How Leading Companies Systematize Process Improvement

Many organizations struggle to improve core processes. At a minimum, process improvement requires governance structures to manage and coordinate improvement projects, methods for identifying and prioritizing improvements, approaches for assessing risk and embedding controls into a process, and measures for assessing and tracking improvements over time. This is hard work, but the many benefits are worth the effort.

This article highlights the best practices that emerged from recent APQC research on process programs and process improvement initiatives. To increase the impact of process improvement work, organizations should be sure to consider the following:

• Selection criteria for prioritizing improvements
• Practices that reduce improvement program and project risk
• Strategies for sustaining improvement
• Metrics for tracking the impact of improvements