It’s impossible to improve a process unless it isn’t standardized [1]. M. Imai, famous Consulting Company’s President, emphasizes perfect ability of many Japan’s companies to involve its employees into the process of continuous improvement [2].
Michael Vader, a lean expert and the president of the «Leadership Excellence» International Consulting Corporation, stresses that «Standardized operational procedures for improving each process may be applied everywhere and in every industry» [3].
Standardization has a significant influence on the rate of development and level of production. Based on the latest achievements of science, technology, and practical experience, standardization not only determines in large part the level of production attained but also serves as one of the stimuli to progress in science and technology. Standardization is an important trend in modern technology, encompassing aspects of the design, production, and operation of machines, mechanisms, apparatus, and devices. With the scientific and technological revolution, the principles of standardization are applied not only to industry but also to other areas of human endeavor.
«Standards are not only technical questions. They determine the technology that will implement the Information Society, and consequently the way in which industry, users, consumers and administrations will benefit from it» [4].
Standardization knowledge provides you with a great tool to show you’re the benefits of adding structure to a process. It also explains how to standardize effectively [5].
Standardization is one of the instruments of lean production which enables to reduce variability in processes with the purpose of improving productivity and quality of goods. Standardization of production processes leads to: reduction of product defects up to 70 %,time of fulfillment of an order up to four times, production cycle up to ten times [6].
The principles of standardization extend to many areas of industry, education, and science. They help to optimize operations and therefore improve the bottom line. Standards improve quality and enhance customer’s satisfaction. For business, they are strategic tools that reduce costs by minimizing waste and errors, and increasing productivity. They help companies to access new markets, level the playing field for developing countries and facilitate free and fair global trade. International Standards bring technological, economic and social benefits. They help to harmonize technical specifications of products and services making industry more efficient. International Standards help business to increase market share, productivity and competitive advantage.
Process standardization enables leaders to achieve their performance dreams through continuous improvement of people and processes. Make a special point of asking people where the problems are with their processes, and change the methods on the spot. Рeople will be stunned to see that standardization doesn’t mean rigidity. They will also eventually see how the stability it provides makes improvement easier.
Process standardization is the ability to realize in practice, immediately as well as in the long run, a set of methods and conditions that make possible repeated high performances.
Process standardization helps communications service providers and utilities apply «lean enterprise» principles to standardize, consolidate and/or transform their redundant processes and systems across the company, leading to significant cost savings, operating efficiencies and risk reduction.
«Base management decisions on a long-term philosophy even at the expense of short-term financial goals. Make the long-term investments needed to generate value for the customer, society and the economy. Evaluate every function in the company in terms of its ability to achieve this. The starting point is investing in developing people for repeated long-term returns through kaizen» [7].
Process standardization enables leaders to achieve their performance dreams through continuous improvement of people, processes, management. Process standardization is a key benefit experienced in the private sector companies. Private sector companies can benefit from best practices. They adjust their processes to achieve greater efficiency [8]..
At the heart of many of the companies’ tools and management systems is standardization. Without standardization, nothing is ever done the same way twice. Process inconsistency leads to poor quality, unreliable lead times, low productivity, and even significant safety issues.
The absence of management standardization is more subtle, but presents every bit the problem that comes from having undefined processes.
Teams get stuck waiting for decisions that may or may not come. They don’t know where to go for answers, and they don’t know how to go about getting help. They don’t know what information to bring to meetings, or how to plan for budgets.
Hazards of non-standardized or non-existent process are: reduced quality, higher cost, wasted time and energy, poor or no documentation, inaccurate diagnoses, degraded service
The worst thing a business can experience is failed business results. Focusing more on the decisions that are made in planning systems and flaws in the process in regards to development of the system is where establishing standard business practices can be most beneficial [9].
Process standardization eliminates the time spent making decisions and doing analysis on routine problems. We normally focus on the waste associated with inconsistent outputs. The inputs are sources of waste as well.
Most people assume that you have to have a good process in order to standardize it. The opposite is actually true. Until you stabilize a process, you won’t be able to make it better.
If something is standardized, it must be followed. This means industrial discipline and it means enforcement by leaders. This is much easier to do if employees have a hand in developing the process in the first place.
Don’t standardize for the sake of standardizing. Make sure there is a reason. Busy work distracts you from important work.
If a standard process makes no sense, change it. Standard does not mean permanent [10].
Successful business process management is one of the major keys for an organization to become a market leader within today’s high competitive business environments
Today, practitioners often have to face a number of challenges during the standardization of business processes, and some processes can be standardized easier (with less effort) than others.
In service, customers need service organizations that can absorb the variety of demands. Standardization prevents the absorption of variety all too often.
Let us remember American management which has a long-established industrialized mindset in service industries. The trend started in post-WWII when the problem being solved in manufacturing was how to quickly provide products to a world that could only turn to the United States. This was because the competition (i.e., the rest of the world) had been devastated by the war. It didn’t matter how good the products were, so long as they satisfied demand.
