Process improvement project

Process improvement projects are those temporary or short-term projects designed to improve a
process and resulting to improved performance in a key performance indicator of the business. The
bottom line for these process improvement projects is improving performance. These projects are
aimed at improving key metrics of the business.

For process improvement projects to be successful, there are a number of high level requirements that
need to be put in place. These requirements need to be acceptable, complete, measurable, consistent,
traceable and testable.

High level requirements for a process improvement project:

Compliance with existing system – Process improvement projects are smaller and temporary projects
within an already existing system. The business is already in existence and running with all the processes
in place and therefore, process improvement projects come to make improvements to the already
existing projects/systems. They therefore need to comply with the existing system if they have to fit
successfully and be successful. These process improvement projects are carried out on already existing
process and this then requires that they comply with the existing system. Failure to comply with the
existing system would result to collisions and eventually failure of the project.

Communication methods – Process improvement projects require effective communication methods

that will allow timely delivery of quality and reliable information. Information is key in process
improvement projects as it allows for inputs from all related areas of the process and also allows for
feedback and reactions which can help in smooth running of the project. There are several parties that
are involved in process improvement project since these projects are done within larger existing
systems. Therefore, there is need for constant communication within the process improvement project
itself as well as communication with the larger existing system to ensure harmony between the two.

Project reports – Project reports provide necessary data on cost, schedule and scope to support the
statistical analysis necessary for process improvement. An active reporting system provides relevant
project reports that help in providing very critical and important data that is used in the process
improvement projects. These reports should therefore be updated, accurate and reliable to provide the
necessary quality data that will aid in the process improvement projects. Since process improvement
projects are aimed at improving an already existing process, it will require data and information about
the existing process, all that it entails, how it works and the need for the improvements and on which
areas and aspects. All this data is provided by the project reports.

Quarterly meetings – For process improvement projects, close monitoring is necessary. Quarterly
meetings will help provide regular insights on the progress of the project. Conducting quarterly meetings
will allow the project team to assess the progress, check on any variations and take any necessary
corrective measure to ensure that the project is on schedule and within the budget. Quarterly meetings
are very important for process improvement projects as they ensure that much time does not elapse
without doing the necessary analysis of the project progress. They ensure that the project remains on
course and any project issue is addressed on time before it is too late.
Key Performance Indicators – This is a set of quantifiable measurements used to gauge the process
improvement project overall performance. The primary metric defines the output or goal of the process
improvement. For example, an automobile factory might choose number of cars produced per hour.
Before a process improvement project is introduced, a baseline measurement is taken. At the end of the
project, the process is measured again. Key performance indicators help to show whether the goal of
the process improvement project has been met. These key performance indicators in process
improvement projects may include metrics such as productivity in terms of output per a given time,
efficiency in terms of the ratio of inputs and outputs, turnaround time and many others. These key
performance indicators will help to monitor progress on a real-time basis for the process improvement
projects.
Employees’ attendance checking process

This is one of the non-critical and non-central business process that is ignored in most organizations. As
long as the operations of the organization are moving smoothly and no cases of absence are impacting
the critical business operations, the employees’ attendance checking process remains of less concern to
the organization. In most organizations, this process just requires employees to record their names and
entry time in a record book at the gate of entrance of the organization. Other organizations do not even
have such records. Nevertheless, this process can be improved so as to be more efficient and provide
more relevant information. In most cases, as employees check in or out of the organization, they may
cheat on time as long as no one is checking on what time they have checked in and the time the
employee record. An employee may arrive late in the office but record that he/she arrived on time or
leave before time but record that he/she checked off on the right time. This may indirectly and in an
unnoticeable way affect the organization.

This process can be improved through automation of the process where the employee will be required
to sign in at the gate, then on getting at the main entrance, the employee should use the employee card
with a unique code to open the main entrance after which the employee will proceed to his/her office
where he/she will sign work attendance platform.

The data that needs to be collected and the analysis or statistical test you will be utilizing to assess the
new process.

The employees’ attendance checking process will require data on all the employees of the company
including their full names, identification number and employee’s unique code, the department they
work in eg marketing, human resource, customer service, warehousing, finance and accounting and all
other department within the organization, the office they work in, in the specific departments as well as
their designated titles eg head of department, chief accountant, assistant accountant etc.

All these data need to be collected and fed into the computer system in an organized manner. At this
point you can use a specifically designed software that will help analyze and organize the data easily.

