With Disruption as the primary differentiator in Media today, the need for understanding Workflow Methods is more important than ever. Join SMPTE & MaestroVision in a discussion on how to move forward when choosing when, how and what methodology is best to start a successful Workflow engagement!
Check out our presentation on the topic!
Workflow – it’s not a fun topic to address within your organization, but it’s more necessary than most business owners realize! According to process.st, Only 4% of companies measure, manage and document their processes. If you’re not consistently analyzing and identifying ways to improve your internal workflow, you may experience employee dissatisfaction, leading to high turnover, in turn decreasing productivity and causing more problems.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Before beginning to optimize your workflow, it’s important that you understand what workflow is and is not. Workflow not software or specific technology. Workflow is not a way of moving files or managing. Workflow isn’t an asset manager or file transfer protocol, it’s not a cabling diagram. Workflow is not only a concern of high-level management but affects all levels of an organization. It’s not even specific to the broadcast industry, it’s been used for over 50 years by various industries.
Workflow analysis is about streamlining the way we work. It’s is about information and identifying how it flows between actors. It’s about knowing your business’ needs and solving bottlenecks to save time, money and resources. According to Frevvo, “Workflow analysis is the process of examining your business workflows to identify trends and improve workflow efficiency. In turn, this improves employees engagement, customer satisfaction and the competitiveness of the business itself.”
Several indications that it’s time for your company to undergo a workflow analysis include:
So why do businesses undergo this rigorous process of investing time and energy into improving their current operations? It’s simple – to save time, money, and resources, increase efficiency and productivity, and increase results. All leading to better return on investment and generating more added value.
There are three phases to workflow optimization.
Talk with the management and ask about their goals. Are their goals to save money, grow the workforce and avoid organizational inertia, or to reduce the workforce while still maintaining the same workload? Are there new projects that need to be worked on but no additional resources?
Ensure their goals are SMART.
Specific
Bad example: I want our production team to increase their unit output greatly.
Good example: I want our production team to produce 15 more units per week.
Measurable
The best way to ensure you’re measuring your goals is to measure your key performance indicators and understand which indicators will signify that you’ve met your goal. Choosing the correct KPI is also extremely important to avoid inducing unwanted deviant behavior in middle management and employees.
Achievable
Speak with your employees about your expectations and goals before setting them to ensure they’re realistic.
Relevant
Ensure your goal is relevant in that it will assist with process or workflow improvement in your organization. If you assign an unrelated goal that puts even more stress and work on your employees without a plan to improve processes, then it will lead to further internal dissatisfaction and chaos.
Time-Based
Establish a date that you’d like to see that goal met. You may find that after the analysis phase, the timeframe is unrealistic and needs to be adjusted as an optimization timeline is built.
Begin your analysis by talking with people involved in your organization. Do not only use a questionnaire. Take copies of existing documentation that explains each employee’s current job responsibilities and get their feedback. Are any responsibilities missing from their job description? When the organization is using competency profiles, are those realistic and up to date? How do they go about getting these tasks done and why?
Oftentimes, there’s a disconnect between what managers think their employees do and what they actually do.
For example, MaestroVision once provided a workflow analysis for a company where employees were extracting information and sending it to a coworker who was formatting a document a report and sending that report to a third email address. That third email address belonged to someone who had taken their retirement two years before.
If you take this example out of context, you may wonder why the employee wasted their time sending that email to someone who was retired. He was sending it because no one told him that the employee was no longer working for the company. This lack of communication indicated a clear break in the communication flow.
So how do you go about identifying bottlenecks and other workflow issues in your organization?
Developing a process map is a great way to illustrate how your current operations are running. It then allows you to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
A few important criteria to consider when conducting your analysis include:
The best group to present your findings to first are the workers. By presenting your findings to the workers first, you can validate your findings. The workers will be able to point out mistakes that you did so you can correct them and make sure that your understanding of how they currently work is accurate.
