12 Days of PEXmas, Day 4: What kind of PEX projects should you tackle?

Yesterday we looked at how well regarded your process excellence endeavours might be within your company. Interestingly is also seems that this could well have a direct impact on the type of process excellence project you undertake. The level of understanding and regard with which process excellence is viewed, actually can determine whether your tasked with ambitious, far-reaching enterprise-wide solutions or quicker, simpler low-hanging-fruit in an attempt to demonstrate value and justify investment.

Our chart below, shows clear correlation between level of company buy-in and scope of the project undertaken.

Companies who are paying less attention to process excellence tend to be those targeting "quick-wins", the easy low-hanging-fruit. We can speculate that this is due to a need to continually justify the expense and resources used by the process excellence team. An increase in pressure to show deliverables in the short-term is likely to encourage behaviour that seeks out these quick-wins, possibly to the detriment of further reaching, long-term projects of greater value.

Furthermore, a company at which process excellence is given the highest priority tells an overwhelmingly different story. 69.44% of projects undertaken at these companies are enterprise-wide, indicating that by giving these departments room to breathe, they can properly plan and execute projects of far greater value, delivering longer term successes.

Also, age is a factor. Younger process excellence schemes will feel the most pressure to deliver. It is here that a few early quick-wins can help a team garner additional support and resources. It’s important in these initial months to demonstrate value to earn buy-in and support, once that support is earned, you would expect that company to move further up the table, thus being able to deliver longer-term projects of greater value to the business and their goals.

This January, Process Professionals at all stages of the journey will descend on Orlando for the largest global gathering of PEX Professionals in the world – PEX Week 2015. Here you’ll hear and learn from business leaders who’ve climbed this table in the past, and perhaps share stories with others just starting out and looking for those early quick wins.

For more information download the agenda below.

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