Any process, any enterprise and any organization overcomes various stages in the course of work, the end result of which, one way or another, is to achieve the main goal. In their desire to achieve their main priorities, which were originally the prerogative of the entire complex (production, commerce, education, logistics, etc.), managers are looking for the most promising and priority options for implementing their tasks. The existing management system sooner or later loses its qualification level against the background of new developments, new implementations, innovative changes in the development of a particular industry. That is why the heads of enterprises and organizations are well aware of the importance and significance of the need to keep up with the times and keep up with the specifics of the constantly transforming and improving development process of a particular segmentactivities. Whether it is commerce, production, industry, education, logistics - in any case, sooner or later, it is necessary to resort to organizational or technological optimization of management processes at a particular enterprise.
Concept
Optimization of any process is a set of effective methods and ways to improve the flow of this very process in order to obtain a faster, more optimal and better result. That is, optimization is a concept meaning an increase in efficiency, a synonym for the word “improvement”. To make the meaning of this definition clearer, it is necessary to trace the features of optimization on a specific example.
Let's say that the employees of the garment factory department work together at their site, going to shift six days a week and working nine hours. The productivity of their labor noticeably decreases in the late afternoon and their performance becomes less productive towards the end of the week, when the physical capabilities of workers dry up. Accordingly, the volume of work done by them decreases, the quality of its performance worsens, as a result of which the demand for manufactured products falls, and after it, the overall level of income of the garment factory. A rationally thinking manager who directly supervises these employees, having noticed such a negative trend, should immediately take measures to optimize the production process. To do this, he needs to draw up a plan to improve the efficiency of work at this production site and be sure to take into account all the nuances that accompany the process. Tofor example, it is necessary to calculate what the costs of the enterprise will be if a third person is taken out to help the workers or if the girls are offered to work in shifts with an increase in daytime hours and a decrease in the number of exits per month. So, putting a third person in assistant seamstresses, it will be possible to achieve an increase in the speed and volume of work done by one third. And if you save on the wages of a third employee and take two girls out in shifts every other day, over the weekend they will have the opportunity to gain strength and work much harder and faster on working days.
And so it is in any industry segment - emerging problems in the process of functioning of any enterprise require their mandatory elimination by drawing up a specific action plan aimed at optimizing the workflow as a whole.
Goals and objectives
Like any procedure applied by the management of an enterprise or organization in the course of their direct activities (whether it is an educational budgetary institution, a commercial trading company or an industrial complex), a program to increase production capacity is necessarily aimed at achieving specific goals and objectives. Optimization of processes in an enterprise of any sectoral field of activity is characterized by the main key points:
- increasing company productivity;
- improving the quality of service for potential customers and visitors;
- improving market competitivenessservices provided;
- modernization of the fundamental processes of the production cycle;
- increasing the firm's profitability;
- assessment of the ratio of existing labor and physical resources with the cost of their maintenance;
- business expansion (if necessary).
Naturally, the main and peremptory goal of any company operating on a commercial basis will be making a profit. Accordingly, the tasks and objectives of optimizing the processes of managing trade business activities will be aimed exclusively at increasing the efficiency of production capacities and increasing sales.
When it comes to the budget structure, here the emphasis is on improving the quality of work of employees within the organization itself. For example, the optimization of the educational process or the optimization of the educational complex (preschool, school, university) as a whole should be aimed at improving teaching methods, attracting only highly qualified specialists and teachers, changing the structure of the curriculum of the specifics of teaching in order to maximize the return on students. Here, the point is to make the learning process easier, simpler, clearer for students, but at the same time, the efficiency factor should remain at the same level or even increase.
Methods
It goes without saying that in order to achieve the set goals and objectives, it is first necessary to develop a set of relevant activities thatwill directly contribute to obtaining the desired result in the end. For this, appropriate methods for optimizing processes at different levels are being developed. In other words, to achieve what you want, you need to think about ways in which this desired can be obtained.
Naturally, depending on the direction of activity of a particular enterprise or organization, the methods of optimizing work processes in each particular company differ. But in general, different ways to improve the efficiency in the functioning of companies of different industry structures are still aimed at the same priority areas in development.
- Exclusion method - provides for the elimination of those external and internal factors of reproduction that act as obstacles and obstacles and prevent the company from increasing its profitability.
- Simplification method - involves reducing the level of complexity in the structure of the production (sales, educational, logistics) process by dispersing the main amount of work into separate segments and sections.
