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Often in your business workflow, you’ll notice that one stage or processcauses holdups that slow down the entire chain. This phenomenon is knownas a “bottleneck”. Long queues form, staff are missing task deadlines,and customers are unhappy.
Bottlenecks vary in severity, from temporary holdups caused by employeeabsence to more serious structural issues that need in-depth analysis tocorrect. Some bottlenecks may not even seem to be a “problem” as such,but removing them could help you to realise your full productivepotential.
Common business process bottlenecks
- Managers are taking too long to approve or sign off work, with staffwaiting for the go-ahead to start a project, or release a product to thepublic.
- Staff are lacking the necessary training to complete tasks on-time andefficiently.
- Customer service department is unable to deal with a high number oforders or enquiries.
- Dated or unsuitable software or technology that is not fit for purpose
- Lack of communication between departments or individual employees.
- Payments from clients or to suppliers not sent or received on time.
Problems arising from bottlenecks
- Low employee morale, some staff are overwhelmed by unmanageableworkloads, while others have little to do because they are waitingaround for work.
- Poor business reputation, from unsatisfied customers complaining aboutfalling standards of service.
- Lower productivity caused by delays and missed deadlines.
- Inability to grow as a business, due to having to deal with constantday-to-day issues, rather than plan and adapt for expansion.
Identifying the causes
Having a clear, structured overview of your entire workflow, with everybusiness process clearly defined is the first step in identifyingbottlenecks. You should know what your processes are, who carries themout, how long they should take and how they all relate to each other. Make a flowchart to visualise what you need to evaluate.
Talk to staff to see who is affected the most by process delays, andwhat they think would help. Concentrate on employees with too much ortoo little work. Think about customer service enquiries and complaints. What are customers consistently mentioning in their communication?
Look at productivity statistics. How long is it taking to provide aparticular service? Which departments are meeting deadlines and targets,and which are falling behind?
Take action
There are a wide range of possible solutions to a bottleneck, dependingon the issue. Hiring more employees, retraining staff, finding newsuppliers and taking on new technology are a few of the actions you mayneed to take to fix one particular workflow stage.
But if there is a fundamental problem with your workflow overall, andthe way processes relate to each other, then you will need to adopt neworganisational methods.
How SwiftCase helps
SwiftCase is a cloud-based, business process management platform thatlets you configure specific workflows to increase productivity and keepyour organisation running smoothly.
By breaking down your processes into distinct stages, and automatingtime-consuming tasks, you can clear bottlenecks and prevent themoccurring in the future.
If you’re interested in a free, no-obligation demonstration,get in touch today.
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