W9 - Process Redesign (2)

Subject:
Review : BPR Modeling and Analysis - Five essential aspects of Holosofx

Response:

In this lecture, I have learned the BPR modeling and the case study of it. Clearly, the main part I need to focus on is the modeling and analysis. There are five building blocks of a comprehensive BPR. Learning it will help us to understand how to present the business process of a company.

Building Block #1: Structure elements of business process flow

        This block is mainly for defining the object element and structure of business process flow. There are four type of object, which are activity object, decision object , flow object and secondary object.  

Activity Object - Activity object introduces work activities by task and process. A task object is a low-level activity containing cost and duration and it employ resources of a particular group or organization. A process object is a high-level activity containing tasks or other process object.

Decision Object – A decision means that there is an alternative route of process. Decisions objects include decision and choices. Decision is a forking point which has two or more choices. At a decision, one choice must be made to determine the Task that will follow

Flow Object - A Phi object is the output of one activity and the input to another. A connectors is a transport method transfer a Phi from one activity to the next.

Secondary Object - It includes the external entity, external process, go to object, stop object and annotation. The external entity is the entity which is outside the organization affecting the organization process, while external process is the activity performed by an external entity. A Go To object and Stop object indicates the start and the end of a process. At the end, an Annotation is a notes for writing comment on the process flow.

#2 Organizational resource links to business process flow

        In this block, data type is introduced. As model is not only the graphical one, we need to provide what the graphic need. For example, we need to provide the decision and choice data for decision object.

#3 Rules of graphical connection

This block introduces the rule of graphical connection. For example, we need to linkthe nodes with time line arrows, provide input and outputs for a task, and connective all objects graphically.

#4 Methods of conditional concatenation of process parts.

        In this block, it shows the activity path management. Decesion and choice -> Path and activities -> Cases.

#5 Process performance measurement

        The final part is to analyze. To measures performance, we should consider time, cost and resources, as well as the weighted average and also the probabilities for different cases.

Case study - Zyco Auto Insurance

        Personally, I think the case study can be divided in four parts, which are 1) background information, 2)scope, 3)AS-IS analysis and 4) TO-BE analysis.

        Let me briefly describe what the case study is. In the background information, it introduces that the Zyco Auto insurance is a company providing the windshield repair claim service. The process of the company is very inefficiency. Therefore, in the scoping part, it shows the redesign goals, as well as the target process and the inefficiencies of AS-IS process. The company wants to enhance the customer service, reduce fraud exposure and reduce the cost for partners. And then, in the AS-IS part, analysis is done in order to understand how well the process work, determine performance bottlenecks, to diagnose process problems and identify the critical areas. After that, a problem solution table is provided. Lastly, analysis of to-be process is done. There is also what-if scenarios.in simulation part. At the end it shows how the improvement of the process redesigns.

My personal view

      Clearly, using the software to represent the business process is a clever way. It helps us to oversee the process in a clear way. If the process is not smooth enough, we just redesign it and make it be smooth enough. It is important to every company as it can improve efficiency within the business. All unnecessary step would be eliminated by process redesign. Also, it can enhance the customer service just like what the case study shown.

    

     The case study shows how useful the process redesign is. Both customer, agent, company and repair shop gain benefit from the process redesign. As i mentioned above, all unnecessary step are eliminated such as the elimination of the phone calls between both parties. Efficieny is therefore improved.