7 process improvement methodologies to improve efficiency

If businesses consistently stayed the same over time, many of them would collapse. Innovation requires change, and if businesses don't change to meet customer demands, they won't achieve much growth.

This is why many organizations use some form of process improvement methodology to adapt their processes to customer demands. In this article, we'll explain what process improvement is, walk through seven methodologies you can use, and help you determine which approach works best for your team.

What is process improvement?

Process improvement is a systematic approach where teams evaluate and refine their existing workflows to achieve better results. Organizations use these methodologies to:

• Increase productivity: Eliminate redundant steps that slow teams down

• Streamline workflows: Create smoother handoffs between team members and departments

• Adapt to change: Respond quickly to evolving business needs and market conditions

• Boost profitability: Reduce waste and optimize resource allocation

Why process improvement matters

Investing in process improvement delivers measurable benefits across your organization:

• Operational efficiency: Streamlined workflows reduce costs and help your team deliver higher-quality work with less friction.

• Competitive advantage: Teams that adapt quickly to evolving customer expectations and market shifts are the ones that thrive.

• Employee engagement: When teams regularly evaluate how they work, they become more invested in finding better ways to achieve their goals.

7 types of process improvement methodologies

There are seven different business process improvement methodologies your team can use to help reduce inefficiencies. The methodology you choose depends on why you want to improve your processes and what you're looking to improve.

1. Six Sigma methodology

Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that aims to minimize variation within the end product. Developed in 1986 by American engineer and Motorola employee Bill Smith, this process uses statistical data as benchmarks to help business leaders understand how well their processes work. A process is considered optimized if it produces fewer than 3.4 defects per one million cycles.

Six Sigma is often used in manufacturing because it helps minimize defects and inconsistencies. The goal is to optimize for consistency, which ultimately leads to customer satisfaction.

There are two main processes used in Six Sigma: DMAIC for existing processes and DMADV for new processes. This article focuses on DMAIC.

What is the DMAIC process?

DMAIC is a Six Sigma process for optimizing existing processes. DMAIC stands for:

• Define the opportunity for improvement.

• Measure the performance of your existing processes.

• Analyze the process to find defects and root causes.

• Improve processes by addressing root causes.

• Control any improved processes using a change control process to assess future performance and correct deviations.

The bulk of the DMAIC process improvement happens during the analysis stage. Teams use a fishbone diagram, or an Ishikawa diagram, to visualize the possible causes of a product defect. The head of the fishbone diagram states the initial problem, while each rib lists categories of issues that can lead to it.

2. Total Quality Management (TQM)

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a customer-focused approach that emphasizes continuous improvement over time. This technique is frequently employed in supply chain management and customer satisfaction initiatives.

TQM relies heavily on data-driven decisions and performance metrics. During the problem-solving process, you use success metrics to decide how you can improve a process.

Here are some key features of TQM:

• Customer focus: The end goal of TQM is always to benefit the end customer. Ask yourself how that process change may affect end consumers' experience of your product.

• Full-team involvement: Unlike other process improvement methodologies, TQM involves the entire team, not just production. You may end up optimizing business-centric processes like sales and marketing to benefit the end consumer.

• Continuous improvement: Making small changes to continually optimize processes helps your team adapt when external circumstances change.

• Data-driven decision making: Continually collect data to analyze how processes are performing. This data can help identify areas where inefficiencies may exist.

• Process-focused: The main goal of implementing TQM is to improve processes. While Six Sigma minimizes defects, TQM works to decrease inefficiencies.

3. Lean manufacturing

This form of process improvement goes by many names, with lean manufacturing being the most common. It may also be referred to as Lean production or just-in-time production. Defined by James P. Womack, Daniel Jones, and Daniel Roos in the book "The Machine That Changed the World," Lean highlights five main principles based on the authors'experiences at Toyota manufacturing.

The 5 principles of lean

1. Identify value

2. Value stream mapping

3. Create flow

4. Establish pull

5. Continuous improvement

4. Continuous improvement (kaizen)

The Japanese philosophy of kaizen guides the continuous improvement model. Kaizen was born from the idea that life should be continuously improved, allowing us to lead more satisfying and fulfilling lives.

This same concept can be applied to business. As long as you are continuously improving, your business can become more successful. The goal of continuous improvement is to optimize activities that generate value and eliminate any waste.

