Business process or business method is a collection of related or structured activities or tasks that in a certain order produce a service or product (serving a specific business purpose) to customers or customers. Business processes can often be visualized (modeled) as a flowchart of a series of activities with interleaving decision points or as a process matrix of a series of activities with relevance rules based on data in the process. The benefits of using business processes include increased customer satisfaction and increased agility to react to rapid market changes. Process-oriented organizations break down the barriers of the structural department and try to avoid functional silos.
Video Business process
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The business process begins with mission objectives (external events) and ends with achieving business goals delivering results that deliver customer value. In addition, a process can be divided into subprocess (process decomposition), special functions in the process. The business process may also have a process owner, the party responsible for ensuring the process runs smoothly from start to finish.
Broadly speaking, business processes can be organized into three types, according to von Rosing et al. :
- The operational process, which is the core business and creates a primary value stream, for example, accepts orders from customers, opens accounts, and creates components
- Management processes, processes that oversee operational processes, including corporate governance, budgetary oversight, and employee supervision
- Support process, which supports core operational processes, for example, accounting, hiring, call centers, technical support, and safety training
A slightly different approach to these three types is offered by Kirchmer:
- The operational process, which focuses on properly performing the operational tasks of the entity; This is where personnel "get things done"
- The management process, which ensures that operational processes are carried out appropriately; this is where managers "ensure efficient and effective work processes"
- The governance process, which ensures the entity operates fully in accordance with the required legal rules, guidelines and shareholder expectations; This is where executives ensure "rules and guidelines for business success" are followed
Complex business processes can be broken down into several subprocesses, which have their own attributes but also contribute to achieving overall business objectives. Business process analysis usually involves mapping or modeling processes and sub-processes to the activity/task level. The process can be modeled through a large number of methods and techniques. For example, Business Process Modeling Notation is a business process modeling technique that can be used to draw business processes in a visualized workflow. While the process of decomposition into type and process categories can be useful, care must be taken in doing so as there may be crossovers. Ultimately, all processes are part of a largely unified outcome, one of "customer value creation." This goal is accelerated by business process management, which aims to analyze, improve, and enforce business processes.
Maps Business process
History
Adam Smith
An important early process description (1776) is a process of Adam Smith's economist in the well-known pin factory example. Inspired by an article in Diderot's EncyclopÃÆ'Â © die, Smith described the pin production in the following ways:
"One person pulls out the wire, the other is straight, the third cuts it, the four points, the five grinds at the top to receive the head, to make the head requires two or three different operations; to wear it is a strange business, to whiten the pin is the other... and business essential to make pins, in this way, are divided into about eighteen different operations, which, in some factories, are all done by different hands, although in other men the same will sometimes do two or three of them. "
Smith also first learned how output can be improved through the use of labor divisions. Earlier, in a society where production was dominated by handmade items, one person would perform all the activities required during the production process, while Smith described how the work was divided into a set of simple tasks, which would be performed by specialized workers. The results of the division of labor in the Smith sample resulted in a productivity increase of 24,000 percent (sic), ie that the same number of workers made 240 times as many pins as they were produced prior to the introduction of the division of labor.
It should be noted that Smith does not advocate the division of labor at any price and per se . The appropriate level of assignment is defined through the experimental design of the production process. Unlike Smith's view that is limited to the same functional domain and consists of activities that are in direct sequence in the manufacturing process, today's process concepts include cross-functionality as an important characteristic. Following his ideas, the division of labor was widely adopted, while the integration of tasks into functional, or cross-functional, processes were not considered an alternative choice until much later.
Frederick Winslow Taylor
American engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor greatly influenced and improved the quality of industrial processes in the early 20th century. Its Scientific Management Principles focus on standardizing processes, systematic training and clearly defining the roles of management and employees. His methods were widely adopted in the United States, Russia, and parts of Europe and led to further developments such as "time and motion studies" and visual task optimization techniques, such as the Gantt chart.
Peter Drucker
In the latter part of the twentieth century, management guru Peter Drucker focused much of his work on simplification and decentralization of the process, leading to the concept of outsourcing. He also created the concept of "knowledge workers - differentiated from manual workers - and how knowledge management will be part of the entity process.
