Workflow optimisation. Document-driven workflows. Workflow automation. Personal workflow management. They’re popular buzzwords, and the tricky thing about buzzwords is that the more popular they become the less meaningful they tend to be.
The fact is most businesses do have very real workflow problems. These time wasters often go unaddressed due to inertia (“it’s the way we’ve always done things”) or because the people in a position to make changes don’t even know there’s an issue.
The phrase inherently means different things to different people, so talking in abstract terms about improving workflows can be confusing. It could be as simple as streamlining Paid Time Off (PTO) requests & expense reports or as complex as optimising an assembly line manufacturing process.
In order to illustrate how an inefficient workflow can be improved, we’re going to focus on a specific example that just about every business can relate to: accounts payable.
The Scenario
Let’s take a look at how invoice processing works within an example small business, which we’ll call Fake & Sons Furniture, LLC. As a local outfit with three locations in the greater metro area, Fake & Sons sells a lot of furniture – but not so much that they can’t process AP manually.
However, all of that paperwork is incredibly time consuming & tedious. The son who handles the company’s finances spends most of his day dealing with it. What’s worse, he’s got a great mind for business & an imaginary MBA, so all that paperwork is wasting time that he could be focused on improving business strategy & the company’s bottom line.
How the Process Works Now
Finance is handled from the back office in the company’s main location, which means that all AP-related documents (invoices, delivery receipts, etc.) from the other locations must be sent over. This process has actually been modernised somewhat in the past few years – they used couriers before – but it’s still labourious. Here’s how it works:
Not only is this needlessly time consuming for all involved, it increases the potential for human error & security risk. If the employee makes a mistake or fills in the wrong section, the process has to start over from the beginning (assuming it’s even caught). If a paper copy is left on the printer tray or an email is sent to the wrong person, then sensitive company or vendor information could be exposed.
How the Process Should Work
With a simple accounts payable solution, Fake & Sons could cut out a lot of wasteful steps in that process. Here’s how it could work:
That’s it. No manual entry. No scanning, printing & re-scanning. Just scan the invoice & hit a button. The system is smart enough to identify & pull out all the relevant details like names, PO numbers, dates & monetary amounts. From there it’s all ready for processing, which can be done in just a few clicks.
If it’s under a certain threshold then Finance doesn’t care to see it, so the document is automatically approved & processed. If there’s an issue, Finance can route it right back to the originator so he or she can address it. All of this happens without the time, errors & potential security risks associated with manual entry in the original process.
Find Your Productivity Pitfalls
This is a simple example of what workflow optimisation means in concrete terms: taking a common repeatable process & making it more efficient – or even automating it. The challenges & solutions may look different for every business, but every business has opportunities for improvement.
Efficiency isn’t the only consideration either. No one likes feeling like their time or talent is being wasted. Chances are the people in charge of these tasks hate them but are unaware there’s a better way of doing things. Reducing busywork can have a material impact on morale & free up employees to focus on the work they were actually hired to do.
The biggest time sinks are often ancillary to the core business, meaning every hour spent dealing with a frustrating back-office system is essentially an hour wasted. Investing some time & effort to diagnose & address these workflow problems can pay off many times over in the long run.
Does your organization suffer from any of these productivity pitfalls? Ricoh can help you overcome them. |
