Ever stop to think how much you’re spending by over-processing the products and services you provide? If not, its probably because you don’t fully understand what over-processing is all about.
Over-processing is defined as all the extra effort people go through in order to deliver the product or service. It’s actually giving something away for no return. Let me give you some examples:
- Not having a well defined process where it takes more time to complete a task, product or service than it should
- All the extra signatures you require that add no value
- Policies that require you to do things that don’t make sense
- Band-aid solutions that fail to address the root cause
- All the extra time you spend at work just to get caught up on your job
- Making phone calls or writing emails to follow-up on backorders
- Moving material from one location to another
- Over analyzing a situation without taking action
- Conducting redundant inspections
- Requiring paper copies
- Maintaining antiquated or worn out equipment
- Repairing or reworking products
- Overcomplicating processes beyond what’s required
- Tighter design tolerances than required
Just think of all the added costs and time these conditions create! Many of these exist because of knee-jerk decisions based on a single complaint or issue.
Eliminating over-processing is not the same as shortcutting quality or service. It’s simply being conscious of ways to satisfy your customers without investing more time and money than necessary. One of the best ways to reduce the cost of over processing is to establish standard work, so all employees perform the task the same way. Another is to review each process, step by step, to identify where over-processing is occurring and what you can do to eliminate it.
So, how much extra effort are you going through in order to produce a product or deliver a service? What can be done to eliminate any of the added steps?