Improving business processes through the use of information resources in the enterprise. Improving business processes through the use of information resources in the enterprise What are the principles of improving business processes

Which is correct - improvement of the company's business processes or optimization? Or maybe it's better to talk about improving business processes? Isn't optimization and reengineering of business processes the same thing? After all, what do all these words mean?

I propose to put an end to the disputes and define the concepts.

Business Process Improvement

There is talk about improving business processes in every company. The word “improvement” speaks for itself. It means to make it better than it was. to improve business processes.

It immediately becomes clear how improvement differs, for example, from optimization - when we talk about improvement, we do not set a specific, measurable goal. The improvement is aimed at changing the characteristics of the process, but how much they need to be improved is a secondary question in this case.

Does this mean that the improvement process has no purpose? No. The goal is there, it's just not to "reduce the cost of the process by 10%", but to "reduce the cost of the process". Feel the difference?

Matrix of approaches depending on the goal and use of resources for implementation

But if you still want to improve some characteristic of the process and achieve a specific, measurable result, then here we are talking about a subspecies of improvement - targeted improvement of the business process. But this is starting to look like an optimization, right?

No, improvement and targeted improvement of business processes differ from optimization in that actions are taken only within the framework of one process and you can only operate with those resources that are already in the process.

Improvement occurs only within its own process. It does not affect adjacent processes. It's like tidying up your desktop in open space.

And what is very important, in order to improve, we cannot attract new resources. Can you get rid of excess? Yes, but it is impossible to attract resources - be it money, materials, tools, people or software. And here is a very simple logic - to squeeze the maximum out of what is. Learn how to use existing resources in an optimal way. This is so often lacking, right?

Business process improvement does not require major efforts or resources and can be implemented at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. This is the easiest way to increase the real performance of the company. Despite this, what I see most often is that improvement is not about giving process metrics a plus sign, but getting rid of a minus sign. In my understanding, this cannot be called an improvement. This . Bringing process indicators back to normal. But when the “zero” point is passed and the indicators grow with a plus sign, this is an improvement.

An example of normalization is to get rid of the approval of invoices by employees who have nothing to do with it.

A typical example of improvement is to sharpen a knife before cutting meat.

Although improvement as an approach is the simplest undertaking, it should not be underestimated. The improvement of the company's business processes is built on the improvements that follow one after another. But unlike improvement, it is not a systemic phenomenon.

Business process optimization

What do they mean when they talk about business process optimization? Yes, whatever! It all depends on who is speaking. Management means reducing, as a rule, operating expenses. Line employees… Well, line employees also have in mind the reduction of operating costs, in the form of wages.

In fact, and again, etymology comes to our aid, optimization - bringing the process to an optimal state. And we consider the optimal process to be a process that performs its tasks with the given requirements and restrictions, and also efficiently spends resources. Well, or as economists say, the state of production equilibrium. In short, an optimal process produces its product at the lowest possible cost.

And since I'm talking about resources, will the optimization approach only work with existing process resources? Not at all. Moreover, process optimization is likely to require initial investments for its implementation. Sow first to reap the rewards. So this is typically an investment approach and all optimization costs are considered in terms of return on investment. If investments in optimization return and allow you to continue to receive benefits - “shut up and take my money”.

It is only possible to evaluate the return on investment and obtain resources if the goal of optimization is clear. Otherwise, there will be no optimization. So the main difference between optimization and other approaches is the presence of a measurable and clear goal.

For example, to provide a solution to a client's issue during a consultation, in 5 minutes.

Different events have different scale of activity

Yes, optimization goals can be complex and in their actions require going beyond the scope of the process being optimized. Here you will have to dive into the processes that supply the inputs and make sure that the inputs meet your requirements. That is why, if you start optimization in one process, you will end up having to “unravel the whole tangle of processes” of the company.

Process optimization is always a project or a series of projects separated in time. From a distance, it can even become like improving the company's business processes. But only from afar. As a rule, the focus of the optimization goal is 1-2 process indicators. And the next project on this process will consider other indicators. The participants of the project, after completion, need time to stabilize the results achieved.

Naturally, process optimization affects many levels of organizational structure. It is initiated at the level of top management, and the main driving force is middle and junior management.

Business process reengineering

Business process reengineering is rarely talked about. And when they speak, they lower their voice and look around apprehensively. Reengineering is an incomprehensible phenomenon, and therefore dangerous. So they try to replace this concept with the word "optimization". Although in reality, literally a few were able to explain to me the difference between these approaches.

In fact, everything is quite simple. Optimization takes place on the basis of an existing process, and reengineering builds a process from scratch, as if it never existed. This is the most important difference.

A reengineering project always requires a huge amount of resources, effort and involves all levels of the organizational structure. The project attracts such an amount of resources that is necessary for its implementation. Such events are always initiated and are the responsibility of top management. This is logical - big costs require big responsibility.

Business process reengineering most often covers the entire chain of main processes or affects some auxiliary, end-to-end processes. For example, personnel management. In any case, reengineering will affect all processes of the company.

This is important - business process reengineering always affects management processes. It is impossible to change the main or auxiliary processes and not to change the management processes.

The more complex the event, the less often it happens.

Reengineering requires a clear goal. A goal that will set the clarity of being and determine the main priority for the duration of the project. By the way, yes, a reengineering project is always a one-time project. And the point is not even that such a project takes a lot of effort from the company, but that the results of the project have a long lifespan. All projects related to the company's transition to new production platforms or technologies can be attributed to reengineering.

Is it possible to talk about reengineering within the framework of one business process? It is possible, but only if we are talking about a top-level business process - level.

Improving the company's business processes

Improving the company's business processes is not exactly an approach. I would even say that this is not an approach, but a philosophy woven into the company's culture at the operational level.

