Principles of process management
"Oxford Management Review" ICXO.COM
Not long ago, the author was invited by Mr. Zhang Yue, President of Yuanda, to Changsha "Broad City" "The interview stemmed from Mr. Zhang's recent slogan of "Learn from Huawei, grasp processes, and promote development." He hoped that I, the general person in charge of Huawei's process reorganization at the time, would give him some suggestions. This surprised the author because everyone knows that Yuanda's system construction is very complete, and everything in the work is broken down and detailed. It can be said to be a model of domestic enterprise system construction. However, Zhang Yue realized the gap in process management of Yuanda after just over three hours of inspection and communication with Huawei in July.
Indeed, process management is far from as simple as designing some processes, formulating some systems, and then implementing them, nor is it as radical as the process reengineering proposed by Hammer and Ciampi. I remember that at the end of 1995, influenced by the process reengineering ideas of Hammer and Ciampi, the author proposed a report on process reorganization at Huawei to Mr. Ren, and Mr. Ren quickly gave his approval. In this way, starting in 1996, Huawei began large-scale process design, reorganization, and optimization work. After nearly ten years, Huawei has finally established world-class processes, such as Huawei's Integrated Product Development (IPD) process and Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) process. Looking back on this process, in addition to using a series of methods and tools and drawing on best practices to design and sort out the process, the most important point is to determine the guiding principles of process management around the purpose of the process itself and conduct continuous review of the process. Management and optimization.
First of all, the process exists because of customers, and the real purpose of the process is to provide customers with better and faster services. We often say that the starting point of the process is the customer, and the end point is also the customer. But in actual work, due to departmental barriers, we obviously ignored the customers and didn't even know who the customers were. Starting from serving customers, the following principles should be followed in process management: ◆Establish a customer-centered concept
◆Clear who the customer of the process is and what the purpose of the process is
◆Under unexpected and exceptional circumstances, clearly judge the principles of things from the customer's perspective ◆Focus on results and develop performance indicators based on the output of the process
◆Enable everyone in the process to have the same understanding Goals, achieving a clear understanding of customers and results. Secondly, processes are the embodiment and source of an enterprise's competitive advantage. McDonald's adopts a unified and standardized process, so that the hamburgers made in any McDonald's restaurant around the world have a unique McDonald's flavor. If a company wants to achieve sustained success in its products, just praying for foresight will not work. Occasionally relying on good ideas to lead its competitors will only be temporary. The key is to establish a first-class product development process so that innovative products can pass through this process. A stream of processes emerges one after another. In order to achieve the purpose of building competitive advantage, process management should do the following:
◆Design unique business activities and business models according to the company's business strategy?
◆Make experience and knowledge available Accumulation and inheritance?
◆Form the company’s own best practices and continuously improve them?
◆Reduce operating costs and improve price competitiveness?
Third, Process management must continuously improve the efficiency of internal operations. The main purpose of management is to pursue effects and efficiency. Efficiency without effects is worthless and is "washing coal" and may even make the company die faster. Without efficiency improvement, it is impossible to guarantee effects. Therefore, we must continue to optimize internal operations through business process management. Specifically, we can consider the following aspects:
◆Let senior management reduce pressure: from exceptions to routine; through budget management, hierarchical handling of matters, etc. Reduce the approval process, let systems and processes ensure the operation of the company's business, and turn the "rule of man" into the "rule of law."
◆Sign up the structure according to the process, clarify roles and responsibilities, and make the business operate in an orderly manner. There should be no blank or overlapping areas in the process, and responsibilities should be clearly defined, division of labor should be clear, and wrangling between departments should be eliminated.
◆Make clear the person responsible for the process. In many companies, a common phenomenon we see is that there are people in charge of departments but no one in charge of processes, or there are people in charge of processes within departments but no one in charge of cross-department processes.
According to the requirements of process operation, not only the person responsible for the process must be clear, but also departmental boundaries should be broken, and the process owner should be given the power to manage the cross-department process from beginning to end. ?
