Process Improvement

To the uninitiated, terms like evaluation and metaevaluation might feel intimidating. But the truth is, informal evaluations are already part of your life. “We conduct evaluations every day when deciding what clothes to wear or what type of breakfast to eat,” explains Dr. Liliana Rodríguez-Campos (who prefers to be addressed as Liliana), an internationally renowned expert in this field and the director of USF’s graduate certification in evaluation. When you become a professional evaluator, you learn how to formalize the process to ensure your evaluation is credible and data driven.

By now, it’s clear that the Work from Home movement is here to stay. “The pandemic has started a revolution in how we work, and our research shows working from home can make firms more productive and employees happier,” explains a Stanford University economist in this CNN article. Even as more workers return to the office, hybrid schedules — which allow employees to work a few days a week from home — will remain common. Of full-time U.S. workers who can do their jobs remotely, 41 percent work a hybrid schedule.

For many businesses, the idea of improving processes and becoming more efficient is an appealing goal. While most professionals would agree that process improvement should be a priority for their business, there are a few common misconceptions surrounding the concept of business process improvement, or BPI, and how to implement it.

Let's explore what business process improvement is, how it can positively impact your business and common misunderstandings that you might have about BPI.

I have had the opportunity to work in the continuous improvement field for approximately 15 years. There have been some changes in the field: new theories, different ideas about how to improve processes, etc. However, one thing that hasn’t changed — the recognition that the primary goal of any continuous improvement effort should be to bring value to the customer.

What good can come out of office squabbles, customer backlash, and hurt feelings? Plenty, it turns out. Those internal issues are signaling something in your company’s processes and procedures that are inefficient or broken. Once you’ve identified those areas for growth, you can then apply process improvement principles to turn things around.

More and more organizations are committing themselves to process and continuous improvement. As this trend gains ground, you’re probably wondering if it makes sense to pursue Lean Six Sigma certification. It takes time and focus to earn a Yellow Belt, Green Belt, or Black Belt, so will this process improvement training pay off for your career and for your company? Will it really improve efficiency? And what about Lean Six Sigma certification: Is it worth it?

While the COVID-19 pandemic is winding down, there are a few positive aspects of this long, strange year that are likely to stick around. Chief among them are remote work, online training, and online resources, particularly in the process improvement arena. If you’re ready to upskill and explore new developments in the field, check out some of our favorite online Lean Six Sigma and process improvement resources.

When you’re juggling a million daily tasks, it’s tempting to think continuous process improvement in business is a nice-to-have goal instead of essential work. Here’s why you need to put it on the front burner according to business titan Bill Gates: “A lousy process will consume ten times as many hours as the work itself requires.” Be like Bill. Explore how a commitment to process improvement can actually save time, reduce costs, improve quality, and more – even if you’re not gunning to be the next Microsoft.

Business process improvement sounds like such an elegant, straightforward concept: You simply identify, analyze, and improve current business processes to strengthen performance, hit best-practice standards, and boost the end-user experience. When you’re done, you’ll enjoy higher productivity and efficiency while cutting down on errors and waste. What could go wrong?