Business process improvement is a process. A continuous improvement process in which one process improvement follows another. As a rule, these are not global events, but small process improvements. This is the "power of small steps" in action. The many small improvements that are being made throughout the company's processes are continuously producing an effect that no business process reengineering project can achieve.

The process of continuous improvement is an absolute competitive advantage.

Improving the company's business processes means that each employee, in addition to functional activities, is busy with issues of continuous improvement. Perfection may not have a measurable goal, because perfection cannot be achieved and measured. This is a pure process, the meaning of which is in itself - every day to do something better than yesterday. But this does not mean at all that improvements in the process of cultivation cannot have a goal at all. They can, but everyone understands that this is an intermediate goal, after the implementation of which the next one will appear. By the way, intermediate goals are chosen to be guaranteed to be realistic. Sometimes even underestimated. It is better to take a small step for sure than a bigger step, but with a certain degree of probability.

Utopia, you say. No, and Toyota proves it.

The more complex the project, the more levels of hierarchy it affects

The process of improvement is a conscious choice of the company. Everyone is involved in the implementation of this choice - from top management to the cleaner. At the same time, resources for the implementation of improvements can be attracted as needed. Estimating the return on investment in the improvement process is both easier and more difficult at the same time. On the one hand, if the investment allows you to realize the improvement and take another step towards excellence, this is already enough. On the other hand, resources should be attracted taking into account the system of priorities, which is based on the idea of improving one global process - the activities of the entire company. And it's really difficult.

Improving the company's business processes is ongoing and is woven into the normal daily work of all employees. So perfection as such does not require any extra effort.

Efforts required to implement projects. Improving business processes is part of daily activities, so the effort required is minimal.

Improvement is an approach, philosophy, culture, process, way of organizing processes and operations.

Pivot table - improvement, optimization, reengineering and improvement of the company's business processes

There are five main methods used to improve business processes:

a) fast analysis method (FAST);

b) process benchmarking;

c) reverse engineering - description and redesign of existing business processes;

e) direct engineering - designing a business process "from scratch";

f) reengineering -- (radical rethinking and redesign of business processes in order to stepwise increase

Total Quality Management (TQM) concept and ISO 9000 standards

The concept of "integrated quality management" was introduced by A. Fleigenbaum (USA) in the work of the same name, published in 1957.

The leadership in the implementation of the quality management system belongs to Japan. The Japanese model of quality management, Total Quality Control (TQC), established in the late 1960s, is a single quality assurance process that is performed everywhere by all company personnel. The 1970s saw a widespread transition in Japan from a statistical quality control (SQC) system to a total quality control (TQC) model.

A great contribution to the development of quality management was made by American scientists E. Deming and J. Juran, who in the 1950s created the foundations of the Japanese quality system. The Shewhart-Deming PDCA cycle used in quality systems is widely known, the Deming chain reaction indicating the relationship between product quality and the main performance indicators of the company, Deming's 14 postulates that underlie the organization of successful quality management work.

The postulates of Edward W. Deming are still used in the process of implementing quality management:

1. Make quality improvement a constant goal.

2. Adopt a new philosophy.

3. Stop dependence on inspection.

4. Stop the practice of concluding contracts on the basis of low prices.

5. Constantly improve the system..

6. Train on the job..

7. Establish leadership.

8. eradicate fear..

9. Eliminate barriers.

10. Avoid empty slogans.

11. Eliminate quantitative assessments in work management.

12. Give the opportunity to be proud of belonging to the company.

13. Encourage education and self-improvement.

14. Involve everyone in the work of transforming the company

The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) took shape in the early 1990s. It focuses on meeting and exceeding consumer desires through continuous improvement in product quality, processes and resource use.

The definition of TQM is given in the international standard ISO 8402: “TQM is an approach to the management of an organization focused on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aimed at achieving long-term success through customer satisfaction and benefits for the organization and society.”

TQM is not a theory or methodology, but a set of principles, methods, tools and forms of quality management and its continuous improvement.

It follows from the TQM philosophy that quality includes the tangible and intangible sensations of the buyer associated with the characteristics of the products (including information, delivery times, terms of service, etc.), and due to the quality of processes and other circumstances. Evaluation of effectiveness and continuous improvement should be carried out not only in the end results, but also in interrelated processes, in the areas of: personnel, equipment, materials, methods, environment.

On fig. 7.4 shows the relationship of TQM components.

Issues discussed in the material:

Why Continuous Improvement of Business Processes is Necessary
What are the tools for improving business processes
What are the main stages of improving business processes

Improving business processes is extremely important because it allows you to achieve the best results for the company. Thanks to the reorganization of processes, it is possible to simplify and speed up the work, to begin to engage in new areas that are not yet occupied by competitors, and to increase the income of the enterprise.

It is no secret that many firms periodically try to improve the efficiency of their activities. However, only those who systematically and consciously apply the process approach to business management achieve really good results, making it the basis of enterprise management.

In the business world, quite often you can come across the concept of "business processes". But often it is used solely as a buzzword, because not many managers and employees really fully understand and know how to put into practice process management tools.

A similar situation existed in companies in the mid-1990s, when the entire business was engrossed in marketing. Then the firms without exception introduced the position of a marketing specialist into the staff list and were even ready to maintain an entire department. Unfortunately, few people understood the essence of the marketing approach to management and organized the work of the company on its basis.

If you want to really apply process management effectively, you need to understand its main idea and the benefits that the company and the owner will receive from the competent improvement of business processes. The easiest way to do this is to sort out all the subtleties literally “on your fingers”, without plunging headlong into the study of voluminous works and documents on this topic.

