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Business optimization is the modernization of the algorithm of actions aimed at achieving the goals of the company. In order for the organization to work effectively and meet the conditions of modern business, it is necessary to choose the best way a renewed path that the company will take in the future.

What is business optimization for?

Business processes- These are repetitive, interrelated actions performed to achieve certain results by the company.

What is the goal pursued by an organization that decides to optimize business processes?

• increase business profitability;
• improve business manageability;
• achieve accurate forecasting and improve the quality of planning processes;
• to increase the value of the company in the eyes of consumers;
• improve the relationship between employees of various departments of the company;
• optimally distribute all the resources of the enterprise and reduce costs;
• improve the quality of work performed by employees;
• improve the quality of adaptation of newly hired employees;
• define and assign a zone of responsibility to each of the company's employees.

Business optimization- this is a rather lengthy procedure, which is successful only in the case of stable, continuous work in this direction... The basis for business optimization will be the already operating system of business processes, but requiring additions, that is, improvements in the initial data. This is precisely the difference between the optimization of the organization's business processes and reengineering, where business activities are started from scratch.

Business optimization is less risky than the radical changes that occur during reengineering.

The main task of business optimization- improve the existing processes at the enterprise, eliminate all kinds of deviations and inaccuracies, increase the effectiveness of the principles and business processes introduced into the work, as well as establish a relationship between them.

However, in some large enterprises business optimization is introduced, and over time it acquires colossal proportions, which is reminiscent of reengineering. It is more appropriate to call such a transitional state either "global optimization" or "partial reengineering".

• Company optimization: maximum profit with minimum effort

Business optimization is one of the ways to manage business processes in both small and large companies. In order to carry out the procedure correctly, it is necessary to observe certain principles, ensuring the greatest effectiveness of the applied actions, which are understandable to any of the participants in the process:

• it is important to observe the direction of movement of business optimization: from private to general, bottom-up;
• only existing business activities that are consistent and transparent are subject to optimization. If you cannot define and describe the business processes of the company, then you need to create them anew, since there is no optimization object;
• taking into account all the consequences of business optimization, pay special attention to how this affects the final contractor, evaluate the complexity and volume of work performed by him;
• optimization of a specific business process should not lead to an imbalance in another. Choose carefully ways to optimize your business and analyze their likely consequences.

Business optimization- this is painstaking and long-term work, with the right approach to which you can justify the costs of the enterprise associated with its introduction.

The main optimization task- to increase the performance of the business by eliminating the dissonance between the goals, mission, as well as the internal and external circumstances of the company.

By introducing a business optimization procedure in an enterprise, you can achieve the following goals:

1. Come to full interaction between all departments of the enterprise.
2. To improve the quality of manufactured goods, works, services.
3. Optimize activities such as speed of delivery, speed of service, etc.
4. Eliminate the shortcomings identified in the initially conducted business activities.
5. Reduce enterprise costs.
6. Reach planned targets.

But we will additionally highlight one more goal, which is large-scale, but not achievable by all organizations. It is about creating an innovative, previously unknown approach to business optimization that is most suitable for your company.

A company whose goal is growth and development must constantly be engaged in business optimization. Eliminating certain production problems can lead to other difficulties. This is a business, and everything is not smooth and smooth in it, which is why it is so important to continuously work to optimize business processes. Otherwise, your business will not develop.

Checklist and a set of instructions to optimize the work of the company

A smart checklist and 18 instructions, which were compiled by the editors of the Commercial Director magazine, will help you figure out how to urgently change the work of the sales department so that the results will please you, not disappoint.

What systems are affected by business optimization

How does accounting differ from the accounting system? The existence of a synergistic effect, that is, whether they help each other with their separate parts or hinder.

Based on the above, it is beneficial for the company to improve process systems, such as:

• optimization of the accounting system;
• optimization of the control system (for the implementation of the plan, for safety, for information, etc.);
• optimization of the motivation system;
• optimization of information movement;
• optimization of the quality management system.

Expert opinion

Optimization is especially relevant for companies with a large number of branches and clients.

Oleg Merkulov,

Head of the company "Rosgosstrakh-Stolitsa", Moscow

I believe that businesses with many branches serving a large number of clients, namely: banks, Insurance companies, service organizations, retail chains, industry distributors. It is extremely important for them not to reduce the quality of service, despite the opening of new branches and an increase in sales. But not all companies manage to achieve this. Let me give you an example from life. How often do we experience disappointment in a particular store, restaurant, cafe? At some point in these establishments we notice a deterioration in the quality of goods, works, services and, as a result, we stop going there. And the point is not so much a decrease in the level of service, the reason lies in the fact that with the development and growth of a company, an increase in the number of business processes occurs, which makes it impossible to understand on whom exactly in the organization the adoption of this or that decision depends. As a result, a client who is not satisfied with your company will go to a competitor.

Problems are inevitable if redundant processes and redundant controls are not continually eliminated. That is, business optimization is not a short-term project, they need to be dealt with continuously.

Expert opinion

Frequently repetitive processes should be optimized

Alexander Ivanov,

executive director of the SZNK holding, St. Petersburg

It is necessary to regulate and optimize repetitive business processes, but it does not need to be done for one-off projects.

I do not recommend describing business processes to newly created, rapidly growing enterprises. It is necessary to regulate business processes in a company when it moves to stable permanent management. Only in this case, the regulation will help the company to fix the existing business processes, based on which the company will continue to develop.

The most effective business optimization methods

Consider the methods for optimizing the business processes of an enterprise:

• fixing the grounds leading to the adoption of important management decisions;
• development or modernization of various forms of company documents;
• improvement of the composition and sequence of activities in the business process;
• changes in the requirements for the final indicators;
• establishment of a zone of responsibility for the implementation of a particular procedure.

Fixing the grounds leading to important management decisions.

In principle, this is a clear algorithm of actions for making management decisions based on the structure formation of conditions. They are standard, accepted in the process of doing business, for example, delivery of products on a prepaid basis or with a deferred payment, and others. Next, you need to determine the initial data: the amount of debt, the period of cooperation, etc. Then you should establish the procedure for making decisions and distribute areas of responsibility according to the final indicators, for example: up to 50,000 rubles, decisions are made by the manager, and more than 50,000 rubles - by the head of the department. Such an approach to business optimization will help free managers from the current activities that their subordinates can do and, as a result, given fact will positively affect the costs of the company.

Development or modernization of various forms of company documents.

Often, information in business is transmitted in a non-fixed form, i.e. verbally, as a result of which it is usually lost or distorted during data transmission. Workers have to spend more time rebuilding them. In order not to lose information, you need to fix it in a certain form. This is necessary both for the structuring of information and for the formation of plans for the implementation of business processes, as well as subsequent accounting. In the forms of company documents, it is better to use various classifiers of information in order to simplify the processing of information, including computerized information.

Improvement of the composition and sequence of activities in the business process.

It is important to eliminate from the business process procedures that do not add value to the company's bottom line. When optimizing your business, eliminate unnecessary actions, unnecessary controls, etc. So, for example, it makes no sense to agree model contract companies with a legal department, since they developed it taking into account the norms of current legislation. Unconventional business process scenarios should be viewed as projects.

