Simplify processes in a small company: standards that actually hold up

In a small or medium company everything is personal. That is the strength: short routes, fast decisions, everyone knows everyone. And it is the risk: one holiday, one illness, one departure, and suddenly nobody knows how the job actually runs.

The number that makes this visible is the spread. Take a job that several people do and measure it three times per person. Not to compare who is faster, but to see how far the routes drift apart.

A real example: the same job, five people, measured times of 22, 26, 31, 38 and 45 minutes. That spread is not a difference in talent. It is a missing standard. And it is expensive, because planning uses the average while reality shows up with the 45 minutes.

The second number is the rework rate. How many jobs come back, how often does someone have to go over it again? Write down the causes and you rarely find twenty different ones. There are usually three, and they repeat.

A standard is not a cage, it is the best known way until someone finds a better one. That is how it should be written, too. Write it alone at a desk and it never reaches the floor. Write it with the people who walk it every day and they hand it to you.

The trap: making the fastest person the benchmark. A standard is not the best time on a good day, it is the best safe way that a new colleague can manage after a week. Otherwise you have a standard nobody follows, and that is worse than none.

The first step: take the job that generates the most questions. Watch it three times, write down the best way, test it with the team for a week. After that the flow decides, not the mood of the day.