Customer-oriented business

The Rigthway Process Management Model (RPM model) identifies a number of key relationships within the organisation. The point of departure of the model is that all activities of an organisation must be focused on the customer. This is because it is the customer who pays for all the efforts of the company of organisation, and by doing so enables the costs and investments to be recovered. Fewer customers mean less income, and that in turn makes the survival of the company questionable.

Customers buy products from your organisation, and those products are the result of a production process. This in turn consists of a chain of successive activities. To keep the costs as low as possible, every step of the process must add value to the whole. As well as that, every effort must be made to perfect the process – in other words by making sure all actions are ‘right first time’, eliminating costly waste and reworking.

The elements of the model are filled in with the results of simple surveys. Significant improvements can rapidly be achieved in practice by tackling the two most negative elements of the model.

These improvements consist on the one hand of a reduction in costs, and on the other hand of increased customer satisfaction. This can lead to increased numbers of customers and, as a result, increased turnover. That means double benefits – lower costs and higher sales, together leading to increased profitability.

But before starting, it’s important to be aware that improvement actions like these in fact involve intensive change processes. A good strategy is a prerequisite for the success of these projects. The support of an experienced organisational manager is in many cases essential.