Changes in the requirements for the final indicators.

The bottom line requirements need to be detailed and broken down into measurable components. If the manager insists on the high-quality performance of the work by his employees, then he should indicate the quality limits, for example, the size of the produced part should be no more or less specific indicators, the period for servicing the client should not exceed a specific time, etc. when introducing business optimization in the company, the norms that relate to the results of certain procedures must be fixed and brought to the attention of the performer.

Establishing a zone of responsibility for the implementation of a particular procedure.

It is necessary to determine who is responsible for a particular procedure. It is necessary to consolidate all the duties of employees in the local regulations of the company, such as job descriptions of employees, regulations on departments of the enterprise, etc. The norms of responsibility enshrined in the company's documents have a completely different meaning for subordinates than verbal instructions from management.

• Material liability of an employee: how to preserve company property

Optimizing Your Business: 7 Tricks That Work

1. Moving the IFR (ideal end result) out of the process.

When optimizing a business, you need to correctly describe the RBI. It seems that it is quite easy to shape it when creating business processes. It is wrong to search for RBIs within a business process.

Example:

The Moscow-based firm is engaged in the production of goods used by clients in Russia and the CIS. The logistics department of this company delivers products to its customers using its own vehicles. Recently, the cost of maintaining this department has increased. Delivery of goods to customers through their own transport has become a problem for the company. The erroneous method of establishing the FQP looks like this: "Reduce the cost of delivering the company's products by its own transport by 10%."

But the initiator of business optimization blocks all sorts of resources of the current situation for himself. It is better if the method for establishing the IQR is formulated as follows: "Take appropriate measures to deliver the product so that it does not exceed a certain amount of rubles at a given distance."

How to use the trick?

Create an RBI that can be achieved through the implementation of a business process and other available methods.

1. Excluding unnecessary steps from the process.

To implement this method of business optimization, you need to carefully analyze each stage of the process and consider the possibility of excluding or combining some of them.

Example:

When hiring a sales manager at Technosila, the applicant had to go through certain stages:

• Passage of an interview with a recruiting manager (it is conducted by phone).
• Passing an interview with a recruiting manager (in person at the company's office).
• Passing an interview with the head of the outlet.
• Preparation and delivery of a package of documents for employment in the office of the company.

It is possible to start working as a sales manager in a particular store only if the applicant goes through all of the above steps.

The recruiting manager should not allow random people who are not suitable for either age, education, work experience, etc., to the store director. He filters applicants for the position of sales manager, and the store director makes the final decision. about hiring one or another applicant. After analyzing all four stages of recruiting a sales manager, it was decided to abolish the second and fourth stages due to the fact that it is possible to weed out unnecessary candidates already at the stage of a telephone interview, and apply for a job directly in the store, in which is accepted by the future employee.

How to use the trick?

• Are there repetitive steps that can be eliminated from the process or combined with another step?
• Are all stages of the process necessary to achieve its main goal? Is it possible to do without some of them?

1. Changing the sequence of stages in the execution of the process.

Example:

The algorithm for issuing a loan in one of the banks is as follows: the bank manager prepares all the documents, thereby completing about 90% of the work, and then makes a request to the security service. As a result, if the security service refuses to issue a loan, then 90% of this work is done in vain, and this is the time spent by bank employees, depreciation of office equipment, the consumption of materials for the preparation and printing of documentation, as well as lost profits. There are certain risks in any business sector, but the goal of a leader is to minimize them. In the example under consideration, when introducing the business optimization procedure, it is necessary to swap the loan processing stage with the stage of verification by the security service, which will significantly reduce the number of operations in the process execution.

How to use the trick?

Analyze the entire business process flow by asking specific questions:

• What are the most important steps in the process to complete it successfully?
• Is it possible to shift important stages to the beginning of the process?

1. Crushing operations

More advanced processes are considered to have fewer qualifications for workers. If this method of business optimization is used correctly and all business processes are fragmented, then this will undoubtedly lead to simplification of business activities as a whole. This method has been common since ancient times.

Example:

England, 17th century. One of the artisans produced pins in his own workshop. They hired apprentices to guide the pin-making process from start to finish. In a certain crisis period the artisan could not pay for the work of his assistants, he was forced to stop working with them and decided to break the process of making pins into certain operations that could be performed by anyone, even an uneducated person. The craftsman recruited 15-year-old boys on the street as workers in the workshop. He was able to cut labor costs and at the same time increase the production of pins by 200 times. When the artisan employed skilled workers, the workshop produced approximately 80 pins per working day, and after being divided into small operations and using unskilled work force production of pins reached 48,000 in the same period.

How to use the trick?

Analyze the entire business process flow by asking specific questions:

• Which process steps require high qualifications from the manufacturer?
• Is it possible to divide the production process into small operations in order to reduce the requirements for the employee?

1. Moving operations outside the main process

Often, in highly complex business processes overflowing with operations, one employee performs all the actions at once, which delays the process and leads to a decrease in its quality. Universal workers are rare. For example, an employee of his own auto repair shop on the outskirts of the city can independently repair even a carburetor, even an engine, but in a professionally equipped auto repair shop, this option is hardly possible.

Example:

The sales managers of the Stolplit company, which sells furniture, took out loans on their own. Due to such a workload of sellers, many problems arose, such as:

• delay in the process of applying for a loan due to the inability of sellers to be professionals in both sales and paperwork;
• a decline in sales due to temporary spending on loans;
• errors in paperwork and, as a result, a decrease in the number of loans issued.

V this example It is clearly seen that the obligation of sellers to draw up documents for a loan delays the procedure for retail sales, despite the fact that initially the credit line was created with the aim of increasing them. Undoubtedly, the sale of furniture on credit is a plus for the store, but not at the expense of a decrease in the quality of customer service by the sellers of the outlet.

The company's management found a simple way out of this situation, namely: a remote registration center was created credit agreements(UTSOK), which cooperated with various partner banks of Stolplit. The only thing the seller had to do when offering the client a loan was to make a photocopy of the passport pages and send them to the UCOK, having previously indicated the amount and term of the loan.

How to use the trick?

Analyze the entire business process flow by asking specific questions:

• Which operations take up the most time and resources?
• Is it possible to entrust the execution of these operations to other employees without causing a loss to the business process? The manager must understand that some of them can be performed not only by his employees, but also by outsourcing companies.

1. Combining operations in time and (or) space

Example:

Canned fish is produced on a fishing vessel. In the place of extraction of minerals, they are often processed. In the examples provided, companies used a business optimization method such as combining production and production.

How to use the trick?

Analyze the entire flow of the business process by asking a specific question:

• Are there any operations in the process that need to be connected in time and (or) space?

1. Automation, transferring the execution of part or all of the functions to a machine

This method is applicable when it is possible in in full automate the production process, and an employee is only needed to service specialized machines.

Example:

In 1880, the first vending machines appeared in the United States, replacing sellers.

In 1946, the first machines for the production of grain coffee appeared, thereby replacing not only sellers, but also bartenders.

