Process performance management: how to assess whether my company is on the right track?
Every company exists to generate value for each of the parties involved in the business – customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and even society. This means that all internal or external processes are designed to meet the various demands of these stakeholders. To manage the flow of these activities based on predetermined objectives and also to support managers in decision making, there is process performance management. If your company still doesn’t use this feature, find out, in this post , how it can provide essential information for meeting objectives and targeting specific improvements in your business. Follow up!
What Is Process Performance Management?
In a nutshell, process performance management comprises monitoring the effectiveness of business processes. They define indicators that must be monitored to ensure that the purpose of each of these processes is achieved. Commonly, when we talk about performance management, we are referring to effectiveness. However, we can expand this concept by understanding that process management goes beyond performance. It is also necessary to ensure that activities are carried out with the efficient optimization of available resources and in accordance with established standards.
In This Case, Process Management Should Encompass:
efficiency – related to the means and resources applied to the processes;
effectiveness – related to the performance of the processes – monitoring so that the expected results are being achieved. It is worth mentioning that the evaluation of the performance of processes is one of the normative items of ISO 9001:2015 and is essential for the continuous optimization of the activities of the companies. From there, it is possible to have access to data and monitor the progress of your organization in terms of strategic objectives.
What Are The Benefits Of This Tool For The Business?
We start from the understanding that it is not possible to manage a business without managing the processes. It is very common to find entrepreneurs focusing on strategic results and not realizing that what executes the strategies are the processes. If you don’t manage the results of the processes, the entire organization will certainly be impacted.
Here are some of the benefits of process performance management for your company:
carrying out activities under control;
achievement of the operational and strategic objectives of the business;
improved application of resources;
greater predictability of the organisation’s results. It is worth mentioning here that it is necessary to see the organisation as a large system, composed of several processes. This means grouping activities that are related or that are interrelated in order to make sure that the inputs enter the organisation and can be treated properly until they are delivered to the interested parties.
Depending on the size of the company, the set of activities and the number of people involved are large. So, the manager needs to see the whole thing so that, when he enters this process, he has in mind that chain of causes and effects being carried out in a controlled way.
What are the main challenges to put it into practice?
The main challenges are related to people. First of all, it is necessary that the organisation is set up for the beginning of the process. This involves some essential aspects: the first is to overcome some barriers so that the people who compose it, mainly the power structure in the organisation, decide to work in this way, based on the performance management of processes; hen, for you to organise, you need to regroup all the activities of the company. The important thing at this stage is to make sure that the organisational structure will allow these new processes to be put into practice.
Organisations that are more mature – those that have a structure that is better aligned with activities – are able to deal with this process in a more pragmatic and professional way, finding it easier to rearrange activities and carry out mobility of people.
What indicators should be tracked?
There is no ready-made recipe when it comes to process performance management indicators. On the other hand, there are some essential points to be considered when measuring the performance of activities and knowing if they are achieving the determined objectives. Basically, we can divide the indicators into three large groups:
inputs – indicators that show that your suppliers are supplying your company in the way you specified;
activities – indicators that accompany the actions that are carried out in the process;
results – associated with the effects achieved by the process.
From these categories it is possible to find indicators that are repeated from organisation to organisation or from process to process. But it is worth mentioning that the indicators are specific to each activity and each company, according to the purpose of each one of them. Discover some of the main ones:
efficiency;
efficiency;
capacity;
productivity;
quality;
profitability;
profitability;
competitiveness.
It is important to remember that, in order for the analyses to be carried out in the most appropriate way, it is necessary to take into account which parties are interested in or affected by the process. So, by analysing and identifying the needs and expectations of a certain party, you are already starting to address commitments that the company has made. To fulfil them, it is necessary to start treating the indicators.
For example, when you realise that your customer has specific needs in a particular product, then the goal is to organise your company to meet those needs. You, then, must assemble the strategies to accomplish this objective in a certain space of time and structure the process so that the need is met. That is, from the need you will unfold and find some strategic objective that needs specific indicators.
How to perform process performance management effectively?
One of the most efficient ways to implement process management in the company is through the use of automated process management systems, also known as BPMS – Business Process Management System , which generate operational efficiency and provide more agility. However, other important points must be considered. See below.
Planning
Planning is largely responsible for the implementation of strategic actions within a company. It is at this moment that the strategic look will be transformed into performance objectives and targets that can be followed up and monitored. Planning also includes defining a work roadmap, engaging the team and proposing a methodology.
Team training for the process
For the team to engage in this process, it must be able to work in the established way. A good training tip is the Process Structuring and Improvement course , from the National Quality Foundation – FNQ, which shows how to structure and manage processes and, with that, offers guidance on how to acquire a systemic view from practices that the organisation will adopt as a model for its management.