In my neighborhood in Austin, we have weekly curb-side garbage collection. The city provides me with a large plastic bin that has attached wheels, and on Friday mornings they'll empty this bin and haul away the garbage if I've remembered to drag the darn thing out to the curb.
- Gather trash from the various trash cans scattered around the house.
- Wheel the trash bin from the side-yard to the curb in the morning (before the garbage truck arrives).
- Wheel the trash bin from the curb to the side-yard when I get home from the office.
In practice, "taking out the trash" almost never works smoothly. Step 1 (gathering the trash) almost never occurs without an Escalation Task Notification from my supervisor that the Task is overdue. For some reason she always remembers "Tomorrow is Trash Day" long before I do (selective memory, no doubt).
There's also the problem that Step 1 almost never meets its SLA (Spouse Service Level Agreement)... I inevitably forget to empty some of the small trash cans in some out-of-the-way rooms (like the kitchen, bathroom, living room, etc.). Once again, Escalation to my supervisor is almost always required (She usually ends up doing it herself).
Obviously, the Management Team of the Reynolds' household ought to invest in a good BPM system and turn this into a Managed Process ;-)
My little Process is only a small Sub-Process of the City of Austin's Garbage Collection Process. They've divided the City into geographical districts that are serviced on different days of the week. Everything goes off like clockwork except for a few times a year when Holidays cause the schedule to slide by a day or so, and during special periods where the volume of trash increases dramatically (Christmas, Bulky Trash Day, etc.).
The City is pretty good about sending out schedules far in advance of any changes in service, but you still see a lot of trash bins out at the curb on "slip" days. Some folks (me) just can't seem to keep the schedule straight.
As a Managed Process Guy this is obviously a deplorable situation. We ought to Analyze the Current Process, Model an Improved Process, Implement the Improved Process, Monitor Its Performance and then repeat these steps until we Perfect the Process.
If each trash can in my house were actually a Robot (something like a Roomba), then the trash cans could gather themselves... rendezvousing on the side porch to empty their contents into the City's trash bin.
The City's bin would also be a Robot, in constant touch with the City's fleet of Robot Garbage Trucks. The Robot Trucks could signal the Robot Bin when in the neighborhood... the Robot Bin could signal its little flock of Robot Trash Cans, and I could watch TV for a few more minutes.
The only problem with this Grandiose Process Improvement Scheme of mine is that the Return On Investment is most likely non-existent. It's a great idea (from my perspective) but the Cost will never justify the Benefit).
Cost... That's the real point isn't it?
What does the Current Process cost? Are there opportunities for reducing that cost?
To answer either of these questions you are going to have to define "cost"... Cash outlay, time spent, bad feelings, etc. Once you've defined "cost" then you are going to have to monitor the factors that contribute to "cost"... Only then can you begin to have an objective discussion on how to make the Process better.
So... The first step towards resolving the Garbage Collection Process pitfalls in the Reynolds' household and the City of Austin is to Manage the Process "Just Enough" to Monitor it. Hopefully the cost associated with my forgetting to perform my assigned tasks will justify the purchase of those Robot Garbage Gatherers, but somehow I doubt it ;-)
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