The system will record the time the employee signs in at the gate, the time he/she enters the main
entrance of the organization, the time he/she enters the specific/designated office and exactly time
he/she logs in the working platform. The system will not only check on what time the employee checks
in to the compound of the organization and gets into the organization premises, but also the time the
employee gets into his/her designated office and specifically the time he/she logs in to start working.
The analysis of this statistics will help to:

Identify the average check in time and attendance of every employee

The average time an employee takes from the moment he/she checked in at the gate to the time he/she
logged in to start working. This will help identify the much time wasted on the organization compound
and whether employees spend time idling after checking in.

Identify the average check out time for every employee.

 To assess the new process, the system to provide relevant analysis of the above statistics.

Example of this information that will be collected is shown below in the table. This information will
further be analyzed to help make important insights.

No. Employee Employee Employee’s Gate Check Main Designated Work

Name Code Department in Time Entranc Office platform
e Check Check in log in
in Time Time Time
1. J. Moses 0368 Customer Service 7.30 AM 7.35 AM 7.41 AM 7.50 AM
2. M. Gladys 0328 Human Resource 7.31 AM 7.33 AM 7.35 AM 7.40 AM
3. C. John 0189 Finance 7.35 AM 7.45 AM 7.55 AM 8.00 AM
4. K. Mary 0267 Marketing 7.35 AM 7.40 AM 7.45 AM 7.47 AM
5. W. Agnes 0453 Finance 7.36 AM 7.38 AM 7.41 AM 7.44 AM

Check in/out Main Entrance

at the Gate Check in Time

Office Check in
Time

Work platform
log in/out Time
Non critical business processes do not have significant impact on organization operations while non-
central business processes are not core to the operations of an organization.

An example of such a business process is the market research process.

Market research process is the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data pertaining to
the market conditions. It is a process that involves researching to get more insights on the market
conditions of the organization’s product or service.

Improvement in this process can involve automation of the process by replacing the manual and
paperwork with use of computers. For example, instead of using paper questionnaires in collecting data,
you use laptops or tablets.

Another improvement in this process can be in the presentation of the report where presentation can
be done through online means or use of slides to prepare graphs, tables, trends and show the
information.

Stages of market research process

Problem Identification and defining and Statement of the Research objectives – At this first stage of
the marketing research is defining the problem while taking into consideration the purpose of the
research, the relevant background information, information required and its use in making decisions.

Development of an Approach to the Problem – This stage includes formulating an objective or

theoretical framework, analytical models, research questions, hypotheses of the research that can
influence the research design.

Planning and Formulating the Research Design – A research design can be referred as a framework for
conducting the marketing research. It clearly details the procedures necessary for obtaining the required
information. The design will test the hypothesis of interest, determine possible answers to the research
questions and provide information required for decision making.

Data collection – At this stage, personnel tasked with collecting data go to the field in order to collect
data which can take the form of personal interviewing, telephone interviewing, use of questionnaires
and other methods of collecting data. The personnel collecting data should be well trained and
adequately equipped with the right tools to minimize errors. Example is where you interview customers
when they come to make a purchase.

Data preparation and analysis – After data has been collected, the raw data remains unhelpful unless it
is analyzed. It is at this stage that the collected is subjected to analysis to derive helpful insights for
decision making. This may involve inspecting, cleaning, transforming, organizing the data with the goal
of deriving useful information for use in making conclusions and recommendations.

Preparing and presenting report – After all the above have been completed, and useful information has
been drawn, the final stage is now compiling the information in a report. The findings and
recommendations are presented in a comprehensive manner so that they can be readily used in making
decisions. Presentation can be made to the management.
Users and stakeholders of the new models

Users and stakeholders of the new model of the marketing research

Management of the organization – The management of the organization will need the report of the
marketing research to make decisions on the products. The management will interact with the process
at the last stage of the process when using the report of the marketing research.

Customers – Customers are key stakeholder in the marketing research process as they provide relevant
data during the data collection stage. The customers will interact with the process at the data collection
stage of the process where they will provide the data necessary to carry on with the research.

Marketing experts – These can give insights in to the new marketing process as well as use the findings
of the research to propose further research. The experts will interact with the marketing research
process at the beginning of the process when giving insights and secondary data and at the last stage of
the process when they use the final report in suggesting and conducting further researches.

The Marketing department – The marketing department will be in the center of the marketing research
process as it will be actively in conducting the research. The information from the marketing research
will also help the marketing department to formulate marketing policies and strategies that are
workable. The marketing department will interact with the marketing research process at all stages of
the process from defining the problem to using the report in formulating policies and strategies.

