Efficient processes can either propel your business forward or hold it back in 2024.
Want some real-world examples? Think about Ford and McDonald’s. When Henry Ford cut the time it took to assemble a car by more than 75%, he transformed the auto industry and secured Ford Motor Company's success. McDonald’s later became a global fast food giant by streamlining their meal preparation process. That allowed them to offer affordable prices to customers.
However, inefficiency can be costly. NASA lost over $193 million when the Mars Climate Orbiter failed in 1999. It happened because of a miscalculation. A metric-to-standard conversion calculation error that their processes missed.
From complex systems to simple tasks, inefficiency could cost your business more than you realize. Addressing these inefficiencies could be the key to your next big success in 2024.
In this post:
Understanding Process Efficiency
Process efficiency measures how much output you get from a process compared to the time and resources needed to complete it. Efficient processes require fewer resources.
For instance, if 10 employees take two hours to make just one pizza, the process is highly inefficient.
Spotting and Fixing General Process Inefficiencies
No matter if you're delivering pizzas, producing medical devices, or servicing Jacuzzis, you can evaluate your business process efficiency by asking a few straightforward questions. These questions will help you identify inefficiencies and determine how to fix them.
Can Technology Speed Up the Process?
Many of our eLogii customers have asked themselves this exact question. Manually planning routes typically takes about eight times longer than using eLogii. Our software has helped logistics professionals and managers boost efficiency. That allowed them to focus more on strategic planning.
New apps, software, and mechanical systems are constantly emerging to help businesses complete tasks faster and more efficiently. However, you don’t always need to adopt the latest technology. Sometimes, you can improve efficiency by making better use of the features within the tools you already have. For instance, many small business owners lose time by repeatedly creating similar emails, forms, and reports from scratch. Setting up templates for documents with repetitive elements can save a significant amount of time.
Is Your Process Consuming Too Many Resources?
If your current process requires a lot of resources (like work hours, tools, or supplies), it’s important to evaluate each step to identify potential improvements. For example, is a task taking you 30 minutes when you could finish it in 10 if you weren’t constantly interrupted? Sometimes, boosting efficiency can be as simple as muting notifications on internal communications for 10 minutes.
This question can also help you tackle more complex processes that involve various types of resources.
Take Crocus, for example. They’ve become the UK’s top gardening website, offering customers the largest selection of plants from around the world. For Crocus, investing in technology was essential to managing their operations more efficiently.
Crocus enhanced its delivery process by implementing route optimization software. This cut down route planning time by 75% and boosted driver productivity by 65%. Additionally, customer service efficiency doubled. Now, Crocus can give customers precise, on-time updates on task status and ETAs, leading to better customer service and saving hours each day on customer calls.
Is Any Part of Your Process Outdated?
As technology and customer behavior continue to change in 2024, your business risks falling behind. You need to regularly evaluate process efficiency, identify bottlenecks, and seek areas for improvement. This isn’t just about making sure your current processes run efficiently. It’s also about keeping up with market trends and customer expectations.
What worked well 10 years ago might now be too slow, too inefficient, or not provide the best customer experience. Consider Blockbuster Video as an example. Blockbuster’s failure to adapt to a shifting market led to its downfall in 2010 when Netflix’s streaming and DVD mailing services took over. You can ensure your processes remain current. Just stay informed about market trends, conduct customer surveys, and understand your clients’ needs.
Is There a More Effective Approach?
This is the essential question every business must ask to ensure their processes are efficient. By setting ambitious goals and consistently seeking improvements in both existing and new processes, you’ll pave the way for long-term success.
Regularly questioning every process with this in mind is crucial for creating a business environment that fosters success. If the answer is yes, find a better approach and implement it—quickly. Improvements can range from helping one manager work faster with the right software to completely revamping an assembly line with new technology.
4 Services to Boost Process Efficiency
Fortunately, many products and services are available to help businesses run more efficiently in 2024. Here are a few designed to enhance efficiency and give companies a competitive edge:
1. eLogii: Route Optimization Software
What is it? eLogii is a smart solution for route optimization, customer communication, and order management.
Who is it for? It’s designed for businesses of all sizes that need to manage field workers, including delivery and pickup services, maintenance or service companies, and long-haul trucking operations.
What are the benefits? eLogii speeds up scheduling and route planning by eight times and helps reduce operating costs by over 51%.
With eLogii, you can:
- Calculate routes for multiple drivers and hundreds of orders with various constraints in seconds
- Choose between weekly or daily planning modes
- Quickly adjust schedules and routes when orders change or a driver is unavailable
- Track drivers and workers live along their routes
- Keep customers informed and ensure they’re ready at the right time with real-time order tracking and ETA updates
2. Eduflow: Training and Onboarding
What is it? Eduflow is a platform for designing customized learning, training, and onboarding courses.
Who is it for? It’s ideal for HR and onboarding teams, as well as businesses that need to train employees on internal processes.
What are the benefits? Eduflow simplifies training and education processes and serves as an effective onboarding tool. According to a 2007 study by The Wynhurst Group, “new employees who went through a structured onboarding program were 58% more likely to remain with the organization after three years.”
With Eduflow, you can:
- Create comprehensive onboarding checklists
- Make the learning process easier for new hires while saving time for managers and onboarding teams
- Improve your new hire retention rate
3. AdEspresso: Digital Advertising
What is it? AdEspresso is a software for managing digital advertising.
Who is it for? It’s designed for businesses and professionals who need to create, manage, or track ads across digital platforms like Facebook, Google, and email campaigns.
What are the benefits? AdEspresso makes it easy to manage digital marketing across multiple platforms from one centralized location.
With AdEspresso, you can:
- Benchmark performance and clearly identify which ads and platforms are performing better or worse
- Save time by avoiding the need to switch between different platforms
- Run more profitable marketing campaigns for your business
- Create ads for Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads, and conduct split tests (testing multiple versions of an ad) across platforms
4. Teampay: Managing Team Spending
What is it? Teampay is a software solution for managing distributed team spending.
Who is it for? It’s ideal for businesses of all sizes with team members who need to make purchases like gas, supplies, or professional development using company funds.
What are the benefits? Teampay allows employees to buy what they need for their job without waiting for supervisor approval or reimbursement. It also frees up time for leaders and project managers by reducing the number of small tasks they need to handle during budgeting.
With Teampay, you can:
- Automate parts of the spending approval process
- Make essential business purchases within your existing workflow
- Set and customize spending limits
- Automatically upload purchase data to the general ledger
- Understand the reasons behind purchases without needing to follow up with employees for details
Unlock the Benefits of Process Efficiency
Improving just one process can boost your bottom line and provide your business with greater flexibility in 2024. For example, leading furniture manufacturers use 3D printers to produce furniture or smaller parts and prototypes in-house. By integrating advanced technology into their production line, these companies save time, cut costs, and gain the freedom to experiment with new prototypes.
So, ask yourself: Where can my business enhance process efficiency? The answer to this one question could lead to remarkable results.