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ENTERPRISE PROCESS MODEL (EPM) – PROCESS MANAGEMENT AT TATA MOTORS
LIMITED
Sudhir Hasamnis
Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors Limited, India
ABSTRACT
Tata Motors made loss of Rs 500 Crores in the year 2000-01. When we analysed the reasons, one of the major issue that came out was
‘Lack of Process Management’. It was decided that we should work on Processes and see that the Business is driven by the processes
and not by people. In the year 2001, we mapped 18 Business Process Families which impact the entire business. And then the process of
process management began. Now we have 7th Version of the ‘Enterprise Process Model (EPM)’, which has 17 business process families
and 100+ Sub Processes. Not only has EPM brought total discipline in the Organisation, but has set ground rules for Strategy and
Balanced Scorecard (BSC).
Keywords: Process Management, EPM, Tata Motors, CVBU
EVOLUTION OF THE ENTERPRISE PROCESS MODEL
Tata Motors Limited made a loss of Rs 500 Crores in the year 2000-01. This was the biggest loss in the Indian Corporate History. Most
of the financial institutes and analysts predicted that Tata Motors will not survive in the face of such heavy loss. But Tata Motors was
determined to turnaround (and bounce back to profit), and did serious introspection. It was revealed that 3 main elements were
contributing towards this loss – Lack of customer focus, lack of process management and lack of new products and variants.
Tata Motors decided to attack these 3 elements in a systematic way. The major emphasis was on Process Management. Tata Motors
studied the APQC 13 processes and its sub processes. Based on APQC processes and Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM, based on
the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Process) Tata Motors decided to map the organisational level processes first. These were
the processes which were cutting across the organisations and various functions. In the first version, Tata Motors mapped 18 business
processes in the organisation in the year 2001.
For this purpose Tata Motors took guidance from Mr John Vinyard, Senior MBNQA Assessor. At that time Tata Motors had 25 trained
assessors on the TBEM model and they had exposure of assessing Tata Group and other outside companies. These assessors were
assigned to each process. They were called as process coordinators. This assignment was in addition to their regular work. These
coordinators started having sessions with the Process Owners and Functional experts to obtain the details on the processes. It took
approximately 6 months to map all these processes. During these 6 months, most of the processes underwent at least 3 to 4 rounds of
changes. Coordinators used to sit with process owners, take their interviews, and understand the procedures and the key steps of the
processes. With these mapped processes, the Process Owners realised the importance of managing the process and also in-process
measures to control the desired outcome.
Excited with the success achieved by mapping of the processes, the following year Tata Motors went for level 2 processes, i.e. the sub
processes below the first identified 18 processes. This year an additional process, ‘Organisational Governance’ was added to the
Enterprise Process Model (EPM) at level 1 and 85 sub processes got evolved under the 19 process families. This helped in identifying
more and more accurate measures across the organisation.
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100
Fig 1 Process orientation at Tata Motors
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This proved to be great success. It brought clarity in the process management. In the year 2003, Tata Motors aligned and integrated third
level of processes, i.e. IS/TS 16949 procedures to level two and level one. This means, now, all procedures and work instructions have
linkages with the main & sub-processes.
In the year, 2000-01, Tata Motors adopted classical Balanced Scorecard (BSC) tool based on the Dr Kaplan and Dr Norton’s theory. The
success of BSC was mainly based on the well established EPM measures. Tata Motors has library of more than 500 measures because of
the process mapping. Now each and every process owner takes care that related process measures are appearing in the BSCs of the
concerned officers. BSC gets reviewed every month and automatically all process measures get reviewed every month across the
organisation.
Process mapping brought lot of clarity in the organisation and also established roles and responsibilities of the people involved with. The
ownership put at the top level, mostly General Managers and above, not only brought seriousness but also brought end-to-end clarity in
the processes. Most of the executives are part of some process (either owner or user) and are experiencing the processes because of their
interactions. But they never looked at any process in totality, e.g. Vendor Management or Market Development. They could see only
some part of the process where they are involved. With the mapped processes, they started understanding and appreciating the
organisational scope and where they fit in. The EPM diagram shows full picture of the organisation and in a way it shows the Value
chain in a simpler way.
