While many of our customers use Macro Scheduler for automating key business processes I would hazard a guess that a large number of people are using the tool to automate smaller tasks related to their own individual work. In themselves these tasks may not appear too important, and may not even be visible to the upper echelons of management concerned with improving efficiencies of larger systems. But, improving the efficiency of many small tasks can have a big impact on the overall profit and loss of a business.
In “Microdecisions for Macro Impact” on the Harvard Business Review blog, Tom Davenport talks about how small decisions made lots of times by many employees can have a major impact on the business. How these small “microdecisions” are addressed and improved can impact overall performance.
Tom suggests that one approach to improving a micro-decision is to automate it. Automation of a repetitive task not only speeds it up but removes the chance for error. It also frees up the employees’ time to work on other matters. This will come of no surprise to my regular readers and Macro Scheduler users.
As the article mentions, one simple way to improve micro-decisions is to create a checklist to ensure the worker does not miss any key steps. Another common approach is to draw up a flowchart. With Macro Scheduler Pro Enterprise we can combine flowcharts with automation. Macro Scheduler Pro Enterprise includes Workflow Designer which allows you to flowchart a process graphically. This is a great way to analyse and document a business process. Unlike regular flowcharting tools however, once the flowchart has been created and refined you can then start adding real code to it. You then have a documented process which can actually carry out the task for you. The documentation evolves into the solution. If you’ve timed the manual process you can then find out what kind of efficiency savings you are making by analysing the log files (or building in timers in your code) and comparing.
A little goes a long way – automate lots of small procedures like this and you could boost your organisation’s overall performance.
