On the other hand, there are practices that can save you a ton of time even if you are working alone. In an academic setting this can often mean you just learn the ineffectual techniques of whomever came before you. In this case a small amount of education and change of practice (i.e. process) absolutely can dramatically improve overall lab productiveness. Industry isn't immune at all - especially when treating your "R&D" group quite separately from your "production engineering".

Another thing to remember is that there is no such thing as no process; you have one even if you don't understand it. It can be lightweight and almost invariably you can improve it (thought that's not always worth the time spent)