How to use the trick?

Conduct an analysis of the entire sequence of actions of the business process, a certain question: are there specialized machines, programs that can replace and displace the operations of the business process, while not losing quality.

• Automation of production processes: main stages and difficulties

Step-by-step optimization of business processes on your own

The first steps towards optimizing business processes organization should be the creation working group who would be responsible for the project, as well as the formation of an accurate plan of action. We advise you to optimize your business in stages, following plan:

• diagnose the business processes of the enterprise;
• try to describe your business processes carefully;
• select anchor points;
• improve business processes;
• manage the changes you make.

At the preparation stage, you need form a working group business optimization project, the composition of which should depend on the goals of the optimization project. Typically, the commission includes representatives from each department of the company. It is extremely important to convey to the employees information about the goals of the project and form a detailed plan of the planned work. At the stage of the end of the first stage of business optimization, it is necessary to issue an order to launch the project and attach its card, which will spell out the main stages, deadlines, the final results of each of them, responsible employees, and the necessary resources.

1. Diagnostics of the company's business processes.

Even in small enterprises, the number of business processes can reach several thousand. This is why the fundamental goal of diagnostics is to identify those that need optimization.

It should be understood that the most important changes in less significant processes do not bring significant positive results, and even a small progress in the fundamental processes can bring a noticeable result, for example, reducing costs, both material and time. Therefore, when diagnosing business processes, it is so important to determine which are key and which are secondary.

As auxiliary factors that characterize the importance of the process, it is possible to apply the following criteria:

• the product or service produced as a result of the completed business processes has a significant share in the system of enterprise expenses;
• repetitive process in a certain period of time;
• the importance of process characteristics such as costs, timing, resources;
• to select the fundamental processes, you can use the assessments of the expert group, which includes the heads of all departments of the company.

1. Description of existing business processes.

The task of this stage is to describe the processes chosen for business optimization on the “as is” principle and to create specific conditions for their uniform understanding by all employees of the enterprise. To do this, use the ARIS or IDEF methodologies.

It is important to describe business processes from top to bottom. First of all, they describe the processes that take place on the highest level enterprises, and then detail them.

Use the current description of business processes in the enterprise. Even in small companies for the period when the optimization procedure is launched, there is a selective and fragmentary description of the processes. For example, job descriptions of employees, regulations on company departments, regulations, etc. Using these documents, you will save time.

When describing the processes, rely on the experience of the largest consulting enterprises, competing companies that conduct similar business activities. You must designate individuals responsible for the execution of each business process. Such a manager should not only be responsible for the assigned process, but also be able to manage it. You cannot optimize processes for which you are not responsible.

1. Selection of anchor points.

To control the work performed before introducing the business optimization procedure, determine and measure the process reference points ( essential characteristics). Typically, process characteristics such as quality and speed of execution are used as reference points.

1. Improving business processes.

The totality of all actions to improve business processes gives the right to conduct a multifaceted analysis, find logical errors and carry out certain activities to optimize the business.

• Search for logical errors

The business processes of the enterprise are exceptional, but the most common mistakes made by most companies can be identified. Eliminating them will make it possible to increase the effectiveness of the processes.

• Formation of unnecessary information to anyone.

Companies often copy documents, but the information they contain is not used anywhere. Decide if you need it? If so, write down in which specific business process. If not, then change the process so that the unnecessary work function is excluded from it.

• Lack of information that is needed to execute the process.

It is necessary to use information data during the execution of the process, but it should not be created and transferred from other business processes. The first thing to do is to identify the source of this information. In large holdings specialists finance department management company spend a lot of time communicating with subsidiaries for more information. You can protect yourself from this if the order on the provision of information is recorded in local regulatory documents.

• Lack of company regulations describing the flow of information on the business process.

For example, an enterprise has a process called “Analysis of requests, offers and complaints from customers”, but the information is partly received by sales managers. If the regulation on the sales department does not prescribe the obligation of sellers to transfer information to the claim department, then some of the data will be regularly lost. To avoid this, it is necessary to develop clear regulations, where the responsibilities for the transfer of information will be clearly spelled out.

• Application in the process of documents that do not have a specific source of origin.

For example, a report on the movement of accounts receivable can be prepared by both the accounting department, the finance department, and the commercial department of the company. The report figures may differ materially from each other. The user of such information about the debt will spend a lot of time looking for gaps and identifying discrepancies in the report's indicators. It is necessary to identify all employees of the company who need information on accounts receivable, develop a unified reporting form and strictly regulate accounting principles.

• Lack of regulation of a particular business process.

Development of regulations for all company processes is the most important task that must be solved during business optimization. The absence of such regulations can lead to the fact that changes and additions will not be made to the processes on time and, as a result, the work will be done in vain.

• Interface errors.

Both incoming and outgoing information flows supplied in different formats. For example, in a company, the structure of itemization of expense and income items does not coincide with the structure of accounting items. In such a situation, 20% of the activity is spent on preparing information, and the remaining 80% on transforming the received data into the required form. Describe the processes in detail and enter the rules for transferring information - this is the only way you can solve this problem. When the errors are corrected, you can directly move on to optimizing the business processes of the enterprise.

1. Optimization activities

Conduct the development of several versions of business optimization, this will help make the process more flexible to apply one or another option, depending on the situation. Develop at least 2 types of process optimization: complex and simpler.

• Horizontal and vertical compression of the process.

Improving business processes will allow replacing narrowly qualified employees with broad specialists. So changes in the largest bank can lead to horizontal compression of the process.

When a participant in a business process has the opportunity to take on specific decisions, thereby reducing the number of approval stages, then a vertical compression of the process occurs.

• Reducing the number of control operations.

V practical activities it often happens that the costs of various checks and business process management exceed the potential losses that would occur in their absence.

1. Change management

The main difficulties that the company faces on the way to optimizing the business are protests and resistance to the changes introduced by the employees of the enterprise. Business optimization can be carried out successfully only if all employees of the company are closely involved in the procedure.

Key factor, which influences the formation of a favorable environment for process improvement, is the absence of fear of change. It is at this moment that it is necessary to introduce a motivation system, which will mainly contain rewards and bonuses. During the period of business optimization, it is better to refrain from disciplinary punishment.

Business optimization is necessary not only to reduce time and money losses, but also to simplify the work of the company's employees. Bring this idea to the staff of the company, then you will not have any difficulties with the introduction of transformations.

1. After optimization

After completing the work, it is necessary to plan, organize and constantly check the introduced processes. Need control over correct execution employees of the transformed business activities and correlating them with company regulations.

After conducting business optimization, you can most effectively use the information systems that regulate the processes of the enterprise.

To provide support for the transformed processes, it is necessary to form a new department of the company, which would monitor the work and engage in further improvement of processes, as well as their auditing.

Optimization of business processes of the company: typical mistakes that should be avoided

When conducting business optimization, a company faces many difficulties. For example, often different employees can be involved in optimization at different time intervals... In this case, not only the style suffers, but also the procedure for describing processes. It is necessary to further develop a performance plan and process standards, while it is necessary to agree structural elements such documents.

