You might think that by now, after over two years of tough economic times, you've trimmed all unnecessary expense from your document operations workflow. But I'm here to tell you that I have yet to visit an operation where we didn't spy some opportunities to lower costs, reduce waste, improve productivity, or raise quality. There is always something.
How can that be? Operations Managers have already cut the staff to the bone, eliminated travel and training, re-negotiated service contracts, and done everything else they could think of to save money. What could they have missed?
The answer is different in every shop. Sometimes there are savings to be had in materials, equipment, or labor. Sometimes we'll find ways to decrease damaged documents and reprints. Or we could see chances to reduce postage expenses.
These are just a few examples of cost saving opportunities that are present, but not exploited. Often, improvement opportunities are not pursued for one of three reasons:
- The people working in the operation every day are too close. They tend to miss items because it's almost impossible for them to consider approaches that are different from standard procedures that have developed over the years. And because of staff cuts, the people who are left are fully occupied just getting the daily work done. There isn't time for workflow analysis, much less implementation of corrective action.
- There are tools or best practices in use by other organizations that could apply to your own situation, but your document operations team may not be aware of alternative approaches. This condition has gotten worse in recent years. Just take a look at the attendance figures at trade shows that provide exposure to new hardware, software, introductions to peers from other companies, and a chance to learn about innovative solutions. When companies restrict attendance at these events, a portal to the outside world is shut for many document professionals.
- Operations people feel powerless. They may see opportunities to improve but it requires cooperation and buy-in from several departments. Again, finding time to develop the relationships with those other areas of the company can be a problem. Additionally, Document Operations has historically played a minor role in corporate strategic planning in many organizations. They don't feel that they have much of a choice but to just do their best to deal with whatever work comes in their door.
As an independent consultant, I've seen all these conditions. Fortunately for the organizations with whom we work, we can help them overcome those obstacles. Being an outside expert gives us more freedom to communicate across departmental boundaries. Being unencumbered by the practices of the past, we can probe for the reasons behind why print and mail jobs are processed as they are. We often find out that decisions made long ago were based on conditions that no longer exist - it's time to start over and design a workflow based on the current requirements and restrictions.
And, we do get to go to those trade shows - it's part of our job. So we get exposed to a wider range of solutions than the average document industry professional who rarely gets to leave the office. We've also got other clients and numerous contacts across the industry. They share their success stories with us. We can help our customers identify and evaluate hardware and software products and connect them to the people that can be of assistance.
And finally, advice that comes from recognized experts just seems to bear more weight with corporate management than suggestions made by in-house resources. When the results from one of our assessments is printed and bound, and the highlights are presented in person, executives take notice. They then have a study that has been prepared by an independent and unbiased organization in their hands. They have paid for it. Not taking action on the recommendations can still happen, but it is a lot more difficult to justify.
Continuously finding more cost savings in your document workflow is a tough assignment. But in-house operations that are targets for outsourcing, and print and mail service providers that are competing for customers in a very competitive and low-margin environment need to be as lean as possible to survive. A one-time investment in an overall document workflow assessment can pay for itself many times over and perhaps even save jobs.
