Cycle Time Reduction is the application of the principles and practices of continuous improvement to production and business processes as viewed through the lens of SPEED.
Cycle Time Reduction (CTR) focuses on improving or redesigning production and business processes. Dr. W. Edward Deming is quoted as saying “85-90% of an organization’s challenges are process-based and only 10-15% are people-related.” Therefore the greatest gains to an organization can be had by evaluating and improving its core processes. If the speed of these core processes can be reduced and the efficiencies increased, your organization will see immediate and significant return for your CTR efforts. Building speed into a process can be achieved by reducing non-value-added activities, redundancies, and/or waste, such as money, time, materials, and/or manpower … all of which equates to lost profits, lost customers, and decreased competitive advantage. We recently helped an organization identify and implement changes within a small business process which saved the organization $100,000 a month or 1.2M dollars a year. That hidden money has been a huge help to this company during recent times.
The difference between wasted and value-added time can be illustrated in a typical football game. The actual lapsed time it takes to play a regulation NFL game is approximately 180 minutes; however, the official playing time is 60 minutes. Believe it or not only 23 minutes are actually spent on running plays. That means that during a typical football game 88% of the game is spent on non-play activity. Is a portion of the 88% necessary for the successful outcome of a game? Absolutely. The coaching moments, play calling, and strategizing are certainly necessary for a positive outcome.
Football season is fast approaching so pay particular attention as you watch your favorite team. Watch and observe all of the activities taking place on and off the field, and really look to see what activities are truly value-added and what activities have no impact on the final score. Now, take and use that same perspective and apply it to the processes inside your organization or company. Where does your organization have non-value steps that if eliminated would positively impact your financial future?
