Services
Business Process Improvement
Business Process Reengineering
Business process reengineering is the development of the future state of business processes. The reengineering effort is preceded by the business process review of the current state, and the business process education of the project team on business processes.
Optimizing the Business Process Reengineering Process
It is important to go through the business process reengineering process because the future state definition drives several key factors, including:
- Identifying and evaluating ERP software vendors
- Creating the business case for change
- Designing the implementation of a new ERP system
- Business process improvement
- Improving business performance
After the team is educated on business process best practices, GrangeHill Tech will facilitate a workshop to develop the future state. These types of workshops are organized by functional area. First, the team reviews the problems in the current state and best practices for business processes. Then, we design a new business process that eliminates waste and improves productivity.
As the design of the future state becomes clear, the team is asked to define the benefits of the future state. From this information, GrangeHill Tech will guide management and the team through the development of the business case for change.
Business Process Reengineering Next Steps
Manufacturers are wise to work through structured business process reengineering when heading into an ERP selection, because it pays to analyze the current state of processes and tasks.
We look closely at how work is done within an organization, and isolate areas for improvement in the value chain.
As you are guided through this process, we take into consideration knowledge management, employee empowerment, adoption of new ITs, and a shared vision.
ERP systems play a role in performance improvement goals, from automating record-keeping to streamlining business processes. These improvements impact your bottom line.
For more information, download our white paper entitled “A Roadmap to Business Performance Improvement,” which provides you with a roadmap for implementing process improvement programs to drive improvements to your business performance in the form of faster communications, real-time data, and improved visibility.
Business Process Analysis
GrangeHill Tech has a proven methodology for the development of business process documentation. During the business process review, the following components are documented:
- Organization Chart – identifies all users by business process category
- Discovery Document – records information gained in business process interviews
- Business Process Organization Map – identifies all business process categories
- Business Process Mapping– documents steps in your business processes
- Business Process Analysis– identifies problems and waste in current processes
Once these components are created, the organization – including both management and key users – needs to review and approve the documentation.
ERP and Business Process Documentation
When it comes to enterprise software selection, business process documentation is essential to getting a clear view of current operations and assessing how modern ERP can help improve processes.
Effective business process documentation results in easy-to-understand documents that use recognizable and understood images, drawings when helpful, and other ways to easily depict the documentation of tasks. Some of these include:
- Flowcharts: This type of image can easily describe business processes, and visually detail essential tasks and workflow.
- Checklists: These can also document the required steps of a task or process in the correct order.
Our structured process brings together owners and managers, as well as shop floor employees who keenly understand each step, time-saving shortcuts, and performance standards that apply to separate parts of the business process improvement project.
We will help you produce documents that clearly depict how a process fits into the organization’s activity with specific details, technical specifications, and procedures.
Business Process Documentation
Once you have taken the time to document your company’s business processes through current state mapping, a business process review should be conducted. This review should involve key business users, department management, and an expert business process improvement consultant. It is important to have an outsider, like GrangeHill Tech, so they can provide an independent opinion of the process.
How to Determine If Your Business Processes Add Value
When you conducted your business process analysis, you looked at several parts of your business as-is. Now, it is time for these processes to be reviewed. Then, the team needs to ask: do these business processes add value to our business?
Other questions you should ask include:
- Is there waste in our business processes?
- Are their redundancies in the processes and data such as the utilization of data entry versus more streamlined, automated processes?
In the business process mapping phase of the BPI project, users and management identify the key performance metrics used in managing the business day-to-day.
This enables users and management to input their opinions during this business process review. You should be asking yourself these questions:
- Are there problems or issues with the process?
- What are some suggestions for improvement?
An experienced business process consultant can guide your team through a thorough review of your business processes.
The process review is documented and added to the current state documentation folder.
Business Process Mapping
Business process mapping provides an easy-to-read view of your company’s business processes. These maps need to be organized so they can be understood at a high level by top management, but also provide the detail that is needed for business process review and analysis.
We enrich all of our business process improvement engagements with our in-depth business process mapping methodology.
How to Structure Business Process Mapping
Your business process maps should be broken down into levels:
Top Level
This level identifies the major functions and processes of the business. This map can be thought of as a high-level “value stream” map.
Business Process Categories
These categories are in place to identify all major business process categories.
Category Map
This level identifies all categories of business processes in a swim-lane map showing the connectivity of information between departments.
Process Map
The process map identifies the business process steps that define inputs, processes performed on inputs, and outputs.
Many companies believe their International Organization for Standardization (ISO) documentation can aid in this process. This is true to a certain extent. While it can aid in the initial review of the processes, it does not go down to the level you need to identify problems and waste.
A Breakdown of Common Business Processes
A typical manufacturing company will have upwards of 200 to 300 processes in the following areas:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Engineering
- Customer service
- Supply chain management
- Manufacturing planning
- Production
- Quality
- Service
- Accounting
- Human resources
Business process mapping become a valuable component in a business process improvement project, enterprise software selection project, and ERP implementation project.
Business Process Review
- Is there waste in our business processes?
- Are their redundancies in the processes and data such as the utilization of data entry versus more streamlined, automated processes?
- Are there problems or issues with the process?
- What are some suggestions for improvement?