Fig 2 Enterprise Process Model (EPM)
Each process is numbered with PIN number. For example, Leadership Process in numbered as ‘CVBU-EL-01’. CVBU stands for
business unit and EL stands for Enterprise Level and 01 stands for the number allotted to the process. Sub process level is numbered as
CVBU-EL-01-01.
In the span of 3 years (2003-04), Tata Motors started using the mapped processes and the next obvious step was to start
assessing/auditing these processes and their levels. Tata Motors created an assessment system to assess the Process Families (Main
process and sub-processes under it) with the help of trained & experienced in-house assessors. Every year in the month of the January
and February, these teams of assessors go across the organisation and assess the process. The opportunities to improve (OFIs) are
informed to the Process Owners after the assessment. Based on these OFIs, Process Owners improve their processes and inform other
process owners and Business Excellence Services Department, which is a Central Agency to manage the EPM processes.
Now there is a standard practice that every year (mostly in the month of December and January) a Process Owner revisits his process
based on the KPI and KPM (Key Performance Indicators and Key Performance Measures) performance and business needs, and
requirements of Process users. Today’s EPM is now revised for 7 times from the year 2000-01.
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Fig 3 Process list and its owners
Fig 4 Flow Chart form for level 1 process
Why EPM
This best practice takes care of ‘running the organisation on processes’ and minimize the ‘influence of individual employees’ in running
the operations. In other words make the organisation ‘process-centric’. The another important aspect is that by documenting the
processes, lot of clarity was brought in terms of roles and responsibilities of the process owners, inputs & outputs of the processes, inprocess & end-process measures, entities involved and its linkage with the ISO and TS standard systems (Refer Fig 7, Process Definition
Sheet). EPM has also helped in identifying and using the appropriate and effective measures for the organisation.
EPM helps in achieving the strategic objectives in a systematic way. For example, strategic objective called ‘Reengineering the supply
chain’ is achieved with the help of process called ‘Vendor Management’.
Purpose of Process Documentation:
1. Clarify Roles and Responsibility for the Process
2. Clarify scope of the Process
3. Establish Measures
4. Create dialogue between process owners & users and
5. Facilitate Process Improvement
6. Knowledge Sharing and management
7. Ensure delivery of CVBU Core Values
8. Ensure delivery of Value to all stakeholders
Fig 5 Sub process mapping in Turtle Diagram format
EPM Framework
Tata Motors has installed a ‘Process Management backbone’ in the form of Enterprise Process Model. This EPM has integrated all levels
of processes and IS/TS procedures and Balanced Scorecard and Tata Motors Operating System (SQDCM Safety/Quality/Delivery/Cost/Morale) measures. EPM has also created a ‘birds-eye-view’ picture of the process driven organisation
(Refer Fig 2) and it can tell entire Tata Motors’s business on one page.
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Description of practice
Organisational Process Pyramid (Fig 1) conceptually describes Tata Motors overall Process Management approach from the strategic
down to the operating level. Being a multi-location organisation, engaged in design, manufacture and selling of full range of Commercial
Vehicles in domestic and International markets, process management has very significant relevance for Tata Motors. Tata Motors have
always been process-driven in the manufacturing and in recent past 6 years have become process driven through out all business
processes.
Enterprise Process Model (EPM) is the framework used to identify and show the interconnections of the organization’s top-level
processes. The level 1 EPM consists of 17 business processes and level 2 has 100+ processes. With the EPM established, our key valuecreation processes and support processes were determined to be different process families. The criteria for this determination include: 1)
which processes have external customers; 2) which processes contribute most directly to customers/business results
EPM helps Tata Motors to ensure that it addresses all aspects of business. As Tata Motors break each process box of EPM (Fig 1) down
to more details up to level 2 or 3 (Sub-process or ISO or TS procedures), we deploy the ownership of process design, management and
improvement down the organisation.
EPM has fully integrated process management at highest level in the organisation. As the EPM level 1 is deployed down to level 2 and 3,
the EPM process ensures full alignment, i.e. by being linked to the processes above and below it in the EPM model and integration by
linking to process users across CVBU at each level. To avoid duplication of efforts, Level 3 processes (procedures, work instructions,
etc) are documented in IS/TS16949 manuals and linked with EPM.
EPM and Process ownership
Business Excellence Service Department is solely responsible for creating the total EPM and the sub processes.