It is quite obvious that business processes are understood as a set of actions performed in the course of a company's work. But if you start to study authoritative sources, this opinion will immediately seem erroneous.

Thus, the GOST R ISO 9000 standard “Quality management systems. Basic Definitions and Vocabulary" understands a process as "a set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs". This definition is more confusing than helpful in understanding the meaning of business process improvement in an organization, and makes us think of this phenomenon as something complex and inaccessible to simple minds.

Therefore, we will forget about the standard and will figure it out ourselves.

Any process is a certain sequence of actions. Let's look at a simple example of the log reading process, which consists of a set of such actions:

looking at the cover
opening the publication and viewing the content of the issue / flipping through the magazine;
selecting one or more articles to read;
studying the content of selected materials;
closing and putting the magazine aside.

But a certain set of actions is not the only characteristic of the process, it necessarily has a goal. If we talk about our example, then this is, for example, obtaining information on an issue of interest.

The same rules apply in business, so the most convenient and practical is to define a business process as a set of actions that lead to the desired result.

If you think about the process of reading, then its beginning requires the presence of certain conditions, and it also ends with a very specific result. To start reading, you definitely need a magazine, interest in the topics covered in it, and free time. As a result, you will receive new information and, most likely, food for thought. This is the "input" and "output" of the described process.

The same thing happens in the case of business processes: their "launch" is due to the presence of a number of factors, that is, "inputs", and upon completion it is possible to obtain certain results - or "outputs". The actions taken allow us to transform what we originally had into the necessary results.

Once the meaning of the main concept has become clear to you, it will be much easier to perceive and understand any sources of information on this topic. Even if we decide to turn again to the already familiar standard GOST R ISO 9000 “Quality management systems. Basic Definitions and Dictionary”, the definition from it will seem extremely simple and understandable.

What is the point of using a process approach to management and continuous improvement of the company's business processes?

For a long time, a person knows for sure: the implementation of labor-intensive, complex work is impossible without the participation of several people, and any joint activity will not bring the proper result without coordinated actions. Let's say that the factory owner used to hire workers to perform such tasks as metal preparation, forging, grinding parts, without dividing the workers by specialization.

As time went on, the work became more difficult. After enterprises with a large staff of workers appeared, it was necessary to create departments and improve their work. It was at that moment that the whole enterprise turned into a set of relatively independent structural units. The work became so complex that people had to specialize in a small set of functions. As a result, universal workers gradually had to be abandoned.

Functional departments began to appear, which included people of related specialties. This form of organization began to be used both in economic and public enterprises. Note that until recently this principle of organization remained the main one. Of course, the consolidation of employees responsible for related activities into functional departments provides some advantages:

Employees can engage in certain work, gradually developing high-level professional skills.
The centralization of various functions reduces the organization's costs for work in functional areas of activity.
Productivity and labor safety increase, since everyone has their own workplace and specific functionality. Constant training allows you to reduce the number of errors during work and increase its speed.
It becomes easier to create the organizational and functional structure of the company, change it if necessary to increase the effectiveness, productivity, and cost-effectiveness of activities.

As a result of improvement and all the described changes, a modern company is a set of specialized functional departments whose activity is to implement business processes. If there is a contradiction between the latter and the organizational and functional structure of the company, management has to face serious problems.

Business processes do not always manage to overcome the boundaries of structural links. At the same time, employees themselves cannot go beyond these boundaries, and communications between departments are severely limited. Therefore, personnel can only perform those functions that are within their area of responsibility. Any division is always trying to expand its area of influence, seeking to optimize its performance. As a result, there is a conflict of goals and actions between different departments.

With such a development of events, the result of the work of the entire company is, at best, the sum of the results of its departments. This indicator is usually below the required corporate result and needs to be improved.

In fact, one can easily detect the most characteristic disadvantages of an organization with functional management, arising from the lack of process management. These include the inability of products to compete in the marketplace, customer abandonment to competitors, slow order fulfillment, high volume of customer complaints, and negative reviews of product quality.

This also includes the need to constantly coordinate issues and obtain permission from senior management, the unwillingness of staff to take the initiative, an excessive number of management levels in the company, a large amount of paperwork and management activities. The latter include various kinds of meetings, meetings, reports, planning meetings, etc.

These "diseases" were characteristic of functional-type organizations with increased centralization of decision-making in the Soviet Union. And until now, many companies suffer from this model of work, only in the modern world the burden of low competitiveness falls on the shoulders of sales departments and output logistics.

Why is it necessary to introduce process management and systematic improvement of business processes in an enterprise? By combining the functional method of management with the process one, it is possible to achieve success in the following areas:

Each business process has a specific consumer, which means that if you focus management on each business process, you can better satisfy the customer's request.
Establishing the boundaries of business processes, suppliers and consumers makes it possible to ensure the interaction between them and the understanding of the participants of all of the above requirements.
Business process management allows you to more clearly track the time required to complete the work, and the resources spent on them.
Assigning certain persons to be responsible for business processes avoids the division of functions and powers into fragments.

As practice shows, enterprises that have established competent process management and are constantly improving processes have a larger amount of net profit, a higher return on capital, and constantly have free funds. In other words, they are more efficient than competitors due to the better combination of efficiency (revenue) and economy (costs). In the modern market, the business that has been able to prove its greatest efficiency wins.

But not only competition is a reason for improving the company's business processes. Here are the main factors that encourage us to focus on improving business processes:

requirements of consumers and the state;
the need to reduce costs/cycle times;
implementation of a quality management program;
intraorganizational contradictions;
merger of two or more companies.

Note that each company independently chooses the processes that require improvement in the first place. Highlighting priority problems, that is, weak links in business processes, allows a conversation with top managers of the enterprise, heads of departments and services.

