Star Date .... 21 Sept - Business Process Modelling

"A picture is equal to 1000 words " and thats what BP modelling tries to achieve... It gives a pictorial representation of each of the business process, which in turn helps in getting a better understanding of the process. It helps in defining the requirements to perform a process and at the same time helps to communicate and understand the business rules and processes better.

There are different types of modelling tools such as Flowchart, Cause-Effect Diagram, Dataflow diagram, EPC diagram and Work Flow Diagram. Each one of these models has its own way of graphically depicting a Process... The Complexity of the diagrams also increases based on the type of tool we are using...

Process Improvement was the other topic we covered .. Process Improvement is basically a cumulative process of improving a process. In this method a process is developed over a period time. For process improvement we need to consider the cost and time factors tooo... at the same time we need to also analyse the value that is added at each increment... Value can be of three types, Real , Business Value or NO Value... An Activity which has no Value needs to be eliminated immediately...

So the important thing to consider here is ... If the graphical representation itself is too complex... then is it still worthwhile to Model a Process,,,???

Star Date....Sept 14 - Business Process ReEngineering

Business Process ReEngineering [BPR] ... What is this ..?? This is one of the revolutionary procedures implemented by certain organizations to reengineer thier Business Processes to improve the performance of the various Business Process... It makes use of technology to bring about these quantum leaps in performance.

BPR mainly focuses on WHY a particular process is carried out rather than HOW it is done... Bcoz it looks into the reason behind carrying out the process, it helps the organization to better under the process and reengineer it... During Reengineering the entire focus is around the obkective or the outcome desired and not on one of the tasks that will help in getting the desired outcome.. The entire reengineering depends on capturing the data at a centralized location so as to reduce the redudancy of data... At the same time to redesign the process its important that the employees are empowered and all the parellel acitivites are integrated.

The main people who should be involved in the BPR process as per the article "Business Process Reengineering" is the internal auditors. They not only advice management and system analyse on reengineering processes but also create new audit plans once the reengineered process is in place....

The various examples of successful implemetation are FORD, Mutual Benefit Life etc, which were able to redesign their BP's to better the perfomance.


BPR basically helps reducing the defects leading to better quality products which leads to cost and time savings. However on the downside... the failure rate is about 50%-70% which is quite high. The reason for this high failure rate is the lack of oversight, Leadership commitment, employee resistance, appropriate staffing etc...

Reengineering can be implemented either using a particular technology or by redesigning the entire process from scratch . Both have thier pros and cons, and the decesion is for the top management to take...

Noadays BPM, Business Process Management is the lastest Buzzword where it tries to bring people, technology and processes together, this includes integrating the BP of the company with the those of the suppliers and partners...

So which one should a company use...??? And how do we decide ..???

Star Date ...Sep 7 - Business Process

What is Business Process Reengineering[BPR]...? With so many TLA* floating around, its very difficult to keep up with it... However before we understand this we need understand what a business process is... During this session Dr Vijay shed light on the topic... In all the traditional organization , each unit was considered to be a discrete unit with its own functional boundaries, however such a traditional thought does not work well noadays. As customers become more demanding and unpredictable in their needs, its very important that more importance is given to the each process of the business in the development procedures. Each process should involve the inputs of representatives from each of the functional departments. Apart from that each business process should have a clearly defined inputs and outputs and should be carried out with a goal in mind...

Integrating each of the functional departments of the organization, leads to more efficient and effective flow of data among them leading to more efficient busniess process which indirectly adds more "value" to the organization. The best example to support this is the Texas Instruments organization, which changed from a traditonal system to a business process system which helped it to churn out better products quicker and more efficiently... Other examples include Duke Power and IBM who went through the same...

Some examples of Business Process include Bill Recievable or Bills Payable process in an organization...

Further every business process should be assigned a business owner who helps in integrating all the functional divisions of the organization and he is totally responsible for that business process.. Based on the article Business Process Reengineering by Marshall Romney..." changing a business process leads to a improvement of 48 percent in cost, 80 percent in time and 60 percent in defects...."


Inspite of these advantages why do some companies still follow traditional methods and more interesting question is Can "Family- Based " organizations adopt this method and become more successful... ??? Any comments Any one..??

Introduction

Hi guys..

Just to introduce myself, names Harsha Harish, doing my Masters in UA ... Came into the country in Aug 2004, and should get done by Summer 07... I am employed by Auxillary services and i am a GA there...

Good to meet you all..and see u in class every Thursday