◆Decentralize power as much as possible, so that those who understand best have the most power. Process optimization requires that the focus of management be shifted downward, that is, responsibilities and authorities must be delegated, so that those who understand best have the most power. The results of process optimization may make some supervisors feel that they have lost their power. This is because many links that in the past required them to issue orders can be automatically run after the process is streamlined.
Many of them require their approval. Things that had just come to pass are now no longer needed, causing them to lose their sense of power. In fact, this is exactly what increases process efficiency. Of course, in this case, supervisors can take more responsibility for organizational and process construction and human resource management to promote the improvement of organizational capabilities. ?
◆Change from being responsible for people to being responsible for things. Process optimization not only requires the supervisor's work focus to shift, but also requires employees to change their thinking from the traditional concept of being responsible for their bosses and just completing the tasks assigned by their bosses to the concept of being responsible for processes and results and meeting customer needs. Of course, the change in concept from being responsible for people to being responsible for things requires process-oriented assessment and reward mechanisms to be realized. ?
◆Focus on the balance between flexibility and standardization. First, processes should be appropriately diversified to meet the different needs of customers. Full consideration should be given to different branches of the process to avoid being overwhelmed by the roles in the process when special circumstances arise. Secondly, the process should be standardized to a certain extent. If every employee can go beyond the process to complete the work, the process documents will become a pile of waste paper locked in the filing cabinet, losing the meaning of process management. ?
◆ Improve employee initiative and establish an employee evaluation system based on process purposes. No matter how excellent the process is, it still needs people to operate it. It is crucial to give full play to personal initiative and creativity at all times. Process-oriented management needs to be implemented in the evaluation system to make employees responsible for the efficiency of the entire process, rather than being limited to the limited scope of responsibilities of traditional functional departments. ?
◆Establish an information system to realize the integration and sharing of information. The operation of the process cannot be separated from the timely transmission of information. An efficient information system (IS) ensures the timely collection, processing, and transmission of information, realizes reasonable and timely sharing of information, and improves the operating efficiency of the process and the speed of response to external changes.
Enterprise Process Management
Enterprise Process Management (EPM/Business Process Management, BPM)
What is Enterprise Process Management
< p> Enterprise process management is mainly an internal reform of the enterprise, changing the overlapping functional management agencies of the enterprise, many intermediate levels, and non-closed loop processes, etc., so that each process can be managed by one functional agency from beginning to end, so that there is no overlapping of agencies and no business continuity. Repeat to shorten the process cycle and save working capital.Purpose of the process management project
1. Improve the degree of control through refined management
2. Improve work efficiency through process optimization
3. Make tacit knowledge explicit through systems or norms
4. Improve the rational allocation of resources through process management
5. Quickly realize management replication
< p> ◆Establish an information system to realize the integration and sharing of information. The operation of the process cannot be separated from the timely transmission of information. An efficient information system (IS) ensures the timely collection, processing, and transmission of information, realizes reasonable and timely sharing of information, and improves the operating efficiency of the process and the speed of response to external changes.Enterprise Process Management
Enterprise Process Management (EPM/Business Process Management, BPM)
What is Enterprise Process Management
< p> Enterprise process management is mainly an internal reform of the enterprise, changing the overlapping functional management agencies, multiple intermediate levels, and unclosed processes, etc., so that each process can be managed by one functional agency from beginning to end, so that there is no overlapping of agencies and no business continuity. Repeat to shorten the process cycle and save working capital.Purpose of the process management project
1. Improve the degree of control through refined management
2. Improve work efficiency through process optimization
3. Make tacit knowledge explicit through systems or norms
4. Improve the rational allocation of resources through process management
5. Quickly realize management replication
< p> Three different levels of process management1. Process specification
Organize the enterprise process, define the content of each link in the process and the handover relationship between each link, and form a seamless connection of business. Suitable for normal operating times for all businesses.
2. Process optimization
Suitable for the continuous optimization process of the company's processes at any period, continue to review the company's processes and optimization processes, and constantly self-improve and strengthen the company's process system.
