Business Process Management Vs. Process Improvement

<ahref=”https://www.smartersolutions.com/business-system-iee/”>Smarter Solutions is moving into the Business Process Management (BPM) world. We will be providing courses and consulting services to support Business Process Management implementations.

Business process management vs process improvement contention is addressed through the integration of the methodologies via the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) system.  In IEE, Business Process Management (BPM) and Lean Six Sigma are structurally integrated so that he big-picture benefits.

Business Process Management Vs. Process Improvement

The primary Internet search results for Business Process Management are heavily weighted to software providers that support the IT automation of business process workflows.

BPM could be considered as techniques derived from re-engineering efforts that were tried in the late 80s and early 90s. The BPM model could be described as the following steps;

Basic BPM Flow

In a traditional BPM deployment discussion, there seems to be no simple BPM roadmap available on the net that is not tied to selling software.

The focus on the process resembles some aspects of Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma is usually sold to a business as a solution that can fix your processes, save money, and make everything better. There was always an unspoken expectation that the business was adequately managed and that the executives knew which processes were constraints to success, which in reality is not generally true.

For this reason, selling Lean Six Sigma to the executives can be difficult, because executives can have difficulties in visualizing the linkage of single processes to the enterprise success. Leadership usually considers a couple of strategic processes in which they could see the benefits of an improvement, but after a first few projects, executives often seem to lose interest.

Business Process Management Implementation

Business Process Management seems to have the same issue with its implementation. The software focus is on the improvement and automation of basic process workflows. There is an unspoken assumption that the business is managing the business adequately and the key processes needing improvement are known by all.

My personal view is that Business Process Management will be popular and implemented in many businesses, but companies can lose interest because of the high cost of the software platform implementation and the inability to see the business benefit past a first few workflows. If one goes onto the BPM linkedin groups and other social sites, a lot of discussions can be seen on getting executive buy-in; i.e.,  just as we have seen and still see with Lean Six Sigma applications.

The one thing that Lean Six Sigma has over the BPM arena is that there are certifications of practitioners. The Black Belt practitioners (and others) have a set of skills that are beneficial well beyond improvement project work. It is the generic nature of the Lean Six Sigma skills that probably keeps it popular.

Overcoming Business Process Management Vs. Process Improvement Shortcomings

The 9-step Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) system provides the framework for overcoming all the above described issues.

 

 

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, which structurally integrates BPM with process improvement efforts so that the big-picture benefits.