Often the problem is that enterprises do not pay serious attention to the discussion of "how" to carry out the process... It is risky to automate untransformed processes, you can get “automated chaos”. Already during the first stage of business optimization, creating a description of the existing processes, it is necessary to look for options for their optimization. Such transformations sometimes lead to the fact that it is necessary to change the organizational system of the company.

When developing a procedure for improving business processes, it is necessary, first of all, to focus on the description of processes, i.e. on the regulations. You cannot change any process without changing the regulations otherwise it will lead to confusion. It is extremely important to monitor the relevance of all regulations. To transform any process, you need to register it on paper, conduct an approbation, and then start automation.

The hasty introduction of a new software product can be negative factor to optimize the business, especially if the specialists do not properly monitor the operation of the servers, thanks to which the introduced software functions. Unstable and slow servers, unconfigured software lead to the fact that the time for commissioning increases. The company's personnel are wary of the introduction of business optimization procedures, they do not want these transformations. Testing and tuning of new software can be carried out on slow-running servers, but putting the converted software into operation requires a powerful server that functions without errors.

Work with personnel- the most important task in the automation of business processes. To carry out the correct adjustment of activities after the business optimization procedure, it is necessary to form a competent center that solves any problems and questions. Conduct a briefing with each of the company's employees so that they not only correctly understand the specifics of the process, but also their role in it.

• Personnel costs: management, planning and optimization

Which business optimization software is right for your company

1. ARIS Express – it is a process modeling tool, it is easy to install, configure and manage, therefore it is recommended for both novice users and university students.

These products come from the family of modeling tools ARIS (ARchitecture of Integrated Information Systems) firms IDS Scheer(in modern times, the product is an element of the company Software AG), already for several years quite widespread on the Russian market and equipped with Russian version technical support.

Product family ARIS (ARchitecture of Integrated Information Systems), produced by the firm IDS Scheer, consists of tools that model business processes, methods for developing a system of consistent indicators, assessments and optimization of the value of business processes, tools that simplify the introduction of ERP systems, create application projects and IT infrastructure, as well as tools that control the execution of processes. Such major analyst companies as Gartner Group and Forrester Research rank the firm IDS Scheer to the world leaders in modeling and analysis tools for business processes.

1. Business Studio Is a system for modeling business processes of Russian production, which allows companies to make the development of a management system easier and faster. This product provided with a free version and will become great helper when introducing a business optimization procedure.

Fundamental tasks to be solved:

• Development of a project for improvement and optimization of processes.
• Formalization of the strategy with subsequent monitoring of its achievement.
• Project development organizational structure company and its staffing table.
• Development and distribution of various regulatory documents among the company's personnel.
• Implementation of a quality management system in accordance with ISO standards.
• Development of technical specifications and support for the input of information systems.

1. AllFusion Process Modeler

This program will help the company with the introduction of business optimization procedures. Conduct analysis, description and modeling of data model - builder of meta-data models. It is deservedly the leader among similar products and consists of three methodologies:

• IDEF3 Methodology(modeling workflows).
• IDEF0 methodology(functional modeling).
• DFD methodology(data flow modeling).

1. IBM WebSphere Business Modeler- a program with a very user-friendly interface for users is designed to simulate and create collective action both production employees and IT professionals.

Simulation, business workflow creation and simulation are quickly integrated. The simulation is built on the basis of information from the store, transformation reports and real-time performance evaluations. It is possible to monitor ongoing processes via the Internet using the help of a simple browser.

1. ELMA- Russian-made program.

The process control system is based on a very simple idea: the creation of models of business processes of your enterprise is based on demonstrating visual diagrams that need to be loaded into the program ELMA, and she will independently track the implementation of business processes in the practical reality of the company. This product is provided with a free version and will be of great help in introducing business optimization procedures.

In addition to managing stepwise tasks, which are mutually beneficial to automate, there is a project management module. The reporting control system recreates best conditions conducting team activities. The team can work effectively remotely, which is especially valuable for the company's existing branches.

Document circulation through electronic communication channels is closely connected with the system modules, which provides for the implementation of the classification of documents and their storage. All this leads to time savings, and the idea of ​​the existence of irreplaceable workers is reduced to zero.

• Increasing productivity: 10 strategies to save time

Expert opinion

Optimization should be approached systematically and step by step.

Alla Bednenko,

HR Director, Econika-Obuv, Moscow

If your company is experiencing a sharp growth spurt, then its leader will surely face the issue of gradually introducing a business optimization system. This is exactly what happened with the Econika-Obuv company. The customer for the optimization of the organization's business processes was our general manager, curated by the vice-president of the Econika corporation. The direct project manager is the HR director.

The project consists of certain stages:

• development of a model of operating processes;
• development of a model of optimized processes, which would reflect the main performance indicators of various departments of the company;
• development of a transformation program, preparation of terms of reference for the introduction of a corporate information system;
• development of enterprise automation regulations;
• direct business optimization, i.e. improvement of business processes.

How is the financial optimization of business carried out?

At the first stage financial optimization of the business, analyze the optimization of the work of the company's financial department, you need to own an up-to-date process model that would reflect the structure and all operations performed by the department, as well as material resources, time and other necessary resources.

The result of the second stage financial optimization of a business serves as a visual material for analyzing everything that is happening at the enterprise, indicating the difficult moments in work, all kinds of risks, costs associated with the repetition of duties and responsibilities. To form such a model, it is necessary to analyze the organizational structure and processes of the company. At this initial stage, the selection of processes in need of transformation takes place. The head of the company can make a decision both on the transformation of business processes, that is, on their optimization, and on their reengineering.

Optimization business - medium-sized transformations that are aimed at improving existing processes. Business optimization is a necessary procedure if the processes work and do not bring special problems and a lot of damage to the company.

Reengineering business - fundamental transformations of the fundamental processes of the company. This procedure entails a complete rejection of existing business processes in order to replace them with completely new ones.

The goal of reengineering is to drastically reduce the cost of processes, as well as time, human and material costs. As a rule, during reengineering, the organizational structure of the enterprise and the tasks performed are replaced. It is necessary to resort to reengineering when it is impossible to conduct activities in accordance with the existing processes, because this is accompanied by monetary losses.

After developing recommendations for optimization / reengineering existing processes for the standardization of new ones, certain solution templates are being developed, each of which consists of a process and a technical part. The process part is a set of diagrams and elements of business processes (it can be implemented in ARIS). The technical part is the execution of the process part in a specifically selected information system.

The subsequent development of regulatory documents includes the formation of regulations for various procedures and processes, provisions on departments, job descriptions, as well as other unified documents, which will subsequently be used by the specialists of the working group when putting the information system into operation. It is imperative to pay sufficient attention to the quality of the developed documentation and its availability, since all employees of the enterprise must use it. It is not recommended to use too many technical terms in documents and deliberately complicate the description of processes.

Stage of project results presentation financial business optimization and comparison with the most important goals of the enterprise involves monitoring the possibility of achieving planned targets.

Direct implementation of a standard financial business process template should assume a certain date from which the company will operate according to the developed scheme in accordance with the introduced system for optimizing business processes.

