In the Part 1 of this case study, I wrote about the importance of planning. After the establishment of Project and Communication plans and project scope, the first thing we had to do was to assess the current state of our client’s operations in each country by analyzing their SOPS.
Due to the technically of the SOPS, we had all Japanese SOPS translated into English by a professional translation service. I will take the time here to mention a valuable lesson I have learned over the years when dealing with different languages. Even if your team has bilingual staff, for technologically advanced materials, use a translation/interpreting firm.
We then documented the SOPs as visual workflows. Having a visual representation of processes reduces ambiguity and makes it easier for all to understand and ‘see’ the way things are done. This will help with any gap analysis later because you can actually see what is missing.
Through doing the current state analysis, we were able to identify discrepancies between what was written in the SOPs and what was actually being done by employees. The client was able to see various disconnects in the work being performed and make the decision to change SOPs or work practices.
After gaining comprehensive knowledge of our client’s current state, our next step was to find out what was missing from what they were doing. Although, they had success with established methods, they were processes that they knew were cumbersome and seeing them visually documented made it easier to recognize ways to improve or streamline operations.
In any project there are always the needs, the wants and the nice to haves. Often times a client doesn’t know specifically what all their needs are but once established it is also possible to fulfill their wants and some of their nice to haves within budget as well.
A current state is not always easy to establish. Corporations and their day to day workings is not a static thing. It is ever changing. But the process of trying to understand and document a client’s current state is vital because it provides the parameters of learning their business and once you know where they are, it is only then that you can help them get to where they want to be.
Stay Tuned for Part 3 of Global Initiative, Global Solution on Friday.
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