Overview

SatiStar’s consultants are process experts. Everything we do begins with an in-depth examination of how work is performed by creating detailed process flow diagrams. The process flow diagrams (PFDs) can then be used for training purposes, documentation, process discipline, process troubleshooting, process improvement and breakthrough, ISO9000, and more.

Scope And Deliverables

All business operations are comprised of processes designed to add value by transforming inputs into useful outputs. Inputs may be information, materials, labor, energy, and capital equipment. Outputs may be a physical product (possibly used as an input to another process), a service or information. Processes can have a significant impact on the performance of a business, and process improvement can improve your organization’s competitiveness.

The first step to improving a process is to develop a profound understanding of how it currently works. Then, analyze it in order to understand the activities, their relationships, and the values of relevant metrics. The next step is to envision changes to the process steps that will result in improvements. Finally, process improvement culminates in implementing the changes.

Most organizations are really concerned about achieving rapid improvements in cost, quality, flexibility and speed. The following lists some of the ways that processes can be improved.

• Reducing work-in-process inventory.
• Adding resources to increase capacity of the bottleneck.
• Improving the efficiency of the bottleneck activity.
• Moving work away from bottleneck resources where possible.
• Increasing availability of bottleneck resources, for example, by adding an additional shift.
• Minimizing non-value-adding activities.
• Redesiging the product for better manufacturability.
• Improving flexibility by outsourcing certain activities.
• Enhancing flexibility by postponement, which shifts customizing activities to the end of the process.

Dramatic improvements can often be made at minimal cost when the bottleneck activity is severely limiting the process capacity. On the other hand, in well-optimized processes, significant investment may be required to achieve a marginal operational improvement. Because of the large investment, the operational gain may not generate a sufficient rate of return. A cost-benefit analysis should be performed to determine if a process change is worth the investment. Ultimately, net present value will determine whether a process “improvement” really is an improvement.

SatiStar’s personnel are first and foremost business process experts. Our core strength is our fundamental knowledge of how business processes work.

Click here to read more about process flow diagrams.

What We Will Do

• We begin by rapidly creating process flow diagrams of your current business processes by interviewing the people who actually do the work.
• The success of your business is important to us, and we recognize that your employees have “real” work to do. So, we’ll work around the schedules of your employees in order to create these PFDs. Each of these PFDs usually requires a brief (half-hour) interview with the individual who actually performs the work.
• We’ll then post these highly visible PFDs in an area that is accessible to your employees, in order to obtain input from all of the other people in the department who perform the same function.
• Our use of flip-charts and post-it notes speeds up the process considerably while making it visible to everyone.
• We’ll then collect input from everyone else who touches the process being studied. This ensures that the diagrams represent reality, and creates buy-in from employees at all levels (because they helped create the PFD).
• These process flow diagrams are then used as the basis for the ISO9000 documentation of procedures, and/or of the starting point for re-engineering the business processes.
• In a process improvement effort, we’ll facilitate your employees in then using various additional coloured post-its to identify their ideas for the parts of the processes that work well, that don’t work well, and their ideas for improvements.

What We Need You To Do

• Provide us with the contact information of your key personnel.
• Authorize each of these personnel to provide SatiStar with information that we will use for our work.
• Ensure availability of these personnel for us to be able to obtain the required information in a timely fashion.
• Provide access to relevant personnel (those who actually do the job) to enable SatiStar’s personnel to map out the key business processes. This is typically ½ to 1 hour per area.
• Provide access to company documents and records.
• Provide a working area for SatiStar’s personnel.
• Ensure adequate participation in the process analysis activities.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

SatiStar's Experience Makes The Difference!