Chapter 7: Improving Business Services and Processes (12.5%) Flashcards
3 levels in the process model hierarchy (business process hierarchy):
Organisational / Enterprise level
Business process / Event-Response level
Task / Actor level
enterprise level:
- represents high-level activities that together deliver a product/service to customers
- may be modelled using value stream or value chain diagrams
event-response level:
- represents organisations’ business process response to an initiating event
- may be modelled using UML (unified modelling language) activity diagram notation with swimlanes
or
BPMN (business process model and notations)
actor-task level:
- represents the sequence of actions performed by 1actor in 1 place at １point in time
- may be defined using both text + UML activity diagram notation
reasons for modelling value streams + business processes
- clarify core activities required to deliver products + services to customers
- understand how a business process is carried out
- represent how each task relates to a business process + how each process relates to a value stream
- embed consistency + standardisation within an organisation
- recognise where ‘as-is’ is inefficient/ineffective to identify where improvements can be made
- demonstrate compliance with regulatory or standard bodies
by definition a process…
has an input which the process transforms into an output.
SIPOC stands for
and is used at what level in process hierarchy?
supplier
inputs
process
outputs
customer
used at enterprise level
what is Porter’s value chain?
an alternative framework for building an ENTERPRISE view of processes
comprises 2 areas of activity: primary + support
porter’s value chain, what are primary activities
activities handling business processes + tasks that together deliver the value proposition
e.g.
inbound logistics
operations
outbound logistics
marketing + sales
service
porter’s value chain, what are support activities
activities handling business processes + tasks that support primary tasks
e.g.
firm infrastructure
HR
Tech development
procurement (managing suppliers of resources + services)
The Value Proposition defines:
an organisations product or service and demonstrates to customers that we
understand and can satisfy their needs.
Value proposition covers three key aspects which are:
Product or service attributes
Customer relationship aspects
Image and reputation
The product attributes is broken down into five areas which are:
Functionality (features offered by product/service)
The Price (we charge)
Its Quality (how well the product performs)
Choice (the product range)
Availability or timing (tells customer about delivery times and overall product availability)
Customer relationship aspects concerns:
relationship between organisation and its customers
(experience offered by an organisation throughout entire customer journey)
The four aspects of the external environment are:
Suppliers
External Environment
Customer
Competition
a business process is triggered by…
an event
6 key components of a business process
- the event that triggers the process
- The tasks that make up the process
- The process flow
- The decision points
- The actors that carry out the tasks
- The outcome of the business process
2 most popular standards for modelling business processes
UML (Unified Modelling Language)
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation)
UML diagrams are also known as…
swimlane diagrams
elements of Business process model (UML)
drawn with horizontal swimlanes
each row on the diagram relates to work of 1 actor.
- normal to put the customer actor at the top of the diagram so they are usually read from top to
bottom, and left to right.
Reasons for business process models.
- represent the current process
- documentation
- training
- process improvement
difference between business process model and actor-task level
business process model shows the work carried out to complete the business process but at an overview level of description.
The actor-task level of the process hierarchy concerns the work conducted within each
individual task
how does BPMN differ from UML
extensive notation set available that provides additional detail regarding processes in BPMN
BMPN calls swimlanes ‘Pools’
decision gateways have further notation of ‘+’ (indicated parallel process flow’ and ‘O’ (represents a number of pathways, flow progresses along 1 or more of these pathways)
what are the areas for analysis in actor-task level?
actor
event
input
output
costs
performance measures
steps
generic business process improvement strategies (6 in total)
Simplification
Redesign
Bottleneck removal
Change task sequence
Redefine boundary
Automate processing
what is the Six Sigma method
set of techniques used to improve process performance through applying statistical process control
overall aim of Six Sigma method
eradicate performance deficiencies in business processes
(particularly those critical to meeting customer expectations)
Six Sigma follows a 5 step approach called DMAIC. what does this stand for
Define (the problem)
Measure (the data)
Analyse (the data to understand why problems occur)
Improve (the process by addressing root causes)
Control (the effectiveness of the solution)
what is customer journey mapping
technique used to represent all the touchpoints a customer has with an organisation while they’re receiving the products or services provided
purpose of customer journey mapping
- offers a view of process improvement focused on how organisation presents itself externally to customers
- help organisations ensure proposed process improvements keep the customers in mind + identify where service offered to customers may be improved
elements considered within a customer journey map
role (of customer)
Persona
Personal goal (outcome required by the persona)
Stages of customer journey (value stream/chain definition of high level stages)
Touchpoints (decomposition of high level stages into specific touchpoints between customer and organisation)
RAG assessment of touchpoints (colour coded using red (-ve), amber, green (+ve)
Emotional responses of persona (feedback that reflects emotional response to customer experience at each touchpoint)
Potential opportunities for improvement
analysing ‘as-is’ business model
problems with business processes fall within 2 categories:
lack of customer focus
lack of organisation focus
3 aspects for analysing the ‘as-is’ business model
Identifying problems
Analysing the handoffs
Analysing the tasks and procedures
analysing ‘as-is’ business model
what problems can hand offs cause
- may cause info to be lost, communication to fail or work bottlenecks
- queues can form if 2 actors involved aren’t working to same timescale/priorities
identifying where hand offs occur + analysing to identify potential problems is a key element of business process improvement
analysing ‘as-is’ business model
what are the areas to consider when analysing tasks and procedures
Duplication
Redundancy
Lack of standardisation
Inefficient work practises
Inappropriate measures
