Efficiency is the Holy Grail every business owner seeks. Efficient operations boost the bottom line. And many business owners may not realize that in some cases increasing efficiency can be more important from a profitable standpoint than simply increasing the number of clients.
Most business owners look to what they perceive is the most costly drain on the company, but they can miss the bigger picture. While expenditures can be measured, quantifying wasted time often proves much more challenging. The Toyota manufacturing method focuses on lost time – those minutes an employee spends in wasted motions and steps.
For a business to maximize efficiency, time spent on non-productive activities must be ferreted out and eliminated. One of the biggest drains on a business is excessive time spent waiting upon the actions of another. It’s an invisible time suck that may not be easily quantifiable, but it is still damaging to the bottom line.
Have you considered those areas in your business in which your staff is idled by waiting in line, or even waiting on someone else? Does the U.S. Post Office come to mind? You may not realize that the postal service really doesn’t want you waiting in line, because many shipping tasks can be facilitated through an online interface.
Stamps.com is transforming the way the U.S. Postal Service operates and that means more efficiency for business owners.