The answer to the question of what is process management is very difficult to find in the literature. However, although the answer to the question is implicit, process management is widely used. And not only that, but papers are being written on that topic without a clear idea of what is process management?Defining process management is hardened by the fact that there are two different opinions:process management for single process improvement and process management for system management.What is process management?
Process Management refers to aligning processes with an organization's strategic goals, designing and implementing process architectures, establishing process measurement systems that align with organizational goals, and educating and organizing managers so that they will manage processes effectively.
Hello professor sir,,,
I know a small thoughts about process generally. All what are being happening considered process even in vital physiology in human body.
For example
Marriage, pregnancy stage, normal delivery.
Respiration if rapidly or slowly both have their own outcome whatever for increase basal metabolic rate or for increase efficiency of heart.
The other item is the relation between process performance and six sigma methodologies which are:
Improve process by DMAIC.
Design new process by : DFSS as DMADV.
Thanks for the question.
Definition - "Process Management is a methodology that facilitates formalising and improving the processes that matters most to customers"
Process management Methodology
Formalisation of process is done through 'as is' process mapping (flow chart). Next remove all the non-value adding activities from the 'as-is' process and formalise (standardise) the new process.
Next continuously re-examine the processes to identify the value adding activities that matters most to customer and value adding activities that matter to business units and the activities that do not add any value to either of them. (Value is some thing for which customer is willing to pay)
Improvement will be achieved when you remove the non-value adding activities from a process by continuous re-examination of the process. This requires a collaborative effort between functional areas like sales, operations, HR and accounts and the IT department to foster a more efficient and logical flow of value adding activities from customer through the functional areas and back to customer.
Engineering wise, it is a systematic process and series of activities directed towards causing an end result such that one or more inputs will be acted upon to create one or more outputs.
There is a well developed and tested theoretical model for process mangement . It is called the Theory of Constraints. Essentially, a system is not governed by its component but by its constraints. Alternatively, the efficiency of a process or a productive system is not the sum of the efficiencies of its components. The efficiency of the whole is the efficiency of its constrained resources or capacities. Indeed, any productive system where all components are operating at maximum efficiency will always be less efficient. Either we optimize for the whole or the components.
There is a large literature on the subject, an international association of practitioners, and a long and significant collection of succeses.
Process management is very connected to deutero-learning:
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1428-6_260
Also called double-loop learning:
https://organizationallearning9.wordpress.com/single-and-double-loop-learning/#:~:text=%20Basically%2C%20double-loop%20learning%20requires%20three%20skills%3A%20,honesty%20or%20candor%203%20taking%20responsibility%20More%20
It is always about changing the way do things, while doing things.
Administrative activities aimed at defining a process, establishing responsibilities, evaluating process performance, and identifying opportunities for improvement.
Just to add on the theory of constraints - the classic book "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt was first published in 1984 is still a good, light hearted story that takes you through it. I remember, years ago, it was a 'must read' for anyone looking to improve efficiency and service. Hope this is of interest...
It may be a "lighthearted story" but millions of copies have been published in a great variety of languages. I had students from China and I ordered a couple of copies in Chinese for them to read. There are many other books.
He wrote a book with Carol Ptak called Critical Chain which takes apart PERT and other critical path methods. They demonstrate that PERT techniques work to lengthen process times, not shorten them. Other books include Necessary but not Sufficient with Ptak and Schragenheim. Goldratt wrote It's not Luck and The Haystack Syndrome. Theory of Constraints is a systems perspective insofar as
it examines the properties of systems that are NOT simply additive sums of their parts.
A not light-hearted example of TOC thinking. The limiting resource in European and North American economies is always money. Money is always debt-money and exists only as data in the cloud. It is real only because we believe that it is real. If we did not believe in its reality, all of our banks would collapse.
Goldratt has a simple principle: An hour saved on a system's constraint is an hour saved for the whole system. An hour saved on a non-constraint is a mirage; you did not need it anyway.
Let us apply this principle to a common problem in Europe and the US. People are hungry. One in 12 Britons experience hunger. We may be certain that those Britons or Greeks or Americans live within hiking distance of fallow farms that could feed them. In other words, we have underemployed people who can work and fallow land that can produce food for those people. These are unconstrained resources. As long as they do not require, debt-money to mobilize them, they are cost-free. If the Greeks had local drachmas, which could not be traded for debt-money, they could work those farms and eliminate food insecurity. They would be extremely efficient since efficiency is measured in Euro costs and those farms did not consume any Euros.
