Week 12 - Redesign Principles and Tactics (2) + Guest Lecture

Week 12 - Redesign Principles and Tactics (2) + Guest Lecture

References:
http://www.businessprocessreengineering.org/
http://www.mendeley.com/research/critical-review-existing-bpr-methodologies-need-holistic-approach/


This week's lecture continued with the the rest of of redesign principles, which we started looking at last week. In addition, we had a guest lecture on BPR by Mr. Y. F. Yuk from the Government Efficiency Unit.

Mind

There are three principles that are based on the minding of processes:

Principle 8 - Analyse and Synthesise

Enhance the interactive analysis and synthesis capabilities around a process to generate value.

• Provide "what-if" capabilities to analyse decision options
• Provide "slice and dice" data analysis capabilities that detect patterns
• Provide intelligent integration capabilities across multiple information sources

Principle 9 - Connect, Collect and Create

Capture intelligent and reusable knowledge around the process through all who touch it.

• Define procedures to collect this knowledge - Create expertise maps and build knowledge repositories that can be reused to enhance performance of process
• Create physical/virtual spaces for storing this knowledge - Develop FAQ databases and create knowledge sharing spaces for interactive dialogues around the process.

Principle 10 - Personalise

Make the process intimate with the preferences and habits of participants.

• Learn preferences of customers and doers of the process through profiling
• Insert business rules that are triggered by personal profiles
• Use collaborative filtering techniques
• Keep track of personal process execution habits

Guest Lecture

 We were introduced to the BPR work done by the government by first learning the differences in business goals between the public and private sectors.

In a nutshell, the objectives of the government are much more complicated than those of the profit-making organisations in the private sector. Therefore, the best practices from the private sector are sometimes required to be filtered to suit the public sector environment.

It was emphasised strongly during the lecture that BPR is more than just automating existing processes, rather, it should eliminate unnecessary tasks in processes. The Public Service Centres and the E-Stamp Services were given as examples of BPR in the government.

The keys to success of their BPR work were said to be:

• Top Management Sponsorship
• Strategic Alignment
• Compelling Business Case for Change
• Proven Methodology
• Effective Change Management
• Line Ownership
• Reengineering Team Composition

It was certainly interesting for me to know the huge backing and support they receive from top management which in my opinion make a successful BPR a lot more possible, despite the added challenges of operating in a public sector environment.

Week 11 - Redesign Principles and Tactics (1)

Week 11 - Redesign Principles and Tactics (1)

References:
http://www.slideshare.net/msq2004/bpr-03-process-re-design
http://www.anterron.com/cgi-bin/white_papers/docs/Role_of_IT_in_BPR.pdf


This week we were given an insight into the general principles and tactics of redesigning business processes. However, they are meant to be GENERAL only, because as far as redesigning is concerned, there is really no limit as to number of specific principles that can be developed since the world is always changing. In other words, as long as you are creative enough, you can always invent a new BPR principle!

Before we get into the subject of this post, there are a few assumptions that have to be made:

• We maximise the VALUE ADDING content of a process;
• We carefully manage the NON-VALUE ADDING activities;
• We minimise everything else that is NOT NECESSARY.

Principle 0 - Streamline

This is basically what our assumptions have stated. In a nutshell, this principle re-iterates the importance of eliminating anything that is unnecessary and combine similar activities to reduce complexity. Note that business processes are redesigned by changing their topology of flows, which are either physical products, information or knowledge.

Therefore, it follows that there are three generic ways to redesign business processes:

1. Restructure and reconfigure processes
2. Informate processes by changing information flows around them
3. Mind processes by changing the knowledge management around them

Restructure

There are four principles based on the restructuring of processes:

Principle 1 - Lose Wait

Reduce waiting time in process links to create value.

• Concurrency - redesign time-sequential activities to be executed in parallel, or concurrently
• Closed-Loop - create closed-loop teams for quicker flexible interaction, minimising the need to pass information between different departments
• Not Gating Main Processes - do not allow non-core activities to delay core activities
• Continuous Flow - implement real-time rather than batch processing
• Upstream Relieves Downstream - Modify upstream practices to relieve bottlenecks downstream of the production line

Principle 2 - Orchestrate

Let the swiftest and most able enterprise execute.