Analysis as the first step in improving business processes

Analysis of business process models is necessary to discover weaknesses that need to be optimized during improvement. The study consists of working with graphical diagrams, with all available documentation and information on processes, measuring their performance, comparative analysis, etc.

Improving business processes requires a multi-level analysis, otherwise it will not be possible to get a complete picture of the state of affairs in the company. The following levels of process detail are used:

operating activities of the company, the purpose of which is to make a profit;
direction of activity, that is, an enlarged part of the organization's work, which includes one or more groups of entry-level business processes;
base-level business process, which can also be described as sequential interrelated procedures performed by various performers, leading to a result;
procedure, that is, a sequence of actions of a particular performer that brings results;
action - a set of sequential operations, after which the performer himself controls his work;
operation - a component of the work of an individual employee, which he performs without conscious control.

Deep learning and process improvement require two types of analysis: qualitative and quantitative. We must say right away that various tools are used in the analysis.

However, it is too early to analyze and try to improve the work if an appropriate information base is not prepared. To collect information, they study the internal documentation of the enterprise, legislation and industry standards, arrange collective brainstorming sessions, meetings, conduct interviews, questionnaires, collect focus groups, and monitor the process.

Without an analysis of the current state, further improvement of business processes is impossible. It consists of the following stages: setting priorities, understanding the essence of the process and the problem, analyzing the problem. They are followed by stages aimed at developing and using ideas for improvement - this is described in detail in Bjorn Andersen's book “Business Processes. Improvement Tools".

At each stage, a certain list of tools is used.

If we summarize modern approaches to management, we can distinguish two basic methods of improvement:

phased, it is not associated with serious one-time investments of resources;
one-time, associated with a radical change in the target.

Despite these differences, improvement approaches are united by common goals, which include identifying duplication of functions, bottlenecks, cost centers, the quality of individual operations, missing information, the possibility of automation and quality management.

But you need to understand that the goal of the phased approach is to improve the fragments of the organizational structure and bring it to a single standardized quality. Whereas the cardinal approach involves improvement through research and analysis of the entire process of economic activity, that is, all the operational mechanisms involved in it.

To improve processes and achieve the goal, a unified methodological and instrumental base is used. The latter includes:

1. Fast decision analysis (FAST) technique.

The purpose of this business process improvement technology is to achieve success in a specific area. For this reason, the principle of action is similar to brainstorming: specialists are given one or two days to discuss a specific process.

Based on the results of the work, they must propose improvement measures that can positively affect the performance over the next 90 days. Top management must decide which of the proposals will be used in practice, while each member of the group is personally responsible for the proposed ideas. Consequently, failure will be considered a sign of unprofessionalism, which can negatively affect the career of each of the employees. This system of work was created and further improved in the world-famous companies: IBM, Ford Motor and E&Y.

2. Benchmarking.

The business processes used within the enterprise need to be compared with the principles of work in more successful organizations. Experts need to understand what factors are pulling the firm to the bottom. Further, the identified errors are corrected, the processes are improved, due to which the quality of the company's proposals is significantly improved, financial and a number of other indicators are improved. This set of measures is considered quite simple and cheap, but it is with its help that it is often possible to solve really complex problems.

3. Redesign.

Operations in which management is going to make changes are studied and depicted in the form of a diagram. The latter is critically analyzed and corrected. The fix most often consists in eliminating redundant bureaucracy, duplicating operations, simplifying work methods, introducing automation and IT. However, this approach can also lead to excessive formalism and bureaucratization. Therefore, when improving business processes, it is necessary that the changes take place not only on paper, but also tested in practice and discussed with the performers.

4. Engineering.

We are talking about improving all operations through evolutionary development, a consistent transition to new methods, experiments with new rules and gradual work on the results.

Let's say right away that with this scheme it is not possible to achieve global changes in business or rapid and impressive success. It allows the company to keep up with modern trends and not degrade. For competent managers, engineering of the key processes of the enterprise is carried out on an ongoing basis.

5. Business process reengineering (BPR).

"Business process reengineering" is an improvement through a radical redesign of all business processes of the company, carried out by a group of professionals. This is a complex project that requires serious investments. This mode of improvement tends to favor firms on the verge of bankruptcy and market leaders who simply need to stay ahead of the rest in their development.

First of all, an ideal scheme is prepared for each process, then it is adjusted to the needs of the company, based on specific circumstances, funding and other resources. The main task is to bring reality closer to the ideal - as far as possible. After that, all processes are coordinated with each other, a corporate strategy is formed or redone, performance indicators are determined and monitored.

The choice of specific methods for improving business processes depends on the most pressing issues for the company. FAST method and benchmarking are needed if you need to quickly eliminate individual errors; redesign and engineering are indispensable for a deep and comprehensive analysis of the situation, that is, changes in the company with them will be slower, but more global. Reengineering is perhaps the most complex approach, making a kind of revolution in the enterprise.

Improving the business process management system requires the use of all the systems we have named on a regular basis. Responsible managers must respond quickly to any complexities that appear in the enterprise and new market requirements. Each such signal forces them to choose a course of action according to the situation and immediately apply it. Business, like a living organism, must be updated and adapted to changing conditions.

The main feature of all the methods described is complexity - the improvement of processes is achievable only if changes within the company do not occur in a chaotic manner. In other words, the whole sequence of operations, which should give a specific result, is subject to change.

Stage 1. Study of existing processes.

It will not be possible to structure and improve business processes without first highlighting them. The following methods will help here:

Documentation analysis. It is necessary to study all the regulations on divisions, job descriptions, orders, orders, contracts with customers and suppliers.

