what they want, when they want. Besides, it can also help you keep your costs low.
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While VMI has many benefits, it is also important that you understand that it has some drawbacks as well.
The truth is that when you opt for the VMI, you will need to allow a non-employee access to your inventory data and sometimes even your actual physical inventory. Besides, you will be allowing for a third-party to be responsible for your stocks instead of you. So, this brings some lack of control over your own business.
While there are many disadvantages of using VMI, one of the biggest ones is the fact that it can have an impact on sourcing. After all, on some occasions, supply chain managers will feel like they can’t find another source for a product that is being managed by a supplier they trust. So, if a supply chain manager relies too much on a single supplier, he may need to deal with higher prices, reduced quality or other supplier-related issues.
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