The Business Process Owners and Sub-process Owners, who actually design, monitor and improve the processes with the help of
‘Process Design and Process Improvement’ process.
For each process, there is a main/principal process owner and to support him/her there are locational process owners (E.g. Pune,
Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Pantnagar, etc). They meet on regular basis to discuss the progress on measures and process steps. Some time
these process owners meet in person or through Video Conferences on quarterly basis. Process owners are also responsible for
benchmarking and knowledge management (knowledge-in and knowledge-out) of their own processes.
Fig 6 Front Sheet of the Process Family
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Fig 7 Process Definition Sheet of the Process Family
Process assessment
Tata Motors has designed a Process Assessment methodology based on the Enterprise Process Management Guidebook, Version 4
(Created by Tata Motors). This book describes ‘How to manage a process’ and also explains the process for designing and improving the
process. This process has 5 steps (Fig 8) and each step has detailed description. Based on these steps and its description, the
questionnaire (Fig 9) is designed to assess any process. The designated assessors go for assessment in the team. They get 3 years results
and trends from the Process Owners. Feedback is given to the Process Owners in the form of Strengths and OFIs. Progress (Fig 10) on
this is discussed in the Business Unit level Steering Committee.
Step 2
Step 1
Establish process
output requirements
Name the process
Assign the Owner
Document the
process
and Sub process
and its measures
Step 3
Step 4
Set targets
for
measure
Identify needed
improvements
through selfassessment and
audits
Step 5
Simplify/
Improve the
process
Fig 8 Process Design and Process Improvement Process
Sr. No.
Role & Responsibility of Process Owner/s
3.1 Get detailed user requirements for the
measures identified in step 1.2
3.2 Understand current level of performance
3.3 Identify gaps in current and required
3.4 Identify potential comparisons in
performance - Groups to compare with,
Data for comparison
3.5 Set the target
Criteria/Guidelines for Assessment
• Check how process user’s requirements for the process are
obtained, collated and used
• Check how the process fits into the user’s overall performance and
output
Understand the current level of performance of the process vs. what
the user expects - check results (including segmented results) for all
meausres
Review the gap in performance and documents:
• Check how Process Owners have derived the detailed impact of the
gap (the cost, performance schedule, quality, employee, customer,
supplier or other stakeholder impact of the gap) between current
performance and desired performance
• Check for action plans made to close the gap/gaps and the timeline
• Review
Check how
resources
required toand
develop
an approach to close the
the gap
in performance
document:
Strengths
OFIs
• The level of performance of other organizations - Check for
benchmarks and comparisons selected/used to drive performance
• The cost, schedule, quality, employee, customer, supplier or
other stakeholder impact of the gap between your process/es and
other organizations process/es
• Check how detailed targets for process improvement are taken up
based on the analyses made (actual Vs targeted performance)
• Check whther approvals (both upstream and downstream) from sub
process owners and users were taken for such imporvements
Were these measures considered for improvement?
- Cycle time, Productivity, Cost, Other efficiency and effectiveness
factors, Technology, Organizational knowledge and Support of
business directions
Fig 9 Illustration from the Process Assessment Questionnaire (Step 3 from the PDPI process)
Approach
1
2
3
4
5
5a
6
7
7a
8
9
10
10a
11
12
12a
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Leadership and Corporate Citizenship
Strategic Planning
Internal and External Communication
Performance Improvement and Change Management
Market Development (Domestic)
Market Development (IB)
Vendor Management
Channel Partner Management (Domestic)
Channel Partner Management (IB)
New Product Introduction
Service Design
Sales and Operations Planning (Domestic)
Sales and Operations Planning (IB)
Manufacturing
Sales Planning (Doemstic)
Sales Planning (IB)
After Sales Service
Facilities and Environment Management
Human Resource Management
Information and Knowledge Management
Finance and Budgeting
Vehicle Financing
Organizational Governance
Deployment
Learning
Integration
Assessment on hold - Processes are revamped
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Overall Band
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Fig 10 Illustration from the presentation to the Steering Committee on the assessment progress
Critical Success Factors – why EPM is successful
Firstly EPM was benchmarked with process management of few Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) winners. EPM
was piloted for Level 1 business processes (18# processes to begin with) in the form of Flow Chart form. It was monitored at Business
Unit level Steering Committee for more than one year and flaws and formats were corrected and improved.
