Business Process Problems – How to identify?
G.K Chesterton said “It isn’t that they cannot find the solution. It is that they cannot see the problem.” (Business process problems)
Gerhard Gschwandtner said,“Problems are nothing but wake-up calls for creativity.” Both of the great minds talk on “problems” but in a very different way. The crux of both statements in one sentence is: “To fix a problem, you must be first able to see or find it.”
But how to identify business process problems ?
In this article, we’ll cover the actionable ways which you can use to find and pinpoint your business process problems.
Know Your Numbers
How will knowing your business accounting stats help you? Identifying the areas which are under performing is crucial. The information will help you figure out what areas are lacking and where you need to put your focus first.
Use the following analysis:
- Break Even Analysis: Addressing the business problems become comfortable with using break-even analysis. It shows how much money are you making and how much you are losing.
- Similar Trend Analysis: You can understand variations in your sales, profits, productions, resources, etc. by comparing one period’s stats with another comparable period.
Give Surprise Visits
It is hard sometimes to understand why the employees are having specific issues. All may seem right when you seat in your office looking at the reports. But visiting your employee’s workplace or production area will give you more profound insights.
Asking your people about their day to day problems and carefully listening to their responses will help you identify specific problem areas. Understanding the views of higher management and the people interacting with the clients can help you bridge the gap between them. Their insights can help you prepare and avoid future problems that can head your way.
Know Your Competitors
Comparing your results with yourself can give you false hope. To understand if your numbers are good or bad, you need some relevant context. You can compare your business or company’s performance with similar competitors.
Businesses and companies generate reports with key performance indicators to compare their performance with their competitors. These reports can highlight the areas where there is still room for improvements. You can then focus on the sections where you are not growing as fast as your competitors.
Analyze The Entire Process
It is effortless to point fingers at others or make a small issue big as the computers are slow or sales team is over-committing. You can always make it a bigger but act on it instantly. But the best way to go here is to look at the bigger picture. Looking at the entire process will help you understand what business goals the process is trying to achieve and if that goal is getting achieved or not. This way you can identify the problems and work on improvements of them.
Use the Worst Case Scenario Approach
When creating and implementing business processes, it is easy to fall for the “Everything will go planned” trap. It means that you are only thinking of the ideal conditions where everything will just go as you thought it would.
Ask yourself – How many times did everything go flawlessly? Instead, you should think about what happens when the business process goes through some unexpected events. The elements which are entirely out of your hands like power cuts, fire alarms, sudden employ shortage due to natural disaster, etc. It is not possible to consider every single scenario that can ever occur.
You’ll need to be reactive and take quick decisions to any unwanted situations that can lead to issues. Running your business processes through some common and uncommon “worst cases” will help you identify and make counter plans for those scenarios. You can also redesign the process where common occurrence doesn’t derail the whole process. Example, human error can be reduced by automating certain processes.
Conclusion
Understanding your business processes and finding the business process problems related to each of them will help you improve and grow. Use the above ways to increase your performance or let us do it for you. Contact us by filling out the form or call us directly today to know how we can help you improve your business process.
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