sethdford Process Improvement
Make work flow faster and cheaper by seeing end-to-end value, cutting waste, and attacking the bottleneck before polishing side paths.
When to Use
- Handoffs feel slow, queues grow, rework is high, or “we’ve always done it this way” blocks delivery.
Workflow
Wastes (DOWNTIME): Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Extra processing—label issues with these lenses. Value stream map: trace request → delivery; mark wait vs work time at each step. Theory of Constraints: find the bottleneck; improve throughput there first. Kaizen: prefer small, frequent tweaks over rare big-bang rewrites. Question each step: “Why do we do it this way?” Automate stable, boring steps once the process is sane.
Examples
Example 1: Deploy map shows 4-day wait for approval vs 20 minutes of build; first change is approval SLA and smaller batch size, not faster tests.
Example 2: Support triage has motion waste (swivel-chair between tools); consolidate intake before buying another analytics dashboard.