Consider to deepen or broaden the skills of resources
Reijers, H., & Liman Mansar, S. (2005). Best practices in business process redesign: an overview and qualitative evaluation of successful redesign heuristics. Omega, 33(4)
Resources may be turned from specialists into generalists or the other way round. A specialist resource can be trained for other qualifications; a generalist may be assigned to the same type of work for a longer period of time, so that his other qualifications become obsolete. When the redesign of a new process is considered, application of the pattern comes down to considering the specialist-generalist ratio of new hires.
A specialist builds up routine more quickly and may have a more profound knowledge than a generalist. As a result he or she works quicker and delivers higher quality. On the other hand, the availability of generalists adds more flexibility to the process and can lead to a better utilization of resources. Depending on the degree of specialism or generalism, either type of resource may be more costly.
Note that this heuristic differs from the Triage concept in the sense that the focus is not on the division of tasks.
Foundational free Patterns
If capacity is insufficient, consider increasing the available number of resources
Elevate physical constraints by applying new technology
Establish standardized interfaces
Consider a standardized interface with customers and partners
Minimize numerical involvement
Too many cooks spoil the broth
Move activities to more appropriate places
Let customers interact with your organization whenever they want to.
Explore whether a process can easily be used for additional products or services
Reassign tasks along the organisational hierarchy
Allocate task based on past feedback or quality metrics
Consider the division of a general activity into two or more alternative activities