- Standardization method - characterized by the introduction of new programs, innovative technologies, fundamentally different techniques, products, components and stages in the promotion of the workflow.
- The reduction method is due to the need to reduce production, resource, labor, spare, financial costs.
- The acceleration method - provides for the need to reduce time losses, as well as the introduction of a parallelengineering, simulation, rapid sample design and workflow automation.
- Method of change - the most failed areas that slow down the production process must be replaced with fundamentally new, effective and efficient ones. Poor-quality materials should be replaced with a good product, an ineffective technique should be replaced by an effective operational apparatus, etc.
- Method of interaction - all work at the enterprise should be carried out in a well-coordinated team united by a single goal and idea. The interaction of employees at different levels of hierarchical subordination and joint productive work will help to realize the goals and objectives that are set for the staff as a whole.
To understand how you can achieve the optimization of systems and processes in the most priority areas of activity, it is necessary to dwell on each of them in more detail.
In control
Decision-making is the most important component of the management complex in any enterprise, whether it be manufacturing, trading or budgetary. Any optimization of processes in the organization somehow involves the involvement of the human factor. How the work process will be built, and how human resources will interact in this process, determines the productivity of the company as a whole. Well-designed management and the ability to implement effective methods of functioning in the management process as a whole will not only optimizethe structure of relationships between employees, but also to increase the profitability of the enterprise as a whole.
So, what methods can be used to achieve the productivity of management as the main tool for managing an enterprise?
- Ensuring easy manageability - the simpler the structure of interaction and hierarchical subordination of some employees to others is formed, the faster and more fruitfully all processes will proceed as a whole.
- Introduction of new proposals to increase the quality indicators of manufactured products in an existing management system.
- Assistance in reducing such an indicator as the dependence of the enterprise on the human component - meaning the transition to automated labor systems.
- Mandatory establishment of control over the results of the enterprise, as well as a subsequent analysis of its profitability, based on the assessment of specific factors.
- Minimizing costs and expenses in those segments where it is most rational.
- Planned and logically substantiated division of responsibility and corresponding powers between the functional departments of the company.
- Carrying out a total check for the repetition of the same tasks performed by different departments in order to avoid the irrational distribution of working time and functional responsibilities.
What is the main goal of optimizing management processes? The fact that a plan of measures for the introduction of productive methods andthe elimination of inefficient activities allows you to reduce the costs of the company as a whole, without prejudice to the interests of employees.
In production
The fundamental rule of a profitable enterprise and efficient production is to increase the difference between the cost of manufacturing a product and its selling price. That is, if we talk specifically about a manufacturing enterprise, then the whole point of the work here is to ensure that the price of the final product justifies the costs associated with its production. And the greater the difference between costs and cost, the more profitable and productive production is considered (of course, in the case when the price of one unit of the finished product is higher than the costs required to manufacture it).
How is it possible to optimize production processes? What methods are used to increase its effectiveness?
- Restructuring of the cost accounting system is the principal and most important component of the optimization process. Only a competent and correct approach to retraining and redistribution of costs can bring production to a new level.
- Calculation and analysis of the current cost of production - we are talking about the calculation of the cost of raw materials, the wages of employees of the enterprise, payment of utility services, depreciation of equipment, etc.
- Transforming the production cycle - identifying critical moments in the production cycle and eliminating factors that hinder the process.
- Modernizationequipment - replacement of old, fully depreciated work equipment with new technical equipment will make it possible to increase the efficiency in production by several times.
- Increase in production capacity - expansion of production serves as the basis for increasing the profitability of the enterprise based on the acquisition of new opportunities.
- Workflow automation - By reducing the cost of paying wages to additional staff hired, the management of a manufacturing plant has the opportunity to save a significant amount of money.
- Identification of the optimal list of purchased raw materials - an analysis of the really necessary stocks, which are acquired by the enterprise for the production of the finished product, helps to identify exclusively priority areas (the best-selling batches) and focus on them.
- Waste minimization - to optimize costs, it is necessary to use recyclable materials, use recycling facilities, not throw away waste that is quite suitable for recycling and reuse.
- Construction of their own electrical substation - large enterprises spend huge amounts of money on supplying workshops with power. Building our own distribution power plant will make it possible to reduce these costs to a minimum. However, it is worth considering that such opportunities are inherent only to large manufacturers.