Representation of their duties by employees. It is necessary that the heads of structural divisions understand the merits of working in a "transparent" company. Then you, as a manager, enlist their support in all your endeavors. Next, managers should prepare a list of activities for which they are responsible. The resulting lists need to be analyzed and all actions combined into groups. If something remains unclear, you can get comprehensive information from the conversations. As a result, you will have a comprehensive program of all the work carried out in the company.
Photo of a working day. You can do it yourself or have someone watch you and your staff. Three to five days are allotted for “photography”.
Thought experiment. To do this, you need to imagine everything that needs to be done to become a market leader, and record all work operations.

Stage 2. Formation of a functional business model.

Proceed to this stage with the list of functions of all employees in hand. The head or top managers of the enterprise can be engaged in the formation. According to their structure, all business processes are divided into the following groups:

The main ones - the profit of the company depends on them. They provide value to the client. This includes areas such as sales, services, production.
Supporting - necessary to ensure the normal operation of the company. These are information technologies, legal, technical support, etc.
Management processes - affect the quality of the implementation of the main processes (financial planning, etc.).

Now you need to describe each of the types, and we recommend starting with the main ones. At this stage, you will have to abandon functional thinking, in other words, from the divisions that have long been formed in your company. Do not divide functions between them, describe the processes necessary for normal and efficient operation. To cope with this task allows the division of all processes occurring in the company into levels:

1. One of the areas of work of the enterprise is selected, for example, financial management.

2. Processes are distinguished within one sphere. Thus, the sphere chosen by us at the first level consists of budgeting, organizing a budget committee, and allocating unused finances.

3. Processes are presented as a cycle of four stages: planning, execution, control, summarizing / managerial impact. Now describe the actions performed at each step of this cycle. Let's continue talking about our example, then when budgeting, their order is as follows:

submission of budget proposals;
preparation of the draft budget;
agreement, approval;
execution control;
adjustment;
reporting.

Stage 3. Separation of responsibility.

When the model is prepared, it is necessary to assign department heads to be responsible for the processes.

Make an appropriate matrix - it is most convenient to record all the information in the Excel format.

Stage 4. Preparation of job descriptions.

You have a ready-made matrix, which means it's time to describe the functionality of the company's departments. You can change or keep their number, while changing the order of subordination to functional directors. Use the filters in the table to highlight areas of responsibility by department. It is necessary to make matrices for all departments and appoint responsible people.

The most systematized business processes, combined with the responsibility assigned to specific people, make it possible to achieve the utmost clarity in the issue of professional duties. It is also important that job descriptions correspond to the real state of affairs.

Stage 5. Formation of reports of managers.

At this stage, it is necessary to prepare a common form that all managers will use - this is done on the basis of ready-made business processes. In other words, you need to get a table where the first column displays indicators and values, and the rows show the dynamics of changes by month.

We recommend preparing an explanatory note for the table, etc. The table is required to track the activities of personnel, save business processes, and generate analytics on the effectiveness of the enterprise. Adjustment of indicators is allowed when changes are made to processes or there is a need to disclose certain information.

Stage 6. Regulation of business processes.

Absolute transparency and efficiency of further improvement of business processes are achievable through their standardization. Therefore, regulations are created on the basis of a functional business model. When choosing processes, start with the main ones and budgeting.

When compiling this document, two operations are performed: a sketch of the process and the execution of information in a single document. The role of managers in such work is played by department heads, and personnel also participate - these can be specially created working groups. You can allocate a certain time for the formation of goals and objectives, inputs and outputs, an action plan, setting deadlines and persons responsible for the work.

Stage 7. Management of regulations.

In fact, the preparation of this document is only 15% of the time. The remaining 85% are required for its introduction into work, further support. The finished document must be agreed upon, approved by the relevant order, then it must be entered into the corporate register of documents. For the convenience of staff training, you can place this data on the company portal. If we are talking about end-to-end business processes in which more than one department participates, managers are first trained, after which they convey information to subordinates.

In conclusion, we say that the success of an enterprise largely depends on the precise organization of business processes. In other words, the key role is played by the level of well-established activity for the transformation of resources (raw materials, knowledge of specialists) into goods and services necessary for customers.

Using existing ways to improve business processes, it is possible to obtain serious economic results: cost reduction, increase in work efficiency, increase in product profitability and consumer loyalty. The main task in this case is to do everything correctly.

What four actions to start improving business processes
How to correctly describe the existing processes in the company
How to make the new regulations work

Improvement of business processes will achieve the best results. So, for our company (includes 10 departments), this helped speed up and simplify work, as well as open up new directions that remained out of sight of competitors. For example, we started installing common house heat meters with their maintenance, installing individual water meters, etc. This is how we acted.

Business Processes: Tools for Improvement

Stage 1. Study of existing processes. To structure business processes, they must be identified. We have used these methods.

1. Documentation analysis. We studied all the regulations on divisions, job descriptions, orders, orders, as well as contracts with customers and suppliers.

2. Description of their duties by employees. First, I explained to the heads of structural divisions the efficiency of work in a transparent company, enlisted their support and asked them to make lists of the work that they perform. Then he analyzed their actions, combined them into groups. If something was not clear to me, I conducted an interview to get comprehensive information. The result is a solid list of all the jobs in the company.

3. Photo of the working day. You can take a “photo” yourself or have someone watch you and your staff. Observation should last three to five days.

4. Thought experiment. I imagine what needs to be done to make the company the best in the market, and record all work operations.

I will add that, after analyzing, we found that there are 196 business processes in our company.

Stage 2. Creation of a functional business model. Having received an impressive list of works, you can start creating a functional business model that describes all business processes. I did this, but you can entrust this work to one of the top managers. To structure business processes, I divided them into three groups:

the main ones bring profit to the company, add value to the client (sales, services, production);
supporting - ensure the operation of the infrastructure, serve the main processes (IT, legal support, maintenance of equipment, etc.);
management processes - affect the implementation of the main processes (financial planning, quality management, etc.).