That is, due to the introduction of a project for financial optimization of business, an integral accounting space will be formed at the enterprise, and the risks of internal control will be absolutely prevented. As a result, accounting and reporting functions will become flexible and versatile, and the company will get the desired effect from business optimization.

• Organizational Cost Management, or How to Create a Minimum Cost System

Business Optimization for Small Businesses: 5 Low-Cost Solutions

1. Free CRM systems

If the company's customer base grows, then there is a need for its automation, the purpose of which is to remind customers of goods and services, as well as of the company's promotions. Such CRM systems as FreshOffice, Megaplan, AmoCRM, Bitrix24 can act as assistants in automating the customer base. These systems help the company maintain close relationships with customers, regulate sales, analyze statistical indicators, implement remote control for the workload of the company's employees.

Price. It is possible to load an unlimited number of clients into the CRM system, but you must use the system continuously, otherwise, if the system is idle for more than 3 months, your account will be frozen. It is possible to upload up to 7 users to Megaplan for free and up to 5 to Bitrix24. Note that the Megaplan interface looks more friendly than that of other systems.

1. MyChat customer support chat

We recommend using such an inexpensive business optimization solution as online chat to communicate with clients. In order to develop it, it is not at all necessary to contact professional programmers. For example, MyChat (nsoft-s.com) allows communication both through a local network and over the Internet. You can find the setup instructions on the website. Through MyChat, you can send notifications to all users. The program assumes the division of users into customers and company employees.

Price. Business tariff, including 100 connections, is approximately 21,000 rubles per year. Note that by making only 8 purchase and sale transactions per month, the company will recoup these costs in 1-2 months. For small firms, there is free version MyChat (up to 20 users per chat).

1. Callbacks to Callbackhunter or CallBaska clients

Through Callbackhunter or CallBaska, a visitor to the company's website can order a call to receive an answer to his questions. With the help of these services, the organization receives information about the client, his contact information, and can also assess the effectiveness of the site administrator. The administrator must call back the client who left their contacts within 1-2 minutes from the moment of receiving the request for the call.

Price. Light tariff in CallBaska - 790 rubles per month. It includes an unlimited number of calls for submitted requests, but with a time limit (50 minutes general conversation per month).

1. Remote payment ECommPay

In order to show the credibility of the company to your clients, create an opportunity for them to pay for services directly through the site. Use ECommPay.com to set up your Internet acquiring system. This service is integrated with various payment systems (including mobile), bank cards, electronic wallets, and is also reliably protected from the risk of controversial and unauthorized payments. A definite plus - the client makes an advance payment for a product or service.

Price. 1.8-3.5% from any transaction. If the client pays for the service in full, consider the opportunity to give him a discount, taking into account the saved cash on the specified interest from the payment.

1. Delegate work with one button

If you periodically need financial and legal advice, use the button service (knopka.com). He will help in legal support of the business and ensure the safety of relationships with counterparties. The service will solve the issues of interaction with banks, will be able to offer alternatives to optimize the company's budget. Also, using the service, you can solve such issues as organizing negotiations with business partners, searching for specialists, booking plane tickets, etc. The Button service will help you to competently approach the optimization of your company's business.

Price. The tariff with the maximum number of services is 24,000 rubles per month, 288,000 rubles per year. But is the cost of this service profitable for the company? A hired incoming accountant will cost the company 10,000 rubles, a legal adviser - 20,000 rubles, a business assistant - 40,000 rubles. Total, including taxes - 100,000 rubles per month. The amount is 5 times the monthly tariff of the Button service. Doing business without accounting and legal services fraught with all sorts of penalties and significant costs.

• FAS fines for violation of the advertising law and ways to avoid them

Information about experts

Oleg Merkulov, General Director of Rosgosstrakh-Stolitsa, Moscow. The organization is a member of the Rosgosstrakh system and one of the five largest insurers in the Moscow region. There are about 30 insurance agencies, sales offices and 100 mini and mobile offices in Moscow, and 68 branches in the Moscow region. Clients are: pharmaceutical companies KRKA and Bayer, East Line airline, Domodedovo airport, Rus-Bank JSCB, FC Rus-Capital, Ehrmann LLC, the US Embassy in the Russian Federation, Mosselprom, TTC "Ostankino", Stock Exchange RTS, radio station "Silver Rain", the majority of bakeries in the Moscow region, etc. In total, the company has more than 10,000 customers.

Alexander Ivanov, executive director of the SZNK holding, St. Petersburg. North-Western Nonmetallic Company is a whole complex of construction industry enterprises, which are united into three branches: construction, nonmetallic and concrete. They operate in the North-West, Central, Privolzhsky federal districts... The headquarters are located in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod. SZNK and SZNK-Beton are leaders in the production and supply of nonmetallic materials such as crushed stone, sand, etc., as well as ready-mixed concrete and mortars in the North-West of the Russian Federation.

Alla Bednenko, HR Director, Econika-Obuv, Moscow. Econika-Obuv is one of the leaders in the production of fashionable footwear in the Russian market, a retail network operator in the Russian Federation. More than 100 are open in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan brand shops footwear "Econika".

You can control mobile personnel using special applications

Small business companies have more or less learned how to control the work of office and other stationary employees - these are various KPI systems, and spyware, and scrum meetings, and checks using technology " Mystery shopper”, And good old reports on the work done. But as for field workers, it is more difficult to control them. Vadim Zakharikov, Head of Planado Field Service Management Service, spoke about what problems mobile employees can create and how to improve their work efficiency.

Entrepreneur, co-founder of the field employee management service. Education: Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (specialty "software for computer technology and automated systems"). He is also a co-owner of the Latera company, which develops the Hydra billing system.

Risk areas for the company,
using field staff

In most cases, field workers perform more or less the same type of work - equipment installation, repairs, furniture assembly, window installation, cleaning, etc. At the same time, it is rather difficult for the management of the company to control the quality of the work performed - it is impossible to visit each object, and the feedback from the client is far from always an objective assessment.

Also, most companies in the field service sector do not have prescribed standards for solving problems; the mobile employee simply performs a set of actions that, as he thinks, will allow him to achieve the result faster and better.

This gives rise to a number of problems - it is impossible to guarantee the quality, important stages of work can be skipped, the equipment is installed "by eye", etc. Moreover, the quality of work does not guarantee the work experience of employees - both beginners and experienced craftsmen make mistakes.

Moreover, it is often experienced specialists who strive to optimize their work - for example, excluding from it the “unnecessary”, as it seems to them, stages. Striving for optimization is normal, but without proper control it can lead to technology disruption.

Maintaining an adequate level of quality of work is not the only problem. It is not uncommon for employees to agree with a client to work around the company, but at the same time use its materials and equipment. It happens that they use the resources of the employer to solve personal problems (for example, traveling about their business in an official car, "shabashki" using equipment and Supplies company, etc.).

Many companies install GPS beacons on company vehicles, which partially solve these problems. However, they track movements in isolation from the places of orders, which greatly complicates the analysis of the employee's movement history. It takes a lot of time and effort to understand whether he went to order, avoiding traffic jams, or arranged his lunch early. In addition, workers often use personal vehicles for travel, on which it is impossible to put a beacon.