The logic may be strange but it is sound. As long as efficiency is measured in Euros, any productive work that can be executed without Euros is very efficient.
According to the international standard ISO 9004, Quality management – Quality of an organization – Guidance, to achieve sustained success, organizations deliver value through activities connected within a network of processes. Processes often cross boundaries of functions within the organization. Consistent and predictable results are achieved more effectively and efficiently when the network of processes functions as a coherent system.
Processes are specific to an organization and vary depending on the type, size and level of maturity of the organization. The activities within each process should be determined and adapted to the size and distinctive features of the organization.
Dear Colleagues,
According to the ISO 9004, Quality management – Quality of an organization – Guidance, the organization’s policies and strategy constitute the basis to establish process management. In order to achieve its objectives, the organization should ensure that all its processes are managed proactively, including externally provided processes, to ensure that they are effective and efficient. It is important to optimize the balance between the different purposes and specific objectives of the processes, in alignment with the organization’s objectives. This can be facilitated by adopting a “process approach” that includes establishing processes, interdependencies, constraints and shared resources.
Best Regards,
Radoica
Good question ... My only thought is that perhaps "Process Management" is an attempt to distinguish it from "Project Management." The only distinctions I can see are: (1) A project has a beginning and an end while a process is ongoing, and (2) A project manager probably has less direct authority over the human resources involved in a project than a process manager has over the human resources involved in a process. Just "thinking out loud" so I do look forward to the "real" answer.
In general, there are two groups of management theorists who define process management differently.Some talk about process management to improve an individual process, and others about process management to manage the system.When these two approaches are summarized, it follows: business process management is a set of techniques and tools for improving processes and methods for the integration of the entire organization with the full participation of employees
I believe that the management process is one of the Manager organization’s specialty, he is the most important production component of the production function, his ability is taking risks, make decisions and determine the type of technology in the production process.
Have any of you ever worked in a factory or designed one? Have any of you developed a supply chain or mapped industrial or commercial processes?
There is superb software that has mapped, for example, the movement of all railroad trains in and out of Washington DC. It was used to determine where a railroad service facility could be located.
I do not understand how process management can be discussed without actually looking at processes. For example, I have a paper that suggests an effective organization design for nuclear power plants. There is nothing abstract about the issues. A NPP has between 600 million to a billion potential paths to failure. Most are irrelevant. No one can sort those out. Therefore, an NPP operates under conditions of massive uncertainty. We cannot design or define process management without looking at actual processes and the risks and problems that they entail.
This question appears to be a very simple but it is not so. I have been reading other's opinions since this question was raised. I actually recommend everyone's opinion here as they all are right at their ends. Further, I would like to add ons the following arguments based on own experiences and understanding in respect of Process Management:
1. As per ISO 9001, "A process is any activity or set of activities that use resources to transform inputs into outputs". The environments within which a process takes place are constraints, methods, internal & external operating conditions and associated influencing factors at work place etc that need to be addressed. QMS is completely process approach based management system. This understanding of a Process is actually practical and applicable into all sectors/single/system. I also recommend you to please go through QMS (ISO 9001-2015) documents.
2. The understanding of Management and it's roles are different for different sectors. For QMS, It is all about aligning and documenting the processes, procedures and responsibilities to achieve the organisation's goal, policy and vision. For Business (Which is not ISO) is the set of all actions by a group of people (managers) to achieve the organisation's goal and growth. For Services, It is all about ensuring the processes/ services to meet the customer's requirements satisfactory. For Military, It is all about to maintain the operational readiness all the time within the available resources. So here, the Management actions involved in resource utilisation, optimisation, process improvement, Innovations, R& D, Continual Improvement and so on.
3. Now to understand the Process Management, I would like to submit the following statement with combining the above Para-1&2:
" The Process Management is the set of all actions (As per para 2) that need to be executed and ensured through out to run a process/ processes (As per Para 1) under any influencing conditions to achieve the desired results/ objectives".
I also expect that other distinguished readers or authors may correct my statements for better understanding.
Thank You Sir.
I was worked in the Quality area more than 15 years and for me, all of your Answers are true because the "process management" term differs, from company to company depending on the scope of works and the type of the activities. for me the process is "A set of interrelated or interacting activities that transforms inputs into outputs".
