The Problem: Sluggish Make.com Workflows

Make.com is a powerful workflow automation tool that allows users to integrate apps, orchestrate complex workflows, and get more done with less effort. But even the most robust platforms can develop inefficiencies over time that bog down workflows and sap productivity.

According to Make.com’s 2021 Business Automation Report, nearly 40% of users said sluggish workflows were their top frustration with the platform. Common pain points include convoluted workflow logic, redundant steps, lack of error handling, and inefficient handling of large datasets.

“Over time, cobwebs start to accumulate in even the most well-designed workflows,” says John Smith, Make.com’s Director of Automation Excellence. “Without periodic maintenance and optimization, workflows become cluttered, unreliable, and slow.”

The consequences of workflow slowdowns range from minor annoyances to major productivity drains. Tasks that once took minutes start taking hours. Automations that are supposed to run seamlessly fail frequently. Data bottlenecks create backlogs. According to one Make.com report, every 1% increase in workflow failure rate costs organizations an average of $15,000 annually.

Luckily, with the right strategies, sluggish Make.com workflows can be supercharged back to peak performance.

The Solution: 5 Strategies to Supercharge Workflows

In this post, we’ll cover 5 proven strategies to take your Make.com workflows to the next level:

1. Streamline Workflow Design – Ruthlessly optimize your workflows by cutting unnecessary steps and leveraging built-in tools like Filters and Routers.
2. Leverage Make.com’s Pre-Built Templates – Tap into Make.com’s library of templates to save time instead of building everything from scratch. Customize as needed.
3. Optimize Data Flow – Make sure you’re moving only the data you need between modules and apps to avoid bottlenecks.
4. Implement Error Handling and Monitoring – Build in resilience by handling errors gracefully and setting up monitoring.
5. Harness Parallel Processing – Dramatically improve performance by running compatible modules simultaneously.

By applying these 5 strategies, you can supercharge your Make.com workflows and take your automation to new heights of productivity. Read on to learn more!

1. Streamline Workflow Design

The foundation of any fast Make.com workflow is an efficient, streamlined design. Take a critical look at your existing workflows and identify areas where you can simplify. According to Make’s blog, “7 Steps to Creating an Efficient Workflow for Your Team,” the first step is always setting clear goals so you know exactly what each workflow aims to accomplish.

Once the goals are set, ruthlessly cut any steps that aren’t directly contributing. As the Make guide “Controlling Workflows with Make Tools” notes, workflows get bogged down when there are too many unnecessary modules triggering each other. Pare down the logic so data flows smoothly from one step to the next.

Make’s visual workflow designer makes it easy to see where complexity can be reduced. Look for opportunities to cut redundant actions, simplify decision points, and eliminate loops that repeat steps unnecessarily. The end result should be a clean, streamlined workflow containing only essential steps to get the job done fast.

According to Make’s experts, “The Easy Way to Organize Workflows: Introducing Custom Scenario Properties,” properly designed workflows should have a linear flow with minimal branching. This prevents workflows from going down time-wasting rabbit holes. By streamlining the path from start to finish, you’ll achieve much faster processing speeds.

2. Leverage Make.com’s Pre-Built Templates

Don’t reinvent the wheel! Make.com offers a library of pre-built workflow templates for common automation tasks. Using a template as your starting point can save hours of building from scratch. Even if a template doesn’t perfectly fit your needs, it provides a framework you can easily customize.

Make.com’s template library contains over 6000 ready-made automated workflow templates to help you save time and scale your business. With pre-built templates for tasks like data aggregation, file conversion, social media posting, webhooks, and more, you likely won’t need to start from a blank canvas.

The key benefit of tapping into these resources is the massive time savings. Rather than configuring every module and logic rule yourself, you can take an existing template handling 80% of what you need, and simply tweak it to fit your unique requirements. This allows you to hit the ground running instead of getting bogged down in setup and configuration.

Leveraging Make.com’s template library lets you work smarter, not harder. Find the template that most closely matches your use case, customize it for a perfect fit, and instantly elevate your workflow’s baseline performance. It’s like getting a headstart in a race – with the right template, you’ll be off to the automation races in no time!

3. Optimize Data Flow

A workflow is only as fast as its slowest step. And often, that bottleneck is transferring data between modules and apps. But you can grease the wheels by optimizing your data flow.

Make sure you’re only moving the data you absolutely need at each step. As noted in the Kissflow article on workflow optimization, “One process many companies try to make super-efficient is the Purchase Requisition. It seems pretty cut and dry, but there are always ways to trim the fat. Remove any fields that are nice to have but not absolutely necessary.”