3. Process reengineering
Re-examine the enterprise's processes and redesign them. It is suitable for the period and stage of corporate transformation: changes in governance structure, mergers and acquisitions, changes in corporate strategy, changes in business models, the emergence of new technologies, new processes, new products, the emergence of new markets, etc. Basic characteristics of process management
According to their functions, enterprise processes can be divided into two categories: business processes and management processes.
1. Business process refers to the process of directly generating value for customers;
2. Management process refers to the process of controlling risks, reducing costs, improving service quality, and improving work efficiency. , improve the response speed to the market, ultimately improve customer satisfaction and corporate market competitiveness, and achieve the purpose of maximizing profits and improving operating efficiency.
All processes within the enterprise should be based on corporate goals, especially management processes:
Externally, facing customers, improving the efficiency of business processes
Internally, we focus on corporate goals, improve the efficiency of management processes, balance the resources of all parties in the company (production line balance), control the balance of overall efficiency, and achieve overall corporate performance. The purpose of process management
The first point of view:
1. Ensure that business processes are customer-oriented;
2. Ensure that management processes are oriented toward corporate goals;
3. All activities in the process are value-added activities;
4. Every employee activity is part of achieving corporate goals;
5. Continuous improvement of processes , never out of date.
The second view
According to the specific purpose, there are 5 purposes for enterprises to manage processes, including:
1) Sorting - work Smooth, smooth flow of information
2) Manifestation - Establish work guidelines to facilitate review of processes, understanding of processes, communication at work, discovery of problems, copying of processes, and management of processes by the company
3) Optimization – Continuously improve work and improve work efficiency
4) Monitoring – Find monitoring points and monitor process performance
5) Supervision – Facilitate superiors’ supervision Work supervision
Enterprises need to focus on these five purposes according to their own development stages and specific problems they encounter. Generally speaking, for a company, the goals of the first stage of process management are Yes:
1) Straighten out
2) Manifest, fix, and make it replicable
3) Monitor
4 ) Supervision
After completing the first rising goal, in order to obtain sustained competitive advantage and expand development, the second stage goal.
Goals of process management
Process management ultimately hopes to improve customer satisfaction and the company's market competitiveness and achieve the purpose of improving corporate performance.
Determine the overall goal of process improvement based on the development period of the enterprise. Under the guidance of the overall goal, improvement goals for each type of business or unit process are formulated.
[Editor]
Process management principles
1. Enterprise goal-oriented principle.
2. The workflow design reflects the whole process concept.
3. Business processes form closed-loop management.
4. Customer-oriented principle.
1. Change the structure or structure of the process
Since the process is a combination of a series of logically related activities, including a series of input/output, processing activities, and handovers, you can Reorganization is achieved through the process of streamlining and compressing processes:
1) Compress or remove transitions that require waiting time;
2) Merge multiple tasks into one;
3) Replace work that requires pauses with continuous processing;
4) Adjust resources to eliminate process bottlenecks;
5) Implement concurrent engineering;
6) Make enterprise support activities and management activities a process driver for customer value creation;
7) Cooperate or outsource your own processes or introduce processes to facilitate control and coordination.
2. Change the information flow passed on the process
Since the execution of the process requires the support of information, you can consider changing the information flow on the process to achieve process optimization or reengineering. For example:
1) Electronicize the acquisition of information (such as data input by customers, etc.) and disseminate it quickly, so that the upstream and downstream of the process can easily obtain it;
2) Design process interface implementation Seamless transmission and exchange of information;
3) Use information technology to ensure the smooth flow of information and eliminate links that cause information to be retained and blocked.
[Editor]
3. Change the knowledge flow in the process
There are three types of organizational knowledge: entity knowledge, knowledge that the enterprise already has or already knows; Process knowledge, the process by which organizations share and learn knowledge; capability knowledge, the ability to use knowledge and create knowledge. These three aspects of knowledge can be obtained by connecting knowledge entities, collecting and tracking
process knowledge, and tracking the process of creating knowledge to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of process processing. Organizational process optimization or reengineering can be achieved from the process reorganization of connection, collection and tracking, creation and knowledge.
