The first step to discovering what can be automated in your business is to brainstorm as many tasks as you can think of. An important note at this stage is not to judge, rationalize, or eliminate any of the tasks that you think of at this stage. Just write it down and move on.
You can conduct this brainstorm session by yourself in your office or any quiet space. Put on some music if you like but refrain from any music with words. Since you know a lot about your business you will have many insights as to what tasks are best suited for automation.
I’ll include a list of questions in the description below as well as another video with music to help you through this process.
Use the following questions to get your brain rolling on the right track.
- What processes do my staff do on a day to day business?
- What processes contribute directly to our bottom line?
- What processes contribute to the major revenue sources of the business?
- What processes are very time consuming to complete?
- What processes frustrating for the employees to do?
- What tasks in your business should no human ever have to do?
- What tasks are boring and mundane?
- Are there specific tasks that your employees take frequent and extended breaks from?
- Are there any processes that become very dangerous to the operator/employee with increasing fatigue?
- If human fatigue was not a factor, are there any processes in your business that could be done much faster?
- What processes are susceptible to variation and poor quality?
- What processes are dangerous or expose your staff to mechanical, chemical, or radiation hazards?
- Are there tasks that take a lot of planning, measuring, and marking in order to execute well?
- What tasks in my business are completed in high volumes?
- Are there any tasks that don’t change much that are also associated with high wages?
- Are there tasks associated with low wages that are currently outsourced to other countries? Would bringing those tasks in house improve the speed or quality of the products/services you deliver to the end user?
- Are there any higher margin, higher value, or more complex products/services that you have dreamed of providing to your customers? That your customers have been asking for? If so, are there any processes that are in getting your way of making that happen?
- Imagine you had the only automated solution in your industry for completing a special process. Owning the intellectual property rights to this automated solution has allowed you to decimate the competition. What process is it?
Following this brainstorm session, I recommend that you hold a short one-hour workshop with your partners and staff. The brainstorm session with your staff is similar in many ways and easy to conduct.
I find that it is important to be up front with your partners and staff. Make sure you communicate that you are just trying to improve the business and that their jobs are not in jeopardy. There is no better way to kill creativity than by creating a culture of fear. Your staff won’t tell you the best opportunities for automation if they think it will affect their job security.
Run through the list of questions (that are relevant) or play the video. Make sure to leave a minute or two between each question for people to write. Answers are not to be shared until the end.
At the end of the workshop, make sure you collect all of the sheets. That is a great time to read over some of the answers and ask people to expand on their ideas. Again, at this stage I emphasize the importance of avoiding the use of judgment or rationalization to eliminate any tasks/processes that your people have thought of.
After the group brainstorm session / workshop, combine the staff’s list of tasks with your own.
If you followed this process, what did you find? I’d love to hear about it. Please reach out and let us know how it worked for you.
Again I’m Stephen Bruce Wong with Automation Experts, and thanks for watching.