Next, do a presentation for management. It’s important to ensure that they share your views and from there, establish a timeline for making your proposed changes/action items. These action items may include (but are not limited to): additional training for employees; new processes or procedures involving project or work management, changes in work distribution or delegation; developing manuals or checklists that are shared internally to ensure company standards are met; obtaining new software to solve inefficiencies or miscommunication; automating a task that is time-consuming and tedious for employees who have more important work to be done, and more.
Before moving on to developing a plan, it’s important that you ensure you have the resources (budget for new software; time for training, etc) to implement the changes you’d like to. If you’ve verified that you have the proper resources, you can build your project plan. Begin by determining an action item dedicated to fixing a weakness that was identified during the analysis phase. In your new project plan, action items should be listed in order; first listing the actions which can be implemented immediately, then listing the ones that will need to be slowly phased into the company’s processes over time.
Before rolling out an entirely new set of processes, it’s important to test your larger-scale changes with a small sample group. Run several tests to check for consistency in results and identify issues that may arise during these new processes. Next, collect feedback from your sample group to determine whether further improvements can be made. After you’ve completed the testing phase, you can move on to the monitoring and optimizing phase. During this phase, it’s important that you test the results of the new process against the goals you determined in the first phase. Continually track and optimize your processes to ensure you’re exceeding KPIs or benchmarks and that your improvements are making a positive difference in the company.
Learn how NousTV’s ssaved time, money and resources thanks to MaestroVision’s Automation Tools and Expertise. Once MaestroVision’s new workflow initiatives were implemented, NousTV received various benefits.
Customer: NousTV
Industry: Broadcasting
Solution: Analysis and Workflow Management / Integrated Management System
Website: https://nous.tv/
MaestroVision implemented its improved workflow to NousTV through several initiatives:
Once MaestroVision’s new workflow initiatives were implemented, NousTV received various benefits including:
MAtv was looking for a solution that would allow the interconnection and integration of all business functions into a centralized computer system. The solution needed to provide a simple and efficient workflow to the central station and all its regional studios.
Customer: MAtv
Industry: Broadcasting
Solution: Analysis and Workflow Management / integrated Management System
Website: matv.ca/montreal
MAtv was looking for a solution that would allow the interconnection and integration of all business functions into a centralized computer system. The solution needed to provide a simple and efficient workflow to the central station and all its regional studios. MAtv needed to standardize their operation throughout the organization, simplify their processes when transferring files between systems, make sure that all the metadata and video files are efficiently and safely archived, as well as perfectly understand the information that the departments exchange daily in order to increase their operational efficiency.
MaestroVision began by making an in-depth analysis of the current workflow of MAtv. It was important to get a complete picture of the operational situation, including audio, video, files, and data flow between departments and outside entities. A series of meetings were held with the staff of each department to establish the function and purpose of each step within the organization. A plan of the current situation was presented, which highlighted the loss of operational efficiency and bottlenecks. Afterwards, other meetings were held with senior staff to determine the optimal workflow for MAtv.
Finally, a phased implementation plan was submitted by MaestroVision in order to minimize inefficiencies and problems and achieve optimal workflow. It is a process that demands constant adjustments in order to find the best practice.
The implementation of MaestroVision’s solution significantly improved the workflow and management of MAtv’s operations. With the new workflow and the integrated management system, the television network has significantly increased its efficiency.
By standardizing all processes within the organization, MAtv has created a simplified operation. They now efficiently manage all files archived at their various regional stations, have reduced costs significantly and met the demands of the CRTC punctually.ms, make sure that all the metadata and video files are efficiently and safely archived, as well as perfectly understand the information that the departments exchange daily in order to increase their operational efficiency.
Given the evolution from video tapes to video files, broadcaster engineers should evolve their workflow as well. Many broadcast stations are still employing tedious processes involving many different files being shared between traffic, editing, master control and storage at once. This process can be hard to keep track of and sustain. The presenter will explain how to implement an improved workflow (with a centralized media asset manager) and how it will save broadcasters time and money. He will lay out the three steps to improving your workflow: workflow analysis (how metadata, files and actions are currently operating within the process), workflow optimization (how to get everyone on board with the plan to improve) and workflow implementation.
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