How does BPM relate to other methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma and ISO standards?
Lean aims to maximize customer value and minimise waste. Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by removing the causes of defects and minimising variability in manufacturing and business processes. ISO Standards ensure that products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality. Some or all of these methodologies will be important parts of many organisations, and rightly so. BPM relates to and improves each of them. Process is an important part of each methodology, but BPM practices and tools can help ensure they are in line with the whole organisation and can minimise any waste or duplication, while continuing to reap the rewards of each methodology's individual purpose.
What is a BPM Framework?
A BPM Framework is a management framework with a process-centric approach. A BPM framework may encompass regulations applicable to your industry, policies, sector frameworks and quality standards. There are three main types; Horizontal, Vertical and Full-service. Horizontal frameworks deal with design and development of business processes and are generally focused on technology and reuse. Vertical BPM frameworks focus on a specific set of coordinated tasks and Full-service BPM suites have five components including; Process Discovery & Project Scoping, Process Modeling & Design, Business Rules Engine, Workflow Engine and Simulation & Testing. A process architect can develop a Management Framework for an organisation and also translate these into Management Processes.
What is an Integrated Management System?
An Integrated Management System combines your operational framework; which includes standard operating procedures and work instructions, with your management framework; which will include your necessary regulations, policies and standards along with management processes. It is a system in which all the processes serve the system objectives and where these system objectives have been derived from stakeholder needs and expectations.
What is a Management Framework?
A management framework refers to regulations, policies and standards applicable to your industry along with management processes in place in your organisation.
What is an Operational Framework?
An operational framework refers to your organisation's standard operating procedures and work instructions.
What is a process-centric procedure?
The term 'process-centric' refers to an holistic, BPM approach that centers on business processes themselves, rather than individual elements such as documents, workflow or people. Regulated industries and companies with up to thousands of standard operating procedures often make the mistake of looking at these as individual items or tasks, rather than looking at the processes and relationships between them, within the whole system or organisation. A process-centric procedure takes the system and the relationships into account to create a more streamlined and efficient method for procedures, SOPs and/or repeatable training.
What is a work instruction?
A work instruction is a description of a specific task or activity within a company. These are often described in detail and for some industries, require acknowledgment of receipt.
What is TPSoP®?
TPSoP® is an innovative solution for the development of process-centric procedures, on-line procedures and SOPs and results in the creation of a comprehensive, visual and user-friendly environment. The TPSoP® methodology utilises a rigorous and collaborative approach, underpinned by Torque Management's expertise and experience with widely accepted best practices such as Six Sigma, Lean, BPM and ISO. TPSoP® is capable of compliance with regulation and security requirements in all industries and its comprehensive nature ensures elimination of waste and duplication and contributes to an improved culture for your organisation and a more streamlined, cost-effective business.
What is Rapid System™?
Torque Rapid System™ is a process-led methodology that accelerates the delivery of IT systems projects. Large IT and ERP Projects are expensive, risky, take a considerable amount of time and many even fail to deliver, under-deliver or overrun. Rapid System™ enables us to turn a 3-4 year project, into an 18 month project with higher rates of user adoption and costs reduced by 35-40%.
What is a BPM CoE?
The BPM CoE (Centre of Excellence) provides the necessary dedicated resources to drive Process Improvement in an organisation. The remit of the CoE will include, at a minimum: BPM strategy, Policies, Standards, Methodologies and Tools; Business Process Architecture, Business Process Portfolio Management; Business Process Training and certification; Business Process Reporting. In some organisations the CoE will also provide compliance and quality support and/or a pool of Business Process Engineers who work as internal consultants to Business Managers undertaking process improvement projects.
What is a QMS?
QMS is a Quality Management System and refers to a collection of business processes focused on quality. These processes will direct an organisation in ensuring it is continually improving effectiveness and efficiency in all areas that can affect quality standards. Some of the most commonly used ISO standards, are the ISO 9000 category, which focuses on quality management systems and the ISO 14000 category, which addresses environmental management.
What is meant by process capability maturity?
The Capability Maturity Model, or CMM, was originally developed as a tool to objectively assess the ability of government contractors' processes to perform a contracted software project. The term 'maturity' relates to the degree of formality and optimisation of processes within an organisation. By assessing the level of process maturity your organisation is running at, and the level you would like it to reach. There are five levels: Initial, Managed, Defined, Quantitatively Managed and Optimising.
What is wrong with text-based SOPs?
SOPs are a critical part of compliance, quality and oftentimes, training. Traditional, text-based SOPs can consist of thousands of documents and frequently fail to demonstrate to the user their specific role and the relationship of the task at hand, to the whole. Other documents, forms or members of staff may be connected to one SOP and sometimes these dynamic elements are unclear and hard to locate or even understand. For organisations with numerous SOPs and especially in regulated industries, overlap occurs, meaning there is waste that can be eliminated when the SOP process is approached in a more systematic and holistic way. Converting traditional text based SOPs to process-centric procedures, allows for this. Torque Management's TPSoP® solution enables you to streamline your organisation's procedures and create user-friendly SOPs in an online, connected, easy to understand environment. TPSoP® offers the tools and techniques to develop SOPs that are easy to deploy, change and re-deploy; making the methodology ideal for companies who wish to better comply with quality standards or compliance and for development of repeatable training that can be used even for a geographically dispersed, multi-lingual audience.
What is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?
There are many definitions of an SOP but we like this one for its simplicity.
What is the 5 Whys problem analysis technique?
The 5 Whys technique is a lean analytical tool that originated in the Toyota Production System and is a widely used technique to explore the nature and cause-and effect relationships of a problem. Using the tool, investigators ask “Why” iteratively and seek supporting empirical evidence until they reach a conclusion as to root cause. For more complex problem analysis, 5 Whys analysis will be used in combination with additional analytical tools.