Process management project process
1. Process review (mainly focused on the client’s internal team, such as department managers)
1. Organizational process research
2. Determine the scope of process combing
3. Process description
1) Clarify the goals and key success factors of the process
2) Draw the process Figure
3) Describe the specifications of each link
4. The process is collected into a book as a guide for daily work
2. Process optimization (with the consulting team as the guide Master, confirmed by the internal team)
1. Prerequisite: Implement process description
2. Use process management tools to optimize the process
3. The optimized process is collected into a book , as a guide for daily work.
3. Process reengineering (based on teamwork between both parties, confirmed by company-level leaders)
1. Organizational process research
2. Determine the scope of the reengineering process
3. Establish benchmarks
4. New process design
5. Process management methods and tools
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Several process management methods and tools
1. Finding the starting point tool: Learning Pentagram
The company understands the areas that need improvement from different sources: customers, suppliers , employees, consultants and benchmarking, a best practice process.
1. Customers are an important source of information that companies need to understand. Your most important customers are often the best place to start in areas of improvement, and it is certainly necessary to include those who are very creative and those with world-class operations. Sometimes a particularly discerning client's point of view may be exactly what a new design approach should consider.
2. Suppliers can also provide similar help to enterprises, and this help is not limited to the lower end of the process. A good supplier's interest extends throughout the supply system.
3. The employees of the company have an in-depth understanding of the process and are also an important source of ideas for improving the process.
4. Consultants can provide useful "outside observer" views and play a role in promoting BPR projects.
5. Benchmark learning. Companies seek knowledge and inspiration through benchmarking and learning from role models.
2. Process Selection Tool: 80/20 Principle
Process selection is to determine the goals of process sorting, optimization and reengineering. Process selection follows "Jewish law" (80/20 principle). First, focus on those "key processes". Their number may only account for 20% of the total number, but they play a decisive role in 80% of the performance of the entire organization. Therefore, instead of stopping at every station on the way to "process management", choose to stop at the places you care about along the way.
3. Process Selection Tool: Performance-Importance Matrix
The position of a process or the results of a process on the matrix represents its importance and how well the organization operates them. The degree of importance and operational performance are ranked from low to high respectively. Combining customer feedback data with internal company data often yields unexpected results. If both aspects are evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5, the project can be divided into four types. Among them, those with high importance and low performance are the areas that need improvement most.
4. Process selection tool: process sorting
You can choose the process sorting method to select key processes.
1) Evaluate each relevant process with three indicators: Impact, Size, and Scope; where "impact" refers to the impact on the company's future operating goals after process reengineering Possible contribution, "scale" refers to the amount of enterprise resources that will be consumed during reengineering, and "scope" refers to the costs, personnel, and risks that will be affected during reengineering.
2) "Impact" can be measured using ten levels to evaluate benefits; "Scale" can be measured using full-time manpower hours (FTE) and estimated funds required; "Scope" can be measured using time, cost, risk , to evaluate personnel complexity, it can be evaluated on a three to five level.
3) After being listed in a two-dimensional table, the reengineering team members will discuss and decide on the process priorities for reengineering.
4) The assessment of cost, risk, time, etc. does not require the use of precise data. It only needs to reach a consensus on the trade-offs of various factors.
5. Process optimization or reengineering goal selection tool: benchmarking method
Benchmarking method can be used to set reform goals and vision, determine the benchmark for process reengineering, etc. There are some successful companies in many industries, and the practices of these companies can be followed by other companies in the industry. Therefore, some specific indicators of these companies can also be used as benchmarks for other companies.
6. Process description tool
Describe the activities between organizational entities (positions) and the various interactive relationships between entities. This can be achieved with the help of various process description software, such as Aris, Visio, Smartdraw, etc.
7. Process problem analysis tool: fishbone diagram analysis method
With the help of fishbone diagram, we can find the causes of process problems from six aspects. These six aspects are 5M1E:
Management, Man, Method, Material, Machine, Environment.
Finally find out the main reason (process bottleneck), use it as the characteristic of the problem, and repeat the above steps until the reason is very clear and form the basis for the solution.
