What is Business Process Redesign and Optimization?
Business Process Optimization is an approach to resolving problems within core business functions. The application of Business Process Optimization increases organizational efficiency by removing obstacles and initiating a business process redesign and falls under the discipline of Business Process Management (BPM). Optimization within business functions leads to greater return on strategic goals, while eliminating redundancy, improving communication, and streamlining workflow.
No matter your industry or core business, a business process transformation can be effectively applied to sales, accounting, operations, and procurement business areas. Business Process Optimization is a structured way to compile and examine your corporate processes and identify what works well and what does not. The approach initiates concrete steps to fix problems within operations, and leads to improved efficiency, productivity, and satisfaction. Below, we’ll discuss business process redesign methodology and the steps you should take when reengineering your existing processes.
Steps For Implementing Business Process Optimization:
- Set Scope and Goal
When beginning to optimize your business processes, it is essential to start with defining your scope. Setting scope refers to categorizing what your business processes are, the people involved, the business value being generated, and the tasks associated with the processes. This first step of setting scope is crucial for establishing what business functions are already taking place and how they are occurring within a company. Additionally, you should have a goal in mind when undertaking process optimization. Whether that’s lowering costs, improving processing speed, or fostering reliability, you need to have a target in mind from the beginning.
- Process Mapping
Once the scope has been determined, it is time to move on to the process mapping step of business operations optimization. Process mapping consists of collaborative sessions between process owners, IT support, and any other professionals involved in upstream and downstream processes that can offer insight into how business functions are actually happening today. Business process redesign consulting support can be helpful if you don’t have an internal Continuous Improvement department within your organization.
- Find Key Disconnects to Resolve
During the process mapping phase, it is important to identify pain points and disconnects within processes which limit your effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability to change. This can look like finding underperforming business functions, technological limitations, or policies that impede the smooth flow of your operations. Finding disconnects within processes is a critical step in Business Process Optimization. Once disconnects are captured and categorized, you can prioritize them through the lens of your overarching optimization goal. Before the work on solutions can begin, companies need to have a clear idea on what they are trying to accomplish and capture data on disconnects upfront.
- Piloting
Once your optimization goals have been set and your pain points have been identified, the next step in Business Process Optimization is grouping process pain points and creating an initiative. Pilot programs are used to test and assess solutions to process disconnects. Pilots should be tracked and assessed constantly for results tracking and course correction to produce optimal problem resolution.
- Future State Process Mapping
The final step within Business Process Optimization is future state process mapping, which is used to demonstrate how the process should work in the future. This reflective step assesses the effectiveness of pilot programs and determines whether pilots were successful and require broader rollout. If pilots are found to be unsuccessful the program can undergo roll back, and the pilot is adjusted and begins again. This is the cyclical and continuous component within Business Process Optimization and can offer refinement within the process. Teams must work to pilot and assess results, then adjust accordingly. When an acceptable future state is identified, documenting the process and sharing the results with all impacted stakeholders can help cement the change into the future.
Elire’s Expertise in Business Process Optimization
Elire applies our expertise through this five-step process and utilizes Business Process Optimization tools to lead and facilitate project sessions. Collaboration between Elire consultants and clientele allows for optimization steps to be completed efficiently and effectively. Elire’s Business Process Optimization expertise, within the Strategic Advisory Services practice, allows for the resolution of processing concerns and outside the box thinking. Business Process Optimization is not simply changing a few factors within functions, but rather the redesign and testing of end-to-end processes as a whole.
For more information on Business Process Optimization and how Elire can help solve your operations disconnects, visit Elire’s Strategic Advisory Services (SAS) page. In the meantime, make sure to follow Elire on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay up to date on all things SAS.