Three questions made things quite simple for the industrialized mindset:
- How much demand?
- How long does it take to make things?
- How many people do I need?
As manufacturing competition recovered, Europe made the same mistake the United States is making today. It copied the “success” of American companies. One country stood alone: Japan, which looked at the problem of manufacturing differently with the help of several people, including W. Edwards Deming. Many Japanese manufacturers today enjoy success due to these folks.
One manufacturer stood out. Toyota, and the Toyota Production System (TPS), became all the rave as the company put the Big Three (now the Detroit Three) on their heels, culminating in the financial crisis in the 1970s. Taiichi Ohno of TPS fame became the new hero, and Americans have been trying to copy Toyota’s success ever since.
Service organizations, looking to repeat the success of the TPS, have started to adopt some of Ohno’s thinking. However, two problems remain:
1. The industrialized mindset
2. Copying always leaves you behind [11].
Taiichi Ohno, aprominent Japanese businessman said «Wherethere is no standard there can be no kaizen» [12]. This simply means that an improvement has to have a consistent starting condition to be able to come up with a better process.
Despite this obvious benefit to having standard systems, it is surprising how often people resist standardization in the workplace.
When you go into a store, you don’t see a price tag as something that is curtailing your ability to negotiate creatively. It is a time-saving convenience that you take for granted. But on the shop floor, you may see Standard Work as a barrier to using your brain, or you may see following a flow chart or checklist as too restrictive when helping a customer.
When your team is used to standardization, it becomes an extremely useful tool. Quality goes up. Predictability rises. Waste diminishes. Standardization improves quality, delivery, cost, safety, and morale.
Unfortunately, if your operation has been run free and loose for a long time, reining things in can be quite a challenge. People feel micromanaged. You come across as a tyrant. Employees get the sense you think of them as a robot.
With the expansion of the ChangeGear platform to include fully customizable modules, SunView Software is helping companies integrate their line of business processes with the ITIL-based framework. The modules have customizable workflow to match existing processes outside of the IT Organization helping to better align the business through standardization of practices.
These customizable modules can be configured to meet any line of business process need. For example, the Facilities department has many recurring projects that would require a consistent approach. One such facilities focused process could be the expansion into a new space within an existing office. This would require many of the same activities performed for a similar recent expansion of another office. By using an ITIL framework to build the workflow, it becomes consistently repeatable. It also can be more closely aligned with the regulatory reporting requirements most businesses face [13].
Forrester Research estimates that the use of nonstandard products can increase development costs between 5 % and 12 % and lengthen the development schedule by 12 % to 24 % for a medium-sized application project. A standards-based infrastructure also leads to a more stable environment because industry standards typically evolve slowly without rapid, disruptive changes. A standardized environment can also increase the reliability of infrastructure and reduce the mean time to repair because support staff have fewer products to master and start from known initial conditions for most trouble calls. It’s an effort worth embarking on because successful implementation of a multifaceted standardization project promises increased business agility, improved infrastructure flexibility and efficiency, and lower support and maintenance costs.
References:
1. Masaaki Imai, Process Standardization As a Key Benefit for Private Companies. — URL: http://www.labirint.ru/books/54441/
2. Masaaki Imai, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success. -.: «Alpina Publisher», 2009. — 280 с. — (Leading Corporations Management Models). — ISBN 978–5-9614–1163–8 URL:http://www.deming.ru/Books/Kaizen_Key.htm
3. Michael Vader, Lean Tools A Pocket Guide to Implementing Lean Practices. — URL: http://www.labirint.ru/books/63349/
4. Kai Jakobs, Standardization Information Technology Standards and Standardization: A Global Perspective. (Ed.), 1999. — URL: http://www.cimosa.de/Standards/ITSkj99.html
5. Standardization Lean Training on PowerPoint URL: http://www.velaction.com/standardization-lean-training-powerpoint/
6. Stanislaw Koltashov, Standardization of Production Processes. URL: http://www.leanschool.ru/meropriyatiya/2013/534.html
7. Jeffrey Liker, Liker Lean Advisors. - URL: http://www.jeffliker.com/#!books/cpbu
8. Jeffrey Liker, 4 P's Of Toyota Way. — URL: http://www.jeffliker.com/
9. Alex Repola, Why It’s Important to Standardize Processes. URL: http://qeh2.blogspot.ru/2010/02/why-its-important-to-standardize.html
10. Doug Hadden, VP Products. — URL: http://www.velaction.com/standardization/
11. Tripp Babbitt, When Standardization Is the Problem. URL: http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-column/when-standardization-problem.html
12. Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond Large — Scale Production.- Cambridge, Mass.: Productivity Press, 1988.
13. Martin Grobisen, Why and How to Use ITIL to Standardize Processes across the Enterprise. URL: http://www.business-software.com/blog/why-and-how-to-use-itil-to-standardize-processes-across-the-enterprise/
