Business process improvement (BPI) is a systematic approach to help an organization optimize its underlying processes to achieve more efficient results. First documented in H. James Harrington’s 1991 book Business Process Improvement, it is the methodology that has reportedly been responsible for reducing cost and cycle time by as much as 90% while improving quality by over 60%. The goal of BPI is a radical change in the performance of an organization, rather than a series of incremental changes.
Process Improvement places a lot of emphasis on measurable results and should always be followed up with the analysis of areas of improvement. After implementation, the results could be compared in the measures of product quality, increased productivity and efficiency, new levels of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, development of the skills of employees and increased profit resulting in higher and faster return on investment (ROI).