Reducing Costs

Profitability comes through increasing revenue and exercising cost control. In our complex organisations, gaining control of costs involves more than centralised purchasing policies, and extends to include all aspects of time expended in completing our internal processes.

Process Faliure Analysis

Techniques for understanding failure in current processes and the benefit achievable in improving these include Process Mapping, Leaky Pipe and Activity Based Costing.

Processes link the purchasing and selling activities of the company and determine both the profitability and the service capability of the company

In a competitive environment profitability & service capability are constantly under pressure to improve.

The key to this improvement is process renewal

Process Renewal

This reduces costs added during the process and increases profitability. Re-work and scrap can be identified and reduced, multiskilling can optimize employee input, and combined or reduced processes can rapidly reduce the cost of operations. Service capability is strongly influenced by the cycle time: that is the minimum time the process takes to turn inputs into outputs and thus how long it takes to turn an order into revenue.

Coote Harvard can help you deliver process renewal to improve both profitability and service capability. Analytical tools such as Process Mapping, Leaky Pipe and Activity Based Costing enable us to understand the detail of how processes work and how well current outputs are meeting customers’ requirements. The information gathered enables us to identify bottlenecks and failure points, and the benefit achievable from redesign.

Process Mapping

Process mapping associates the activities of the operation with a visual plan that shows the process end-to-end. Frequently the processes that are actually followed are very different from those that exist in collective understanding in the organisation. In mapping processes, we involve the people who perform the work and record exactly what they do, and the time it takes, to gain an accurate understanding of what is happening. From here, we can assess the opportunities for reducing cost, removing unnecessary steps, or altering the process to achieve new goals.

Leaky Pipe

The Leaky Pipe Process Effectiveness Tool determines how many input activities proceed through the Customer Service process and result in a customer output without requiring intervention along the way. It therefore identifies the (profitability) leaks that need to be reduced to minimise extra and unnecessary cost in those process interventions. It is frequently a salutary exercise to learn how effective your process is on a regular basis, and how much ‘firefighting’ is needed to prop up the delivery of service to the customer.

Activity Based Costing

Activity Based Costing establishes the real cost of performing each step in a process, and helps to assess the cost of running a process, and the savings possible in reducing the time taken or removing particular steps. It is essential if cost needs to be removed from the operation, since it provides a true baseline to enable future decisions.

Streamlining Processes End-to-End

Service capability is determined by the cycle time: the minimum time the end-to-end process takes to turn inputs into outputs, and thus how long it takes to turn an order into revenue’

Streamlining processes & integrating systems

The Coote Harvard Approach to Process Renewal

At Coote Harvard we help companies deliver process renewal to improve both profitability and service capability.

Through determining the level of rework and size of bottlenecks, we can redesign and set goals to improve process performance.

Though every project is different, many involve introducing new technology, retraining employees, improving management information or reducing process steps.

We ensure that improvements are measurable, baselined at the start and monitored throughout. Outcomes are achieved in practice. In a competitive and cost sensitive environment, profitability & service capability are constantly under pressure to improve.

Process Renewal is an important key to competitive advantage

Why is this so?

• Reducing cost added during the process increases profitability.
• Removing rework and scrap, optimising multiskilling, and combining or reducing operations can rapidly reduce the cost of operations.
• Service capability is determined by the cycle time,the minimum time the process takes to turn inputs into outputs and thus how long it takes to turn an order into revenue.

Why We are Successful

We know that radical change is never easy.

We try to ensure your teams’ full involvement in producing ideas for improvement to generate confidence and ensure their views and experience are reflected. Through them, we deliver seamless integration into existing operations and organisation. Through a short study phase, we can estimate and cost potential improvements.