There are three types of waste that kaizen aims to remove:

• Muda (wastefulness): Practices that consume resources but don't add value.

• Mura (unevenness): Overproduction that leaves behind waste, like excess product.

• Muri (overburden): Too much strain on resources, such as worn-out machinery or overworked employees.

5. Plan Do Check Act (PDCA)

The PDCA cycle is an interactive problem-solving method used to improve processes and implement change. PDCA was created by Walter Shewhart when he applied the scientific method to economic quality control. W. Edwards Deming later expanded on Shewhart's concept and applied the scientific method to process improvement.

There are four main steps to the PDCA cycle:

• Plan: Decide on the problem you would like to solve, and create a plan to solve it.

• Do: Test and implement the plan at a small scale.

• Check: Review how the actions in the Do stage performed.

• Act: After reviewing the test results, decide whether to implement the change at a larger scale.

PDCA is an improvement cycle. These steps can be repeated until your team reaches the desired result.

6. 5 Whys analysis

The 5 Whys analysis is a root cause analysis technique used to identify the source of a problem. Gather a group of stakeholders who were involved in a failure, and one person asks: "Why did this go wrong?" Repeat this question approximately 5 times until you reach the root cause of the issue.

A 5 Whys template can help structure this process, so teams capture answers consistently. The 5 Whys analysis aims to identify issues within a process, rather than human error.

Here's an example:

Problem: There was an increase in customer complaints regarding damaged products.

1. "Why did this happen?" Because the packaging was not sufficient to protect the products.

2. "Why was the packaging not sufficient to protect the products?" Because the team testing packaging did not test past a certain level of stress.

3. "Why did the team not test the packaging further?" Because the current standard processes indicated that the testing was sufficient.

4. "Why did the current standard process indicate that this testing was sufficient?" Because this process was created for a previous product, not the current one, which is being returned damaged.

5. "Why wasn't there a new process for the new product?" Because the project template for launching new products doesn't include stress testing the new packaging.

The team asked "Why" until they identified the process error that needed to be fixed, adding a "stress test new packaging" step into their product launch template. When working with stakeholders on processes like this, it's important to identify the issues and develop next steps together.

7. Business process management (BPM)

Business process management, or BPM, is the act of analyzing and improving business processes. Businesses grow and shift over time. Processes that worked when your team was small may not scale to make your team as efficient as possible, sometimes requiring business process reengineering.

BPM helps teams identify bottlenecks, automate manual work, and develop strategies to improve inefficiencies. There are five main steps to business process management:

1. Analyze: Look at your current processes and map them from beginning to end. This is commonly known as process mapping.

2. Model: Draft out what you want the process to look like. Ideally, you'll have found any inefficiencies in the first step.

3. Implement: Put your model into action. During this stage, it's essential to establish key success metrics to gauge whether the changes made were successful.

4. Monitor: Decide whether or not your project is successful. Are the success metrics you identified in step three improving?

5. Optimize: As the process evolves, continue to look for inefficiencies and optimize as you go.

How to choose the right process improvement methodology

Selecting the right methodology depends on your specific goals, team culture, and the nature of the problems you're trying to solve. Consider these factors:

• Your primary objective: Focus on reducing defects? Try Six Sigma. Eliminating waste? Lean manufacturing. Fostering incremental change? Kaizen is your best fit.

• Scale of improvement: Large, complex initiatives benefit from Six Sigma or BPM. Smaller, faster improvements work well with PDCA or 5 Whys.

• Team experience and resources: Six Sigma requires specialized training. Kaizen and 5 Whys are more accessible and can be implemented without extensive preparation.

You don't have to choose just one. Many organizations combine methodologies to create a hybrid approach. For example, Lean Six Sigma merges the waste-reduction focus of Lean with the quality-improvement rigor of Six Sigma.

Manage process improvements to increase productivity

As a team lead, one of the most valuable things you can bring to your team is greater transparency and better workflows. When used effectively, process improvement increases your team's productivity and drives operational efficiency.

Work management tools like Asana help you put process improvements into action by:

• Standardizing processes with reusable templates

• Streamlining workflows with automation

• Keeping your team in sync with real-time visibility

Get started today and see how Asana can support your process improvement initiatives.

Frequently asked questions about process improvement methodologies