The nature of knowledge work is that it is very hard to see. Knowledge work takes one form of informational input and translates it into another form of information. Much of these processes go on inside of a person’s head and you can only observe what gets documented. This does not mean that you cannot do a Gemba Walk. The classic approach is in the HBR Article, “Staple Yourself to an Order.” Still, we only get glimpses of the processes when we do our operations research. These processes are hard to control unless we fully digitize the workflow. This is something we need to do more often. Let’s talk about when, how, and the value of workflow digitization.
I’ll start with “when” to digitize a workflow. I find that there are very few transactional or knowledge work processes that don’t need to be digitized into a controlled workflow. Digitization certainly aids in the handoff between people. However, I even find knowledge work that I do solely myself benefits from digital controls. The only knowledge work processes that I would not digitize are those that are unstable or likely to be revised in a short period of time.
This is a good point for some definitions. Excel templates that are populated and emailed or housed on a shared drive are technically digitized work flows. They are generally poor controls. A robust digitized workflow has specific stages, control points, and accountabilities that can all be tracked and verified visibly. As we are trying to make the unseen, seen… as we might see in a manufacturing process. If you want a good standard for a controlled workflow visit a distribution center that utilizes a robust Warehouse Management System (WMS), Blue Yonder for example. A good WMS will track who picked each part, at what time it was picked, where the part went next, who packaged it, where it was staged, and what truck it went on out the door. Aside from the physical aspect to a distribution center, there are many information flows crucial to this work: quantity information, part location information, order information, and shipping information. All of this is tracked with change control to know what was changed, when it was changed, and who changed it. This is robust work digitization with documentation, stages, and accountability.
Unfortunately, I have seen a lack of this control in many other areas of organizations. For example, excel files used to capture order information, emailed between people, with no checks. This allows anyone to go make changes without clearly knowing who made what change. Or likewise, a drawing with customer specs, again managed on a shared drive without clear engineering change control. Was this change approved by the customer? Was it not? Contract reviews, again managed on a shared drive with no clarity on who reviewed the contract and whether or not it captures all the necessary requirements for the agreement. It is no surprise to me when mistakes create costly issues for the company.
Why is this so difficult? Here is a story that might explain the challenge. Years ago at Motorola we had a program called Digital Six Sigma. It was a good idea, and probably ahead of its time. The concept was that every Six Sigma project must include workflow digitization. This approach would strengthen the “C” in DMAIC. Unfortunately, we were not successful. The demand for IT resources to execute the digitization exceeded the capacity of those resources. This was 20 years ago, and everything required painstaking coding. Additionally, we were increasingly relying on off-the-shelf software packages that did not match our processes and required expensive customizations that we all later regretted when we went to upgrade the system. Had we been successful, over time every internal knowledge process would eventually become converted into a digitally controlled workflow that could be measured, tracked, analyzed, and further improved. It was just too technical and time intensive. It was a good concept, just a bit ahead of its time.
I tell this story because it occurred around 2005. It is 2025 and IT resources are still scarce, but the tools and platforms available to digitize our processes are immense. Even at my small company, Chalmers St., we are able to digitize most of our core processes. So, then why is it that I find so many companies still working off of spreadsheets, Word Doc forms, and other archaic methods? Frankly, I believe it is just a lack of willpower and approach. If this is you, here is my advice.
- Identify a set of processes to digitize. I suggest focusing on customer touching and financial processes. At Chalmers St. we have digitized our internal processes which encompass everything from budgets to status reports, and controlled workflows, as well as invoicing and expense reporting.
- Map your processes. A picture of your process will ease the effort of developing the workflow. Admittedly, I did this with our developer in parallel with the development. Most of my processes were in my head, so it didn’t feel necessary to document them on paper. As we grow, we are going back and doing this now.
- Identify the right tool and the right development partner. For our office processes, we use Trackvia (software) and Worx Solutions (developer) to help us. For our sales processes, we use Pipedrive (tool) and Spotlighting You (marketing/developer) to help us. If we tried to do this ourselves, we would fail. I don’t just mean getting distracted and failing to build the processes, but we would miss prospect opportunities, incorrectly pay expenses, make invoicing errors, and incorrectly price projects. Our business would fail!
- Use it! The workflow won’t fit every situation. There will be many temptations to work around the structured digital process. Don’t do it! Exercising your digitized workflow will help you see gaps in your process, identify opportunities to improve your workflow, and protect you from costly mistakes.
The bottom line is that processes that are not controlled through workflow digitization are inefficient and prone to error. It is not 2005; the cost is no longer prohibitive. We do need to have the mindset that these uncontrolled processes are no longer acceptable in our organizations. The approach needs to be deliberate and persistent. So get started!