PHS Consulting - Processes Case Study

This highly successful private company had expanded very fast, taking its employee base from only a few people to hundreds in only a few years. However, its internal processes had not kept pace. The same methods were used as for a very small company. Large numbers of new staff joined who did not have the across the board experience of the core of established personnel. Although there was tremendous goodwill, HO managers did not appreciate the reality of performing activities in branches and branch staff did not understand the needs of HO.

Modern process management techniques were introduced to document and improve core processes. Techniques such as flow charting, balanced scorecards and the use of non-financial KPIs are improving understanding of the whole process. Improvement techniques are now based on customer and process data instead of hunches and pet theories. Processes are starting to be owned and managed leading to greater co-ordination and consistent application, reinforced by use of the plan-do-study-act cycle to ensure that changes are properly tested before implementation Documentation is becoming more accessible and process deployment is much less haphazard now that it is being actively managed.

Although there is still a long way to go, the impact is already being felt. Formal process improvement methods have produced significant upgrading of performance. Systematic process thinking is now starting to flourish.