Key Points

• An operations process is a planning method that helps you organize all activities of a given project.
• Proper implementation of an operations process can see an increase in revenue and employee morale.
• The order of an operations process is vital to adhere to, make sure you don’t skip or neglect steps.

Is your organization using the operations process for planning? When planning a project, there is no shortage of moving parts to keep in mind. However, by utilizing something like the operations process, you can simplify the initial planning stages and keep your project on track. How do you use it? Read on and find out.

What Is an Operations Process?

An operations process is simply defined as the organizational method for getting a task accomplished. It consists of four distinct primary activities, which are planning, preparing, executing, and assessing.

3 Benefits of an Operations Process

There are several benefits to having an operations process in place when you embark on a task. Here are 3 of them:

1. Meeting Goals

Having a defined process in place gives you a greater likelihood of meeting a goal than if you just jump in without a plan.

2. Higher Quality Product

Putting a focus on the four aspects of the process helps ensure that you are putting a high-quality product out into the world.

3. Customer Satisfaction

If you have properly planned, prepared, executed, and assessed your product, you are much more likely to have satisfied customers.

Why Is the Operations Process Important to Understand?

Every organization needs to have an operations process in place when taking on every major task for a variety of reasons:

1. Maximizing Profitability

With a process in place, you are less likely to encounter unforeseen costs.

2. Preparedness for Future Runs

In production, implementing this process can help your business understand where improvements can be made through constant assessment.

3. Happier Employees

When there is a set plan in place, it is more likely that your employees will be less stressed with the knowledge that there is a defined plan in place for reaching goals in the business.

An Industry Example of the Operations Process

A small toy company has decided that they want to make a new action figure, so they opt to do a trial run. To plan for it, they figure out what machines will be needed to produce it, who will supply the parts, what kind of funding a run will require, and so on.

To prepare, they secure the funding, pick their suppliers, and get the machines ready to do the run. Then, they execute the run. Finally, they assess the run to figure out what improvements can be made before officially launching the action figure.

Why It Matters

So, why should you consider using the operations process? Any project is going to have a degree of planning behind it. However, by having a tried and true method of approaching things, you can increase your chances for success as a whole. As such, sticking to the operations process plan can be beneficial for your organization.

3 Best Practices When Thinking About the Operations Process

There are a few key practices to keep in mind when thinking about this concept and how it relates to your business:

1. Keep in Mind the Order

Remember the order of the activities when it comes to this tool. These steps are plan, prepare, execute, and assess. You will likely be doing more than one of the steps at once, but you should not completely move on to another activity step when the prior is not thoroughly covered.

2. The Six Sigma Process as Part of the Operations Process

The Six Sigma methodology of define, measure, analyze, improve, and control or DMAIC can be utilized at every stage of the operations process.

3. Understand that the activities will likely overlap

While conducting the activities in the operations process, you will find that the characteristics of one may overlap with another. This is not unusual, as you will find the activities parallel each other as required by circumstances.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

So, we’ve covered the operations process in detail, but what about other tools? You might want to dive a little more into the 6Ws, which can be an invaluable way of solving problems while keeping costs low. This method approaches problems with a set of 6 questions, aimed at getting to the root of a problem.

Further, you might want to look into special cause variation, which can reveal any extreme outliers in your production. Occasional values deviating from your baseline aren’t a reason to be concerned, but outliers can lead to wasted time and money.

Moving Forward

Having the operations process as an organizational tool when embarking on a task helps ensure the task’s success. Now that you know how it works, you may find all sorts of applications for it. Planning, preparing, executing, and assessing are activities that are all vital in operations.

Once you get the hang of this tool, you will find that its implementation can help almost every aspect of your business run smoother.