I am currently on holiday in Rhodes, and I am sat on a coach en route to the beautiful town of Lindos reflecting on an interesting conversation with my therapist a few weeks ago. She asked me a few questions…One of those being…Are you a summer or winter person?
My response was “summer…it’s just so much easier getting ready and out the house, flip flops and no coats!!” I was shocked when she responded “Wow! Every question I ask you always comes back to efficiency!” Now, I like to think of myself as ‘always efficient’ however in this case I wasn’t convinced!
The thing about efficiency and operational efficiency in-particular is people always focus on the 3 core elements:
Process – how do we ensure that our processes are as slick as possible, with minimal steps and handoffs to ensure outcomes are achieved with minimal interaction and effort.
People – can interactions with people be minimised and achieved with as few people as possible? How do we ensure our workforce continually think about improvement and have the desire to be the best they can be!
Technology – straight through processing (I have to admit these 3 words send shivers down my spine for the amount of times I have heard this in the past 20 years and it has far from been achieved) but automation is key, along with the streamlining of technology solutions to minimise the amount of systems within a tech estate.
I don’t want to focus on the above in this blog, as I know many of us are trying our best to implement these principles the best we can! However, the one element that almost always gets overlooked in my experience is THE MEASUREMENT OF OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY.
I may think I am more efficient when it comes to getting ready to leave the house in the summer but am I really?! The process is completely different to that of getting ready for a winter outing and therefore the 2 shouldn’t really be compared and should have their own performance indicators. After all, what would be the use of leaving the house quickly in the morning only to arrive at work freezing cold or soaking wet?
The true measurement of operational efficiency is the process of keeping track of key outcomes with key performance indicators.
Accuracy and availability of data, reporting and MI is critical! With reporting showing inputs and outputs alongside key quality and value metrics including turnaround times etc to understand the real value within a process or outcome.
This, alongside engaging and asking both customers and employees about their experience of the process or outcome to ensure the desired outcome has been achieved!
These indicators should be collated into reports or dashboards and the performance monitored and discussed on a regular basis with internal stakeholders.
We should be creating benchmarks of what we believe good looks like. This provides the opportunity to compare ourselves against competitors to understand where we stand in the market with the right insight and information.
This will then identify waste or opportunities for collaboration and change to optimise efficiency. In addition you will understand how processes deal with volume and how your current operational landscape would deal with growth of scale.
Honestly my reflections have made me a little annoyed…as someone who has always thought efficiency runs through my veins, I am now not so sure!!! And to my husband’s annoyance I may now have to set us some ‘key performance indicators’ and benchmark us against friends and family to really understand how efficient I am!
How does your operational efficiency reporting stack up?