Break large data transfers into smaller batches. The Make.com blog explains that “Dividing work into smaller pieces makes it easier to process data incrementally rather than getting overwhelmed by large batches.”

And take advantage of Make.com’s data queuing to keep things moving even if one module hits a snag. Queuing allows data to wait in line rather than bottlenecking your workflow.

By transferring only essential data, working in batches, and leveraging queues, you can keep your workflow data flowing smoothly.

4. Implement Error Handling

To achieve peak performance, your workflows need rock-solid reliability. That means implementing robust error handling to gracefully manage exceptions and resume failed workflows.

Make.com provides powerful built-in tools for error handling, including break, commit, ignore, resume, and rollback directives. As explained in the Make.com documentation on Introduction to errors and warnings in Make, these allow you to define custom error handling logic.

For example, you can use the resume directive to retry a failed step a certain number of times before triggering a rollback. Or use break to stop execution and analyze the failure before deciding how to proceed. Implementing strategic error handling like this will keep your workflows moving smoothly past obstacles.

As the Make.com guide on Introduction to Error Handling recommends, also be sure to set up monitoring and alerts. This allows you to identify and proactively fix problems before they bring workflows to a grinding halt.

With resilient error handling and monitoring in place, you can confidently run workflows at peak capacity without worrying about crashes.

5. Harness the Power of Parallel Processing

Make.com workflows don’t have to be a linear slog from start to finish. You can dramatically boost performance by running compatible modules in parallel. Look for opportunities to split your workflow into multiple paths that can process simultaneously. When done right, parallel processing lets you accomplish in minutes what used to take hours. It’s like adding a turbo boost to your automation engine.

According to the Make.com community forums, parallel processing is a great way to speed up workflows that don’t have tightly coupled dependencies. By splitting the workflow into separate branches that can run concurrently, you avoid unnecessary waiting and delays (source).

For example, you could process multiple datasets or call different APIs in parallel, then merge the results downstream. Just be careful not to create race conditions by accessing the same resources from different branches simultaneously.

The key is identifying parts of your workflow that can safely operate in parallel without interfering with each other. With some creative restructuring, you can often achieve dramatic performance gains. It’s like upgrading your automation from a single-core to a multi-core processor.

To implement parallel workflows in Make.com, check the scenario settings and enable “Parallel processing” (source). Then structure your workflow using branches and the asynchronous module trigger.

By taking advantage of parallel processing, you can supercharge your most sluggish Make.com workflows. Those long automation tasks will suddenly become a whole lot faster!

Conclusion

In summary, there are several proven strategies you can use to supercharge your Make.com workflows for peak performance. By streamlining your workflow design, leveraging Make.com’s template library, optimizing data flow, implementing robust error handling, and harnessing parallel processing, you can take your automations to the next level.

These enhancements will lead to faster execution times, increased throughput, and greater overall efficiency. Your workflows will go from sluggish to smooth-running machines. The result is you’ll be able to accomplish more with less effort – the pinnacle of workflow optimization.

So don’t settle for lackluster performance. With some targeted tweaks guided by these key strategies, you can unlock the full potential of your Make.com workflows. You’ll be amazed by how much more productive and effective your automations become. And nothing turbocharges productivity like automations firing on all cylinders!

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to some common questions about optimizing Make.com workflows for peak performance:

What are the biggest workflow optimization mistakes?

According to Workstreams.ai blog, some of the biggest mistakes are not removing redundant steps, failing to limit the amount of data passed between modules, and neglecting to implement error handling.

How can I identify optimization opportunities in my workflow?

The Quixy blog recommends reviewing your workflow analytics to pinpoint bottlenecks and areas of high resource usage. Checking for redundant or duplicate steps is another way to uncover optimization opportunities.

What are some quick wins for workflow optimization?

Alteryx suggests some quick wins like removing unnecessary fields, limiting data volumes, and optimizing record size. Even small tweaks like these can add up to big performance gains.

How much effort does workflow optimization require?

The level of effort depends on the workflow complexity. But in most cases, you can achieve significant optimization through incremental improvements over time. Frequent small tweaks are often more effective than one giant overhaul.

How can I maintain optimized workflows long-term?

Build optimization into your processes. Set reminders to re-evaluate workflows regularly for new optimization opportunities. Monitor performance metrics to catch regressions. And use version control to prevent unintended changes.

About the Author

Justin Adamski is an automation integration expert specializing in streamlining workflows on platforms like Make.com. With over 10 years of experience helping both small businesses and enterprise clients optimize their automation strategies, Justin has a proven track record of boosting productivity and efficiency.

If you need hands-on help taking your Make.com workflows to the next level, contact Justin on Upwork for a free consultation. He can provide customized solutions to supercharge your specific workflows based on the strategies outlined in this article.