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
Eliminate unnecessary activities
Design business processes for typical cases and isolate exceptional cases from the normal flow
Establish standardized interfaces
Consider a standardized interface with customers and partners
Order knock-outs by least effort and highest termination probability first.
Consider whether it is eco-friendly to let humans work over machines
Explore whether a process can easily be used for additional products or services
Expertise-based task assignment
Match tasks to experts' specialized skills for efficiency
Assign tasks based on resources' roles in the organisation
Allocate task based on past feedback or quality metrics
Consider the division of a general activity into two or more alternative activities