Process management appears in every company at some point. It enables these business functions to align with customer needs and helps executives make decisions about how enterprise resources should be deployed, monitored, and measured. Properly implemented, process management can increase efficiency and productivity, reduce costs and minimize undesirable developments and risks, thereby optimizing the company’s results.
What is a process?
Definition: Process or business process is essentially a standardized method of converting a set of inputs into the desired outputs that a customer deems valuable. In times of digitization, the control of these processes is mostly digital.
An example would be a loan application from a bank. The customer fills out an electronic application form, usually via the website. This information becomes the input to the loan application process. The business process itself can then consist of a credit assessment and other activities that enable the bank to make a decision on the approval of the loan. The output of the business process is a decision that is communicated to the customer, followed by the transfer of the money to the customer’s correct bank account.
Process flow
We can say that the business process transforms multiple inputs into specific and more valuable outputs. In general, we can define the output of the process as anything that emerges from the process. The primary output is what the customers want. The secondary output might be an email notifying them of their decision.
Input to processes is provided by one or more vendors and is often in the form of structured information.
What is Business Process Management (BPM)?
Business process management or business process management encompasses a range of activities that support the smooth running of a company. In addition, Business Process Management maps all phases of a company’s activities, from the initial phase to sale.
The key components of a business process management program are:
- risk management
- Modeling of business processes
- Business process outsourcing
- employee motivation
- Product and service inventory
- Benefits of process management training
- improvement of business processes
The main benefit of business process improvement is that it can be redesigned and modified according to the needs of the changing business environment by introducing a new management plan, e.g. B. in the issue of budgeting of capital expenses, and the administrative process can be managed perfectly.
Applying the methods of process management is helpful for business analysts such as analysts, managers, programmers and employees.
categories
Business process management can be divided into four categories:
strategy
Use of instruments such as environmental impact and target models, problem and opportunity models.
analysis
Use of tools such as business interaction models, organization and process simulation
draft
Workflow and process models, use case and event models
execution
Creation of process and operating models.
Purpose of Business Process Management (BPM)
It’s about organizing processes based on deliverables instead of tasks to ensure the required focus is maintained. It deals with the following topics and to-dos:
Review corrected and improved business processes prior to automation.
Installing processes and assigning responsibility for improvement and overall work.
Ensuring that business processes are standardized across the organization so that they are readily available, understood and managed, and risk and errors are minimized.
Enabling continuous change so that any progress can be expanded and easily disseminated over a period of time.
Reinforcing existing business practices around existing outcomes, as opposed to building radically new or perfect practices. Because that can take a long period of time in which the profits made are nullified and eroded.
When you start a business, your number one priority is getting orders and delivering them as quickly as possible. This sounds easier than actually doing it. In order to make all this possible, you have to make a lot of effort. So you can get things done before the deadline. If you are unable to make your customers happy, you will not be able to make your business successful. It is therefore important that you know about process management and its methods and that you run your company correctly so that ideally the company success occurs quickly by taking the right steps at the right time to create the desired customer satisfaction by using the right product at the deliver at the right time.
Training in BPM methods for process management takes into account the things you do every day to keep your business running and presents them visually. Here’s how your business looks when plotted on a chart. This is a great way to discover your repeatable processes.
7 steps for successful process management in companies
- Create transparency
- Make sure that the business processes are identified, described and documented
- Invest in communication and training
- The process executors – those who carry out each individual work step – must be trained and empowered.
- Set the process goals
- Processes have a clear goal that should be defined and communicated to everyone involved in the process.
- Assign process owners
Processes still need someone responsible. These are the people who are responsible for achieving the process goals and implementing improvements.
Focus on process implementation and actual execution
Any business process can only contribute to the achievement of corporate goals if it is actually executed. Real process execution means stepping out of the PowerPoint universe and into the real lives of people in the field. Any investment in process management is a waste of money and effort if the processes are not lived as intended.
Pay attention to the correct order
First ensure execution, then optimize. Follow the order and do the second step before the first. Many companies optimize processes that don’t exist in reality, which is a complete waste of time and money. Ensure actual process execution first, then optimize. The correct sequence not only saves time and money, but also leads to higher employee satisfaction.
Consider the process maturity of the organization
Organizations are at different levels of business process management skills. Keep that in mind as you plan to roll out the new approach. Inefficient processes can lead to unnecessary delays, errors, employee frustration, customer dissatisfaction, accidents, wasted time, unnecessary use of resources, duplication of effort and unnecessary costs.
Pillars of a Business Process Management (BPM) training program
Identification of priority, critical processes
There are many processes in a construction site, it would take too much time and effort to identify and manage them all, so it is necessary to identify the most critical processes for patience and practice results. These should be actively managed to ensure optimal, predictable results to satisfaction.
Validation of customer requirements
It is important that there is a detailed understanding of customers’ needs and that they are met. It is crucial that providers actively work to understand these needs. Other employees who come into contact with them must also act in this spirit.
Documentation and controlling of the process
The current status of all critical processes must be understood. One of the best ways to do this is by using and mapping tools like flowcharts, value stream mapping or BPM software that allows mapping the details of a specific process. This includes people systems, information material, tools, equipment and documentation.
Development of process measurements in the BPM life cycle
In order for processes to be managed, key indicators such as target/actual comparisons must be determined and measured.
Management and optimization of processes
Once the key processes are identified, the charts and indicators are measured and the requirements are determined. The best providers work on the continuous optimization of processes in order to achieve better and better results. This leads to better and better results and solutions.
This allows you to interact with the business processes without being directly involved in the processes and help you solve the business process implementation.
Process management versus project management
In operations management, we mainly deal with the optimization of processes, often in one process chain or several process chains and thus with the workflow management of processes. Because in operations management, the focus is usually on the entrepreneurial functions of several units or the operation of several projects with the same resources.
The focus in process optimization is therefore on the flow rate and ensuring a smooth flow. We want to control lead time or manage inventory well. Typically, the problem lies with the resource with the lowest capacity, which becomes the bottleneck. And that slows down business process management (BPM).
In project management, the focus is more on a unit of the product. So the unit of production is usually unique or has only a certain resemblance to other units. It’s usually much larger, and the focus is usually on things that don’t make the project too expensive, since each unit can have a different cost. And if a project runs too long, there can be delays. When managing projects, the team tries to ensure that the project is completed in a reasonable or desired time.
So, examples of projects could be a major construction project, developing a new item or product that will be manufactured later in a process, or planning a wedding. We define projects as temporary or non-recurring operations. They usually have a limited time frame. Some sometimes have multiple goals, often they have a temporary organizational structure like we choose for a specific project.
Designing a wedding can be a project, but for a large company that organizes weddings, it may be more of a unit in a construction processor. A construction site manager might view its construction as one project, but the vice president of a large construction company might say that a project is just one flow unit in a process of constructing multiple buildings.