Other definitions
Davenport (1993) defines the process (business) as:
"A collection of structured and measurable activities designed to produce special output for a particular customer or market.It implies a strong emphasis on how work is done within an organization, in contrast to the emphasis of product focus on what.A process is a specific sequence of cross work activities space and time, with beginning and end, and clear input and output: structure for action... Taking a process approach means adopting a customer's point of view.The process is a structure in which an organization does what it takes to generate value for its customers. "
This definition contains certain characteristics that a process must possess. This characteristic is achieved by focusing on the business logic of the process (how the work is done), rather than taking a product perspective (what it does). Following Davenport's definition of a process, we can conclude that a process must have clear boundaries, inputs and outputs, that a process consists of smaller parts, activities, ordered in time and space, that there must be a receiver the results of a customer's process - and that the transformation that takes place in the process must add value to the customer.
Hammer & amp; The definition of Champy (1993) may be considered part of Davenport. They define the process as:
"an activity group that takes one or more input types and creates a valueable output for the customer."
As we can see, Hammer & amp; Champy has a more transformation-oriented perception, and less emphasis on structural components - the process boundaries and sequence of activities in space and time.
Rummler & amp; Brache (1995) uses a clear definition of focusing on an organization's external customers, when it states it
"The business process is a series of steps designed to produce a product or service.Most processes (...) are cross-functional, including 'blank spaces' between boxes in the organizational chart Some processes produce products or services received by external customers organization. "We call this the main process." Other processes produce products that are not visible to external customers but are important for effective business management, we call them support processes. "
The above definition distinguishes two types of processes, primary processes and support, depending on whether a process is directly involved in the creation of customer value, or related to the internal activities of the organization. In this sense, the definitions of Rummler and Brache follow Porter's value chain model, which also builds the division of primary and secondary activities. According to Rummler and Brache, the distinctive characteristic of successful process-based organizations is the absence of secondary activity in key value streams created in customer-centered main processes. Characteristics of processes that include white space on the organizational chart show that processes are embedded in some form of organizational structure. In addition, a process can be cross-functional, that is, the range of some business functions.
Johansson et al. (1993). defines the process as:
"a set of related activities that take input and change it to make outputs. Ideally, the transformation that takes place in the process should add value to the input and make the output more useful and effective for both upstream or downstream receivers."
This definition also emphasizes the constitution of the relationship between activity and transformation that takes place in the process. Johansson et al. also includes the upstream part of the value chain as the likely beneficiary of the process proceeds. Summarizing all four definitions above, we can list the following characteristics for business processes:
- Definability : This should have clear boundaries, inputs and outputs.
- Order : This should consist of activities ordered according to their position in space and time (sequence).
- Customer Ã,: There must be a recipient of the results of the process, the customer.
- Value addition : Transformations that occur in the process must add value to the recipient, either upstream or downstream.
- Embeddedness Ã,: A process can not exist, must be embedded within the organizational structure.
- Cross functionality : The process can be regular, but not necessarily, including some functions.
Often, identifying the process owner, (ie, the person responsible for the continuous improvement of the process) is considered a prerequisite. Sometimes the process owner is the same person who processes.
Related concepts
Workflow
The workflow is the procedural movement of information, materials, and tasks from one participant to another. The workflow includes the procedures, people, and tools involved in every step of the business process. A single workflow can be sequential, with each step depending on the previous, or parallel, resolution with multiple steps simultaneously taking place. Several combinations of a single workflow can be linked to achieve the overall process generated.
Business process reengineering
Business process reengineering (BPR) was originally conceptualized by Hammer and Davenport as a means to improve organizational effectiveness and productivity. It consists of starting from a blank slate and completely recreating the main business processes as well as the use of information technology for significant performance enhancements. This term is unfortunately associated with "downsizing" the company in the mid-1990s.
Business process management (BPM)
Although the term has been used contextually for mixed effects, "business process management" (BPM) can generally be defined as a discipline that involves a combination of a variety of business activity flows (eg, automation, modeling, and optimization) that seek to support the objectives of an enterprise inside and outside many restrictions, involving multiple people, from employees to customers and external partners. The main part of BPM's corporate support involves a continuous evaluation of the existing process and the identification of ways to improve it, resulting in an overall cycle of organizational improvement.
Knowledge management
Knowledge management is the definition of knowledge used by employees and systems to perform its functions and maintain it in a format accessible to others. Duhon and Gartner Group have defined it as "a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving and sharing all of the company's information assets.These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and beforehand. arrested in each worker. "
Total quality management
Total quality management (TQM) emerged in the early 1980s as organizations sought to improve the quality of their products and services. This was followed by the Six Sigma methodology in the mid-1980s, first introduced by Motorola. Six Sigma consists of statistical methods to improve business processes and thus reduce defects in output. The "lean approach" to quality management was introduced by Toyota Motor Company in the 1990s and focused on customer needs and waste reduction.
