Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Simplified
When every door is closed 🧩 Essentials for continuous improvement 🧩 PDSA/PDCA & Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) vs. Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) 🧩 The 3E Process Lifecycle
So many processes work great on paper but fall apart when put into practice.
That’s because process designs are static. What makes them dynamic is constant, proactive updates to reflect the ever changing reality. Without those updates - i.e. without Continuous Process Improvement - every process becomes obsolete in no time.
So, how do we continuously improve our processes?
Read on 👇
⛔️ NOT the Way to Go
During the height of Corona, I flew home, rented a car, and after a week of driving around, I went back to the airport to return it. Simple enough, right? I parked the car in the designated return area - which was the car park under the airport - and took the lift up. I expected to walk into the terminal and out towards the subway, but that’s when things got interesting.
The lift doors opened, and there was this massive barrier all around, with two very helpful signs at both ends saying, “NOT an entrance!” Now, when you’re searching for the entrance, you really don’t care about all the places that are NOT an entrance - that list is pretty long and useless. I was left with the only option to take the lift back down to the car park and live there forever.
So, I did the only thing I could think of: I walked in through the "non-entrance." Immediately, a staff member jumped up because I’d crossed through a restricted area. He started yelling, “That’s NOT the entrance!” I said, “Fantastic. Where IS the entrance then?” He had no idea - his entire job was to guard the non-entrance. He wanted me to go back to the car park, and I refused to enter into this labyrinth they’d created. Not knowing what to do with me, he called security.
Thankfully, the security guy was someone I could reason with. He explained that the barriers were up because of Corona to manage the flow of people - which I already knew. The problem? They only planned for people arriving to pick up cars, not returning them. I broke the flow of their human traffic plan - except there were no other people around to disturb. In the end, he kindly escorted me through the actual airport entrance (and exit, as in this case).
Now, you might think that this is an isolated case because of Corona and so on. But airports are my absolute nightmare - such a process mess, every single time! My husband already jokes that I should carry a stack of business cards to hand out whenever we fly, but that can easily deforest a region the size of the Amazon. It might be better to just tattoo a QR code on my forehead 🙄
🔄 Continuous Improvement Process (CIP)
We don’t have to look very far to see examples of the above incident everywhere around us. Governments and state administrations often stack new laws, rules, and regulations on top of old ones, without much regard for how they fit together. Add some time into the mix and we have a perfect mess of contradictory steps, impossible to follow. For instance, you need a water supply to get permission to build a house, but you can’t get connected to the water supply network unless you already have permission to build the house. Catch-22 🧐
That said, continuous process improvement is essential. Nothing stays static, and processes must evolve to keep up with the current reality. So, how do we ensure that each process improvement indeed improves things? These three aspects must be in place:
The process must cover all possible use cases (unlike the airport example above). This must be true when first designing it, but it also applies when changing it.
All process interfaces must be identified and reviewed (unlike the water supply example above). Again, this must be true when first designing it, but any time a process gets changed we must ensure that:
the list of process interfaces is updated accordingly, and
all interfacing processes are also changed to remain consistent.
After implementing the changes, we must verify that our implementation solves the initial problem. Too often we get buried in the details of what we do, so we need this final check from a high-level, end-to-end perspective.
⚙️ PDSA/PDCA Cycle
I’ve already discussed the PDSA/PDCA Cycle (see here), but now I’d like to dive into more detail.
PDSA/PDCA stands for Plan → Do → Study/Check → Act:
Plan: Enable the execution.
Do: Execute.
Study/Check: Analyze the execution for things to improve.
Act: Improve; then start from the beginning.
The PDSA/PDCA cycle is the essence of the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP). It was developed during the industrial age and originates from manufacturing. This means it applies to the continuous improvement of both processes and physical products.
Below is a breakdown of the steps, distinguishing between process and product, along with the responsible roles:
Notice also the name Continuous Improvement Process (CIP). This is different from Continuous Process Improvement (CPI). CIP refers to the ongoing improvement of everything - products, processes, services, etc. In contrast, CPI focuses solely on improving processes.
And here’s where the confusion begins: Every process, by nature, involves a cycle of continuous improvement. That’s the general logic - we plan to do something, we do it, then we check on how we’ve done it, and we improve. But each process also handles a different type of work product*, such as a process, project, program, product, service, etc. Business Process Management focuses mainly on the processes, which is why it’s important to distinguish between the process and the process work products.
* NOTE: If the process roles are the subjects in each process, the process work products are the objects.
This layer of abstraction can be tricky to understand, but it becomes clearer once we start thinking about measurements and metrics (i.e. the Study vs. Check step) that show us what we need to improve:
As shown in the table, when checking the quality of a process work product, we focus only on that specific work product. However, to improve the quality of the overall process, one data point isn't enough. We need measurements that provide insights into how to improve the process as a whole, ensuring that all work products improve as a result, not just a single instance.
♻️ 3E Process Lifecycle
Now that we understand the difference between CIP and CPI, let’s focus on the latter - how to improve specifically the processes.
The logic follows the PDSA cycle, but the first (Plan) and last (Act) steps overlap: improving a process for the next iteration means (re)designing it. My BPM colleagues and I often wrote the Plan step as Plan/Replan or Plan/Update, which led me to develop a simplified three-step lifecycle, which I call the 3E Process Lifecycle:
Establish
In this step, we design or update the process, ensuring that:
The process covers all possible use cases.
All process interfaces are identified and updated as needed.
Required measurements are put in place.
We also make provisions for the successful process execution, such as configuring the supporting IT systems, creating/updating documents, forms, templates, dashboards, etc.
Finally, we train those who (will) execute the process and inform any relevant stakeholders.
Certain processes (e.g. firefighting, first aid, security, flying planes) require extensive practical training and repetition. Communication, training, and overall alignment shouldn’t be neglected simply because we’ve hired professionals and they know what to do.
To start designing your processes, download my free Process Template.
Execute
In this step, we carry out the process as designed/planned.
Evaluate
In this step, we collect and analyze the data based on our established measurements, and we identify Opportunities for Improvement (OFIs). Then, we return to the Establish step to redesign the process, incorporating these OFIs.
Note that the 3E Lifecycle can also be used for services and other areas where we cannot fix the output once it’s executed, and especially if it’s already delivered (e.g. software). We can only fix the next iteration/instance of it.
And that's how we keep processes working in practice - by continuously updating and improving them as our reality changes. And by doing so, we also ensure end-to-end alignment, transparency, and efficiency.
Thank you for reading 💝
Till next time,
Irina
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