W11 - Redesign Principles

After having the basic knowledge of five phases BPR Methodologies, this lesson I have learned more about the guide of redesigning, Redesign Principles & Tactics, for second-wave BPR. There are 10 principles in total which can be divided into Restructuring, Information and minding. This lesson I have studied the Minding part.

Minding the Process

These process redesign principles relate to changing the knowledge management capabilities of the process be harnessing the collective intellectual assets around it.

Principle 8: ANALYZE AND SYNTHESIZE

Augment the interactive analysis and synthesis capabilities around a process to generate value added.

A business process can be redesigned by adding analysis capabilities through software and intelligent information feeds that generate knowledge. It can become a major part of the deliverable to the customer of the process. This tactic is especially applicable in knowledge-intensive processes where the value proposition to the customers of the process is increasingly based on providing good advice to customers and improving customer capacity to make intelligent decisions.

Principle 9: CONNECT, COLLECT, AND CREATE

Grow intelligently reusable knowledge around the process through all who touch it.

A business process can be redesigned by intelligently growing knowledge around it through all the people who take part in the process. No matter they are the doers of the process or even the customers of the process.

The common tactics are for instances, create a community of practice around the process, create expertise maps and "yellow pages" related to the process or embed knowledge-sharing spaces for interactive dialogues around the process, etc.

Principle 10: PERSONALIZE

Make the process intimate with the preferences and habits of participants.

A business process can be redesigned by increasing its capabilities to learn about the preferences and habits of the customers and doers of the process. A knowledge base with customer profiles and preferences is built based on repeat executions of the process. The knowledge about preferences is then used in subsequent process executions to make the outcomes of the process more personalized to the customer or doer of the process. Taking advantage of this knowledge can add value to the process participants and speed up the process on subsequent executions. This knowledge can also be used to provide new process offerings and to redesign the process.

W10 - Redesign Principles

The main focus of this week lecture is the further discussion of BPR methodologies - Process redesign.  This week focus on discussing the principles of restructuring the process and informating the process. There are three different types for redesigning a business process, they are “Restructuring the process”, “Informating the process” and “Minding the process” respectively. This week lecture mentioned the first two types.

The picture shown below can give a brief idea of the redesign Principles:

Restructuring the process

There are four principles of restructuring and reconfiguring the process:
#1. Lose Wait
#2. Orchestrate
#3. Mass- Customize
#4. Synchronize

 #1. Lose WaitThe basic concept for Lose Wait is to reduce waiting time in process links to create value. Common tactics for Lose Wait are Concurrency, Closed-Loop, Not Gating Main Process, Continuous Flow and Upstream Relives Downstream.

 #2. OrchestrateThe main focus for Orchestrate is to let the fastest and most able enterprise to execute the process. Common tactics for Orchestrate are Partnering, Outsourcing, In-sourcing and Routing through an Intermediary.

#3. Mass-CustomizeThe main focus for Mass-customize is to flex the process for anytime, anyplace and any way. Common tactics for Mass-customize are Flexing Time, Flexing Space, Modularity and Dynamic Customization.

#4. SynchronizeThe main focus for Synchronize is to flex the process for anytime, anyplace and any way. Common tactics for Synchronize are Match Offerings, Common Process Platforms and Track Movement.

Informating the process

There are three principles of changing the information flows around the process:
#5. Digitize and Propagate
#6. Vitrify
#7. Sensitize

# 5. Digitize and PropagateThe main focus for Digitize and Propagate is to capture information digitally at the source and propagate it throughout the process. Common tactics for Digitize and Propagate are Digitize at Source, Make the Process Paperless, Make Information Accessible Upstream and Downstream, and Shrink the Distance between the Information and the Decision.

#6. VitrifyThe main focus for Vitrify is to provide glass- like visibility through fresher and richer information about the process. Common tactics for Vitrify” are On-demand Information Tracking, On-the-fly Reporting and Analysis and Standard Partner Interface.

# 7. SensitizeThe main focus for Sensitize is to fit the process with sensors and feedback loops to prompt action. Common tactics for Sensitize are Process Dysfunction and Monitor Environmental Change. 

The first reference [shown below] mentioned about the principle #0 Streamline which our lecture note did not talk about, this principle means remove waste, simplify and consolidate similar activities.

W8 - Redesign Process

As we learnt from the last lecture,there are 5 phrases of BPR Methodologies.
This lecture focuses one of the phrases, "Process redesign", which includes 5 steps. The first two steps were mainly discussed.
Figure 1 summarizes the overview of the areas we are focusing in these two lectures and their inter-relationship.

Figure 1. Overview

Scoping the Process

1. Operationalize process performance targets     -> List and priortize stated goals

2. Define process boundaries
     -> State the starts, ends, customers, inputs, outputs, triggers and so on to limit the size of the process

3. Identify key process issues
     -> Start assessment point for the BPR team through various methods

4. Understand best practices & define initial visions
     -> Understand known best practices for the selected process
     -> Define initial visions which may be changed many times as it progresses

5. Familiarize participants with BPR software
     -> Learn to use the selected BPR software

6. Outline data collection plan & collect baseline data
     -> identify data collection difficulties and methods
7. Plan for modelling phrase
     -> plan for modelling

Modeling and Analysis with BPR Software
The use of software can help describe a process and show the relationships between data.

