PROCESS IMPROVEMENT: End – to – End

Have you ever wondered how a whole business strings together? Actually, it is the business processes that literally “string” the business together. Hence for this reason is it process improvement that achieves end-to-end business improvement.

Unfortunately, numerous process improvement projects fail. The most common cause of this is that the Circle of Excellence or process improvement cycle is rarely followed through to the end. In fact a mighty forty five percent of failed projects simply stopped at documenting the current state processes. Hence the project never entered the analysis or improvement phase. As a result, the expected benefits were not realized.

Process improvement is a cycle of iterative corrections made in the business. First of all these corrections can be in response to a business environment change or also an internal corporate direction change. Because such scenarios happen continuously, process improvement is a continuous activity that cycles through the business.

PRIME KEY FEATURES

Best Practice Process Libraries.
Process Mapping using BPMN.
Time / Cost / Value / Efficiency Analysis.
Track Process Improvements.
Process Simulation.
Process Collaboration Portal.

Therefore, to achieve end-to-end business improvement apply all stages of a business improvement cycle. Below, we step through each step and these steps must be applied to each process: Phase 1: First of all begin by doing the following:

Identify processes that require urgent attention,
Document your current state process/es

Phase 2: In addition:

Analyze current state processes to understand the bottlenecks and issues

Phase 3: Furthermore,

Develop process improvement solutions to resolve the identified problems,
Develop To – Be process scenarios based on the improvement solutions,
Understand return in investment and implementation potential of each To-Be scenario,
Select the To- Be scenario/s for implementation

Phase 4: As a result of completing Phase 3:

Finalize the list of improvement solutions to make the selected To- Be process live,
Create small projects/ Work Packages and tasks to implement the improvements,
Assign these projects and tasks to individuals within the organization to drive ownership,
Track progress of the tasks and improvements to completion,
Create process champions for each process group

Phase 5: In conclusion,

Monitor KPI’s associated with the process to ensure benefit realization

PRIME Overview

“I specifically found the PRIME© (PRocess In a Managed Environment) methodology highly practical, logical and results driven. It is a methodology that can be applied immediately after learning.”

Sam Barrett

Head of Business Process Services at BOQ

Easily step through the phases of your process improvement initiative by using the PRIME Suite. PRIME encompasses all functionality described above to systematically achieve end-to-end improvement. As a result, you can truly realize the benefits. Learn more about the PRIME modules below:

Process Library

This module will help you create process library and set process boundaries. In addition it will help you identify the processes that require urgent attention through its inbuilt process prioritization engine.

Process Designer

This module will help you map business processes using BPMN 2.0 standards and capture all the associated attributes such as Business Rules, KPI, Issues and compliance.

Process Analyzer

This module will help you undertake detailed analysis to understand the value provided, time spent, costs incurred and efficiency delivered by each process.

Process Monitoring

This module will help you create detailed To- Be process scenarios with associated benefits and ROI.

Track Improvement

This module will help you track the progress of each and every improvement and associated small projects and tasks to ensure successful completion.

Collaboration

This module will help each and every employee, manager and senior executive to view processes, approve process changes and contribute actively to improve their business.

Process Improvement

QUICK TIPS

In the meantime take note of the below quick tips to avoid falling into the trap of long-winded process improvement cycles:

Have a defined goal with predefined success criteria for your project
Ensure that a methodology and standards are established
Ensure that the right process boundaries are set via the creation of a process library
At a time do not map more than 10 processes
Don’t spend too much time mapping the “As Is” process
Undertake qualitative and quantitative assessment of your processes
Celebrate and share small project success along the way
Engage managers, process doers and senior executives in this initiative
Don’t fall in to a trap of building future proof and perfect To-Be process
Focus on the practical aspect of change implementation rather than adopting ideal solutions
Ensure that your team has skills to map, analyze, improve and monitor processes
Measure the benefits realized and compare them against the predefined success criteria

PRIME Modeller

PRIME Modeller is an intuitive business process-mapping tool with an integrated process repository for all your process maps and process information. Create a catalogue of processes that represent your organisation and gain visibility into.

PRIME Analyser

PRIME Analyser is a quantitative analytics engine built into PRIME. Analyse your business processes and identify process issues, record the root causes and the improvement opportunities. Keep abreast of compliance and audit requirements; perform cost.

PRIME Improver

PRIME Improver is the full-featured PRIME edition. With inbuilt APQC best practice process libraries, process mapping functionality, mapping rules and guidelines, process analyser and process simulation engine it offers an end to end Business Process Management.