Most Efficient Organization (MEO)

Development and Implementation

It is our experience that the incumbent organization usually possesses a unique understanding of mission-critical goods and services that must be provided to program staff. In cases where the passage of time has created opportunities for improved technology and procedures, it is important to recognize the value of this unique understanding. The best way is to draw upon this important resource is to make a good-faith effort to design an efficient organization for maintaining in-house operations. This is the intent of the MEO portion of the A-76 procedures, and it should be explored fully in every A-76 project.

There is a growing body of opinion within the community of A-76 service providers that the MEO process needs to be carried on at the same time as the outsourcing portion of the A-76 study, but by a group that is partitioned off from the main A-76 team. This helps to prevent the MEO team's brainstorming being applied as fully-formed conclusions in the Performance Work Statement (PWS). It also permits reengineering of in-house processes in a truly competitive environment. This is in keeping with the founding philosophy of the A-76 effort, and can be a very exciting and fulfilling project for the incumbent staff.

Business Process Reengineering is the primary tool for MEO development. It consists of taking current operations, identifying the value that they deliver, and then finding ways to deliver the same or more value through the use of fewer resources. The value delivered depends on the organization's strategic direction, but value considerations usually include customer service, quality, and some kind of tangible product. The resources under review generally include time, staff, and money.

Working in Midwestern manufacturing firms, the Stanton Group began development of a process reengineering methodology in 1992. In private industry, as within the Federal Government, the situation seldom calls for a "canned" reengineering approach, but rather for a process that identifies the cultural forces and ongoing efforts that already support process improvement. Project methodologies that ignore these "good things" in the existing environment tend to frustrate and disfranchise some of the best change agents in the organization.

The Stanton Group business process reengineering model, as applied in recent projects, has five basic steps:

1. Process Identification - Processes to be reengineered may have already been identified in the PWS process. Keeping in mind these pre-selected processes, Stanton Group facilitators work with client staff to achieve agreement on the sub-processes which make up the major work flows in the affected areas. These sub-processes are then knit together across organizational boundaries to construct the list of processes to be reengineered.

2. Current Process Review - The affected work groups, or their representatives, are usually convened to identify local "experts" in the current process flows. These experts work with facilitators to diagram the current flows. The current flows are then typically reviewed by other work group members for correctness. This approach saves a great deal of client work time over conventional group processes, while maintaining group participation and the resulting buy-in.

3. Problem Analysis - Stanton Group facilitators typically speak in terms of "opportunities" rather than "problems," but the results are the same. Teams identify the value that the customer derives from existing processes; add (using customer research where possible) benefits that the customer desires, but does not now receive from interaction with the client organization; and identify procedures and technologies that might improve or replace current operating methods.

4. New Process Design - Using the organization's mission statement and strategic plan, facilitators work with work group members to identify processes that will meet strategic objectives. Examples of strategic objectives might be; do more with less, improve customer service through improved speed and simplicity, and make optimum use of information technology to simultaneously enhance performance and quality of work life.

Once developed by a team of facilitators and work group members, the new processes are subjected to rigorous review by the work group. The reengineering team is never allowed to forget that the work group must be satisfied with all aspects of the new processes, because they will have to live with them long after the project ends, and because they are the only ones who can make the new processes succeed. This is particularly true in a government environment, where top-down autocratic implementation just doesn't work.

5. Implementation - A smooth transition is designed from the planning project to implementation so that the momentum and excitement generated by the MEO Team are carried into implementation. Implementation planning actually begins during new process design. Technology representatives are drawn into the reengineering teams, and, wherever possible, volunteers from the re-engineering team head up the implementation effort. This assures that implementation efforts will proceed in light of the same vision that guided the reengineering team.

The Stanton Group stands ready to support implementation of any processes we help to develop or reengineer. This provides us with a quality check of our work, and offers our clients a useful alternative in project support.

While each project requires a customized implementation plan, the following steps are typical:
1. Study, confirm, and/or update implementation planning from the MEO Team.
2. Determine project scope of work and any constraints that will affect implementation.
3. Establish a project core team, based on resource availability and the mix of skills required for project tasks.
4. Make a work plan, usually using critical path method (CPM), to set dependencies.
5. Develop a staffing plan to fit the project into an optimal project schedule.
6. Finalize the implementation budget.
7. Obtain plan concurrence from the people who have to do the work, and from in-house customers.
8. Obtain plan approval from management or other funding entity.
9. Set project start date and make it happen.

Wherever possible, The Stanton Group teams with client staff for implementation projects. This reduces project cost and improves project support. It also maximizes the amount of project knowledge that stays in the client organization after the project ends.

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See also: Critical Analysis Business Process Reengineering Data System Alignment A-76 Project Support

The Stanton Group www.stangroup.com