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The Business environment is highly dynamic and the rules of business are being re written every day. Several changes in the economy, technology and other areas are affecting the way the business is conducted. There exists a need for every Business Organization to keep improvising and adapting to the changes that are taking place and fine tune their business operations to make it effective, profitable and flexible. Business Process Improvement programs are an effective tool for the Organizations to periodically review their internal business operations with an aim to overhaul the process and increase the efficiency of operations as well as remove redundancies and eliminate wastage. The outcome of the BPI project will yield improved operational efficiency and a process that meets with the customer expectations as well as the business needs of the Organization.
BPI project in an Organization is kicked off with the selection and formation of an EIT (Executive Implementation Team) team that acts as the sponsor for the project. It is the EIT team that chooses a particular process that is to be taken up by the project for process improvement. EIT also nominates the PIT Leader and the PIT team that will carry on the work further.
The actual project work begins with Process mapping in detail, creating the block diagram, identifying the process boundaries and detailing the input and output data that are associated with the chosen process. Once process detailing is completed, the next logical sequence would be to establish process measurement.
Measuring the process provides the team with a base using which it can build process refinement, process changes, controls and target for process improvement. Process measurement would therefore have to be based on certain criterion that is most suited for the said process. BPI experts suggest three important criterions for process measurement.
The first major criterion used for process measurement is - Process Effectiveness. Effectiveness of a process refers to the usefulness of the process output in relation to the expectations and needs of the Customer. The effectiveness of the process lies in being able to provide the desired output as needed by the Customer at the right time, right way and at the right place and more importantly at the right cost too.
The process of setting up process effectiveness measurement begins with outlining the complete Customer expectations and needs detail. These expectations would then be converted into measurable targets and expectations. Lastly the data collection and measurement methods would need to be outlined.
It helps to elaborate a little more on the process effectiveness measurement and the attributes that are used as measurements. In most cases it is generally seen that the Customer expectations and requirements are not defined clearly with specifications in terms of the delivery format, frequency and so on. In addition, the customer’s expectation of error free service, customer experience and quality of service are not defined or understood well enough and are not quantified.
Now is the time to examine the customer expectations in detail and establish the criteria for delivery of the said product or service in line with customer expectations.
There are several criteria that are used to measure the process effectiveness specifically in relation to the Customer expectations. Some of the popular and useful criteria used in the product as well as service industry include - Product or Service Presentation, Timeliness of Delivery, Accuracy of Service, Reliability of Service or Product, Product usability, Product serviceability and Customer Service, Responsiveness etc.
Once the criteria for measurement has been established and accepted, the next sequential step would be to formalize the measurement criteria and freeze the formats. Measurement criteria here would include usage of QC Inspection, Check Sheets, AQ Sampling formats to be used at the Customer end, Customer Inspection and Installation reports or feedback forms etc. Specific measurement criteria can be setup depending upon the specific business case.
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