Business Process Mapping and Improvement
What is Business Process Mapping and Improvement?
Business Process Mapping and Improvement consulting is the practice of visually documenting how work flows through an organisation, then analysing and redesigning that workflow to make it faster, clearer, and more effective. As most people prefer pictorial visualisation of concepts, we can ‘tell the story’ of the operation we are looking at using the ‘process map’ in the form of a flow chart, or flow diagram.
How does Process Mapping support Process Improvement?
Process Mapping shows each step in a task or workflow, who does it, what decisions happen, and where the process starts and ends. Process Improvement uses that map to find bottlenecks, duplication, delays, waste, and unclear handoffs, then changes the process to improve performance.
Why map and improve Business Processes?
It helps teams understand how work actually gets done, not just how they think it gets done. In this way, it also establishes a ‘single source of the truth’. That makes it easier to improve efficiency, reduce errors, reduce duplication, identify service gaps, support compliance, and identify automation opportunities.
Common applications of this technique include;
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Clarifying a complicated workflow.
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Finding bottlenecks and rework, and streamlining the operation.
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Improving sales, or customer onboarding, or service delivery.
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Standardising how teams work.
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Supporting continuous improvement and automation.
Common problems that we solve include;
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Manual workarounds.
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Poor handoffs between teams.
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Duplicate data entry.
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Delays in approvals.
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Unclear ownership.
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Inconsistent service delivery.
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Missed process automation opportunities.
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Poor process optimisation.
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Limited visibility into performance.
What kinds of results should one expect?
Typical Process Improvement outcomes, often through efficiency improvements of at least 20%, and service level improvements of up to 40%, include;
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Shorter cycle times,
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Lower operating costs,
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Fewer errors and rework,
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Better customer experience,
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More scalable operations,
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Improved visibility and accountability across teams.
What kind of organisations would this benefit from Process Mapping and Improvement Consulting?
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Any organisation invested in making operational improvements to their business, such as improving throughput, reducing operating costs, speeding service delivery, improving customer service, reducing risk, implementing automation, reducing complexity, or helping their staff become more productive, and less ‘over-stretched’.
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Any industry, from service-based organisations, through manufacturers, distributors, construction and property management, education and training, utilities, health and social service providers, ICT, primary producers, retailers and wholesalers, and logistics.
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Any organisational discipline, including Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Operations, Supply Chain, HR, Finance and other Administration Support Areas.
How does Synoptic Consulting undertake Process Mapping and Improvement?
To create measurable operational improvement, our Process Mapping and Improvement consulting approach normally combines;
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process mapping,
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root-cause analysis,
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workflow redesign,
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automation opportunity assessment,
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implementation support,
Check for more information in the following section, ‘Our Approach’;
https://www.synopticconsulting.com/services-business-process-improvement-our-approach
How long does Process Mapping and Improvement consulting take?
Understandably, the timing for any Process Mapping and Improvement depends on scope and complexity. But as a rough average, it normally takes us;
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around half a day to map and validate a business process,
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up to another day to analyse it, derive practical solutions for it, obtain approvals for it, and redraft it as a new process map.
Our capabilities
Process mapping, process analysis, process redesign, process standardisation
Business Process Management
Process Improvement
Process cost and FTE analysis
High level Business Requirements definition
Facilitated workshops
Process mapping and modeling tools (eg BizAgi Modeler, Holocentric Modeler)
Workflow simulation software
The tools we use
Our approach
Outcomes
Improved throughput
Organisations wishing to increase their throughput rates need to consider two questions beforehand. One, will their market buy the additional items they deliver? And two, is there sufficient financial benefit in delivering the extra items in the first place? If both the answers are `yes’, then throughput improvements are a meaningful goal.
Improved margin
Margin in a business is often expressed as a percentage of revenue. In many cases it is applied at many levels including gross profit, net profit, contribution etc. In all these cases it is a measurement of a value, typically profit within a context of an industry accepted formula.
Reduced operating costs
Operating costs, often referred to as OPEX, is the category of expenses in a business that occur as a result of its normal business operations. A key objective in what we deliver is to assist management in determining how operating expenses can be reduced without significantly affecting the business’ ability to compete.
Improved return on assets
Assets in a business are often expressed as items of economic value to that business, for example: cash, inventory, equipment, computer systems, real estate, goodwill, patents etc. Assets in an accounting sense fall into tangible (physical and measurable) and intangible (conceptual and complex to measure).
Our recent clients
The right start makes all the difference to your project
One of the biggest causes of failure for change programs is the lack of understanding of the issues, by all stake holders. It is not uncommon for sponsors to adopt the approach of ‘we know what the problems are, now just fix them’. This is starting from Stage 2; ‘we know what we don’t know’.
This approach will certainly gloss over the root causes of the issues and alienate the people dealing with those issues on a day to day basis and whose support is vital for the resolution of each issue.
Our approach ensures our clients start from the position of ‘we don’t know what we don’t know’ (Stage 1), and in doing so, maximise the return from their investment in change.
