b'Improving internal efficiency simplifiedThe LexisPSL Public Sector team provides five steps to improving efficiency in your legal department. What is continuous improvement? Analysego through the data to fullyextra processingentering data The definition of continuous improvementunderstand what it is telling you into multiple information systems, (CI) is often over-complicated and buriedImprovegenerate, evaluate andgenerating unused reportsin jargon, but it means exactly what it says:implement solutions to the problemcontinually looking for ways to improveControlremeasure to demonstrateStep 2 - measure the problemprocesses, methods and procedures to: effectiveness and embed into everydayOnce you have identified a process that activities needs to be reviewed, the next stage is to remove blockages ensure you fully understand that process make them as efficient as possible, andStep 1 - identify and define the problem from start to finish. You can do this by therefore save time and money Waste is an indicator of inefficiency;producing a process map that will give you a therefore, identifying waste can help youclear visual picture of the process and allow Improvements do not have to be majoridentify process inefficiencies or bottlenecks. you to identify any bottlenecks. changes; a number of small but effectiveWaste could come from a number of changes soon add up. CI tools and methodsareas, for example: Step 3 - analyse your datacan help you fix processes that are noOnce you have all of the measures in longer effective and review processes thatoverproductionprinting hard copiesplace the next step is to identify what the may appear to be working but could still beof emails, producing extra unnecessarycauses are behind the problems identified. improved to deliver greater efficiencies andcopies of documents To ensure a long-term solution, you must cost savings. inventoriesoverstocked stationeryaddress the cause of the issue rather than Above all, CI is about engaging withcupboards, duplicate orders forjust treating the symptoms.individuals and pooling ideas, challengingnewspapers or periodicals One method of identifying possible the existing habitual ways of doing thingstransportation and handling causes is a root cause analysis diagram and identifying a method of measuring themovement of paperwork around the(sometimes known as a fishbone diagram). success or failure of new initiatives. organisation, unnecessary sign-offs As it is impossible to tackle everything human motiontravelling betweenat once you can prioritise the causes by Five steps to improving efficiency offices, time spent tracking downscoring them according to how much they The simplest framework for making processmissing information contribute to the issue and how costly and efficiencies has five steps: waitingslow computer speeds,complicated they will be to fix. From here waiting on other departments, awaitingyou can start to generate some creative Defineidentify the issue or problem client instructions solutions and evaluate them before deciding Measuremeasure the cost and thedefectsdata entry and/or timehow you will move forward and implement impact recording errors your improvements.'