What Is Process Improvement?

Process improvement involves examining the efficiency of business systems and finding ways to optimise them to align with your company’s goals. This continuous improvement approach is commonly used with Lean methodology, which focuses on eliminating waste and increasing efficiency. 

What is process improvement?

Process improvement is an approach businesses use to increase efficiency and engage in continuous improvement. It's a data-driven method for analysing and optimising business processes. To help you reach your business goals, you can implement the following steps to incorporate process improvement into your business.

1. Understand the current challenges.

The first step to improving your business processes is understanding how they operate. Mapping your business processes visually will help you understand how each step builds on the next. You’ll also want to identify the business goals and challenges you face, such as improving delivery times while having a limited number of vehicles in your fleet.

2. Analyse and determine areas for improvement.

Gather data on how your process is currently working. In the Lean process, any challenge you face will be linked to some form of waste. When analysing the gathered data, identify areas with waste, like inefficient scheduling or unused space in delivery trucks. Once you understand the root cause of the problem, examine why it occurs to design a solution for it.

3. Explore solutions and redesign the process.

Engage your stakeholders to explore potential solutions. Identify an action plan, then design a new process that takes all the data you gathered into account. Map the new process to make sure you’ve included every step. It’s also important to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) so you can measure success after implementing your changes. 

4. Change your process.

Implement your redesigned process and announce it to your stakeholders and each department affected by it. Ensure everyone is on board before rolling out the changes.

Process improvement techniques

Adapt the basic steps for process improvement using different project management techniques, including:

• Six Sigma

• DMAIC (Define, measure, analyse, improve, control)

• Kaizen

• Lean manufacturing

• PDCA (Plan, do, check, act)

• Kanban

• TQM (Total quality management)

Related terms

• Continuous improvement

• Change management

• Schedule plan

• Fishbone diagram

• Milestone

Learn more with Coursera.

Process improvement can help you analyse and optimise business workflows to eliminate waste and increase efficiency. It involves a continuous cycle of identifying challenges, analysing data, designing solutions, and implementing changes. 

Process improvement can help you achieve your project management goals. Consider earning the Google Project Management: Professional Certificate on Coursera to learn more about project management. This six-course, beginner-level series can be completed in as little as six months, helping you learn skills in career development, strategic thinking, change management, and more.