8. Process problem thinking tool: 5W3H analysis method
9. Process optimization tool: ECRS technique
ECRS technique refers to Elimination (cancellation), Combination ( The four techniques of "merger", "rearrangement" and "simplification" refer to the formation of existing organization, work flow, Continuous improvement of operating procedures and working methods.
1. Elimination is cancelled. For any job, you must first ask: Why do you want to do it? Can you quit?
1) Eliminate all organizations, work processes, operations or actions that have no added value;
2) Reduce irregularities in work, such as determining the fixed storage location of workpieces and tools , forming habitual mechanical actions;
2. Combination. If it cannot be canceled, consider whether it can be combined with other organizations, workflows, operations, actions, implementation tools, and resources.
3. Rearrangement: scientifically rearrange the order of work as needed.
4. Simplification: refers to the simplification of organizational structure, workflow, operations and actions.
10. Process σ test
Many people hear the 6σ quality methodology and immediately want to calculate their own process σ to determine how far they are from 6σ. There are two immediate responses to them: First, do you need to test your process capabilities frequently? Second, are you satisfied with your performance? If the answer to both questions is yes, it might be interesting but not necessarily necessary to calculate the process σ.
Give examples. An electric power company uses whether customers can use electricity at each moment as a criterion to measure its performance: for its customers, every minute of available electricity is an opportunity, and a minute of power outage is a defect. . Data were collected continuously to test the process capabilities, and the calculated yield (yield) was 99.9%.
The power company is satisfied with its performance (but is constantly improving) and its customers' requirements are well met (through customer feedback).
If the entire company uses the concept of productivity to communicate with each other, and everyone in the company understands this language, would it be useful to determine process σ? I believe that if a company pursues a comprehensive six-sigma quality approach throughout the organization, calculating sigma is appropriate because the process throughput in the organization can be compared with that of other plants. When a company considers 6σ only for a certain functional module (power delivery or order collection or call center), the company is better off waiting until everyone uses and understands 6σ before applying it. How can communication be achieved within an organization if everyone does not learn the language?
If you must calculate the σ of the process, how to do it? Still the above example. Use 5 steps to calculate the process σ:
Step 1: Define opportunity (opportunity)
Opportunity here means the desired result, which is what the customer can tolerate Events that occur at a minimum. For example, an employee has 30 procedures in his or her daily work, and errors may occur in each process. However, what the company can tolerate is a small error occurring at most once a day. Then, if this employee does not make a mistake or makes one mistake every day, it can be defined as an opportunity. Any excess errors are considered defects. For another example, the products of Motorola, the pioneer of 6σ, do not need to be inspected before being sent to customers. When they arrive at the customer, there will be no more than 3.4 defects per 1 million units. Customers can tolerate the fact that there are less than 3.4 defects per million.
Back to the electric utility example. If the power outage lasts less than 1 minute, the customer can tolerate it. The power outage for less than 1 minute can be defined as an opportunity, while the power outage for more than 1 minute will be regarded as a defect.
Step 2: Define defects
Defects are defined by the customer, not by the company itself. Failure to meet customer needs is a defect. Defining a defect is not easy. You must first communicate with your customers to understand what events will cause customer dissatisfaction. These events are defects. For Motorola, the defect perceived by customers is that the phone does not work properly. Back to the power company example. The defect defined by the customer is a one-minute power outage. A lack of power for one minute is a defect to the customer.
Step 3: Test your opportunities and flaws
Once you have determined what opportunities and flaws are, you can measure them.
The power company example is relatively straightforward and simple, but in many cases you may need a formal data collection plan and a carefully organized data collection process. It is important to note that the data you collect is reliable and statistically valid.
Back to the electric utility example. The data collected is:
Opportunities (last year): 525,600 minutes
Defects (last year): 500 minutes
Step 4: Calculate your productivity (yield)
Subtract the total number of defects from the total number of opportunities, divide by the total number of opportunities, and multiply by 100 to get the process output.
