What is meant by business improvement?
Business process improvement, or BPI, works by identifying the operations or employee skills that could be improved to encourage smoother procedures, more efficient workflow and overall business growth. This process can also be referred to as functional process improvement.Performance improvement is measuring the output of a particular business process or procedure, then modifying the process or procedure to increase the output, increase efficiency, or increase the effectiveness of the process or procedure.Business process improvement
is a management exercise in which enterprise leaders use various methodologies to analyze their procedures to identify areas where they can improve accuracy, effectiveness and/or efficiency and then redesign those processes to realize the improvements. Business process improvement, or , works by identifying the operations or employee skills that could be improved to encourage smoother procedures, more efficient and overall business growth. This process can also be referred to as functional process improvement.
Business Improvement has been described as the process of a ‘thing moving from one state to a state that is considered to be better’, usually through some action or intervention intended to bring about that change and improvement.
The concept of improvement is important to governments and businesses alike, as well as to sports teams, charities and of course individuals. But what do we mean by improvement, and can it be given a general description or is it simply what it means to you, at that time?
In general, the term improvement means ‘gradual, piecemeal, but cumulative betterment’, which can refer to individuals, organisations or communities. Historically, improvement referred to land improvement, particularly the process of making wild land more suitable and useful for humans and crop cultivation. Sarah Tarlow, a Professor of Archaeology, has argued that the idea of improvement is so familiar to us today that it seems natural. It may seem natural, yet there are many challenges in identifying improvement opportunities, creating a strategy for improving the right things in the right way and developing a culture where improvement is seen as both positive and necessary by those who will deliver it. After all, those involved in improvement are people, and people are complex with their own expectations, hopes, fears, rules and ego. As the expression goes, ‘business is simple, people complicate it’, and some people can literally bring improvement strategies – and indeed businesses – to a stop!
Business improvement encompasses many theories and practices, for example business process improvement is a systematic approach to help an organisation optimise it’s underlying processes and procedures to achieve more efficient results. One approach to this is focused improvement, which is primarily about elevating the performance of any system, especially a business system, by working on eliminating its constraints. Performance improvement however focuses on measuring the output of a particular business process or activity, then morphing or manipulating – however slightly - the process to increase the output, efficiency or the effectiveness of said process, activity or procedure. Quality improvement on the other hand is one of the four aspects of the concept of quality management which is a profession in its own right.
In more recent years, the aspects of business improvement has widen to include such terms and activities as organisational change, employee engagement and culture change, and as Pete Drucker is so often quoted ‘ Culture eats strategy for breakfast’. Therefore not only must we pay attention to the analytics, strategies and processes of improvement, but also the softer side of improvement, meaning people, feelings, leadership, relationships and the environment for improvement.
What is an example of continuous improvement?
All of these and more are examples of continuous improvement. Continuous improvement is a method to make sure that your processes, methods, and practices are as efficient, accurate, and effective as possible.
Why performance improvement plan is important?
A great way to summarize documentation is through a performance improvement plan, which specifies your expectations for performance, establishes your definition of success, sets regular meeting with the employee to discuss their progress and explains the consequences for failing to meet and sustain improved performance.
For instance, the industrial revolution was one of the greatest turning points in modern business history. The moving assembly line was invented by Henry Ford in 1913 and was an example of taking a process, refining it and creating more product in less time with less cost to the manufacturer. The customer gets a cheaper product, the business makes more money - everyone wins.
Fast forward to today and the business process improvement model is a series of strings attached to other strings - no longer defined by its roots in manufacturing and agriculture. It has now expanded to include the software and service industries and has attached entirely distinct sub-cultures of thought such as improvement techniques and methodologies, and software systems dealing specifically with business process improvement through automation which quantifies current metrics in order to model future change.
