V. IMPROVING PROCESSES: GAP ANALYSIS
Gap analysis should (1) provide an assessment of the barriers to change, (2) identify the "quick wins"--initiatives for the improvement of current processes that can be undertaken immediately; (3) establish the basis for the definition of major program/project initiatives; and (4) provide inputs for an analysis of benefits and costs of undertaking the required changes.
Process Mapping
Process mapping (or event modeling) is a BPR technique for documenting from start to finish the individual activities and key characteristics that define a process.
Two tools are generally applied:
1. Process Flows: Visual depictions showing the order of activities and the movement of information into and out of a process; and
2. Process Profiles: Narrative descriptions which provide the detail behind the flow diagrams.
Both current and future processes should be mapped.
It may be more appropriate to concentrate on those processes that offer the potential for major improvement in terms of quality, timeliness, service enhancements, and cost savings.
Such improvements should have a visible impact on the organization's performance--both in terms of the external customers and the staff members.
Processes selected initially for mapping should clearly demonstrate "measurability"--the results of the process improvement should be clearly measurable with objective criteria.
Several key characteristics should be identified for each process:
o Responsibilities--key participants and their roles in the process
o Individual Activities or Steps--sequence of events; linakges among events; hand-offs
o Inputs--information/data flows; tangible items; activity triggers
o Outputs--key deliverables of each activity
o Customers/Stakeholders--recipients of outputs
o Performance Measures--time required to complete each activity; volume; frequency; workload/productivity
It is important to provide as much detail as possible about each process without compromising comprehension and readability.
Focus groups--5 to 15 people knowledgeable about/or impacted by a given process--may be organized to share ideas, discuss issues, and collaborate on defining activities and their relationships within processes.
Each process should be mapped at a level of detail appropriate to depict reengineering opportunities.
o Process maps are developed starting at a high level and driving to increasing levels of detail.
o The level of detail pursued depends upon the resources available, the complexity of the processes, the organization structure, the magnitude of the improvements required, project objectives, and the overall "understandability" of the processes.
A process flow is created by using standard flow chart symbols; it is important to keep flow diagrams simple and to label flows to clearly distinguish between current and future processes.
Profiles should be recorded using a standard template that is applicable to both current and future profiles.
Flow diagrams and profiles should be analyzed for:
o Redundancies
o Excessive paperwork
o Manual operations that could be automated
o Incidence of multiple authorizations (touches)
o Delays and bottlenecks--Non-value added activities
o Labor-intensive activities
The organizational structure should be analyzed for:
o Non-alignment with customers/end-users
o Unclear/misplaced responsibilities
From these analyses, baseline performance measures should be established and "quick-wins" and longer-term recommendations for improvement should be identified.
Possible performance measures include: (1) volume of transactions; (2) number of personnel involved in the process; (3) process time; (4) elapse or cycle time; (5) delay time; (6) touch time; (7) value added; and (8) customer/end user satisfaction.
The following guidelines should be considered when beginning to map the future processes:
o Start with a "clean slate" and design the proicess as it should be performed
o Consider redefining organizational boundaries; do not be bound by existing strcuture of the organization
o Rethink roles and responsibilities to make the process work more effectively and efficiently
o Use technology as an enabler of change.
o Think "out of the box."
Vision groups should be given license to be creative and to use divergent thinking so as to generate and evaluate new ideas, to challenge current assumptions, to break from exisitng paradigms, and to throw out established rules.
The next step is to determine the "gap" between current approach and the desired future approach and the reasons for the divergence.
Several common tools or techniques may be applied to assist in this gap analysis.
o Cause and effect or "fishbone" diagrams were developed in order to identify, explore and display all the possible causes of a specific problem or condition.
o Pareto diagrams can be extremely effective in determining which characteristic is causing a problem by categorizing data, ranking it by frequency of occurrence, and plotting the components of a problem in a manner that allows the analyst to determine the most important factor in a given situation or process..
o Root Cause Analysis helps investigators describe WHAT happened during a particular event, to determine HOW it happened, and to understand WHY it happened.
o Forecasting seeks answers to key questions about possible and/or probable futures: (1) What happens to object A in time B if the current course of activities is allowed to continue without change? and (2) What are the likely outcomes if change C is introduced?
o In the Delphi method, identical questions are directed to a group of experts, asking for their opinions on the future development of a specific topic; this procedure may be repeated several times until the responses approach some sort of consensus. Extrapolation is based on the assumption that the course of events will continue in the same direction and with unvarying speed until some major intervention occurs.
o Statistical models, such as linear correlation and regression analysis, can be applied if the time series of observations is sufficiently large.
o Causal models--the most accurate method of forecasting--become possible when, through research, relationships are identified that show how the attributes and variables to be predicted depend on each other.