Insights

Before replacing that spreadsheet with a shiny new system, find out why your team created it in the first place.

A comprehensive SOP isn't automatically a good SOP. If people can't quickly find what they need, all that extra detail may actually be getting in the way.

Having an SOP isn't the same as having a useful SOP. Pick one, give it to someone who actually does the job and see what they say.

Automation can make a process faster. But if the process doesn't make sense in the first place, you might just be automating waste.

A five-minute task doesn't sound like much. But frequency, volume and the number of people doing it can turn a tiny inefficiency into thousands of hours.

Processes accumulate steps over time. If nobody can explain why something is still being done, it might be worth asking whether it needs to be done at all.

Your process documentation might show how work is supposed to happen. That doesn't necessarily mean it's how the work actually gets done.

One minute walking to a printer doesn't sound like much. Multiply it by 30 cases a day, 10 employees and a year of work, and things start to look very different.