Clients also throw up problems - it so happens that for some reason they leave home without waiting for the foremen, which leads to the need to reshape the entire working day of the employee. You can reduce the number of transfers if you remind the client to meet with the foreman when, for example, he leaves the previous order.

• By the way, the number of transfers is one of the important indicators of the quality of field work, this indicator needs to be monitored - and make sure that the percentage of transfers in relation to all works decreases. If you have 8% or more transfers, then the company has serious problems with organization and planning, 2-5% - you are fine, less - you organized everything perfectly.

In addition, employees often try to make their life easier and shorten the work time - for example, they say that it took longer to complete an order than it actually did. As a result, such an employee has time to complete less work per day, and the business receives less profit.

How companies are trying to solve these problems

One of the solutions to the problem of standardizing the work of field workers is a checklist of tasks on paper ("checklist"): after the end of each stage of work, the employee must put down "checkmarks" in the appropriate place in the table. However, when working remotely, it is very difficult to control the implementation of each item - nothing prevents the employee from marking the completion of the task, but not completing it.

Some companies have introduced the practice of photo reporting - they require an employee to take a photo on a smartphone after all the work has been completed. But this also does not always solve the problem - the quality of the work is not always visible in the photo, there are difficulties with the transfer of files to the office, many “forget” to take a photo, etc.

As a result, it is difficult for employees who monitor quality to stop low-quality work right away, and when shortcomings are revealed, then often the contractor has already received money for the order and left the client.

More reliable way improving the quality of work - periodically “entering the fields” of the company's controllers, sometimes even the management of the company does it. During such events, managers can personally monitor compliance with quality standards. But it is simply impossible to assign an inspector to every field employee on an ongoing basis. This means that there will be no constant control, and the quality of work will continue to “float”.

How can you improve
quality of work of field workers

It is possible to significantly increase the efficiency of field workers by using special programs and control applications. Such systems, in particular, prevent them from using sub-optimal routes and ending the working day earlier. Moreover, to organize control, you do not need to purchase complex equipment - the capabilities of ordinary smartphones and tablets will be enough.

Such control systems work simply - on office computers a special program is installed (or access to it is possible through a browser), and smartphones with an installed mobile application are distributed to field workers. With it, you can view all orders for the day, arrival time to the client, the essence of the order, estimated travel time, etc.

At the start of the order, the check-list function is activated - the employee must perform actions sequentially by ticking the checkboxes in the application. You cannot jump over the points - a violation notification will immediately appear on the monitor of the controlling employee in the office. Upon completion of the work, a photo report is sent to the office using the same application.

So the business owner, the head of the field work department or an employee-controller can online monitor the quality of the services provided and immediately inform the contractor about what he is doing wrong. The inevitability of punishment will not allow employees to work carelessly and reduce quality.

Control over the movement of employees is important for business, so control programs are usually integrated with map services. For example, managers can track the movements of their employees online - no one will be able to take a suboptimal route in order to solve their affairs on the way. This is how employee movements look like on a map in a desktop application.

If we talk about the figures for the increase in efficiency from the use of programs and applications to control employees, then we can cite statistics from the United States and Russia. Thus, according to McKinsey, one of the American cable companies by using such tools increased the number of completed orders for equipment installation by 80%. This, in turn, has led to a 30% reduction in the installer's waiting time.

Good results have been achieved in the Russian market as well. So, according to our data, the implementation of the Planado field employee management service, on average, gives an increase in their work productivity by 31%.

In addition, there is another interesting effect from the implementation of personnel control software - employees who try to resist the control “pop up”: they cover the lens with their hand when taking photos, turn off the GPS in the smartphone, etc.

Such employees are harmful to the company - they do not think about a good job, but about how once again do not strain and deceive the leader. What to do with such employees - each manager decides for himself, but, in any case, their attempts to "cheat" will not go unnoticed.

Not every businessman understands that his business is not only clients, but also his team. After all, if there is no team that works directly with clients, then there will be no clients. In addition, people often come to a company to see a certain manager. So, how to organize the work of the sales department so that the whole team works harmoniously for a common result. We will talk about this in our article!

How to organize a sales department from scratch

1. The head of the sales department. To organize the work of a sales department from scratch, you will need to find an experienced manager or someone who can become a leader and organize the work of the entire department. It is the manager who will carry out the recruitment of personnel and control over the work of his subordinates.

2. Materials. The manager will also prepare all the necessary materials for new employees: information about the company, typical customer objections, materials about the company's product, etc.

3. Analytics. To create a sales department from scratch and organize its work, the manager will need to track the KPIs of each employee and the department as a whole in order to see the dynamics of the development of the sales department.

It's so easy to see weak sides department to be improved. Each employee must maintain his own reporting document, which reflects the number of calls to customers, the number of sales, the conversion of the manager's work.

And in order to increase the numbers, use the following sales management tools and recommendations.

Effective sales department management

1. A beginner's portfolio. When a new person comes to the company, it is important that he organically merge into the team, as soon as possible delve into the essence of the matter and start selling. Therefore, you should create such a portfolio of a beginner, which will contain all the materials necessary for studying: information about the company, about the company's product, typical customer objections and answers to these objections, examples of negotiations with customers, a report document for a manager, a job description, here you can also add the mission of the company and its goals.

2. Regular meetings. If you want to create a powerful sales force, then it is important for you to be aware of everything that is happening. Therefore, hold regular meetings with the sales department, at least once a month, discuss upcoming events, launches and listen to the managers.

Perhaps they have some local problems that require your participation. After all, no one knows your product or service better than you, and no one can sell them better than you. Teach managers to do this. Regular meetings will increase the motivation of managers, which will only have a positive impact on the result.

3. Morning calls. Hold morning meetings to find out what plans and goals for the day managers have set for themselves and what tasks they have to solve. This will help you plan your day and results.

4. Use a CRM system. To track the effectiveness and activity of each manager, set up a CRM system, which will reflect all the actions for the department, as well as record the results for each client.

Here you can trace the work with each client individually, the plan of calling and meeting with the client, see the objections of clients and listen to calls from managers. Bitrix24, Trello, Megaplan can be used as a CRM system. CRM-system will help you to establish correct work sales department. Here you will assign tasks to managers and track their progress.

5. Brainstorm. When you build an effective sales department, then one day you will realize that your employees know more about your business than you do, because they constantly communicate with your customers! Therefore, conduct regular brainstorming sessions with managers to get new ideas for improving the company's performance.

6. Create a system of incentives and motivation for managers. Sales department management is not easy, because you need to be able to find an approach to each employee and understand what motivation is especially important for him. Someone needs encouragement in the form of praise, someone likes to participate in competitions to determine best manager months and get bonuses, but money motivates everyone!

Therefore, it will be great to create such a motivation system where people will strive to make more sales. And for this you do not have to constantly kick them. They just know that after completing a certain amount, they will receive bonuses.

