Process optimisation for SMEs: a practical approach

In practice, optimising processes in an SME means looking at one specific process where it actually happens, finding the biggest bottleneck and removing it in small steps. The assessment of the current state belongs at the workstation, not in the meeting room, because that is where the notes, side spreadsheets and follow-up calls become visible that no organisation chart shows. Software comes later, once it is clear what it should simplify.

What does process optimisation mean for a small or mid-sized business?

Process optimisation in a small or mid-sized business means changing recurring workflows so that they run with fewer detours, fewer follow-up questions and less duplicated work. Think of order intake, purchasing materials, recording working hours on a construction site or invoicing after a service call.

Unlike a large corporation, an SME rarely has a dedicated process management team. Workflows have grown over years, often around individual people who know exactly how things are done. That works as long as those people are around. Process optimisation in an SME is therefore not about introducing a textbook model. It is about making existing knowledge visible and defusing the points where the workflow regularly gets stuck.

Why should you map the current process at the workstation rather than in a meeting room?

In a meeting room, people describe how a process is supposed to work. At the workstation, you see how it actually runs. The real problems almost always sit between those two versions: the note next to the keyboard with item numbers on it, the private Excel list maintained alongside the ERP system, or the phone call to the warehouse because the stock level in the system is wrong.

Mapping the current process at the workstation is not a big project. It is enough to accompany one person through a real case and write down what they do, which programs they open, where they wait and whom they ask. Nothing is judged along the way. Anyone who feels watched and criticised will show the official version, not the real one.

• Notes, sticky notes and printed lists next to the screen
• Data read off one program and typed into another
• Personal spreadsheets that only one person understands and maintains
• Phone calls or messages to get information that should already be in the system
• Waiting for an approval, a signature or a call back
• Walks through the building, for example from the office to the warehouse, just to check something

How do you find the bottleneck in a process?

A bottleneck is the point in a process where work piles up. Improving any other step achieves little as long as the bottleneck remains, because work then simply piles up in front of it faster. So look for the bottleneck first, not for the step that looks most outdated or would be easiest to change.

• Piles: where do orders, delivery notes or emails sit waiting to be processed?
• Follow-up questions: where do people regularly have to ask because something is missing or unclear?
• Single points of knowledge: without whom does nothing move, especially during holidays?
• Rework: where do things have to be corrected because they were entered or passed on incorrectly?
• Double entry: where is the same information entered more than once?

In practice, the bottleneck is often not a technical issue. Frequently it is an approval that only one person may give, or information that reaches the next step too late. Bottlenecks like these can sometimes be solved with a clear rule, without any new program at all.

Which processes are a good place to start?

A good starting point is a process that happens often, involves several people and that everyone already knows is causing friction. A process that rarely happens yields little experience. A process involving only one person is easy to change but rarely shows where hand-overs between departments get stuck.

• From quote to order: how does an enquiry get from the phone or inbox to an order confirmation?
• From order to invoice: how do completed work, materials and hours end up on the invoice?
• Goods receipt: how are deliveries checked, booked and released for production or shipping?
• Service call: how does the job reach the technician, and how does the report get back to the office?
• Leave and working hours: how are requests submitted, approved and passed on to payroll?

These processes touch several parts of the business. Many waiting times and follow-up questions arise at the hand-overs between office, warehouse, workshop and field service, often where information is transferred by hand from one medium to another. How to find such media breaks systematically is covered in a separate article.

How do you approach process optimisation step by step?

1. 01Choose one process that clearly causes frustration and define its boundaries: where does it start and where does it end?
2. 02Map the current process at the workstation, with the people who do it every day, using real cases.
3. 03Sketch the process on a single sheet: steps, people involved, programs used, hand-overs and waiting times.
4. 04Name the bottleneck, the one point where most work gets stuck.
5. 05Check whether a step can be dropped or simplified before talking about software.
6. 06Implement one small change and observe it in daily work for a while.
7. 07Review the result together with the people involved, and only then decide on the next step.

Why do small steps work better than one big transformation project?

A big transformation project changes many things at once. If something does not work afterwards, it is hard to tell which change caused it. Small steps can be checked one at a time, rolled back if necessary and discussed with employees. The business keeps running in the meantime, without everyone having to learn a new system at once.

Small steps also build trust. When the warehouse manager sees that the first change actually takes work off their plate, they are more willing to join in on the second. A big project that delivers nothing visible for a long time, on the other hand, easily loses the support of the people who are supposed to use it in the end.

How do you measure success without turning it into a numbers game?

For most SMEs, a simple before-and-after observation is enough. A KPI system with dashboards is usually too much at the start and tempts people to improve numbers rather than processes. Before the change, write down how you would recognise an improvement, and look at exactly that again after a while.

• How long does a case sit before someone works on it?
• How often do people have to ask about a case?
• How often is the same information entered more than once?
• How often does something have to be corrected or reissued?
• What do the people who run the process every day say?

What mistakes are common in process optimisation?

• Software is chosen before the process is understood, and the old detour is simply rebuilt digitally.
• The process is only discussed with management, not with the people who carry it out.
• Improvements are made in many places at once, and afterwards nobody knows what worked.
• A new rule is introduced but never written down, and it disappears after the next staff change.
• Nobody checks after the first change whether it actually holds up in daily work. If you want to digitalise afterwards, keep to the order: simplify first, then digitalise, then automate.

How NDVDL takes over process optimisation in your business

NDVDL does not start with a software proposal but with a visit to your business. We come to the warehouse, the workshop or the office, or ride along with the field team, and have the people who handle the process every day show it to us. You then receive a written proposal: what can be simplified without technology, where an interface between existing programs is enough and where a custom solution would make sense.

Implementation happens in small steps while the business keeps running. Afterwards NDVDL remains responsible: we operate and maintain the software, the interfaces and the IT infrastructure underneath. You have one permanent contact person and do not have to mediate between several vendors when something does not fit together.