Workflow management D11 Business Workflow

Methods to Improve Business Workflow

Every business needs workflow management. Every business has a workflow, even services! Are you in a service industry? Do you think that workflows are only for businesses that sell products? Think again. Orders come in the front door and require processing to turn them into a finished product or service. The efficiency of this workflow is a major determinant of the sustainable success of your business. Having a documented workflow is an advantage when hiring new staff. Processes are in place to guide them as they understand their new job. 12Faces has assembled materials under this catalogue to help you understand the mechanics of improving workflow management. The resources will guide you along the path of an efficient workflow, watch your business productivity blossom.

18JulJuly 18, 2023

Manage Workflow and the Local Optima Problem

It is a very widely held belief in business that each station in a production line should be working as hard as it can in order to maximise its efficiency. This might be a car assembly line or an accountant's office processing tax returns using several different stages in the accounting...

By Scott WilliamsD11 Business Workflow, G4: Executing Business GrowthBlue Belt, Cost Cutting, Inventory Management and Work in Progress, Inventory Performance Monitoring, Project Management System, Repetitive Work Efficiency0 Comments

17MayMay 17, 2023

SM5.0 Theory of Constraint (TOC) Find Remove Bottleneck

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is an important optimising technique that focuses on improving the throughput of work at the (usually) single bottleneck or constraint in the workflow. This Skills Module draws together a number of the 12Faces articles on the subject. One research project demonstrated that 89% of improvement...

By Scott WilliamsBusiness Skills Modules, D11 Business Workflow, G3: Optimizing a Business for Growth, SM5: Theory of Constraints (TOC)cornerstone, Inventory Performance Monitoring, Issue Management Planning, Optimizing, Planning, Products, Project Management System, Repetitive Work Efficiency, Sales and Marketing System: Funnels, TOC, Yellow Belt0 Comments

10AprApril 10, 2023

How to Track progress with Fever Charts

Very often we would benefit from some visual method of alerting us to the fact that some process is becoming critical and needs our attention. One such visual aid is a “fever chart”.

By Scott WilliamsD11 Business Workflow, G5: Tracking Business GrowthEfficiencies, Inventory Performance Monitoring, Metrics0 Comments

25FebFebruary 25, 2020

How to Calculate Time to Produce each Product with Takt Time

Takt is the German word for the baton that an orchestra conductor uses to regulate the tempo of the music. Takt time may be thought of as a measurable beat time, rate time or heartbeat. Takt time is the average time between the start of production of one unit and the...

By Scott WilliamsD11 Business WorkflowBlue Belt, Inventory Performance Monitoring, Placeholder, Repetitive Work Efficiency, Toolkit0 Comments

03JulJuly 3, 2017

How Dice Games Simulate Profit Generation

Throughout the 12Faces, we talk about several different workflow and inventory models and their respective merits. You can quickly gain an impression of how these models work in practice by playing a simulation game with a set of dice. This will demonstrate the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various models...

By Scott WilliamsD11 Business WorkflowBlue Belt, Inventory0 Comments

06DecDecember 6, 2016

80/20 Principle and the Theory of Constraints

This is 12Faces equivalent of Godzilla meets the Hulk! In our language it is the mixing of the 80/20 Rule, which promises up to 16x growth and the Theory of Constraints (TOC) approach, which describes the most liberating aspect of your production line.

By Scott WilliamsD11 Business Workflow, G4: Executing Business Growth80/20, Good Decision Making, How to Prioritise Tasks, Inventory Performance Monitoring, Products, TOC, Yellow Belt0 Comments

04SepSeptember 4, 2016

How Kanban Improves Work Flow

Kanbans are a tool for structuring how work flows into the work-in-progress queues so that workers do not get overloaded and can use their time most effectively. Kanbans, and variations on them, are widely used in software projects (e.g. Scrum and Agile) and manufacturing (e.g. Lean and Six Sigma). Blue...

By Scott WilliamsBusiness Planning, D11 Business Workflow, G4: Executing Business GrowthBlue Belt, HR Productivity, Inventory, Inventory Management and Work in Progress, Inventory Performance Monitoring, Productivity Improvement, Project Management System, Repetitive Work Efficiency0 Comments

04SepSeptember 4, 2016

How Kaizen Leads to Continuous Incremental Improvement

Most improvement is an incremental process. It is rare to get something completely right the first time so, over time, we improve parts of the system so as to continue to improve the whole. A Japanese phase for such incremental improvement is 'Kaizen". Read this article for insights into incremental...

By Scott WilliamsD11 Business WorkflowInventory Performance Monitoring, Kaizen, Project Management System, Repetitive Work Efficiency, Waste Reduction in Business (Muda), Yellow Belt0 Comments

04SepSeptember 4, 2016

Take Advantage of Agile / Scrum / Kanban to Increase Productivity

In a smaller business there is always plenty to do and many demands on a managers most limited resource; time. Often the owners time is the major bottleneck on the growth of the business (see the introductory article to Theory of Constraints). Plenty of other businesses have struggled with prioritising time...

By Scott WilliamsBusiness Planning, D11 Business Workflow, G4: Executing Business GrowthAgile, Blue Belt, Business Planning, Developing Leadership Skills, DP100, Growth365, How to Prioritise Tasks, HR Productivity, Inventory Performance Monitoring, Productivity Improvement, Project Management System, Repetitive Work Efficiency, Yellow Belt0 Comments

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