Efficient processes vital to every successful company and significantly impact the productivity of every individual employee. Optimized processes for data acquisition and information transfer are just as essential here as the rapid detection and elimination of disruptions in the workflow.
Established companies usually have fixed structures and processes in place, and rarely rebuild them from scratch. Instead, they make minor adjustments to increase productivity and efficiency while decreasing operational costs. This method is known as process optimization and leads to continuous improvement along the entire value-chain.
What is business process optimization?
As already touched on in the introduction, process optimization is the act of altering a method or process to optimize specific parameters. It is considered a major quantitative tool in industrial decision-making.
Business process optimization, in particular, describes the procedure of improving overall organizational efficiency by improving specific processes. It is part of Business Process Management (BPM) and often goes hand in hand with business process automation. The key goals here are:
Business process optimization, in particular, describes the procedure of improving overall organizational efficiency by improving specific processes. It is part of Business Process Management (BPM) and often goes hand in hand with business process automation. The key goals here are:
- Increased productivity & efficiency
- Decreased operational costs
What are typical examples of business process optimization?
First, let's take a look at the best-known objectives of business process optimization:
- Removing redundancy from workflows
- General streamlining of workflows, e.g. by applying new digital tools
- Improving communication methods
- Generating forecasts to predict and tackle change in time
The 4 steps of Business Process Optimization –
An example using the Scanbot SDK
Here is what the four steps to increase process efficiency could look like in practice:
1. Identify the process that needs to be adjusted
A company’s customers must physically mail forms to its headquarters. The management observes that this causes costs and delays processing.
The enterprise decides to optimize this process. First, it determines the optimization’s purpose and sets measurable goals. Here, the aim is to reduce cost and processing time to pre-defined values (benchmarks).
2. Analyze the current process
Those responsible review the process in question with the desired results and performance benchmarks in mind. They identify areas where process restructuring can lower cost or turnaround time.
In our example, the management decides to replace mail with a modern Document Scanner SDK.
3. Implement changes
The workflow changes identified in step 2 are implemented to increase the overall process performance and efficiency.
Our example company’s customers no longer send paper documents to the headquarters. Instead, they scan them with the Document Scanner and transmit them digitally in real time. Additionally, the new process enables workflow automation via OCR recognition in the backend.
4. Monitor the results
The organization evaluates the performance of the revised workflow against the benchmarks (macro-level). On the micro-level, the process is continually adjusted and fine-tuned.
Our company observes that the new, digital form submission process meets the set performance goals set at the start.
Would you also like to optimize your business processes with state-of-the-art scanning features to profit from maximum efficiency and minimize operational costs? Don’t hesitate to contact our experts. We’d love to discuss your use case with you, and find the perfect solution for your enterprise. Let's talk.