Then it was necessary to describe the processes themselves. It's better to start with the basics. It is very important to move away from functional thinking, that is, forget about existing departments and services. Not to divide the work among them, but to describe the processes as they should proceed. For example, here I had difficulty with detailing. In the previous step, everyone described their responsibilities based on their personal vision, so the cases on different lists differed in scale. We solved this problem by decomposing business processes into three levels of detail.

Level of detail 1. A large area of the company's activities is highlighted, such as financial management, which, in turn, relates to management processes.

Level of detail 2. Separate processes are distinguished within the area of activity. For example, financial management includes budgeting, organizing a budget committee, and allocating free cash. We also singled out such a process as financial planning for current repairs.

Level of detail 3. Processes are decomposed into four successive stages (in the form of a cycle): planning, execution, control and summing up (or managerial impact). Describes the steps to be taken at each stage. For example, take the budgeting process. The procedure looks like this (see Table 1):

submission of budget requests;
preparation of the draft budget;
agreement and approval;
execution control;
making adjustments;
performance report.

Drawing up a business model takes from two weeks to six months (it took us about two months). I will add that, according to my data, the description of 80-90% of the work already allows the company to become transparent and understandable from the point of view of administration.

Stage 3. Distribution of responsibility. Having drawn up a business model, we assigned to the heads of departments the responsibility for the relevant business processes. Then they compiled a matrix of responsibility for the company. The results were recorded in an Excel spreadsheet (this program is quite enough).

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Stage 4. Creation of job descriptions. After compiling the responsibility matrix, we proceeded to describe the functionality of the structural units. The number of departments remained the same, we only changed the order of their subordination to functional directors. With the help of filters in the Excel table, it was highlighted which functions a particular department is responsible for. Then we compiled a matrix for each division and assigned responsibility to employees (see Table 2). Having laid out business processes on the shelves and securing responsibility, we have achieved transparency in the composition of job responsibilities. We have created job descriptions that fully correspond to the actual state of affairs.

Stage 5. Creation of management reporting. Based on the described business processes, we have created a single reporting form for all managers. This is a table where the first column shows the indicators and their values, and the rows show their dynamics by months. An explanatory note, copies of documents, etc. can be attached to the table. Reporting forms are needed to control employees, maintain business processes, and also to obtain analytics about the company's work. The indicators in the reporting form are adjusted if processes change or there is a need to disclose any information.

As I review the statements each month, I write questions and ideas. Based on the results of the quarter, I hold a meeting with the heads of departments, where we summarize the results for the period and set new tasks. I will add that every month I receive the following reports:

income and expenditure budget;
explanations if there is a deviation of the budget of a particular item in both directions by 5%;
a report broken down by income items indicating the share in revenue;
schedule and table of the dynamics of payments (population, non-residential premises) since the beginning of the year for housing and communal services.
In addition, I review the report on the implementation of KPI by employees on a quarterly basis, as well as

Stage 6. Regulation of business processes. Full transparency in work can only be achieved if business processes are standardized. At the same time, all regulations should be based on a functional business model. When choosing processes, we set priorities: we started with regulations for the main business processes and budgeting.

Drawing up a regulation includes two operations: sketching a process diagram and drawing up a regulation in the form of a document. Supervise the work of the heads of structural divisions. Be sure to involve the staff. For example, we are gathering working groups. Within 1 hour 15 minutes, we discuss the goals and objectives of the process, inputs and outputs, an action plan by stages, determine the deadlines and those responsible within the process. We draw a diagram of the technology of work. On its basis, the owner of the process draws up a regulation.

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Stage 7. Management of regulations. The creation of regulations takes only 15% of the total time spent. The rest is spent on its implementation and support. We do it in the following way.

After the creation of the regulation, it goes through a circle of approval and is approved by an order for the enterprise, entered into the register of corporate documentation. We place it on the company's portal, and department heads train employees. If the business process is end-to-end (more than one department is involved), first the department heads are trained, who then pass the information on to their subordinates.

In order not to forget about the regulations, we audit the implementation of the company's standards at least once a year. To do this, for each regulation, we draw up an audit list that includes 10–12 questions, indicating the sample size. Let's say we want to study the order fulfillment process. We take 25 applications for the last month and answer questions: is it done or not. For example, “Was the application accepted for consideration within 15 minutes?” etc. The process owner prepares responses to the audit sheets within two weeks. This method allows you to build control into the work of the company.

results

Improving business processes helped to optimize the headcount of one of the services (and this is 12% of the total headcount), it turned out that it was possible to cope with fewer resources. After the introduction of the system, the work was streamlined, certain deadlines and responsible persons appeared, we see errors, identify inconsistencies, and regularly improve our performance.

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Management of business processes of an organization involves their continuous improvement and optimization, therefore, the most important tools for process management are approaches and methods for improving business processes. In modern process management, there are two conceptual approaches to improving business processes:

a gradual (step-by-step) approach to improving processes (according to Deming) within the existing organizational management structure, requiring little or no investment at all;
a radical approach (according to Hammer and Champi), leading to significant changes in the process and fundamental changes in the organizational structure of management.

Both approaches are based on the common foundation of process theory and process management methodology (description of process boundaries, description of the process itself, establishment of control points in processes, measurement of process indicators, analysis of information received and proposals for improvement). They are also the same in that they are aimed at identifying duplication of functions, bottlenecks, cost centers, the quality of individual operations, missing information, the possibility of automation and quality management.

