Where’s time being spent?
Pick a team, a role or even a person in your business. Where is the bulk of their time being spent? If it’s not something physical like order picking or governance-based like QC, it probably can be automated.
(I know you can get order picker robots. But they’re kinda cringe).
Some people baulk at automation because it’s a consulting firm, a big scary monster that will shut their business down for a month and vacuum all their money up, before going away streamlined but bland. I think of it as the opposite: start as small as possible. Pick a task or role and automate that. When that’s done, pick another. It does a couple of things:
Avoids any business closure and outlay of stupid cash.
Lets your business retain its personality and structure while becoming more productive.
There’s lots of stuff that can’t be automated. Managing people, eating lunch, secretly watching football at your desk and auditors’ assessments to name a few. But I reckon you’d be surprised what can. Write down a few roles or people in your company, pick one and let us know what they’re spending too much time on.
-Fred