Back to the example of the electric power company, the process yield rate
((525,600-500)/525,600)*100=99.90%
There is another (iSixSigmaProcessSigmaCalculator), you only need to enter the corresponding number of opportunities and defects to automatically calculate the process output rate. Step 5: Find the σ of the process
If you do not use the 6σ calculator, the last step is to use the process output rate calculated in step 4 above. From the comparison table (Probability and Mathematical Statistics) It is easy to find the relevant table) to easily find out the σ value. However, a series of assumptions are required to analyze the final results, including assuming that the data is stationary and obeys a normal distribution.
[Editor]
Implementation of process management plan
1. Process reengineering implementation plan
1. Establish a process management committee
2. Training: Methods and techniques for describing processes and specifications
3. Determining process and specification templates
4. Formation of processes and specifications
5. Business processes are decomposed according to business classification, and Gantt charts are used to control progress
6. Management processes are decomposed according to functional classifications
7. Determine the person in charge of the process
8. Develop a process dynamic management system
9. Form process and specification related documents
2. Assessment plan implementation plan
The design of the process management project is completed Finally, it must be supplemented by corresponding performance evaluation, otherwise the company will easily return to its original state, and the results of the process management project will be difficult to truly consolidate.
1. Establish an evaluation committee
2. The evaluation committee collects and communicates KPI indicators and indicator standard systems with various departments
3. Indicator collection form
4. The general manager presides over the meeting to inform the KPI and indicator standard system
5. A certain time limit for communication and objections
6. The evaluation committee makes decisions through the KPI and indicator standard system
7. The Human Resources Department implements according to the standards
8. Evaluation process
9. Evaluation standards
10. Evaluation methods
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11. Calculation method
[Editor]
Critical success factors of process management projects
1. Full leadership support. As a systematic reform, the personal participation of top leaders is essential, and it is a "top leader" project. Reflect the desire for reform and promote process promotion; only when leaders have the determination and willingness to proactively change can the success of process management be guaranteed. Process management needs to be supported by organizational adjustments, and organizational adjustments will involve the interests of many people. The determination and will of leaders will be the driving force behind process reorganization. If the leader of the company is in a difficult mood, no matter how good the process is, there will be no results if no one implements it.
2. Persistent training, including management thinking and management team training, the reform ideas of top leaders are passed on to employees step by step, the real reform executors, so that all employees can unify their thinking and maintain consistent actions;
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3. Extensive participation. The heads of all relevant departments affected by the implementation should be involved in the project. Adequate communication and training are the means and methods to ensure the participation of all employees.
This way
ensures that the project obtains the required resources, and at the same time, it is also conducive to spreading reform ideas within the organization; at the same time, employees are the ultimate executors of the process, and their participation helps to adapt and improve the system early. ;
4. Consider using the “pilot-improvement-promotion” method during implementation. Process management cannot be achieved in one step. It must go through multiple cycles of "pilot-improvement-promotion" to continuously discover problems and make improvements. At the same time, carefully select pilot departments, and the departments that can benefit the most from process management should be selected as the first batch of implementation departments;
5. Pay attention to the preparation of basic data. The importance and difficulties of basic data are often underestimated, which will greatly affect the implementation of process management, so prepare for this as early as possible.
1. Cooperate sincerely with the internal consulting team
1. Form a community of interests and work together to complete the project.
2. Highly motivated to participate and take the project as their own responsibility.
3. Pay more attention to the plan, think fully, and put forward more suggestions.
4. Deeper understanding and ideal knowledge transfer are also beneficial to implementation.
2. The project boundaries are clearly defined
1. The scope of process specifications: focusing on the company’s business processes, mainly involving finance (including accounting, accounting, fixed assets), sales, Eight major business processes include procurement, materials, production planning, maintenance logistics, total quality, and project management (including scientific research on infrastructure).
2. Degree of change: try not to involve changes in department functions and distribution of functions.
3. Process optimization participants: department heads, consulting company consultants and client executives.
4. The degree of refinement of process specifications: positions and job participants.
5. Degree of process optimization: comprehensive optimization of the main business process.