Efficiency - What is that?

Efficiency – What is that?


Here I am writing blogs about Efficiency and talking about it without taking into account the fact that people have all kinds of different ideas about Efficiency and do not necessarily know which definition of Efficiency I use.

So, let’s clarify this first:

An engineer or someone in a related field looks at efficiency as the ratio between input and output/return. The less electricity or fuel you need (input) and the higher the heat, cooling, mileage, etc. (output/return) is, the more efficient the machinery, car or system and so on.

A factory operator or anyone designing any kind of an assembly line looks mostly at it from a time / motion proposition.

All of these are valid definitions and have their uses and workability.

Now, let’s take a more expanded look at it (this is the definition I use):

“Efficiency is defined as being able to do any kind of task or action to completion and good result. This is done without wasting time, money, materials and resources!”

Since completion and good results are part of this, “Effectiveness” is actually part of the definition of “Efficiency”!

That is an important point since I have observed numerous times that someone would complete a task with good results, but the amount of time needed or the amount of money, materials or resources used was way too much!

Therefore, when you hear me talking about “Efficiency”, know that I use it as the more senior concept / definition and that “Effectiveness” is just a part of that.

Efficiency – The “Autobahn” part 2

Here you are, at your desk (or computer), your personal Autobahn for your office traffic.

You’ve learned to differentiate between your Porsches and your Trucks. Now let’s go a little further:

You have an emergency vehicle with flashing lights coming up from behind. What does that mean for your regular traffic? It has to move over and make room for the emergency vehicle. As a result you are now embroiled in the emergency and your regular traffic is stopped.

Ever happened? If not, then don’t bother reading further. BUT, if you have emergency happen in your business or organization then read on.

Any emergency that comes up must be addressed and handled as quickly as possible. That’s the nature of an emergency. But what happens if it’s not possible to get it out of the way quickly? Then your regular traffic (office work) keeps sitting there until it also starts to have flashing lights going and now everything is one emergency after the other. That’s not fun anymore, but pure stress.

How to avoid that? Is it possible? That’s not something you ask yourself while you are in the middle of the emergency, but how about afterwards?!!

Take the time and review the emergency. Ask yourself these questions:

a. Are the types of emergency I have to deal with of a similar nature?
If the answer is yes, what procedures and guidelines can be established to get them handled quicker, reduced in frequency or even avoided?
Get those established and known by all involved.

b. Was this an outside generated emergency (i.e. did the customer call with a last minute problem, etc.?
If yes, what could be done from your end to anticipate or even prevent such emergencies? Could you have made that extra call that would have avoided this?
Is there anything else that could have been done?
If there is, write a guideline for it and put these steps in place.

c. Was it an inside generated emergency? Did someone drop the ball? Was something not done?
If yes, get the person that was responsible for it corrected and then write a policy that would prevent this from happening again or get an existing company policy, which addresses that already, know and followed by all involved.

Having these steps done is going to reduce the amount of emergencies coming in (hopefully) and make work less stressful. Have more fun at work, ok?!