To achieve higher business results, it is essential to
provide a common vision of business as a complete system. Defining and
standardizing business processes helps avoid working at cross purposes,
eliminate some quality control steps and reduce the cycle time. This can be
used to generate an integrated process management approach for implementing
more effective quality standards and continuous improvement programs.
Process mapping is a technique for graphical
representation of work processes in a form of a process map. The process map
shows all the process associated activities, including volumes of input and
output, approvals, exceptions, and cross-functional hand-offs. The basic goal
of the map is to provide a unifying vision of business processes, so that
participating organizations and individuals can have an understanding of their
specific role in the overall system.
To create a process map, you need to identify the key
process objectives and main activity steps. While collecting and analyzing
information about the process, you should consider such factors as process
complexity, the number of organization and individual teams involved and time
and cost issues. The process map should highlight bottlenecks and delays,
rework, unnecessary steps and the authority ambiguity of the process. The good
map represents the process flow from the customer’s point of view, showing
whether each step of the process helps create a clear value for the customer.
Process mapping helps clarify specific roles and
contributions of the process participants and highlight opportunities for
process improvement. A unifying view of the entire business system provides a
framework for multiple management approaches and allows process reengineering
on clear, comprehensible customer-oriented basis.