Module 7 Improving Business Processes Flashcards
Business process definition
Means by which an organisation carries out its work and delivers its products and services to customers
Business process categories
Enterprise level
Event- response level
Actor task level
Enterprise level
Represents the high-level activities that together deliver a product/service
May be modelled using value stream
E.g selling online at enterprise level, u look at how order is placed
Event-response level
Represents the business processes that form the organisations response to a business event
Actor-task level
Represents the sequence of actions performed by an actor in one place at a point in time
What is value stream
A set of actions that take place to add value to a customer
Reasons for modelling, value streams and business processes
To clarify the core activities required to deliver products and services
To understand how a business process is carried out
To represent how each task relates to a business process and how each process related to a value stream
Techniques used at the enterprise level
SIPOC
Supplier- consumers/ product supplier
Inputs- order for products
Process- record order and take payment
Outputs- delivered products
Customer- consumer in receipt of products
Techniques used at enterprise level
VALUE CHAIN
Split into primary activities and secondary activities
Primary activities
Handling business processes and tasks that together deliver the value proposition
Inbound logistics- obtain products
Operations- fulfil orders
Outbound logistics- deliver products
Marketing and sales- promote products and take orders
Service- handle customer queries and complaints
Support activities
Activities handling business processes and task threat support the primary task
Firm infrastructure- activities related to establishment and maintenance of physical infrastructure that enables enterprises work- managing building facilities
HR management- concerned with recruitment
Technology development- concerned with provision of technical services to enterprises
Procurement- activities concerned with managing suppliers, resources- choosing preferred suppliers
Techniques used at enterprise level
Value proposition
Promise value to be delivered
Key concept for organisations and has 3 areas of focus
1- clarifying the outcomes offered by an organisation from delivery of the product/service that the organisation believes will be perceived by customers to be beneficial
2- demonstrating to customers that what is delivered will achieve what they desire/need
3- differentiating organisations from their competitors
Techniques used at enterprise level
Value proposition- product/service attributes
Functionality- what does it do/ features
Price
Quality
Choice
Availability of timing
AS WELL AS image + customer relationship- valuing customers
Aspects of the event-response level
Buisness events
External - occur outside the area of business- typically originate from consumer/supplier e.g customer booking/order complaint
Internal- occur within the business area- typically originate from senior members of staff- e.g business manager may initiate a grade review against junior , may want staff recruitments
Time-staff- normally predictable, occur under time-based frequency for e.g pay roll
Aspects of event response level
Process- Refers to a set of tasks, which may be completed by a different actor- acquiring a new customer
Task- individual activity within the overall process - completing the sale, sending invoice
Step- action carried out within individual task- taking payment
What is an as-is model?
Description of a business process as it currently operates is an as-is model
What is a to-be model
A model produced to define future process is a to be model
UML activity model
UNIFIED MODELLING LANGUAGE
Analysis considerations at actor-task level
Actor- role/group/system performing the task
Event- triggers the task, each task initiated by sub-event
Output- deliverable product from conducting the task. May be tangible- product- or intangible- information
Costs- price associated with task
Performance measures- measured used to evaluate performance of task - concerned with accuracy and timelines- was the task performed within the given timeline?
Steps- individual actions taken when conducting the task- may have to apply business rules when performing a step e.g recording a customer complaint call
Analysis of the AS IS model
Lack of customer focus- process does not consider customer requirements and expectations so fails to provide what is needed
Lack of organisation focus- the process meets customers needs but at a significant expense to the organisation e.g lack of technical support requires a lot of manual
Generic approaches to improving business processes
Simplification- eliminate tasks that are redundant
Redesign- process many not have worked e.g spreadsheet so improvements are made
Bottleneck removal
Change task sequence- changing the way tasks happen
Redefining boundaries- extending or reducing tasks such as outsourcing tasks to specialists as it takes long time to hire people
Automate processing- greater reliability
The purpose of customer journey maps
Helps examine processes from customer’s perspective
Process improvement can have risk of bad customer experience due to focusing on productivity and efficiency