• Partnering - Partner a process with another enterprise
• Outsourcing - Outsource a process to another enterprise
• In-Sourcing - In-source a process back into the enterprise
• Routing through an Intermediary - Route the process through an intermediary

Principle 3 - Mass-Customise

Flex the process for any time, any place, any way.

• Flexing Time - Flexible access by expanding the time window for the process
• Flexing Space - Flexible access by creating more options for the physical space in which the process is executed
• Modularity - Create modular process platforms
• Dynamic Customisation - Enable dynamic customisation of products

Principle 4 - Synchronise

Synchronise the physical and virtual parts of the process.

• Match Offerings - Match the offerings on the physical and virtual parts of the channel
• Common Process Platforms - Create common process platforms for physical and electronic processes
• Track Movement - Track the movement of physical products electronically

Informate

There are three principles based on the informating of processes:

Principle 5 - Digitise and Propagate

Capture information digitally at the source and propagate it throughout the process.

• Digitise at Source - Shift data entry to customers and digitise it
• Make the Process Paperless - Make the process as paperless as possible and as early as possible
• Make Information Accessible Upstream and Downstream - Make information easily accessible upstream and downstream to those who need it during the process
• Shrink the Distance between Information and Decision - Processes can be executed much faster by redesigning the information capture and access around a process, so that information needed for decisions is directly accessible

Principle 6 - Vitrify

Provide glass-like visibility through fresher and richer information about process statuses.

• On-Demand Information Tracking - Provide on-demand tracking information for customers of the process
• On-the-Fly Reporting and Analysis - Provide reporting facilities for on-the-fly analysis
• Standard Partner Interface - Design standard partner interface processes for seamless exchange of information

Principle 7 - Sensitise

Fit the process with sensors and feedback loops to prompt actions.

• Process Dysfunction Loops - Build in customer feedback loops to detect process dysfunctions
• Monitor Environmental Changes - Enable software smarts to trigger quick business reflexes, or attach environmental probes to the process to monitor changes

Week 10 - Redesign Process (2)

Week 10 - Redesign Processes (2)

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_reengineering

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holosofx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workflow

This week we explored the concept of redesigning processes by treating a process like a model with various distinct components. We were introduced to the Holosofx Workbench software as an aid to help analyse processes and draw flow-charts.

Generally speaking, a redesign can be broken down into a four phases: identification a process, an in-depth analysis of the current process (i.e. as-is), selection of a new design (i.e. to-be) and comprehensive testing of the new design.

During any of the aforementioned phases, the use of computer software as a tool is essential and therefore highly encouraged. The Holosofx Workbench is an example of such software and it has five essential aspects that constitute the effective modelling of a process:

1. Structural elements of business process flow
2. Organisational resource links to business process flow
3. Rules of graphical connection
4. Methods of conditional concatenation of process parts
5. Process performance measurement

The sequence of workflow is the essence of any process and a flow-chart is its graphical representation. Flow-charts are also used in Holosofx to generate the models of processes.

A flow chart consists of different shapes that are linked together by arrowed lines, which indicate the "flow" of actions. Each shape has its own meaning and use in a flow-chart and must be used in strict accordance. For instance, a rectangle with rounded corners represents a basic, low-level action, or task, in a process, whereas a diamond means a point of decision where a choice is selected in order for the "flow" to continue. The diagram below is a very simple flow-chart of a process. 

To analysis the as-is model, we start by identifying process problems through modelling, after which, we look at all the possible scenarios or cases individually and generate tables of different data that help determine the cases cycle and process times, as well as cases total costs. The main goal of BPR is to improve on those indicative results.

After redesigning, generate another set of tables for the to-be model and compare the results with those of the as-is's to verify the effectiveness of the redesign. Simulations of different what-if scenarios can be conducted at this point to test the new model's capacity and its ability to handle extreme situations.

We keep improving the redesign until it has met the desirable performance!