Business Process Improvement 2020 & Beyond
What is a GPO?
May 18, 2020
Implementation of Automation Solutions
June 3, 2020Business Process Improvement 2020 & Beyond
This is a time of introspection; a time to look inside of our individual operations to find the next big thing. This article attempts to help sort, prioritize and plan for those “big things.” Unless you are a CFO, the idea of business process improvements (BPIs) may make your eyes roll back, and you would never associate the words “next best thing” to “business process improvements.” While admittedly BPIs are not as exciting as a new clubhouse or wine locker initiative, or even a new menu item or case of wine, they provide the financial and human capital required for all membership initiatives. BPIs can increase resources to the capital improvement plan, year after year.
Identifying, prioritizing, and planning BPIs is not an easy task and requires analysis and internal collaboration between the executive team, the operations team, the Board and Committees. Historically BPIs have been completed ad hoc, as needed, as compared to strategically planned and mapped. This frequently resulted in a collection of automation services that are not connected, integrated, supported, managed, and aligned. For example, an inventory management system that is not connected to vendor ordering and receiving requires time-consuming manual data input. Or an invoice management system is put into place that is not connected to 3-way matching automation. While each stand-alone BPI solution is valuable, when they are not all connected in a single “Marketplace” the solution is not optimized.
There are several important variables to consider when developing your plan:
- Which business processes do you want to improve? Inventory? AP automation? Invoice payment? Scheduling/Staffing? Supply Chain and Procurement? BI accessibility? Cyber Security? HRIS? Training? CapEx? Asset Management and Tracking? Project Management?
- Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize: Each club is different, and setting the priority can be a moving target. Are you looking for the biggest financial gain or the biggest efficiency lift? How many stakeholders are involved and how much transition resistance do you expect? Is this a BOD directive? A course of action to consider is to begin by controlling and containing your purchasing and AP automation in order to optimize financial gains and reallocate staffing. If taking and reconciling inventory is a serious monthly pain point, automating it will reduce time, improve accuracy, and provide deep business intelligence on F&B consumption. If you have a lot of invoices to pay each month and want to generate some income or reduce the time and cost of paying invoices, payment automation is the way to go. If you have noticed that you are over or understaffed in your F&B operations, automating the process will provide significant returns.
- What are the quantifiable objectives? Reducing economic and human costs? Reallocating staff by saving time? Reducing errors? Improved documentation and controls? Improved internal compliance with SOPs?
- Vendor selection: what are the suite of products that are offered and supported? Industry relations and knowledge and understanding. Support and SLA. Deployment and training. Reputation and reliability. Mission and philosophy. Total contract cost. Contractual terms.
Conclusion
BPI Automation will save time and money and should be planned. We encourage every club to develop a 3-5 year plan to automate in order to optimize operational performance. After all, a journey without a map rarely provides the best route.