The IT department – The IT department will provide the necessary IT support to automate the
marketing research process. Since they are the experts in the automation section, they will be of great
importance to provide the support and expertise required to automate the process. The IT department
will interact with the process in the data collection stage to provide expertise in automated data
collection and in the last stage of report presentation to help with expertise in automating the
presentation.

The production department – The report of the marketing research will have information that will be
very critical to the production department in making critical production decisions in regard to customer
tastes and preferences. The production department interact with the process at the last stage where
they use the report of the marketing research to design products.
 Problem Identification and
Development of an Approach Planning and Formulating the
defining and Statement of the
to the Problem Research Design
Research objectives

Automated Data collection

Automated Preparing and
(Use of tablets and computers
presenting report (Use of
to fill questionnaires, use Data preparation and analysis
computer slides, automated
online video conferencing to
tables and graphs)
conduct interviews)
Implications of Organizational policy towards learning and talent development.

Organizational policy is a general statement that guides how employees of an organization should
behave and procedures defining exactly how to do a task step by step.

If an organization policies limits learning and does not provide for a guide on talent development, it may
inhibit learning and talent development. Policies are formulated

Policies may control how employees behave in the organization.

Organization policies may act as a support system for learning and talent development in the
organization. For example, if the organization policies stipulate that it is a must for new employees to
undergo training and talent development and sets time periods and situations where all employees
must attend training, then it becomes a must for every employee, whether willing or not, to attend
trainings for talent development. In this case, organization policies will have promoted learning and
talent development.

On the other hand, an organization may have policies in place that inhibit learning and development.

An organization may put in place a policy that say that the organization does not offer any kind of
training. In this case, the policy will act as a hindrance to learning and development. Organization policy
may also dictate a behavior that inhibits learning or opportunities of learning.

Implications of Organizational culture towards learning and talent development.

Organizational culture refers to an established way of doing things in an organization which may consist
of shared believes and values established by leaders and which every employee of the organization are
expected to follow or adapt to.

Organizational culture helps define how employees are taught, how they learn, what they expect and
how they behave towards learning and development.

Positive organizational culture may affect how employees how employees approach and perceive
learning. For example, an organizational culture that promotes sharing, teamwork, brainstorming and
working in groups may promote learning within the organization.

Another example is where an organizational culture where employees love leaning and perceive training
as a good thing, employees are open to new experiences and are ready to learn. In such an
organizational culture, talent development will be easy and will be embraced by employees hence
becoming successful.

On the other side, an organizational culture that makes employees to perceive the learning as a waste of
time and resources is a negative culture that inhibits learning and talent development.

For example, an organizational culture where employees perceive learning as a negative thing, prefer
handling tasks as individuals rather than as teams, no brainstorming sessions and are not open to new
things, such an organizational culture will inhibit learning and development.
What the organization believe towards leaning is also an aspect of organizational culture. If the believe
is that which takes learning as a cost to the organization rather than benefits, this may limit leaning and
talent development.

Implications of budget towards learning and talent development.

Budget includes the allocated resources towards learning and talent development. Learning and talent
development will require the organization to incur costs such as trainers’ fees, venue charges and other
training expenses. Such costs are included in the budget.

If the budget allocation to facilitate learning and talent development is small, it may limit learning and
talent development.

For example, if the annual budget allocation for learning and talent development is $2,000 and a single
talent development program costs $1,000, the organization will conduct only a maximum of 2 learning
and talent development programs.

Another example is where the organization sets a budget allocation of $5,000 and a single talent
development program costs $1,000, the organization can conduct up to 5 learning and talent
development programs.

Other organizations do not have any budget allocation for learning and talent development programs.
This would make it impossible to conduct learning and talent development programs.

The amount of budget allocation will determine the number of talent development programs that can
be carried out at a given time.

According to Herzberg, hygiene factors are

Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory is also called two-factor theory states that there are certain
factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction.
This theory was developed by psychologist Frederick Herzberg

According to Herzberg, hygiene factors are what causes dissatisfaction among employees in the
workplace

He argues that, so as to remove dissatisfaction in a workplace, these hygiene factors must be eliminated.
Some of the ways that this can be done would be to pay reasonable wages, guarantee employees job
security, and to create a positive culture in the workplace.

Herzberg considered the following hygiene factors from highest to lowest importance: company policy,
supervision, employee's relationship with their boss, work conditions, salary, and relationships with
peers.
Reports are not final until after the project approval meeting

Reports are finalized when all outstanding issues have been addressed