Chapter 1 – Introduction to Business Processes
Chapter 5 – Information Technology and Changing Business Processes
Business silos
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Purchasing
Production
Warehouse
Sales and marketing
Research and development
Finance and accounting
Human resources
Information systems
Enterprise systems – support for end-to-end processes
Business processes
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Procurement process (buy)
Production process (make)
Fulfillment process (sell)
Lifecycle data management process (design)
Material planning process (plan)
Inventory and warehouse management process (store)
Asset management and customer service (service)
Human capital process (people)
Project management process (projects)
Financial accounting processes (track – external)
Management accounting (track-internal)
Are there benefits to silos?
Q – would it make sense to have a College of Business with no departments? Would it make sense to
have an undergraduate business degree with no majors other than one business BBA?
Based on your answer to this question – why do you think businesses have silos?
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What can we do to make silos more effective?
Consider Figure 5.4 Comparison of silo perspective and business process perspective
Tools for Changing Business Processes
Total Quality Management (TQM) – incremental change
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Change a process to improve
Select metrics by which to measure the process
Collect data related to the process
Enable personnel involved with the process to find ways to improve the process
based on metrics
Business Process Reengineering (BPM) – radical change
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Major change in a short period of time
Challenge old assumptions
Measure success via metrics directly tied to business goals
Cross-functional perspective – think outside the box
See Figure 5.6 – related to “conceptual flow of process design” and Figure 5.7 – method for
redesigning a business process
Does this look familiar to anything else we’ve done in CIS 304???
Are there risks for BPM (radical change)?
Agile processes – reconfigure business processes to meet customer demands. Must constantly design,
deliver, evaluate and redesign business processes. Candidates for agile processes:
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Web based order-management,
service provisioning,
software development,
HR support
High tech manufacturing
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Horizontal Integration – common business processes into a shared services model
Consolidate – typically HR, IT services, procurement and finance across business units
BPM systems – see IBM Blueworks Live, MS SharePoint Workflow, Processmodel
Heuristics for Business Process Redesign
Customer 1 – Move Controls towards the Customer
Customer 2 – Reduce the Number of Contacts with the Customers and Third Parties
Customer 3 – Consider the Integration with a Business Process of the Customer or Supplier
Business Process 1 – Determine Whether Tasks are Related to the Same Type of Order, and if necessary,
Distinguish New Business Processes
Business Process 2 – Eliminate Unnecessary Tasks from a Business Process
Business Process 3 – Consider Removing Batch-Processing and Periodic Activities From a Business
Process
Business Process 4 – Consider the Division of a General Task into Two or More Alternative Tasks or
Consider the Integration of Two or More Alternative Tasks into One General Task.
Business Process 5 – Combine Small Tasks Into Composite Tasks and Divide Large Tasks into Workable
Smaller Tasks
Evaluation 1 – Move Tasks to More Appropriate Places
Evaluation 2 – Order Knock-outs in an Increasing Order of Effort and in a Decreasing Order of
Termination Probability
Evaluation 3 – Consider Whether Tasks May be Executed in Parallel
Evaluation 4 – Design Business Processes for Typical Orders and Isolate Exceptional Orders from Normal
Flow
Organization 1 – Let Workers Perform As Many Possible Steps for Single Orders
Organization 2 – Assign Resources in Such a Way that Maximal Flexibility if Preserved for the Near
Future
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Organization 3 – Treat Geographically Dispersed Resources as If They Were Centralized
Organization 4 – Avoid Assignment of Task Responsibilities to People from Different Functional Units
Organization 5 – Consider Assigning Teams Out of Different Departmental Workers That Will Take Care
of the Complete Handling of Specific Sorts of Orders
Organization 6 – Minimize the Number of Departments, Groups, Persons Involved in a Business Process
Organization 7 – Appoint One Person As Responsible for Handling of Each Type of Order, the case
manager
Organization 8 – If capacity is not sufficient, consider increasing the number of resources.
Organization 9 – Consider to make resources more specialized or more generalist
Organization 10 – Give workers most of the decision-making authority and reduce middle management.
Information 1 – Check the Completeness and correctness of incoming materials and check the output
before it is sent to customers
Information 2 – Instead of requesting information from an external source, buffer it by subscribing to
updates
Technology 1 – Consider automating tasks
Technology 2 – Try to evaluate physical constraints in a business process by applying new technology
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