Step 7 of 7: Optimize Your Processes and Procedures for Dazzling Productivity
End wastes, failures, and losses from processes. Get time savings, movement savings, money savings, and any other benefit you want from your processes and procedures
When a process that is unable to constantly deliver high success rates it is an indicator that the process is a bad design for achieving its purpose. It fails because too much uncertainty and risk exists throughout the process. The uncertainties and risks turn into random failure events when opportunities present themselves. In such situations PWWEAM Step 7, process optimization, is used to find uncertainties and risks and remove them.
Recall in Step 5, the original maintenance shutdown work scoping process produced from 1% chance of successful completion (i.e. 99% chance of failure) to 90% chance of success (10% chance of failure). It was an unacceptably wide chance of success range. An 89% range of uncertainty is the result of an incredibly unreliable process. When the PWWEAM methodology was used to proactively find and remove risks, the chance of success range rose greatly to between 40% and 92%. The reengineered process design was far better than the original process, but it still had a fearfully wide spread of uncertainty.
Challenge your processes to give you what you want
When you want a process to be highly certain to produce the required outputs, the PWWEAM methodology puts it through an optimization analysis. If you want the process to take less time to complete, you challenge each step in the process looking for time savings in every task. When you want to reduce costs, you challenge each step looking for viable ways to save money in each task. Your questioning and challenging of process behaviors will uncover new opportunities. It will open doors to new possibilities for higher performance and productivity.
Using the process flowchart spreadsheet, you individually investigate each step and their tasks. You ask questions like, “What else can be done to improve the odds that this task/step will be done error-free?” Or “done faster,” or “done for less cost”, or “done with fewer resources”, or “totally eliminated from the process,” or “moved upstream to be done by others better placed to do the task right first time,” or whatever other optimization you might want from the process.
You will always get a list of new possibilities to improve your system and processes if you approach your investigation with questions for new ways to deliver more successes from every step.
To confirm the worth of potential changes, do a ‘what-if’ analysis by putting the suggested improvements into a Chance of Success Map to gauge the success gain that improvement ideas could produce. If after the optimization analysis, the range of process performance success is still unacceptable, you have a strong case to replace your poor process with a better one that is sure to deliver the performance you want.
Use PWWEAM methodology on your organization’s maintenance system to design & build excellent processes
This series of seven newsletters overviewed how to use the PWWEAM methodology to design and build a maintenance work order planning and resourcing process that ensures Maintenance Planners deliver comprehensive, useful maintenance work packs. The methodology is universally applicable to all organizations, and you can use the same proactive, holistic, 7-step approach to design and install improvements to your processes.
To turn an operation around you need effective, efficient systems with the right processes, procedures, and practices that naturally cause outstandingly reliable and successful processes. PWWEAM methodology lets you find new answers that get you to that level of success. Simply follow its universal 7-step approach to move your operation to the heights of operational excellence success. Here’s a quick recap of the seven steps.
Describe the outcomes required from the process and specify the individual steps to do to produce the outcomes. Layout the process steps on a spreadsheet and under each step describe the key procedural tasks to do to complete the step.
Write the full first draft procedure explaining each step’s tasks and include all the individual activities needed to complete each task.
Flowchart the process and procedure to show interactions along the process and with any external processes. Develop a deployment chart showing role responsibilities to do the work required in the process. Update the process and procedure as better understanding is gained in making the process effective and efficient.
Create a Chance of Success Map of the process in a spreadsheet and for each task in a step gauge the highest chance of its successful completion and its lowest chance of being successfully done. Identify all the risks that can arise in the step tasks to cause low chances of success.
Review ways to lift the least chance of success for each step by eliminating or preventing every risk to the successful completion of the step. Confirm the expected increase in the whole process’ chance of success with a revised Chance of Success Map.
Install the selected risk eliminations and risk reductions into the process and procedures, and also into all external processes impacting the outcomes.
Challenge your process steps to optimize them for more productivity, more profitability, more workplace successes. When your process can’t be saved, replace it with one designed and built to dazzlingly succeed.
For more information on designing and building highly successful maintenance processes and procedures with the PWWEAM methodology, get the Industrial and Manufacturing Wellness book from publisher, Industrial Press.
Invite others who you interact with at work to become a PWWEAM Substack subscriber so everyone can help create the utmost successful processes and procedures. Every week there’s insights to build highly successful processes with PWWEAM methodology.
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