Once it was successful for ‘Level 1’ processes, ‘Level 2’ processes were mapped. Two reviews every year for all processes are
conducted in presence of Senior Leadership members. The implementation was reviewed on monthly basis. Audit systems were
introduced to improve, nurture and sustain the system.
Improvements carried out in this practice
This was a collection of flow charts in the beginning. We then added Process Definition Sheets, Turtle Charts (based on the TS16949)
for sub-processes, Owners & sub-owners, dates of revision, etc to the EPM. There were two manuals – Business processes and Sub
Processes in the year 2003-04. In the year 2004-05, Tata Motors released EPM which has set of process families, which means the set
has list of processes in a process family, Process definition sheet, main business process chart and turtle charts.
EPM may not show tangible results in terms of financial benefits and cycle time, but it has filled up many gaps in the organisation with
help of process integration. Tata Motors-CVBU has reaped benefits of being a ‘process-driven’ company.
Conclusion
 Moved away from ‘People- centric’ to ‘Process-Centric’ framework
 Takes care of knowledge management within the organisation
 Need to map the organisational processes in a document so that the whole organisation understands the impact of processes and also
end-to-end picture of processes
 Put easy and simple system which layman understands. Use of standard formats to bring discipline and help in knowledge
management
 Start at the top level processes first. They are not only critical but difficult to map as they are cutting across the organisation and
impacts many people in many areas of operations
 Use Operating managers for mapping the process and involve them to get the buy-in
 First pilot it out in few areas and then spread learnings of the pilot phase at other places
EPM has been accepted as best practice by various agencies such as Tata Group, assessing organisations, MBNQA and EFQM assessors.
Even though the EPM is complicated on its face, it is simple system for execution. In the beginning, lots of efforts are required to put
down knowledge of stalwarts in the organisation to map a process. EPM can be adopted by any kind of business. Once it is done then the
yearly improvement is easy and needs limited resources and efforts. It requires of hands-on training to the Assessors, process owners and
users.
Results
Fig 11 shows that after adoption of ‘systematic process management’, the process assessment index has more than doubled from the year
2000-01.
2.5
2.03
2
2.13
1.86
1.68
1.48
1.5
1.31
1.14
1
1
Processes assessment
completed and have shown
overall 4.93 % improvement
Fig 11 Process Assessment Index
0.5
0
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
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2006-07
2007-08
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After adoption of ‘Process Management’, there was substantial jump in the TBEM assessment scores (Fig 12). In fact Tata Motors has
also won the ‘CII-Exim Role Model award’ (based on the EFQM award process) in the year 2005 and Rajiv Gandhi National Quality
Award in the year 2008. CVBU, Tata Motors won ‘Sustenance of Excellence Award’ in the year 2008 given by the Tata Group for
scoring above 600 points consistently for four years.
score
700
600
500
578
551
620
633
658
2005
2006
2007
503
400
300
200
100
0
2002
2003
2004
Fig 12 Progress on Tata Business Excellence Model assessment
Results
60
55
54
56
54
50
45
40
56
Turnaround
60
45
35
30
2002
2003
2004
Domestic Growth
63
65
65
60
60.2
2005
2006
International Growth
Process
70
68
63.1
2007
Fig 13 Improvement in the TBEM assessment scores after the adoption of EPM. One can see the jump in the scores after 2002. There is
an 18% jump in the ‘Results’ and 14% jump in the ‘Process’ area.
Fig 14 Table illustrating no. of processes assessed every year and processes undergone evaluation and improvement.
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Processes assessed
13
14
17
6
11
13
Process gone through evaluation and
11
11
12
13
16
17
improvement
REFERENCES
Tata Motors (2008), Enterprise Process Model Manual, Version 7.0, Tata Motors Limited, In-house publication
Tata Motors (2008), Enterprise Process Management Guidebook, Version4.0, Tata Motors Limited, In-house publication
Michael Hammer, Steven Stanton, How Process Enterprises Really Work, 2001 HBR OnPoint Article
Garvin, D, “Leveraging processes for strategic advantage", Harvard Business Review, 1995, pp.77-90.
Tucker, M. (1996), Successful Process Management in a Week”, Headway-Hodder & Stoughton
Michael Hammer, The Process Audit, Harvard Business Review Article, 2007
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2007
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