In this enhanced business process management system example, benefits of an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) BPM implementation is described.
Enhanced Business Process Management System Example Application
A Business Process Management System (BPM) deployment contains many components; process simulation is one of these components. A discussion with a shuttle bus driver, when being transported recently to my car at the Austin, Texas airport, highlights the importance of using Business Process Management system process simulation as a part of management’s decision-making process. I will use the situation that we discussed in the shuttle bus to illustrate as a case study how organizations can save a significant amount of money and avoid new-process-implementation risks, which can negatively impact the customer.
Business Process Management System and Voice of the Customer
A few years ago, I became so frustrated with the parking process at Austin Bergstrom International Airport that I conveyed my complaint to the airport’s parking lot management. The problem that I described to management was similar to what I have heard from others who used their parking lot; however, the airport’s management ignored my complaint and simple-solution suggestion to their parking lot issue.
Because my voice of the customer issue was not resolved, I now park my car, when traveling by airplane, in a privately-held remote lot, which accesses the airport through shuttle busses. The airport’s on-site parking lot lost a customer because they did not consider my voice of the customer input.
Voice of the customer (VOC) is an important aspect of a Business Process Management System; however, organizations need to be aware that addressing VOC issues through process change can lead to unintended consequence issues.
Process Improvement Desire
The remote parking lot that I am now using has experienced such unintended consequence from a VOC improvement idea implementation. Why? The parking-lot company did not apparently conduct a Business Process Management System simulation to test a new process before going live.
To illustrate what happened, I will start by describing the remote-parking lot process before the change. This parking lot has rows of parking spaces, which are designated by a letter. Each space in the row has a number; hence a parking space might have a designation AA5; i.e., row AA and space 5 in row AA.
With the parking lot’s initial process, the parking lot attendant would tell arriving drivers which lettered row that they were to enter to locate a space and park their car. Attendants assigned rows in the same general area to expedite the shuttle-bus loading process for travel to the airport so that travelers would not have issues catching their flight.
After boarding, the shuttle driver would then write the lettered row and space number on a card and give it to each traveler upon boarding to avoid the problem of forgetting the space number when returning to pick up his/her car.
Process Improvement Idea Implementation
Management at the remote-parking lot had been receiving complaints about the lengthy time it was taking to get to a car after returning from a trip. Management at the parking facility did listen to this VOC input and implemented a change, which was to reduce the amount of time it took for travelers to return to their car’s numbered space after completing their airplane travels.
The implemented improvement change was this: when a vehicle entering the parking lot to drop off a car, the driver was to indicate to the attendant what time of day he expected to return to pick up his car. The attendant would then assign a letter which indicated a row in which the driver was to park. The idea was that people returning at a certain time of day would have their cars parked in a similar area, which would reduce the travel time for all in the shuttle bus to get to their cars.
However, to implement this new process, two more shuttles and two additional drivers were needed to pick up the travelers after initially dropping off their cars. About 50% additional monthly miles were added to the shuttle fleet because more rows would need to be serviced for departing travelers. The expense to implement the change would be about $100,000 a year.
Because of this process change, voice of the customer inputs changed from some returning travelers’ complaints about delays in getting to their cars to much customer outrage about the lengthy time it was taking to get to the airport’s terminal in time for their departing flight.
Business Process Management System Simulation and Risk Avoidance
It is commendable that the remote-parking lot’s management listened to Voice of the Customer; however, a Business Process Management System simulation of the new process that they intended to implement would surely have identified the new issue that was encountered relative to customers now having travel-time problems relative to getting to their flight departure gate in a timely fashion.
The remote-parking lot company would have saved much money and avoided customer outrage if they only had conducted Business Process Management System simulation before making the process change. The simulation would have indicated that management should not implement the proposed change!
The shuttle driver expected that the company would be going back to its original process; however, before the company does this, I suggest that the parking-lot company immediately conduct a Business Process Management simulation to determine what might be done to better serve the needs of both departing and returning customers.
Contact Us to set up a time to discuss with Forrest Breyfogle how your organization could gain much from an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) Business Process Management System implementation.