Despite a number of common features, these approaches have significant differences:

The first one is more focused on improving fragmented processes within the framework of functionally specialized management structures in order to unify and standardize them within ISO. As a result, the urgent problem of management is not solved - moving away from functional specialization, on the contrary, ISO standards strengthen the basis of the functional-hierarchical management model of organizations, deepening the problems of weak adaptability, flexibility and high bureaucratization in management. Here the general tendency of implementation of the given approach from "structure to process" is shown. Therefore, in practice, the improvement of processes within the framework of this approach comes down to transferring the functions of structural units to the created process units, that is, to simply renaming them, and not changing the content and purpose.
The second fundamental approach to process improvement involves, first of all, the study of the processes of activity themselves as a set of operations that have value for the consumer. Its logic is to study the process as a control object, followed by a transition to a process-oriented control model, that is, “from process to structure”. Within the framework of this approach, process management is fully implemented, it becomes possible to avoid functional specialization in management or significantly reduce its role through the integration of business processes.

Achieving the goal of improving business processes in the framework of the described approaches is carried out using a number of methods. Researchers identify five main methods for achieving the goals of improving the business processes of organizations:

fast solution analysis technique (FAST);
process benchmarking;
process redesign;
process engineering;
process reengineering.

1. Fast decision analysis (FAST) technique

Attention is focused on a particular process during a one- or two-day meeting of the process improvement team to identify ways to improve that process over the next 90 days. The decision of the group can be approved or rejected by the management of the organization.

This technique is based on intuitive decision-making methods: collective peer review and collective generation of ideas (“brainstorming” and the method of destructive related evaluation). Typical improvements with FAST are reduced costs and process cycle times. The level of errors in case of making the right decisions is reduced by 5-15% for a 3-month period.

The advantages of this method are the speed of developing a solution, minimal costs for the implementation of the methodology, customer orientation, which largely determines the problem or process as an object of improvement and approves the actions and decisions of the FAST group.

The most important disadvantages include the relative locality of the process under study; research is carried out without taking into account the relationship and interdependence with other business processes of the organization; often the effect is eradicated, and not the cause, which may be outside the analyzed process; measures to improve the business process can be effective for a short time.

The FAST methodology has a wide scope in different organizations, even in those that do not seek radical changes of an organization-wide nature.

2. Process Benchmarking

Process benchmarking is based on a comparative analysis of the business processes of an organization with reference processes of organizations that perform the same or similar processes, but function better. The purpose of process benchmarking is to determine the reasons for the better functioning of the business processes of the "reference" organizations and to prevent undesirable discrepancies with them in the organizations conducting the study.
The main advantages of this method can be considered an insignificant time of implementation, relatively small costs and efforts associated with improving business processes. Benchmarking allows you to achieve cost and cycle time reductions, while the error rate is reduced by 20-50%.

Significant disadvantages include the transfer of problems or errors that arise in the process of building and functioning of business processes of "reference" organizations, hidden by an external form. As a result, a high degree of probability of erroneous decisions remains when developing measures to improve business processes.

Benchmarking is applicable for local (fragmentary) and integration processes of an organization, but sometimes it requires a greater degree of radicalness in changing organizational activities.

3. Process redesign

Process redesign focuses attention and effort on improving an existing process. Redesign is usually applied to those processes that are successfully working at the moment, but require correction in connection with the changed requirements and needs of the client or consumer.

When redesigning a process, a simulation model of its current state is developed. Redesign has a fairly wide range of applications. According to D. Harrington, this method can be used for 70-90% of the main business processes. Often, process redesign is carried out in parallel with comparative analysis (benchmarking) so that the redesigned process does not turn out to be worse or better than the corresponding standard.

The attractiveness of process redesign is due to the fact that this method allows you to reduce costs, reduce the duration of the process cycle, carry out work from 80 to 100 days and reduce the number of errors by 30-60%.

The disadvantages of the method are related to the fact that it is more focused on improving business processes or processes that provide certain management functions. Thus, he strengthens the positions of traditional functional-hierarchical structures without changing their content.

In the management practice of economic organizations of the post-Soviet period, in particular Russian enterprises, process redesign is often perceived as reengineering, as a result of which no radical changes occur in most organizations.

4. Process engineering

As a method of improving the processes of the organization is perceived today ambiguously. The very concept of "engineering" is borrowed from engineering activities (from the English. engineering - to design, invent, invent). Some researchers consider process engineering as a general concept, including business process reengineering and business improvement. Another position is held by A. Bolshakov and V. Mikhailov, who consider engineering a new way of thinking that forms a view of building a company as an engineering activity.

A more detailed study of engineering was undertaken by P. Kutelev. In particular, he singles out the concept of "organizational engineering" and characterizes it as the design of business processes united in a single information field. A number of researchers single out the concept of business engineering and define it as the design of business processes and company management systems from scratch.

Engineering as a method of improving the processes of a functioning organization, in our opinion, is difficult to imagine based only on the fact that if an organization is functioning, then activities are already being carried out, which means that whether we like it or not, there are also activity processes. How integrated and optimal they are is a question of a different order. It can be solved through various design approaches. Therefore, it would be fair to consider process engineering (processes) as a method of designing business processes of newly created organizations or business processes of new types of business in existing organizations, taking into account best practices and the principle of optimality in process management.

Depending on which management model will be focused on process engineering - functionally specialized or process management - its radicalness will depend. Nevertheless, based on the orientation of engineering, aimed at the processes of activity (business processes), it can be attributed to one of the methods of process management.

On the other hand, if process engineering within an existing organization creates processes for new activities, then, given the interconnectedness and interaction of all processes of the organization, it can ultimately lead to changes in the existing business system, preferably positive ones. If the changes stimulate the performance of the organization, they can be considered improvement-oriented. From this point of view, process engineering can be indirectly attributed to the methods of improving the processes of activity.

