Business Process Management

business process management

systematic way of creating, assessing, and altering business processes as need.

Why is it helpful to understand the process before moving towards building your Information System?

-Because you must understand what the goal is first. You have to know exactly how the house is going to look like, number of closets, etc. to know what oyu need. If you change your mind halfway, it will be too expensive and time consuming to add those features in or take them out. -in order for businesses to evolve and adapt, we must understand how we do things and how we can do them better. -PRADA is an example. technology was a disaster in stores.

What kind of software (customized or packaged) would b best for avery complicated process and why?

-complex process= customized software (for all complexities of the process)

The more organizations a process crosses, the harder it is to what?

-the harder it is to implement process changes since it encompasses more organizations using the same process. -try to tell everyone to use the metric measurement instead of standard measurement across the US, it would be disruptive.

Organizational Inertia

-when an organization is static (is comfortable where they are, not trying to continue improving in all aspects) rather than dynamic (continuously trying to improve)

Differences between automating a process and transforming it?

Automating a process: Human element is completely taken out. During automation, processes are digitized and turned into programming codes of software. basically, automation moves work from the human to the technology side. transforming process: during transformation, process are redesigned and restructured to fit the logic within software. Transformation changes the human side to fit the technology side

How can you apply Complex Adaptive Systems Theory to the difficulty of process innovation? (Think top-down versus bottom-up in the Toyota example)

In Toyota.. they were innovative because they were open to suggestions from workers in the assembly line. Any employee in the Toyota Production System has the authority to stop production to signal a quality issue. One worker who was working there for many years thought that they should switch around the placement of parts.... he told his boss...and that change affected all factories. This one small process change saved millions in costs and time. Complex Adaptive Systems...even a small suggestion from the crowd can make a difference.

Of the 5 parts in the IS Model, which is the hardest to change?

People because it takes a large amount of time and energy to change how people think

What are the key steps in in food business process management?

Process diagnostic > develop process maps > identify bottlenecks > redesign process > implement > evaluate the new process 1. Creating a picture of the current processes -as-is business process. how hardware, software, data, procedures and people interact. 2. Identify areas where process is constraining strategy. -EX: redundancy, missing data in databases 3. Redesign process -To be business process: How IT can be leveraged as a tool to better process. 4. implement process changes 5. creaste policy for ongoing effectiveness assessment -EX: feedback loop, repeat cycles

business process

a sequence of activities to accomplish an objective; a visual interpretation of steps to achieve something

What is process mapping?

breaking down a business' processes into individual tasks and events. breaking down the process makes it easy to analyze and determine what can be changed in it, making it more efficient

Business process innovation

focuses of the transformation of existing processes that increases revenue and reduces cost; basically eliminates the existing business process, and construction of a brand new business process that is more efficient and better which results in increased revenue, reduced costs and time-saved. -EX: Walmart's business process before: moves inventory from distributor truck to Wal-Mart's warehouse-self and then from Wal-Mart's warehouse self to Wal-MArts retail delivery warehouse truck. Walmart's business process after innovation: walmart's new cross-docking process moves inventory fro distributor truck to retail delivery truck at the warehouse, and skips the warehouse shelf process.

What are the benefits of having a more efficient or streamlines process?

greater efficiency, lower costs, saves time, -toyota changing their order of manufacturing to reduce time spent on each car = saves big money

business process improvement

is to improve an existing process that becomes faster and more efficient that would result in increased profits, reduced costs, and time-saved. -EX: the changes made in the order-to-cash process (i.e. automating of the processes)

How is process innovation different from process improvement?

process improvement is doing things better, whereas process innovation is doing things differently

Order-to-Cash process

the process of how you receive, fulfill, and get payment for orders. It is the sequence of steps in the process. -Customer orders online, system checks inventory and process payment. robot gets items, updates inventory, packs product, route box through shipper, delivered via UPS.