It is said that employees are key elements in improving the quality of work.
This is almost true, and business people should take responsibility for their work and improve the quality of their work every day.
However, the quality of the products and services will depend on the company’s overall capabilities. The capabilities are measured by the sum total of the work of each employee. Therefore, companies must manage the work of all employees and focus on improving the quality of their work systematically.
For improving the quality of work, “Business Process Management” (hereinafter referred to as BPM) is necessary. In this article, we’d like to describe how the BPM that a company has introduced can improve the quality of their employees’ work.
What is BPM?
BPM is a sort of initiative to realize efficient business processes, characterised by featuring a workflow diagram of the current business process.
You collect and analyze information from the workflow diagram. After that, you can find some business strain, waste, and unevenness to be improved based on the data.
In addition to that, by sharing workflow diagrams within the office it is also possible to improve the work by listening to the opinions of other employees. BPM can be effective by reiterating improvements.
Business improvement should be done by the entire company
Many companies that do not implement BPM may have business strain, waste, and unevenness in their operations. While these issues are rampant in the company, it’s hard to expect efficiency and productivity improvements.
In some cases, employees in a less productive company are eager to make their work more efficient. Even so, the reason why productivity does not increase is that business improvement is not done by the entire company.
If employees just work on business improvement individually, there may be a gap between the direction of business improvement for each employee and the management strategy of the company. BPM is done by the entire company, therefore, business processes have to be done in accordance with management strategies and business models.
Relationship between BPM and quality of work
Now we will describe the relationship between BPM and quality of work. Specifically, there are the following five points in BPM.
You may be wondering why the quality of the company’s operations improves when companies engage in each of these five points. Let’s examine each point.
Identify all business processes
In BPM, it is necessary to identify the Tasks for which all employees are responsible. Each of them receives business information from the person in charge of the prior Task, processes their own Task, and then passes the business information to the person in charge of the following Task.
For example, we will explain step-by-step the flow of “Tasks” which are in series.
- The development department determines the product idea.
- The manufacturing department manufactures the product.
- The sales department sells the product.
- The accounting department collects the money.
The flow of the prior Task, your own Task, and following Task like the above also occurs within each department.
Find business strain, waste, and unevenness
After identifying the business and the Tasks, you should analyze them thoroughly. At this point, you should do that by focusing on the business strain, waste, and unevenness.
For example, an individual Task within a department may cause inefficiencies in both the prior and following Tasks. In that case, you need to analyze whether the Task is really necessary.
Create an ideal process and standardize it
At the same time, you have to create ideal business processes. Departments and those responsible for the Tasks need to develop ideas of what makes ideal business processes. Ultimately, managers and executives will get them into shape. Once that is done, you standardize it.
Once you standardize the process, all employees will work accordingly. Therefore, you must pay close attention to this work.
In order to standardize, you need to check productivity, efficiency, bottlenecks, business strain, waste, unevenness (also negative effects in unexpected places), customers, and costs.
Circulate the operation manual
Instilling business standards in all employees is one of the more difficult initiatives of BPM. Some executives and managers are overly optimistic because they think that once an operational manual is created, it will become an internal rule for employees and staff. However, BPM is not so easy.
This is because some employees have a strong reluctance to change their familiar ways of working.
Therefore, executives and managers who promote BPM should carefully explain to their employees that implementing the new work standards will make their work easier, faster, and improve work quality. When some employees understand the benefits, the new work standards can be accepted among all the employees.
Reiterate the BPM cycle
The BPM cycle is complete when a new business standard is introduced to all employees. At the end of the first cycle, the second one will start.
Companies need to work on BPM constantly to increase productivity.
Set up a BPM team
When executives or managers decide to implement BPM, it is better to set up a BPM team within the company or in the workplace, with representatives from each department.
That is because the goal of BPM is to improve the quality of each employee’s work, products, services, customer satisfaction, sales, and profits.
The general improvement or the QC (quality control) can be carried out within each department, but BPM must be done by an entire company.
The BPM team needs to organize BPM so that all departments can get the benefit.
BPM must be systematized
There is another purpose to create a BPM team: to build the BPM system.
Systematization refers to IT and computer-based automation, and systematized BPM can be highly effective.
The BPM team has to check business processes from the perspective of systematization and automation when identifying and analyzing.
The members of the BPM team should proceed with the systematization, distinguishing tasks done by IT and ones done by humans.
Summary ~ Involving Digital Transformation (DX)
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is now strongly urging companies to promote digital transformation (hereinafter referred to as “DX”), because DX is essential to the future growth and enhanced competitiveness of companies.
- METI Releases a Report on Digital Transformation: Overcoming of ‘2025 Digital Cliff’ Involving IT Systems and Full-fledged Development of Efforts for Digital Transformation
- Report on Digital Transformation (DX) – Overcoming of “2025 Digital Cliff” Involving IT Systems and Full-Fledged Development of Efforts for DX- (Summary)
The introduction of a BPM system by a company just means controlling business quality by DX.
Therefore, the question is not whether to implement a BPM system, but rather:
- Which BPM system to install
- How to Improve business quality with the BPM System
What is the BPM system “Questetra BPM Suite”?
Questetra BPM Suite is a cloud service that supports the management of business quality. In the cloud, you can draw a workflow diagram to visualize the current business process.
With Questetra BPM Suite, you can share information on the current business process, which makes your BPM more active. Drawing the flow of business visually enables you to understand the Tasks before and after your own Task at a glance. It’s a cloud service, so you can use it right after you apply.
We recommend you trying the Trial mode (free for 60 days).