Process Re-engineering, Your Choice

Every organization seek to improve their bottom line, remain competitive, enhance and streamline their operations, cut down on overheads and remove unnecessary activity in a bid to remain more effective and efficient. All these are focused on improving the profitability and increase the ability of the organizations to meet expectation of all the stakeholders.

Profitability can be increased either through (1) increase in volume of trade or increase in price, which is a last resort and arguably does not reflect efficiency and effective use of available resources and processes, or (2) reduction in cost of operation.

Reducing overheads and improving/streamlining processes/operations are internal and within the control of the ownership and management of such organization. However, increasing sales volume or price of products and services as a means of increasing revenue is external to the organization and completely outside their control with little or no influence depending on the elasticity of the demand for the product. The identification of internal strengths and weaknesses and putting modalities in place to convert the weaknesses to strength and further enhance the existing strength becomes a preferred option and less expensive in the long run. This is without discounting the external factors.

Improving internal processes and operations can therefore be group in two (2) phases; Process Management and Process Improvement. Organizations therefore needs to understand the differences and its application.

Process Management which is the first phase of process reengineering and re-structuring involves identifying, analyzing and managing the internal processes for:

1. Standardization of workflow

     2.  Smooth inter-connectivity

The focus is on efficiency of the process and continuity to ensure each stage of the process or operations goes uninterrupted and properly harmonized, reduces/eliminates delays and overlap seamlessly. This phase may include any of the following or a combination:

• ·        Automation of key processes
• ·        Automation of document management or approval process
• ·        Development of operational manual/guide for key levels of activity
• ·        Development of workflow/connectivity chart

Process improvement on the other hand is a consequent of Process Management by taking it a notch further. Major differences include streamlining the identified processes or levels of operations and attempts to make the process shorter, smarter and more effective without losing the core essence and goals of the organization. This involves amongst others merging or similar roles/functions, remove duplication of processes, eliminate unnecessary functions and reduce the transaction cycle.

Focus is not only on efficiency of the process/operations but on the effectiveness of the entire operation. Other benefits include:

• Reduces and removes duplication of roles
• Reduces cost of operation by streamlining existing processes
•  Conversion cycle and delivery timeline for each process level and the entire organization are reduced, meaning more can be done within the given set time.
• Enhanced operations and profitability from streamlined and enhanced process cycle.
• Effectiveness of the process is enhanced without losing its core values and business model.
• Investment and demands in-terms of effort, resources, time, conflict resolution, etc. is less compared to that of Process Management.

It is imperative to state clearly that Process Management is an integral part of Process Improvement and are mutually inclusive. Process re-engineering should therefore be a regular exercise for organizations that wants to remain competitive and relevant in the ever changing business world. Your ability to generate and increase revenue, remain a going concern, is highly dependent on the willingness of the organization, management and board to be dynamic, flexible and innovative.

It is therefore time to take a radical look at your core business processes and make necessary changes to achieve dramatic improvements in productivity, cycle times and quality. Rethink existing processes to deliver more value to the customer.

Take the next few minutes to review and answer the following questions honestly and take necessary steps to make necessary changes:

1. When was the last time you did a review of your operations and processes?
2. Have you tested your operations with that of the competitor?
3. Can your existing operations/processes stand the test of time?