Webinar Recap
Host John Talman welcomes Jim Bradley, Nolan Consulting Group Senior Business Coach, to discuss how home service business owners and operators can implement lean process improvement, a business methodology based on eliminating wasteful activities and improving customer outcomes through continual improvement.
Implementing Processes: Lean thinking is a mindset shift, not a one-time reorientation. That’s why it’s important for business leaders to clearly outline the reason for the new way of doing things, along with how it ties to the company’s overall mission, vision, and value.
Identifying Waste in Your Processes: For Jim and his team, every job can break down into six key stages: Sales, Job Staging, Pre-Job Planning, Production, Completion, and Admin & Follow-up. Within each of these stages, teams should map the tasks and identify where the eight forms of waste show up and eliminate them: Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-processing, Over-production, Defects, Skills.
Overcoming Resistance to Chance: Any process change can be tough to implement across a business. So Jim suggest that you start with one key team, and implement, measure, and report the improvements they make with the rest of the organization. You can also use incentives, competitions, and scoreboards to make the change more fun, while communicating the benefits of the process change.
Accountability Through Technology: Jim shared that your tech stack can go a long way in reinforcing accountability between management and employees. He suggests using tools like CompanyCam to train employees and show real-life benefits of how something as simple as consistent documentation cuts down on the waste of unnecessary transportation and miscommication.
Jim shared a few stats to underscore how even the smallest continual changes can make an outize impact:
- 1 in 3 improvements has a financial impact
- 54% of improvements lead to better quality, helping businesses compete beyond pricing
- 33% of improvements increase safety for employees and customers
- 80% of improvement opportunities come from frontline employees
About the Speaker
Jim Bradley is a Senior Business Coach with Nolan Consulting Group. He has over 20 years of experience developing and executing targeted business initiatives that drive growth, achieve objectives, and enhance organizational profitability.
Jim has held several leadership positions in various industries, specializing in business planning, operations management, leadership development, change management and lean methodologies.
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