What Will the Future State Be?
What Will the Future State Be?
The future state is the reality that will be created when the project is successfully completed. It is a vision of the future. In this new future, progress will have been made. In this section, the team will define the future state in explicit terms. Doing so will provide the project team and the sponsor with a common vision of their destination.
What Are the Best Practices in This Area? Before setting goals for the future state, it is helpful to know what the best-in-class
performance is for similar processes. The study of best-in-class process performance is known as benchmarking. Benchmarking involves research into the best practices at the industry, firm, or process level.
Benchmarking goes beyond identifying “industry standards.” A standard isn’t a best practice; it’s a standard practice. There is no competitive advantage gained from standard performance. Benchmarking breaks the firm’s activities down to process Y operations and looks for the best-in-class for a particular operation. Black Belts should conduct research as follows:
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Express the activity in generic terms—e.g., delivering packages, handling highly erratic workloads, AM
Worksheet 57. Benchmarking Step 1: Identify What Is to Be Benchmarked
storing dangerous materials, moving delicate equipment, order fulfillment .
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Team-Fly 144
Worksheet 58. Benchmarking Step 2: Identify Comparative Companies
Consult books, trade magazines, industry award announcements, quality award recipients, the Internet, your firm’s supplier database, etc. to identify those organizations that excel at the process or activity. You may also want to ask field personnel, consultants, suppliers, sales personnel, and customers for opinions on who is the best in a particular area.
Worksheet 59. Benchmarking Step 3: Determine Data Collection Methods
Determine what data are relevant and plan a search strategy. Data collection methods might include industry databases, newspapers, asking the benchmark firm for data, SEC reports or other public documents, etc. Consider site visits.
Worksheet 60. Benchmarking Step 4: Coll ect Data on Benchmark Quantify the benchmark operation using metrics that can be compared with your internal metrics.
Worksheet 61. Benchmarking Step 5: Determine the Current Performance Gap
What is the magnitude of the difference between current performance and benchmark performance?
Worksheet 62. Benchmarking Step 6: Identify Causes of the Performance Gap
What is done differently at the benchmark process? Create a catalog of these differences.
Worksheet 63. Benchmarking Step 7: Estimate Future Performance Levels
Determine how benchmark metrics will be applied in your project.
Worksheet 64. Benchmarking Step 8: Establish Functional Goals and Gain
Acceptance of Stakeholders
Create timetables for improving your performance.
Create a Future State Process Map Use the benchmarking findings to develop the design for new process. Using the icons
shown in Error! Reference source not found.Worksheet 65, draw process maps describing possible future states of the business process. How does the future process deliver value to the customer? What is the flow of the process? Use additional pages if necessary.
Figure 25. Example of a Future State Process Map
Worksheet 65. Alternative Future State Process Maps
Connector Delay
How Will the Future State Be Better than the Current State? Compare the future process with the current process.
Worksheet 66. Future State Improvement Estimates
Undesirable Effect
Est. Future Process or CTx
Current Process