5. Business process reengineering (BPR)

For the first time the concept of "reengineering of business processes" arose in 1990 in the United States. The authorship of BPR belongs to M. Hammer and D. Champi. By business process reengineering, the authors understand "fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve significant improvements in such key performance indicators for today's business as cost, quality, service level and responsiveness." Since that time, BPR has attracted the active interest of specialists in the field of management and information technology.

The ongoing research in the field of BPR characterizes business process reengineering as "revolutionary", "essential", "cardinal", "radical", "fundamental" redesign of business processes of organizations. The semantic orientation of the keywords "revolutionary" and "essential" contains something in common that reflects significant changes aimed at a qualitatively new level of organizational development. Radical redesign means addressing directly the roots of phenomena: not cosmetic changes and not reshuffling existing systems, but a decisive rejection of everything that has become obsolete.

The last key word "fundamental" in its content is associated with a thorough and deep awareness of something. When making a decision to apply reengineering, the manager must put on the agenda the fundamental questions regarding his company and the nature of its activities: “Why do we do what we do? And why do we do it this way?”

Asking these fundamental questions often forces people to take a fresh look at the unspoken rules and assumptions by which they run their business. And very often such rules turn out to be outdated, unreasonable, and even unacceptable.

Given the semantic content of the above keywords, one can try to clarify the concept of "business process reengineering" and formulate it as "fundamental understanding and radical redesign of business processes aimed at a qualitatively new level of organization development".

Business process reengineering is the most radical of the above methods for improving business processes, with the exception of engineering, since in the literal sense it is not an improvement method, but more of a process management method. BPR provides a fresh look at the essence and content of the process and completely ignores the existing process and structure of the organization.

The object of reengineering is the business processes that determine the activities of the organization. As a rule, reengineering can be carried out repeatedly until most of the company's processes have been completely redesigned. Thus, the work is divided into phases, each of which has a clear goal - to significantly improve the work of the organization.

The implementation of business reengineering involves several stages:

development of the image (vision) of the future organization, that is, building a picture of how the business should be developed in order to achieve strategic goals;
analysis of an existing business involves researching the organization and drawing up diagrams of its functioning at the moment;
development of a new business - new and / or changed processes and the information system supporting them, selection of prototypes and testing of new processes;
introduction of new business.

In this regard, it should be noted that the listed steps are not performed sequentially, but in parallel, and some of them are repeated.

According to experts, in the case of proper process reengineering, costs are reduced, the cycle time is reduced by 60-90% and the error rate is reduced by 40-70%.

Methods for improving business processes

In the course of the analysis of literature and publications devoted to the problem of improving the processes of the activities of organizations, common characteristic features of various methods were revealed. These features reflect a set of requirements that teams take into account when improving processes.

Improved processes must meet modern requirements for quality, service, flexibility and low cost, as well as be understandable. Despite the integration of work, the requirement for the simplicity of a particular task remains in business processes.
Several works are combined into one. Various earlier works (tasks) are integrated. The functions of several specialists who were part of different departments are combined into work performed by one person who has access to an expert system with a database.
The process client must run the process being modified. This requirement, which must be taken into account when improving processes, implies that the client of the process should be more involved in the process than before. This is achieved by taking into account the client's requirements for the result and the course of the process.
The role of the process provider(s) should be as if they were part of the process or organization being changed. Changing the role of a process supplier is achieved by partnering with process participants or by outsourcing certain parts of the process.
Different versions of processes are created. Each variant of the process is focused on one corresponding situation (case). For example, in the IBM project, the process has three versions: simple cases (data are processed by a computer, without the participation of specialists); cases of average complexity (processed by specialists using an expert system and a database); complex cases (handled by a specialist involving experts). Creating different versions or variants of processes is the most important stage of improvement; it is achieved by process modeling. Once the simulation model shows that the newly designed process matches the formulated view, the theoretical model is physically implemented to validate the concept.
The desire to reduce the number of inputs to processes is aimed at simplifying the process and is one way to increase the control and manageability of the process. To improve the process, you simply remove those outputs that need to be compared with other inputs, thereby reducing the number of checks and reconciliations that do not add the product needed by the customer.
Orientation towards increasing the autonomy of processes through the expansion of decentralization while deepening the centralization of information exchange. By expanding decentralization while improving business processes, they increase the decision-making powers of those responsible for the process, which leads to increased autonomy and reduced bureaucratization in management. This approach allows not only horizontal, but also vertical compression of processes. Vertical compression occurs as a result of the fact that at points in the process where, in the traditional organization of work, the performer must turn to higher management levels that make decisions, here the performer does it on his own.
Creation of a centralized database that provides prompt access to managers or process participants, as well as expands the possibilities of using information technologies in order to ensure effective management decisions.
Focus on reducing the time parameters of the process. Reducing the duration of the process is an important criterion for optimizing business processes, aimed primarily at improving the productivity and effectiveness of the process.
Eliminate redundant or long streams. Improvement eliminates unnecessary, unproductive work. The maximum orientation towards avoiding the sequence of operations of the process with the inclusion of parallel operations in it allows you to speed up the process of activity.
Eliminate gaps in business processes. This kind of orientation makes it possible to eliminate "gaps" and "blind spots" in business processes, which quite often happen in companies with spontaneous organization of activities.
Involving as few resources as possible in the business process. In each task that makes up the business process, you need to reduce as many resources as possible, for example, by combining tasks so that the employee performs the greatest number of them. The key task here is to free up workers and combine different functions, as a result of which entire departments are removed from the process.

The analysis of differences and the definition of general provisions of methods for improving business processes reveals the possibilities of their application, allows, depending on the tasks, to give preference to specific methods of improving and changing business processes or their combinations.

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