Map Your Business Activities and Processes: Know Where to Start and What Comes Next
Article 5 explained processes. In this article, we go a step further and explore the nature of processes and the process approach to business in more detail.
To make the concept easier to convey, I would like to use the human body as an example.
The human body is an extraordinary example of a system with different processes.
For example, think of the digestive system as the digestion process. It receives various inputs in the form of food and drink. Its outputs are passed in different forms to other systems and organs. Ultimately, waste and anything the body cannot use are filtered and eliminated partly through this process and partly through other organs.
My aim here is not to explain biology; you already know enough about the human body.
Now mentally review the other organs or processes and how they connect to one another.
Do all processes have equal weight and value?
No. Some are vital: when they stop working, the entire system dies, as with the heart. For others, such as the kidneys, the body can manage with one. Today, even without them, machines and artificial methods can keep the body's system alive.
Some organs change shape or become stronger because of the particular use made of that body, as in athletes from different sports.
Do we have extra, unused processes or organs in our bodies?
Unlikely! Today, even the idea that the appendix is useless and has no role or function in the body's system is rejected.
Is there an organ that takes leave, sulks or does not feel like working? Or at least does not want to work with the others? Or says, "I do not want to provide output now; I will provide it a week late"?
It can happen, and the result is that the body becomes ill or dies!
Just imagine your kidney saying, "I will deliver my output a week late" :).
Why have I said all this, and what does it have to do with business processes?
Because, in more than 20 years of studying businesses, I have seen as many unused processes as you could imagine: processes that made no difference to the final business output, and the reverse.
I have seen businesses with disproportionate process growth: some with an elephant-sized head and a cat-sized body, and some the other way around.
A business's processes must work in an orderly, organized and connected way, like the body of a healthy person, so that the business can operate regularly and without interruption.
Signs of process-related illness in a business:
- Warehouses full of goods and products left unsold with the producer.
- Returns and customer complaints.
- Excessive employee turnover.
- High production costs.
- Low profit.
- Scrap, waste and rework.
- And so on...
Remember: by oversimplifying a business, we may mistakenly overlook important processes, create a malformed entity and expect it to lift a 200-kilogram weight overhead!
When defining business processes and mapping their connections, we should take inspiration from the human body and specify:
A- What is the task and role of each process?
B- How influential and important is each process within the overall business system?
C- From which other processes does it receive inputs?
D- To which processes does it deliver outputs?
E- How are each process's outputs measured and controlled?
F- What is the order and sequence of the processes?
And so on...
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