Part 2: Putting the “Management” Back Into
Records Management:

Designing Processes to Meet Your Customers’ Needs

Whether you realize it or not, you use processes and metrics in your daily life to keep things on time. The trip you make to your office each day is a good example. You know the route, including distance, turns, stops, and duration for each segment, or step, of the route that will get you from your house to the office. There is a correlation between this everyday occurrence and the work that is conducted in your records and information management (RIM) department.

Bill Ainsworth

Processes and Metrics: A Match Made in Heaven

The marriage of processes and metrics occurs naturally, and it helps you stay on schedule. You use averages to assemble and assign duration to each task in a process. For instance, you don’t think to yourself, “There was that one time I ran into a traffic jam and I was three hours late, so I better leave three hours earlier from now on.” Instead, you factor in and manage predictable complications for the process of getting to work on time. For example, if the nightly news predicts overnight snow, you will start your process earlier the next morning to allow time to clear your driveway, drive to work in unpredictable conditions, and arrive on time.

There is a defined process for each of the key services demanded by the customers of a typical RIM operation, as well. Every process is made up of tasks that require an average amount of time to complete, and each task is composed of steps.

The process is defined by the required service, and the required tasks are driven by the process design. Therefore, frequent review of the process design for each service helps ensure their effectiveness and efficiency in meeting your customers’ needs.

Bringing Awareness to Design Flaws

As a manager, you need to be cognizant of the fact there are several areas in which the design can miss the mark. The three major flaws are: design-on-the-fly, non-essential steps, and irrelevant steps.

·         Design-on-the-fly refers to the processes that have evolved without the benefit of a purposed design or additions to the process made by individuals who had a singular focus because they owned only a part of that process.

·         Non-essential steps typically refer to process steps. These steps are usually added to avoid infrequent errors, and they add a complexity that often decreases efficiency without adding to the effectiveness of the deliverable.

·         Irrelevant steps are a result of “but we’ve always done it that way” thinking. Classic examples are using personal indices that back up a records management (RM) system or ensuring box content inventory never changes after boxes are sent to storage even when the RM system can update the content inventory when contents are changed.

Rectifying Design Flaws in Four Steps

The good news is that most, if not all, flaws in a design can be corrected in four easy steps: 

1. Clearly define the goal of the service provided.
2. Identify the fewest number of steps required to achieve that goal (not including quality control steps andmeasurement steps; they are added later). In the vast majority of cases, some of the current steps will be omitted and new steps added. A word of caution: do not simply rearrange the steps already established. In fact, do not even refer to them. Doing so could negatively impact the efficiency of your design; if they are the correct steps, they will be included in the redesign effort.
3. Identify those activities that create the greatest potential for error and insert the smallest quality control loop possible.
4. Assign metrics to each task grouping. Remember, process steps combine to make a task, and task measurement is the most effective. 

Why is process design so important? The answer is simple. Good process ensures that your customers’ needs are met – and that they are met in the most economical way possible. Doing so means your service is valuable. And, value means continuing relevance, which provides increased job security. 

Bill Ainsworth can be contacted at william.ainsworth@bipc.com.