Stage 3 · Improve · 06 · 30 min
Redesign with the people who do the work
The people who do the work know most of the answers. The process manager’s job is to get them into one room, with the numbers.
You have the issues, their price and the targets. This module designs the new process: with the people who run it, starting with what can be removed, then what can be automated, and only then what AI should do.
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1. Set up the redesign workshop
What you do here: decide who designs the new process, and what to do when an expert pushes back.
You have two half-days for a redesign workshop on the custom order process. The managing director offers to send the department heads.
Who do you invite?
Halfway through the first session, the head of Engineering, who joined as process owner, raises his hand.
“A fast lane for small variants? A rule or a clerk can’t judge tolerances. Every order needs a proper engineering review.”
How do you respond?
With the owner on board, the workshop gets to work on the register, issue by issue.
"I put the numbers on the wall before the first idea is spoken. Then nobody argues about whose fault the queue is, only about how to empty it."
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2. Apply redesign patterns
What you do here: match each issue to the redesign pattern that removes its cause.
Process redesign has a set of proven patterns. Each one answers a typical cause, and the issue register tells you which causes you have.
Which pattern removes each cause?
Small variants wait behind redesigns in one queue
Parts made to an outdated drawing revision
Order retyped from CRM into ERP
Customers chase order status
Materials ordered only after engineering review
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3. Simplify first, then automate
What you do here: decide, for each activity in the new process, the simplest way to do it well.
Work through the options in order and stop at the first one that works: eliminate the activity; let a fixed rule or an integration do it; let AI assist a person; let an AI agent act within set limits; keep it with a person. Clear rules and little variation point to a rule. Unstructured input and variation point to AI. Judgement, accountability and relationships stay with people.
Choose the simplest option that does each activity well.
Retype the order from CRM into ERP
Today: 20 minutes per order
Plant manager signs every custom order
Today: adds about a day
Decide whether a change is a small variant
Bore, keyway, flange within the design limits
Read the customer's email and drawing and fill in the order form
Free text, PDFs, different formats
Draft the engineering review of a redesign from similar past designs
72 redesigns a quarter, 13.5 h each
Decide the tolerances of a real redesign
Safety and liability
Check the drawing revision before production starts
Order revision against CAD/PLM
Tell the customer when the order passes each milestone
Confirmed, in production, shipped
Chase suppliers for confirmed dates and flag slips to Planning
Emails in every format, routine follow-ups
Look at the result: two activities disappear, three run on rules, AI helps in three places, and people keep the decisions that carry responsibility. AI landed where the input is messy and the volume is high, not where it was first proposed.
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4. Speed up a step or redesign the flow?
What you do here: compare two designs with the flow analysis from module 4 and choose.
Design A keeps today’s process and gives engineers an AI assistant for every review. Design B is the workshop’s result: triage with a fast lane, the revision check, materials ordered in parallel, integrated systems, proactive status, and the AI assistant only for redesigns.
Flow analysis of both designs on last quarter's orders.
| Measure | Today | A: AI assistant in today's process | B: redesigned flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median lead time, quote to invoice | 28 days | 24.7 days | 21.3 days |
| Wait before engineering review | 4 days | 1 day | 0.5 days small, 1 day redesign |
| Engineering utilisation | 96 % | 77 % | 73 % |
| First-pass yield | 85 % | 85 % | 92 % |
| Status enquiries per quarter | 412 | 412 | about 160 |
How many days does design A take off the median lead time?
Speeding up a step inside the old flow helps. Redesigning the flow helps twice as much and fixes problems the faster step never touches.
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5. Check the trade-offs and the business case
What you do here: check each change on time, cost, quality and flexibility, settle who is accountable, and calculate the payback.
Every change has a price somewhere. Improving time, cost, quality and flexibility all at once is rare, so make the trade-offs explicit.
| Change | Time | Cost | Quality | Flexibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Triage fast lane | + | + | 0 | − two routes to maintain |
| Revision check before production | 0 | + | + | 0 |
| Materials ordered in parallel | + | − some material bought for orders that change | 0 | 0 |
| CRM–ERP integration | + | + | + | − changes need IT |
| Proactive status messages | 0 | + | + for the customer | 0 |
| AI draft for redesigns | + | + | 0, the engineer still checks | + |
One question has to be settled before anything is automated: who answers for it when it goes wrong?
The fast-lane rule wrongly clears an order, and a part fails at the customer. Who is accountable?
Last, the money. The CFO wants the business case before anything is built.
Yearly figures. One-off costs: integration EUR 60,000, rules and AI drafting EUR 45,000, training and process changes EUR 25,000. Running cost EUR 18,000 a year.
| Benefit | Change per quarter | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer remade parts | 27 → 14.4 failed orders at EUR 2,300 | ? |
| Fewer late orders | 76 → 27 at EUR 380 | EUR 74,480 |
| Fewer status enquiries | 412 → 160 at 9 min, EUR 60/h | EUR 9,072 |
| No retyping | All of it | EUR 23,200 |
What do fewer remade parts save a year, in EUR?
Payback in under eight months, and most of it is cash. The design is ready to be built.
Reflect
Check your understanding
Three questions on the module.
In what order do you look at an activity?
Take away
What to keep
- Redesign with the people who do the work; the owner decides, you facilitate.
- Match each cause to a redesign pattern: triage, parallelise, control at the source, eliminate, inform.
- Simplify first, then rules, then AI, and keep judgement and accountability with people.
- Redesigning the flow beats speeding up a step.
- Make trade-offs and accountability explicit, then build the business case.
After this module you can
- Set up and run a redesign workshop with the people who do the work
- Match causes to proven redesign patterns
- Decide per activity: eliminate, rule, AI assistance, AI agent or person
- Show with flow analysis why redesigning the flow beats speeding up a step
- Make trade-offs and accountability explicit and calculate payback