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!