How to Switch to BPM Software. When You’re Just Using Paper. 08. Business Process Reengineering. 09. Is Business Process Outsourcing Relevant. For Your
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114 KB – 112 Pages
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Œ 2 ŒIndex 01.What is a Process? A Non-Boring Guide for Regular People 02.How Processes Protect Your Business From Crashing and Burning 03.Why the Normalization of Deviance is Hurting Your Company 04. What is Business Process Management? 05.Business Process Analysis 06.Why You Should Bother With Business Process Modeling 07. How to Switch to BPM Software When You™re Just Using Paper 08.Business Process Reengineering 09. Is Business Process Outsourcing Relevant For Your Small Business?
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Œ 4 ŒWhat is a Process? A Non-Boring Guide for Regular People Processes are a lot more interesting than you™d first think. That isn™t some kind of joke Š they™re interesting, I swear. Although they™re defined as fia collection of interrelated work tasks initiated in response to an event that achieves a specific result fl, there™s a bit of a backstory that helps us cut through the corporate tranquilizers and understand what a process is, and why processes matter .First, a few examples of processes: Ł Cleaning the store Ł Finding an email address Ł Deploying software Ł Customer profiling Ł Onboarding a new employee Ł Planning a wedding But why are those processes? Why aren™t they just jobs to be done? The point is that when you formalize a process, you think about the workflow with productivity in mind and it makes it easier to execute and optimize.
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Œ 5 ŒThe first ever business process The earliest known definition of a business process comes from Scottish economist Adam Smith . Breaking down his idea to the simplest elements, in 1776 he described a business process in place at a theoretical pin factory, involving 18 separate people to make one pin: Why should we care about how many people it takes make the pins, or how many steps are in the process? Well, Smith found that by creating a process and assigning the steps to individual specialists, productivity increased 24,000%.fi One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head: to make the head requires two or three distinct operations: to put it on is a particular business, to whiten the pins is another – and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which in some manufactories are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometime perform two or three of them. fl
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Œ 6 ŒThe workings of an 18th Century pin factory, and the image that inspired Adam Smith to write the first definition of a business process. Using processes to work 5 times faster A process is necessary for the division of labor because the task isn™t just in one person™s head any more. The full-stack pin engineer might be a fine person to write the process , but shouldn™t be running it from start to end alone Š the job is 240 times more efficient when it™s split up amongst pin specialists: the person who cuts pin wires all day is less fallible than the solo pin master craftsman. Let™s stop talking about pins. On a winter morning in 1907, Henry Ford took Charles E. Sorensen to Piquette Avenue Plant , an empty building in Detroit that would go on
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Œ 8 ŒThe three types of processes every business needs You know that processes are a set of logical instructions to be executed from start to end , but did you know that there are three types of processes? These are: Ł Management processes Ł Operational processes Ł Supporting processes Management Processes Management processes aren™t as laser-focused on taking a task from start to finish as they are focused on planning and projecting the future of company operations. An example of a management process might be a CEO planning out how best to organize the marketing team™s time and energy for a PR launch campaign. The process part would be allocating resources, defining timeframes and checking that the systems are in place and optimized. Operational Processes Operational processes concern your core business process . If you™re a
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Œ 9 Œt-shirt company, one of your core operational processes is taking orders over the phone. Another would be getting manufactured t-shirts off to be shipped.Whatever your business does at its core, there should be watertight processes in place to make your business scalable and efficient. Supporting Processes Surprise surprise Š supporting processes support the management and operational processes. The company relies on these processes to prop up the planning and doing parts of the business. It™s processes like tech support, employee onboarding or hiring an intern .While these aren™t what the company does to make money, they facilitate the main revenue stream and make it so the management processes have something to manage, and that the operational processes are as friction-free as possible. The anatomy of a process When a process is documented on paper (or hopefully, digitally), it™s done in the form of a standard operating procedure document. While they aren™t the kinds of things you™d take to read on an 18-hour flight, they do make processes much easier to understand, distribute, teach, and optimize.
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Œ 10 ŒAn SOP can contain: Ł A header with the title, date, author and ID Ł A step-by-step list of instructions Ł The team or individual responsible for executing each task Ł The resources (equipment, money, time, supporting teams) that the user will need Ł References to other SOPs Typically, enterprises and government bodies will create complex SOP documentation. Click here for an example of a introduction document to a set of SOPs created by General Electric for employees working with UNICORN controlled systems. You™ll notice there™s a table of code number and SOP designations as well as explanations of terminology. Get an extract from an actual SOP for purchasing a vehicle here . Again, it™s very thorough and uses the same style many businesses use to make sure the SOP is watertight. – But sometimes, an SOP won™t be this complicated.
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Œ 11 ŒSmaller companies write efficient processes that just get the job done, and there™s less need for author, and SOP ID, when they are written with SOP software that will create that manually. The same goes for the references section, which is now done with hyperlinks. Below is a simple SOP created by Process Street: The problems processes solve In The Checklist Manifesto Š a book we can™t stop talking about Š Atul Gawande talks about how he implemented a safety process at Johns Hopkins hospital.
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