In commerce
Trade enterprises, as well as manufacturing enterprises, strive to increase theirefficiency in order to attract large investments and increase net profit from sales. Commercial business optimization is manifested mainly in the following methodological steps:
- correct organization of planning;
- forecasting and market research;
- occupying the right niche in the market of goods and services;
- identifying the needs of a potential buyer;
- replacing unprofitable suppliers with higher priority ones;
- purchase exclusively payback goods;
- additional demand stimulation (advertising);
- expansion of the product range (extremely rational);
- correct pricing;
- improving marketing and product sales.
Commercial enterprise, like no other, is primarily aimed at making money and making a profit. Therefore, the optimization of sales processes is aimed directly at increasing the profitability of a commercial company.
In Pedagogy
Preschool educational institutions and kindergartens, being budgetary institutions, suffer from conservative methods of conducting the educational process no less strongly than non-state structures. Here, teachers have to work not with material products of final production, but with the knowledge, skills and abilities that they can and should put into the minds of the younger generation. The level of knowledge that the current pedagogical educational system provides today is naturally regulatedexisting GOSTs and prescribed rules. But how effective is today's teaching? And what does the increase in the efficiency of the pedagogical process depend on?
Optimization of educational activities is often aimed at:
- activation of channels of perception - children's acceptance of specific information and its active assimilation;
- development of a set of measures to attract increased attention of children to the educational process and learning new skills;
- introduction of the latest methods of education that increase the involvement of children in the educational process;
- using visual examples to quickly consolidate the information received and the ability to think associatively;
- use of operational testing;
- children taking part in the direct preparation of some aspects of the lesson;
- efficient time management.
Among other things, the optimization of the work of educators in kindergartens is achieved by constantly improving their qualifications, supplementing their own knowledge with the latest ideas and the specifics of teaching in preschool institutions. Only a competent and qualified teacher can put information into the development of children correctly, intelligibly and correctly. And this, in turn, is the main goal of any kindergarten.
In education
No less high are the requirements for optimizing the educational processes of school and post-school education. Teachers of general education schools and university professors need even more frequent recertification than teachers of preschool institutions. Whatare the fundamental aspects of optimizing the activities of teachers and lecturers in the classroom?
- Work on ensuring the correct primary perception of educational material - in order for students (students) to be interested in the material presented by the teacher, the latter needs to work hard and think about how to improve the presentation of a new topic. After all, it is the degree of student involvement in the work process that determines how he will learn the material in the future.
- Assimilation of acquired knowledge - the mere ability to convey the topic of the lesson to the audience of the lecture is not enough for knowledge to take root in the minds of students. Therefore, the teacher (teacher) is obliged to build his practical exercises with the obligatory demonstration of easy, simple and understandable examples. This greatly increases the ability of students to remember the new information received.
- Applying acquired skills - conducting all kinds of experiments in workshops or homework in the form of creative application of acquired knowledge is considered an effective technique in optimizing the fixative stage in mastering the topic.
The main goal of optimizing the educational process is the quality presentation of the material by the teacher and the optimal use of his abilities to increase the efficiency of the students' assimilation of new information.
In logistics
Large logistics centers involved in transportation, cargo transportation and communication with contractors also require mandatory measures to optimize logistics processes. What does shedirected?
- Planning operations based on the ratio of time and financial indicators, focusing on the motto "time is money".
- Active use of the latest information technologies - the use of compact laptops and other gadgets to communicate with carriers, freight forwarders, customers.
- Systematic calculation of financial and labor resources for the transportation of goods from point A to point B, based on the assessment of the profitability and profitability of such transportation.
- Minimization of risks during the transportation of cargo, building a system of deprecation in case of damage to cargo due to the fault of the carrier or forwarder.
- Minimizing the risk of damage to cargo due to temperature or time conditions (purchasing cold stores, observing the rules for storing cargo in the form of perishable goods).
In the organization
Optimization of technological processes is very closely related to properly organized work at the enterprise as a whole. The effectiveness of its functioning depends on how the organizational structure of the company is built. And proceeding from the fact that the structure of the company is entirely based on employees and the duties they perform, the most important organizational task of any company is the optimization of personnel. These include:
- reducing the cost of the employer to ensure labor activity;
- increasing the actual qualifications of employees;
- labor automation - replacement of physical work by machine;
- getting rid of inefficient employees - downsizing;
- improvement of the personnel management system.
Here is only a short list of those points that are fundamental in the reorganization of personnel management. But they reflect the key aspects that contribute to the achievement of the main goal of optimizing the processes of the organization in the enterprise - minimizing costs.