7. Study the calls of managers. Call records can show you weak spots managers, somewhere the manager misunderstood the client, somewhere he lacked stress resistance, and somewhere the client seemed to be ready to buy, but the manager was not competent enough to bring the client to the deal. These things can be discussed at planning meetings, in general meetings, and help managers cope with such moments.

8. Teach. When you find new information on sales or take a course, be sure to share these tips with managers and educate them. You will see for yourself how much stronger your team will become.

Try your hand at the 10-day business game "Your Start" in which you will start to make money in your business, using your talents and strengths!

9. Be always in touch with sales managers. It takes a lot of work to organize an effective sales force, but it is important to always be close to your employees, so be in touch. Young managers who do not have sufficient experience in negotiations are likely to ask dozens of questions, and the main thing for them is to get answers and your help in a timely manner. Are you interested in sales? Then help them! There will be much fewer errors, you'll see.

10. Create company stories for the sales department. Answering the question "How to organize the sales department correctly?", You should prepare materials not only for newly minted managers, but also for those who have been with you for a long time in the team.

Employees should know what is new in the company, what new products are emerging, and what customers have become more interested in. Therefore, materials for employees should contain links to the main products of the company, descriptions of goods, customer objections and competent answers to them. Materials should always be replenished so that mistakes are not repeated in similar situations.

The sales department must first of all be aware of what is changing in the organization, because they are the face of the company!

The right sales department is not a utopia, and it is based on 3 pillars: a competent system of employee motivation, training of managers and analytics of the department's effectiveness.

________________________________________________________________________________
Do you want to teach your managers to work effectively with clients - to build loyal relationships and make more sales?

To do this, you need to implement a tool such as a checklist for a sales person. Therefore, read the article "Sales Manager Checklist" right now.

Was our article helpful to you today? Then give us feedback, click "Like"!

In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his brilliant and revolutionary theory of relativity. Throughout three years preceding this, he devoted himself entirely to the creation of this theory, without being distracted by anything else.

I'm not encouraging you to spend three years creating one project, but this method of focusing is really effective.

It was small excursion in the past, and now let's turn to modern realities: today the tendency to “do less” has become quite popular. As the name suggests, this area encompasses techniques that can be used to achieve greater results with less effort.

1. Pareto's law, or the 20/80 principle

V general view this principle is formulated as follows: 20% of the efforts give 80% of the result, and the remaining 80% of the efforts - only 20% of the result. Law 20/80 is applicable in almost all areas of life. For example, according to this law, 20% of criminals commit 80% of crimes.

Knowing how to use Pareto Law properly will help you not only in your professional life, but also in your daily life. This is a handy little trick that can help you predict the outcome. For example, if you are an outgoing person, then you most likely have many friends. Think about which of these people will come to your aid in difficult situation... Probably, there will be few of them, just something around the notorious 20%. It is worth taking note of this and trying to keep in touch with these 20%, instead of wasting time with virtual friends.

How it works

According to Pareto's law, you should do all unimportant tasks when your productivity is low. For example, many people, as soon as they come to work in the morning, cannot immediately get involved in the work process. They need to chat with colleagues, have a cup of coffee, or do something else that will help them get in the mood for work.

Only then will they be able to work productively. It is important to prioritize work tasks. Try to complete important tasks at a time of the day when your performance is at a high level.

2. Three important tasks

Many people create a to-do list to help keep their workflow organized. Of course, in the 21st century we have already moved away from writing the upcoming affairs on paper, for this we have smartphones and computers.

I suggest you follow one simple rule: Take five minutes each morning to write down your three most important tasks for the day. Then focus all your efforts on completing this short list.

It's a great alternative to the endlessly long to-do lists we usually love to write. Who are we kidding, because even a week will not be enough for them, let alone one day. Focus on these three main tasks, and if you have time to complete them ahead of time then you can start doing something else.

This simple yet powerful habit can actually increase your productivity.

3. Do less philosophy

The Do Less philosophy is very popular in today's reality. Different authors suggest different approaches. For example, Mark Lesser wrote Achieve More With Less, based on Zen Buddhism.

His “do less” manifesto begins by rebutting the claim that reducing workload makes employees lazy and negatively impacts their productivity. When we complete fewer tasks, we can enjoy our accomplishments.

Mark Lesser recommends taking a few minutes during your workday to meditate. This evens out your breathing, you will come to your senses, relieve stress and be able to better concentrate on the task at hand.

Don't forget to prioritize. Perform important tasks first, and then move on to low-priority ones. Don't overload yourself big amount tasks: it is better to do less, but with high quality and with pleasure, than more, but without enthusiasm.

4. Tomato technique

The tomato technique was suggested by Francesco Cirillo. The technique is called tomato because its author originally used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer to measure time.

The methodology is based on the principle of working for 25 minutes on a specific task without interruption, but after that it is imperative to take a break.

How it works

1. Look at your task list and select the highest priority tasks from it.
2. Then set the timer for 25 minutes and start working without distraction until you hear the timer beep. Each 25 minute time period is called a "tomato".
3. Then take a five minute break and turn on the timer again.
4. After four “tomatoes” (that is, every two hours) take a longer break of 15–20 minutes.
5. If your task takes more than five "tomatoes", it can be divided into several parts.

This technique helps you work on higher-priority tasks, improves focus, and helps you focus better.

5. The myth of multitasking

Multitasking doesn't make us more productive at all, it's a myth. In fact, when we concentrate on many tasks at the same time, it has a negative impact on our productivity and concentration.

No matter how well you get used to multitasking, your productivity will be much less than if you chose to focus from start to finish on a single task.
David Meyer, professor at the University of Michigan

It is only possible to efficiently perform multiple tasks simultaneously in some special cases. Let's say when you do something automatically, for example, you walk and talk at the same time. Walking is an automatic activity and does not require you to focus on it. A well-known parable illustrates this well:

Once an ant met a centipede on a forest path, which merrily and serenely ran towards him. The ant asked the centipede: “How do you move all your 40 legs so deftly? How do you manage to move around so easily and quickly? " The centipede thought for a moment and ... could no longer budge!

If you want to be more productive at the assigned tasks, it is better to focus on one task, complete it from start to finish, and only then move on to others.

6. Informational diet

Nowadays, overloading your brain with information is as easy as getting heatstroke in the Sahara Desert. And even the symptoms are similar: sleep disturbance, distracted attention and delayed reaction. Our brain is overloaded with information noise. In the modern world, people are constantly looking for news, although they are already everywhere around us.

In this case, Timothy Ferris, author of the book How to Work Four Hours a Week and At the same time not hang around in the office "from call to call", to live anywhere and get rich "advises people to" go on an information diet. " Think everything really matters to you emails, blogs, newspapers and magazines that you read? Do you really need to spend so much time on social media and TV?

Try to get as little information completely unnecessary for you as possible at least for a week and see how this affects your productivity.

7. Live on schedule

Ask anyone successful person when he or she wakes up and is more likely to hear that person gets up early. It's pretty straightforward: there aren't many distractions in the morning, so we can focus on our priorities.

Remember that there is time to rest and there is time to work. Draw clear lines between the one and the other. Start by stopping your business as soon as you feel the need to rest.

