What Is Business Process Improvement

A successful business must change with the times. Customer bases can change throughout the years, technology changes and social trends change. Businesses that want to withstand these tests will want to improve upon their company as needed. Keeping this in mind, it's imperative to know when is the time for change, and what the best method for change is. Taking the proper steps can be the difference between success and failure.

Business Process Improvement (BPI) is a method in which many companies improve upon their business when improvement is needed. Business Process Improvement is a systematic method of helping organizations to achieve more efficient results within the business model. The method was first documented by H. James Harrington in the book "Business Process Improvement" in 1991. BPI reduces the cost to run a business and the cycle time by as much as 90% and improves overall quality of the business by over 60%. The method works for any type of business, be it a for profit organization, non-profit organization or some other type of business. It was the first methodology that address the service and support process of the business and was developed at IBM at the request of the president, John F. Akers.

BPI works by deciding what the organization's goals and purposes are. This basically means that the company decides who they are, what it is they do and why they want to do it. They must also determine whom their customer base is and how that customer base might change over time. After gathering the information, the company makes a strategic plan to meet its business goals. The methodology is used to implement radical change rather than gradual changes over time and employs many principles of project management.

When using this method, it is important to define what the company's existing structure is, its current processes and what changes are imperative. Clear timelines with well-defined goals must be kept in order for the method to work. It is also important that the company's resources not be spread too thinly in order for Business Process Improvement to work.

If a company is on the verge of bankruptcy or otherwise not doing as well as it needs to be, Business Process Improvement is a quicker method to get things back on track as long as the right team is put together to be sure that tasks are done as they should be.

Business Process Management

Every business house tries hard to save its unnecessary expenditures. Since its inception, it tries to work on a cost effective model by converting its saved pennies into profits. In these days of cut throat competition, it is vital to engineer ways to save money because every penny saved is every penny earned. Business Process Management (BPM) aims at providing plans which gives the best possible utilization of resources. It is a part of operations management which focuses on improvement of a company's performance by putting its resources on optimum utilization. BPM optimizes and manages the business processes and practices adopted by an entity.

Objectives

Every business process adopted by an entity is its asset as it works to generate revenue and ultimately profits. Every business wants to thrive and grow manifold but it is its policies and processes adopted by it, that hinders its growth. Business Process Management aims at removing those hindrances and opening doors to success. The primary objective of BPM is to analyze the business and working environment of entity and then planning out the best processes which can bear fruitful results. BPM closely resembles supply chain management but is a broader concept. It is also quite similar to Total Quality Management and Enterprise Resource Planning, all being part of operations management.

Implementation

The Business Process Model comprises of certain steps which are to be taken in succession to get results. The process includes steps, namely,

- Design: This is the foremost step which requires understanding and analyzing the entity's business and requirements.

- Modeling: It is the second step, which gives a model to the designing done in the previous step. It gives a shape to the analysis done in Step 1.

- Execution: This is an important step which requires implementation of the model prepared based on analysis of entity's requirements.

- Monitoring: This requires constant supervision of the implemented model. It enables a person to objectively and practically find out shortcomings in the model.

- Optimization: This step works on the findings in the 4th step. This step makes changes in the BPM system according to the shortcomings found.

Monitoring and optimization is a regular process which works on trial and error method. Every time a problem is incurred, a solution is to be found to fix it. It is an ongoing process.

To implement BPM the management and employees of an entity have to be open minded. They need to welcome aboard changes that might help them generate more profits. BPM is an effective method if utilized adequately.