Schlagwort-Archiv: Process

Where do I want to go?

The longer an enterprise exists, the more with difficult it is to maintain the enthusiasm. An impressive illustration of the direction and the goals produces the necessary energy to keep the momentum during the activity. This is valid for teams and particularly for each person – inclusive oneself. This direction can be more or less extensively prepared as a text, a metaphor or an image. Remember the following visions:

  • … before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth? (J.F. Kennedy)
  • … a computer in each household? (Bill Gates)
  • … ideas worth spreading? (Chris Anderson)

These future pictures from the past are already accomplished. In order to make this happen, it needs many people and much time. The direction becomes tangible by defining the strategy (where you want to go) and motivates the involved people to take part during a longer period.

Strategie03Miss

The following parts provide the comprehensive picture of the future.

  • Vision
    Through the easily conceivable picture of the desired future, the vision, the creativity of the involved people becomes stimulated and creates momentum that prevails for a long time. At best it affects, if it is described in a way, as if it already would be reality.
  • Mission
    The general assignment, the mission, includes the expectations of the decision makers. The mission produces a view of target states similar to the vision. Additionally, it contains the expectations of the leadership team with their assumptions and a consistent explanation, including what should be done, for whom, and what it makes special.
  • Influence factors
    The description of the influence factors (i.e. the critical success factors, the favored value discipline as well as the strengths, the weaknesses, opportunities and risks) shows the involved people the external framework that should be expected during the realization.
  • Strategic direction
    The generally targeted trends create focus for the people involved. It enables them to bring in their competencies. For example, the will to grow or shrink explains additionally, what is intended to be reached, see here.
  • Strategic goals
    The strategic goals are the framework for breaking down the aims. At the same time, it shows a compact overview of the intentions. Make sure that the highest level covers the entire topic.
  • Strategic core
    In the future the core competencies, the core processes and core deliverables become more and more important, since overarching cooperation’s take place more frequently in different constellations (e.g. across locations or enterprises). Clarify the substantial abilities for your deliverables. Limit yourself on those aspects that you actually need for your value creation. Last but not least it is important to assign the products and services that have to be produced to each unit or person.

Bottom line: In times, when everything is possible, it is important to determine your own future. The strategy, described as clear as possible, is the pre-requisite for the ever more frequent cooperation in various groupings. It ensures that all people pull the rope in one direction and at the same time that only a few friction losses arise from conflicts or misunderstandings.

Same series:

Who am I?

What do I do?

Abandonment improves the process

Even if we can look back on over twenty years of Business Process Engineering, the business processes are still loaded with activities that waste the scarce means, lead to delays and demotivate the employees. For this reason, there is regularly the need to purge the processes by improving procedures through abandonment.

Prozessoptimierung

In order to facilitate them, the procedures should be available in a documented form. If the appropriate descriptions are missing, one cannot help but to determine the flows with the required details. Already on the highest layer, the process map, possible candidates can be found, e.g. entire areas that can be outsourced. Then, the actual business processes can be scanned for unnecessary process steps by looking at the following aspects.

  • Put the emphasis on core tasks
    Originally, enterprises handled the entire value creation internally, from the steel production, to the finished vehicle. Meanwhile, service providers offer almost all functions as services – from the food supply, to the facility and the vehicle fleet management, to the services of IT and product development.
    In order to align the processes to the core tasks, the strategic core is specified and other functions are outsourced. Only the coordination of external partners remains internally.
  • Simplify activities
    Frequently the procedures are contaminated with old activities that are no longer necessary, e.g. administrating documents or distributing minutes. Since the information is stored electronically, with the appropriate access, the required information is available to the employees at any time.
    The activities can be simplified by constantly using the current IT in various places.
  • Eliminate control tasks
    Depending on the existing culture the processes are filled with controls and rework loops. With the Four Eyes Principle the participants are deprived and the flow is slowed down.
    By dissolving the control tasks, the processes will be faster and the quality of the results increases with the authorized self-control of the participants.
  • Shorten Processes
    The tendency to keep the number of processes small leads to overloaded monsters. Quickly different activities are integrated into one process, e.g. the sales process, the HR process, the development process.
    By looking at the natural breaking points, these monsters can be divided and/or shortened.
  • Delete senseless wasting
    Actually, there are no senseless activities, since there are always unquestionable explanations that show the benefit for the one or the other.
    For this reason all activities should be questioned whether they provide a value-add to the results. If this justification is not comprehensible on an objective basis, the activity should be eliminated without replacement.

Bottom line: Business processes can be designed with less friction loss by abandoning activities. They become faster, obtain better results and give the employees enough time to fulfill the core tasks intently.