Category: Business Process Management (BPM)

You’ve done the difficult task of conducting a business process reengineering effort, but how do you quantify the results? BPR is a very drastic practice, and can be somewhat more difficult to measure than you might think. When you consider the scope and depth of a BPR project, cleanly pointing out tangible benefits […]

What is Business Process Reengineering? There are quite a few ways to approach the design of a process. We can pursue continual improvement, hoping that little by little it is hammered into the right sort of shape. This has its benefits, as it doesn’t severely upset the current workflow, and teams stay on […]

BPR projects can be daunting at first glance, as you’re fundamentally changing the way you work. However, it might not be tenable to continue with work as it sits; processes might be inefficient, wasteful, and prone to costly errors. BPR isn’t something that happens in a vacuum, and understanding how it affects any […]

What can you do to engage employees in your BPR initiatives? Any sort of BPR effort can be a vast undertaking. When we consider the wider scope of what needs to be done to achieve any sort of success, the odds are stacked heavily against us at first glance. Overhauling a process from […]

When you have an undertaking as massive and diverse as a BPR effort, you need a little help to get things rolling. While getting your workforce on board with your efforts is instrumental to the initiative’s success, that isn’t the only consideration you’ll need to keep in mind when planning your BPR effort. […]

Scope creep is the bane of any project’s existence, and one thing that can seriously hinder your BPR efforts. Avoiding scope creep is going to be paramount to the success of any efforts you’re undertaking to revamp your processes. Thankfully, it isn’t quite as difficult as you might think to stay focused and […]

What role does leadership play in your BPR efforts? BPR is a drastic and often massive change to business processes. The concept of a clean slate isn’t just touted about, but followed through on. As such, it has its own sort of demands to consider when undergoing a BPR initiative. Leadership plays a […]

What major changes in BPR implementation is your organization struggling with? Like it or not, sometimes implementing something new can lead to some real hurdles to overcome. Often, these can be minor speed bumps in the road, and an adjustment can get things back on track. However, BPR is quite drastic by design, […]

How do you measure process work? First introduced in the 19th and early 20th centuries, time and motion studies established rules of motion that guaranteed optimal performance during a given period and reduced the number of movements needed to accomplish work. Over the years, time and motion studies have been conducted in many industries to […]

Quality management should be a holistic approach. Process, product, and people are the three key elements of a company’s quality system and all of them need to be focused on for an overall improvement in performance. Why It Matters So, why consider this approach for your quality management? While there are many approaches […]

What is PDSA? PDSA stands for Plan, Do, Study, and Act. It is a method that is used to test a change that is being implemented or has been implemented. Working through these four steps guides thinking into breaking down a task into sections and then evaluating the result, making improvements, and then […]

It is important to have a procedure in place to finalize a project. That is where a PSO (process sign off) procedure comes in.

Value stream map vs. process map, which is better for you? As with many tools and methods in Six Sigma, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to mapping things out. Both of these tools have specific functions with some overlap. If you’re new to Six Sigma, then you’re in luck. Today, we’re going in-depth into how […]

What is a Spaghetti Diagram? A spaghetti diagram is defined as the visual representation of the flow of an activity or process utilized to identify areas that could use improvement. It is unique in that it demonstrates motion work and its associated waste and assists in the quantification of the amount of walking an operator […]

Sometimes you have to break something down into the smallest possible pieces before you can make it right. Process mapping is one of the first major steps when adopting six sigma, so it’s something business leaders should learn to love. Depicting workflow and processes in a visual format sets the stage for defining, understanding and […]

What is Critical To Quality? Critical to quality refers to the things necessary for a company to have in place in order to meet the needs of the customer. It is the attribute of a process or service that has a direct impact on its real or perceived quality. The Benefits of Critical To Quality […]

When there is a need to look beyond continuous improvement methods, there is a concept that takes looking at workflow even further.

Complex, multi-team processes in transactional operations can often be almost invisible in operation and execution – until, that is, something goes wrong. Transactional process failures are common: failed online transactions, payments not made on time, double bookings and lost orders are frequently encountered errors. These processes often involve manual tasks and multiple unconnected systems, are […]

Service, or transactional, Six Sigma has sometimes struggled to keep up with its manufacturing big brother in terms of sustainable results. Lean Six Sigma is currently the approach of choice for many service organizations, but that methodology is under pressure as businesses look to cut costs aggressively to survive the recession. In more than 15 […]

A process can be defined as a set of ordered actions that lead to an output. In any business function, a goal is achieved through a process – paychecks are printed, orders are taken, employees are hired. How well the processes operate is the focus of this article, and the focus of process management. Process management […]

While managing process improvements on a daily basis, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture. Practitioners may view every separate event with a unique perspective using a different dimension and frame of reference than they would use to view other, seemingly unrelated events. When addressing each event, problem and improvement in isolation, […]

After more than 15 years, Six Sigma remains a hot topic in the business world with many companies having introduced it or at least considered it. But whether a person is just embarking on the journey or is already a skilled user, they may be wondering how to define Six Sigma in simple terms and […]

The term “business process management” (BPM) is often encountered in conjunction with Six Sigma and Lean initiatives. Typically it refers to identification of core business processes, assignment of process ownership and definition of measures (and perhaps benchmarks) that indicate the health of a particular process. These measures are often influential in selection of Six Sigma […]

Recently, a large-scale financial services company recently wanted to reengineer the process for its entire customer services organization, including people, process and technology. This company had, during the last two years, trained many Black Belts and Green Belts. It attempted to use Six Sigma methodology as the primary method of introducing customer-focused process improvement to […]