If only we could solve all business process improvement problems in a company, business, or organization by identifying and eliminating all the low hanging fruit.

What is “Low hanging fruit” in the business process improvement context?

If you google the phrase, you will find many definitions, but essentially it is those issues/problems (in most cases) that are:

  • Easily identified
  • Root causes typically known
  • Improvements can be implemented quickly with readily available resources

When starting along the process improvement or quality improvement journey, a good place to start to help drive momentum in the organization is to start identifying the low hanging fruit. For a variety of reasons, an organization may not have addressed these issues or problems in the past.

Examples of low hanging fruit:

  • Implement new training to reduce errors related to new employees
  • Replace a piece of old equipment to reduce defects

Although “Low hanging fruit” can help you move the dial, from our experience, it is rare that true transformational change and significant process improvements are made by only improving the obvious. Always understand the impact of the low hanging fruit prior to implementation. You do not want to make a quick and easy change early in your journey that may hinder you from a larger transformational improvement later.

Branner Consulting, LLC can help you identify your low hanging fruit. We can help you at any stage along your journey from process documentation to implementing process improvement projects. We also provide coaching and training in Six Sigma and Lean methodologies.