Paul Sloane in his article Rearrange The Process talks about a simple way to look at innovating your processes and bringing in efficiency in the same. He sites renowned examples of MacDonald’s and Tesco who have successfully used this technique to innovate. He also sites on-line check in for airlines as another example of re-arranging the steps in check in process and making it simpler both for the customers and airlines.
You can experiment re-arranging the steps, combine a few steps or may be divide a step into two. A famous Indian example of dividing the task to get better productivity is Arvind Eye hospital where the mundane tasks were taken away from Doctor’s hand and passed on to the supporting nursing staff, using Doctor’s time to do more operations in a given time.
Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division are the simple techniques that can be used to innovate the processes – core or enabling. In product Innovations also, you can try playing with the features of the product and try these techniques and may be you can come out with a more useful products.