W7 - BPR Methodologies

In the lecture, I have learned about the 5 phases of BPR methodologies. It includes:

Triggering and Executive Visioning, define business vision and objectives, addresses the limitations of current processes, visioning about how the particular aspect of the business should work.

BPR Project Mobilization, it includes selecting what process should be redesigned, setting up a BPR team and choosing a project leader.

Process Redesign, redesign the business process, analyze and compare the performance of the processes.

Implementation and Organizational Transformation, adjust the IT infrastructure, organization and workers’ skills to fit the redesigned process.

Monitoring and Maintaining, continue to monitor the new process, make improvements when it is needed.

The article here gathered several BPR methodologies from contemporary literatures.

 

It collected the information from different methodologies and made a consolidated methodology.

 

The above methodology is so close to the lecture’s. What I want to emphasize is the Map and Analyze As-Is Process. Many people underestimate the value of As-Is analysis and rather prefer spending more time and money on designing the To-Be model directly. One of the important thing of BPR is the improvement should provide dramatic results, by achieving this objective, we should first understand clearly how the current process is running, analyze it and then improve it. In the article, it gave an example that a large manufacture had spent a lot of money in developing a new system. However the project failed just because they overlooked a small piece of information.
Therefore apart from putting focus on developing new process, we should also focus on analyzing the current process.

W6 - BPR Basic

BPR includes business strategy, business processes and IT, they are supporting the firm in different levels, and it is about a huge change within a targeted firm.

IT changes business process

IT facilitates organization to automate the manual process and increase the performance of firm. It also helps for share information and communication among different parties in order to optimize the decision making.

IT in BPR

IT also brings chances to business process, and improves the business process by providing solution.

The Leavitt Diamond

There are 4 elements: information technology use, business processes, organizational form and requisite people skills.

They use for implementing change, these 4 elements will changes together if any one of them need change.

The first wave of business process is that more degree of IT enablement, more richness of business transformation.

Total quality management

TQM is a management approach which crosses the entire firm to satisfy customer satisfaction continuously.

BPR (1wave) VS TQM

	BPR	TQM
Size of change	Revolution	Evolution
Magnitude of targeted improvement	Huge change at 1 time (1 shot project)	Little by little by many phases (continuous project)
Execution approach	Top down	Bottom Up
IT involved	IT based	Non-IT based

In reality, firm uses both BPR and TQM together in order to redesign the business process. There could be involved BPM, which is a cycle to look after the BPR. The reason why running BPR is to meet the customer-centric generation in order to add value to the business and bring along with positive customer experience.

BPMN

It generates the notation for business user to understand rapidly. So business user is able to monitor and manage the business processes.

My point of view

Traditionally, the manager only focus on TQM, however, IT/IS is now essential in the business world, to handle this factor, manager could be unable to deal with it, so this is the reason why IS/IT staffs are here to align the different departments in the firm to focus on the same direction and act as a bridge to connect different departments inside or even outside the firm. I am interested in how BPMN is able to enable business user to let them to become the administrator of the business process.

Other sources describe

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_reengineering

 

 The Six Sigma process improvement originated in 1986 from Motorola’s drive towards reducing defects by minimizing variation in processes through metrics measurement. Applications of the Six Sigma project execution methodology have since expanded to include practices common in Total Quality Management andSupply Chain Management, such as increasing customer satisfaction, and developing closer supplier relationships. The main difference between TQM and Six Sigma (a newer concept) is the approach. TQM tries to improve quality by ensuring conformance to internal requirements, while Six Sigma focuses on improving quality by reducing the number of defects and impurities.

W4 - Strategic Alignment Model

Source / Reference:
1)  "Strategic Alignment: Leverage Information Technology for transforming organization" by J C Henderson and N Venkartraman 1993
http://search.proquest.com/docview/26252741/134A6C8B53F19A4F606/1?accountid=16210

Subject: 
In Lect 4 - Which alignment strategy in SAM model is the best? and why?
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Response:
In my opinion, there is no alignment strategy in SAM model is the best. This is because each industry nature differs, many factors would affect the strategy's performance, e.g. company size, background, etc. The best way to choose an alignment strategy might be depending on the company background, market and industry nature to acquire the best alignment strategy in SAM model. It means that there won't be a universally superior perspective could benefits the sustainable.

Figure1. The Strategic Alignment Model (SAM)

Each of the four perspectives aims on improvement on different directions. 

• Strategy Execution:
• Performance of the IT function is assessed by the financial parameters (cost center focus)
• Technology Transformation:
• Performance in term of IT market position is assessed by a bench marking approach
• Service Level:
• Performance is assessed by the level of customer satisfaction
• Competitive Potential:
• Business performance is assessed by business / product leadership such as market share, growth, and new product introduction

One more reason that I think there is no best perspective among the SAM model is whenever a firm choose any strategy in SAM model, concerns on the other three perspectives are still needed. This is because they has their own merits as mentioned above. A firm cannot ignore any of them to run a business. By time to time, strategy might needs to change.

First post

Wow~~~
This is the first time I write my own blog!!
It's amazing!! COMP326 is so great!!!!