What do process improvement consulting firms actually do?
The phrase "process improvement consulting" sounds vague, and some of the vagueness is earned. Some firms hand over a thick report and leave. Others change how your teams work day to day. It helps to know what good work looks like before you hire anyone.
At its simplest, a process improvement consultant looks at how work moves through your organisation, finds where it slows down or goes wrong, and helps you fix it.
Finding the inefficiencies and bottlenecks
The first job is diagnosis. A consultant talks to staff, watches how tasks are done and follows a piece of work from the moment it arrives to the moment it is finished. The aim is to locate the bottlenecks: the approval that sits in an inbox for three days, the data typed into two systems, the department that waits on another to start.
ISL describes this as identifying operational inefficiencies and bottlenecks. It sounds obvious. In practice it is hard for people inside the business to see, because they have worked around the problems for years.
Turning findings into practical solutions
A list of problems is not much use. The useful part is a set of changes your team can actually make. Our consultants provide strategic insight and practical solutions, and the emphasis is on the second word. Solutions have to fit your staff, your budget and your systems.
That might mean removing a step, changing who is responsible for a decision, writing an SOP so a task is done the same way each time, or in bigger cases redesigning a whole process. Where the existing design is the problem, business process re-engineering is the more thorough route.
| Process improvement | Business process re-engineering | SOP development | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main aim | Remove bottlenecks and waste from how work flows | Redesign a process where the design itself is the problem | Write down one agreed way of doing a task |
| Scale of change | Targeted fixes | Larger and more thorough redesign | Documenting and standardising the process |
| Typical starting point | Delays, rework and duplicated effort | A process that no longer fits the business | Inconsistent results between people or shifts |
| What you get | Practical solutions your team can make | A newly designed process | Written, tested procedures and trained staff |
Reducing waste and improving productivity
Waste in a business is rarely a pile of scrap. It is rework, waiting, duplicated effort and effort spent on tasks that add nothing for the customer. Improving workflow across departments reduces it, and productivity rises without asking anyone to work harder.
Building your team’s skills to keep improving
Good consultants do not want you dependent on them forever. ISL works with organisations to equip their workforce with the skills and knowledge to work more efficiently in their daily processes. This is the thinking behind our capacity building work, and it links to a broader idea we explore in capacity and self sufficiency.
How process improvement connects to ISO standards
Continual improvement is built into management system standards such as ISO 9001. A firm that understands both process improvement and ISO can help you fix how you work and then formalise the result. Our management systems consulting does this, so that the improvements become part of how the business is run instead of a one off project.
Choosing between process improvement consulting firms
A few questions separate the useful firms from the rest. Do they spend time with your people before proposing anything? Will the solutions be tailored to your business? Do they commit to timelines and deliverables? Do they transfer skills to your team? And is the price realistic for a business of your size? Smaller companies often assume consulting is out of reach, which is why we wrote about affordable management consulting in Africa.
You can learn more about how we work on our About page, or contact us for a first conversation.
Work with process improvement consulting firms that fit your business
ISL is one of the process improvement consulting firms helping organisations in Nairobi, East Africa and beyond find bottlenecks, cut waste and improve workflow. Our management systems consulting ties the improvements into how your business is run. Call +254 794 66 99 60 or email info@islglobal.net.