There are ‘only’ seven ways to make savings and improvements in service organisations

1. Shape and manage demand: effect behavioural change, reduce failure demand

2. Create economies of flow: match capacity, capability, contact points to demand

3. Reduce waste: re-engineer processes or develop a lean whole system

4. Optimise the use of resources: buildings, IT, vehicles, other assets, people (scheduling, downtime, contracts and management), income generation

5. Effective organisation: appropriate grouping and sharing of activities and services, organisational structures, role and task clarity

6. Optimise procurement: procure volume, shape the market, reduce or standardise specification or achieve multiplying effects, share services, social value

7. Change policy: stop, ration, reduce eligibility, delay, charge, develop policy to better meet organisational purpose, demand and underlying need, outsource, mutualise, use the third and social enterprise sectors

Do you agree? (We do, now, have an *eighth* way to save and improve – what do you think it is?)
Which do you think is the biggest opportunity in your organisation?

#service#organisation#savings#improvement