It is better to live with a plan than without it.

Parkinson's Law states that "Work fills the time allotted for it." This means that if you, for example, decide that you will write a report in a week, you will be writing it all week. Parkinson's Law is especially applicable to things that we don't like and which we have no desire to do. Many of us tend to stretch out cases as much as possible. But if you enclose each task in a rigid box, it will allow you to deal with cases much more efficiently. When you have deadlines, you try to get everything done on time, so this is a great motivation.

What to do when the staff is staffed, but it does not give the expected results? There is a solution to the problem, and many companies have already begun to apply the Six Sigma methodology in similar situations.

Six Sigma is a methodology and set of tools that enable you to analyze workflows and drive breakthroughs.

Like a roadmap, this technique leads to solving business process failures. Six Sigma helps you look at problems from the customer's perspective and solve them.

Thanks to this, customers quickly notice the difference, which has a positive effect on financial results companies. This technique is especially popular if the company has the task of going to the world level in order to meet the requirements of quality management.

Six Sigma is a methodology for eliminating defects in any manufacturing process, from manufacturing a “product” to serving customers.

The term Six Sigma is a statistical parameter, it implies the analysis of 3 quantities:

Random variable (quality of the work process);
standard deviation (permissible defects in work);
average (average rate of defects in a particular activity).

In order to start working on this method, it is necessary to determine these values ​​in the business process of the organization.

The main idea of ​​the technique is to reduce the standard deviation using various workflow management tools.

Implementation of the Six Sigma methodology

The implementation of the methodology takes place in stages, from one level of management to another. To implement the project for the implementation of the Six Sigma methodology, a responsible group is formed, it becomes a key link in this process.

The group usually includes:
1. Managers or owners of companies: promote the implementation of the methodology and provide all the necessary conditions.

3. Mid-level manager: draws up a development program for a specific project and trains his people (leading specialist and ordinary specialist).

4. Senior / leading specialist: responsible for the implementation of new and optimization in specific narrow tasks. He analyzes how best to accomplish the task and can offer options for its implementation. Typically, this group member reports to the aforementioned middle manager.

5. Specialist: implements the assigned tasks, is responsible for the quality of implementation within the framework of the project.

The work of the group can be roughly divided into 4 stages:

1. Set goals for improvement. Customer base research helps in this matter. It is important that consumers of products or services determine the level of quality of work they need (safety, cost, delivery speed, service maintenance etc.).

2. To identify in the current operating mode of the company the processes of paramount importance and not significant for the client. In the future, it will be necessary to get rid of the latter.

3. Choose a toolkit for quick improvement indicators.

4. Involve staff in teamwork. In fact, the result of using Six Sigma will be good only with the participation of the entire team, with its willingness to get better, grow and improve.

Six Sigma methods

Six Sigma methods can be roughly divided into 3 groups: improvement the existing system work, creating a new system and managing work.

Improvement of the existing system of work is implemented through five sequential methods:

1. Determining the team responsible for the 6 Sigma project and the problematic with which they will work. This group should have clear goals, it should have the authority to achieve them and be accountable for the result.

2. Measurement of existing processes. The responsible team assesses how this moment tasks are implemented, collects data and makes assumptions about possible reasons deviations in solving problems.

3. Analysis of the identified deviations. During this stage, the team checks for deviations, searches for their causes and selects methods to eliminate them.

4. Improving performance. This step involves the development and implementation of measures aimed at improving work processes, existing systems and approaches. This may include training staff, introducing new working methods, sharing experiences and implementing new methods selected in the previous step.

5. Control. At this stage, the improved processes are being standardized. The specialists responsible for the project constantly monitor the quality of the tasks being implemented. Their goal is to detect possible inconsistencies and indicate the way of correction.

Creation of a new work system:

To create a new system, work is focused on staying ahead of users' expectations and preventing possible failures. The implementation of the methods goes through the same steps, but their purpose changes:

1. Determination of the team responsible for the project to create new workflows. The team must have authority and responsibility. The first thing they do is formulate the goals of the new work system.

2. Measurement. The task of the team is to determine the parameters by which it will be possible to judge the success of the new tasks and the achievement of the goals set at the first stage.

3. Analysis. At this stage, the correct algorithms for performing new tasks are developed and analyzed.

4. Improvement. The stage involves the creation of detailed instructions for improved or new processes, explanations and their implementation.

5. Control. The team responsible for the project conducts systematic control over the implementation of tasks. The goal is to assess the quality of work, instill the correct algorithms for actions when solving new problems and assess the feasibility of the set goals.

Management of work systems

Management of work systems is one of the critical milestones implementation of the Six Sigma methodology. As a rule, in order to achieve the goals, the company simultaneously improves the old systems of work and introduces new ones. That is why the management of these processes plays a primary role.

1. The first step to resolve the issue of management - formation the list of requirements. They are formed on the basis of ideas about the result of work from business owners and end users.

3. When the indicators are defined, it is necessary to analyze the processes by which they were achieved. This helps to outline options for improving the management system.

4. Control is achieved by monitoring the quality of the tasks performed and correcting for their implementation in accordance with the selected requirements.

Six Sigma Tools

In each organization, depending on its activities, an individual list of tools for analyzing and assessing the quality of work is selected, because if you do not carry out systematic measurements, it is impossible to track and manage dynamics.

As a basis for measurements, you can take either ready-made tools, or modify something for yourself. At the moment, 6 Sigma offers many tools to help you at every stage of your optimization project.

Examples of tools:

They help to assess the dynamics of changes in indicators for a product or service. To make the analysis clear, the graph indicates the upper and lower bounds permissible changes, as well as the average.

The coordinates in the graph can be indicated by individual indicators of any one parameter or their sum (the value that they all had at the same time). Line charts allow you to evaluate how processes have changed at certain intervals, thereby you can choose the most effective methods of work and management.

Analysis of errors.
The method makes it possible to assess how production problems affect the final consumer. V in this case the causes and consequences of errors are analyzed.

You can take the table as a basis for the analysis:

The table can be supplemented with columns for performers, defect assessment, etc. The number of columns is determined individually for the organization. The method allows you to anticipate the likelihood of future errors and determine which processes need to be optimized.

It is built in columns, each of which corresponds to an error, and the height reflects the frequency of its occurrence. This diagram helps you prioritize troubleshooting, development, and staff training. As practice shows and confirms the Pareto principle, 20% of erroneous actions lead to 80% loss.

Tree diagram.

Allows you to systematize the causes of failures. It is most effective to use commands after brainstorming on the topic "Causes of Problems at Work". It shows the interconnection of causes, their hierarchy, thereby helping to find the root of the problem, and not fight against the top.

The toolkit of the technique is large, and the described options are only a small part of the most popular tools from a large list. In each field of activity, the tools are supplemented, modified, and this list will constantly grow.

The Six Sigma development methodology is now gaining popularity. It allows companies to enter a new level of performance and thereby reduce costs, eliminate inefficient processes and implement procedures that lead to greater results. Implementation requires professionalism and tooling for a method to work effectively, which is why specialized organizations offer training programs and certifications to master it.