Information technology as an enabler for business process management
The progress of information technology over the years has transformed business processes within and between business firms. In the 1960s, the operating system had limited functionality, and whatever workflow management system that was being used was tailor-made for a particular organization. 1970s 1980s saw the development of data-driven approaches, such as data storage and retrieval technology. Data modeling rather than process modeling is the starting point for building information systems. Business processes must adapt to information technology because process modeling is ignored. The shift towards process-oriented management took place in the 1990s. Enterprise resource planning software with workflow management components such as SAP, Baan, PeopleSoft, Oracle and JD Edwards emerged, as did business process management (BPMS) systems later.
The world of e-business creates the need to automate business processes throughout the organization, which in turn increases the need for standardized protocols and language composition of web services that can be understood throughout the industry. The Business Process Modeling Notice (BPMN) and the Business Motivation Model (BMM) is a widely used standard for business modeling. The Domain Modeling and Integration Working Group (BMI DTF) is a consortium of vendors and user companies who continue to work together to develop standards and specifications to promote the collaboration and integration of people, systems, processes and information within and across the enterprise.
Recent trends in BPM are influenced by the rise of cloud technology, the prevalence of social media, mobile technology, and the development of analytic techniques. Cloud-based technology enables companies to purchase resources quickly and as needed independently from their location. Social media, websites, and smartphones are the latest channels through which organizations reach out and support their customers. The large number of customer data collected through these channels as well as through call center interaction, email, voice calls, and customer surveys has led to huge growth in data analysis which in turn is used for performance management and improves the way in which the company serves its customers.
Importance of process chain
The business process consists of a set of sequential sub-processes or tasks with alternate paths, depending on the particular conditions as applicable, done to achieve a particular goal or produce the given output. Each process has one or more required inputs. Input and output may be received from, or transmitted to other business processes, other organizational units, or internal or external stakeholders.
Business processes are designed to be operated by one or more business functional units, and emphasize the importance of "process chains" rather than individual units.
In general, business process tasks can be done in one of two ways:
- manually
- through business data processing systems such as ERP systems
Typically, some of the process tasks will be manual, while some tasks will be computer based, and these tasks can be sorted in many ways. In other words, the data and information being handled through the process can bypass manual or computer tasks in a specific order.
Policies, processes and procedures
The above improvement areas are equally applicable to policies, processes, detailed procedures (sub-processes/tasks) and work instructions. There is an increased effect made at a higher level on the lower level.
For example, if recommendations to replace certain policies with better policies are made with proper justification and are accepted in principle by the owner of the business process, then the corresponding changes in consequent processes and procedures will follow naturally to enable the implementation of the policy.
Reporting as an important base for execution
Business processes must include the latest and accurate reports to ensure effective action. An example is the availability of a purchase order status report for delivery of a supplier's delivery as described in the section on the effectiveness above. There are many examples of this in every possible business process.
Another example of production is the process of line rejection analysis that occurs on the shop floor. This process should include a systematic periodic analysis of rejection by reason, and present the results in an appropriate information report that shows the main reason, and the tendency in this reason, for management to take corrective action to control rejection and keep them within acceptable limits. The process of analyzing and summation like that of a line rejection event is clearly superior to a process that simply asks into any individual rejection when it occurs.
The owner of the business and operative processes should be aware that process improvement is often the case with the introduction of appropriate transactions, operations, spotlights, exceptions or M.I.S. reports, provided it is consciously used for everyday or periodic decision making. With this understanding is expected to come the willingness to invest time and other resources in business process improvement by introducing a useful and relevant reporting system.
Supporting theories and concepts
Control span
The control span is the number of subordinates the boss manages in a structural organization. Introducing the concept of a business process has a considerable impact on the structural elements of the organization and thus also the span of control.
Large organizations that are not organized because markets need to be organized into smaller units - departments - that can be defined according to different principles.
The concept of information management
The information management, and organizational infrastructure strategy associated with it, is the theoretical foundation of business process concepts, requiring "a framework for measuring the level of IT support for business processes."
See also
- Business analysis
- Business method patents
- Business process automation
- Business Process Definition Metamodel
- Business process mapping
- Outsourcing business process
References
Further reading
- Paul's Harmon, (2007). Business Process Changes: Ed 2, Guides for Business Managers and BPM and Six Sigma Professionals . Morgan Kaufmann
- E. Screwdriver and S. Crainer S (1993). Make Re-engineering Happen . Financial Times Prentice Hall
- Howard Smith and Peter Fingar (2003). Business Process Management . Third Wave, Press MK
- Slack et al., edited by: David Barnes (2000) Open University, Understanding Business: The Process
- Malakooti, ​​â € <â €
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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