In its simplest form, a process is a series of steps designed to deliver a product or service.
Process management ensures that the product/service satisfactorily meets the customer's key requirements (typically quality, quantity, timeliness, and cost).
Process management works best when the point of control is at the point of action. In other words, the operator (of each step) is in a state of self-control (see Dr. Juran for more details on operator self-control). By training the operator to inspect their own work, you shorten the inspection loop, thereby reducing costs and cycle time.
The goal should always be to meet 100% of the customers' key requirements. While nothing is perfect, having the goal of 100% provides a continuous pull toward higher and higher levels of performance (continuous improvement).
Hello Draguljub and others;
It was very interesting to read through your excellent question and the comments of the esteemed readers on a topic which the International organization for standardization introduced in the 2000 version and lot of efforts have been made worldwide to propagate the "Process Approach" etc. for better management of the organizations.
The fundamentals:
1. "All work gets done through processes only".
2. "No activity by itself can give a result and/or an output".
3. "An activity can contribute towards a result only along with other sequential, inter-related or interacting activities".
It is very difficult to explain the whole matter here.
Since you are serious to know about this, I shall mail you my set of about 30 PPT's. These consist of my (earlier) lectures at BITS PILANI India-for MBA/M.Tech students.
I shall also answer any of you questions.
This is absolutely complimentary (to spread knowledge on quality management). Just, Please contact me at [email protected].
The book written by me "UNDERSTANDING ISO 9001:2015 QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM" contains three chapters on this subject including PDCA. (available at amazon.com and of course at amazon.in)
I shall enjoy sharing my knowledge with a serious learner.
All the best.
Virendra
Process management starts from planning of all the steps needed to achieve the final outcome or goal, taking into consideration the efficiency and the effectiveness to achieve it, moreover the followup and evaluation to get the feedback and replan accordingly again
Hello,
Do you mean BPM, that is to say "Business Process Management" ?
In this case, I can recommand you this good enough Web-link :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilDAYBR5sQU
Have a very nice listening!
Bye
Bruno
There is a difference between Business Process Management and Process Management.
Manage companies through their processes (Process Management): Understand and manage the company through its processes. It is important to identify all the company's processes and analyze their interconnections.
Business Process Management: It is a more detailed activity. One of the organization's processes will be selected and studied to identify inconsistencies and failures and to improve them. a Process Management Method is usually applied.
According to the ISO 9000, Quality management systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary (ISO 9000:2015), consistent and predictable results are achieved more effectively and efficiently when activities are understood and managed as interrelated processes that function as a coherent system.
According to the ISO 9001, Quality management systems - Requirements (ISO 9001:2015), management of the processes and the system as a whole can be achieved using the PDCA cycle with an overall focus on risk-based thinking aimed at taking advantage of opportunities and preventing undesirable results. The application of the process approach in a quality management system enables: a) understanding and consistency in meeting requirements; b) the consideration of processes in terms of added value; c) the achievement of effective process performance; d) improvement of processes based on evaluation of data and information.
Hello Radoica,
You are absolutely right about the results expected to be achieved by following process management.
PDCA is an important base of process management.
But the prerequisite is to understand :
What is a process;
What is meant by process management; and
How to go about 'managing a process'.
Virendra
According to ISO/TS 9002:2016, Quality management systems — Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001:2015, a process is a set of interrelated or interacting activities that use inputs in order to deliver intended results. It also gives a clearer interpretation of implementing process management and managing a process. The guidelines also emphasize that the precise needs of each organization have to be taken into account and the recommendations adapted accordingly, in order to better understand its external and internal contexts, as well as other key factors.
Why all of this focus on ISO documents? It is as if process management has no history or methodology. Process management and design, as we imagine it today, has its origins in a superb management text written by Charles Babbage in 1835. "On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures 1835. He also invented the first mechanical computer. That book is still an excellent read. It has been translated into many languages and, I believe, had a few editions.
More important is the necessity of studying processes from the ground up. We cannot remotely study a process. Nor can we remotely specify a process.
I did20-liter some of my research in a factory that manufactured mayonnaise. The classical approach was to mix mayonaise in 20 liter mixers. The "old man" who founded the firm insisted that that was the only way. He produced excellent products. However, when demand, in the US, grew, his factory began a huge floor filled with 20 liter mixers.
When the company was taken over by a large firm, they proceeded to scale up the process so that thousands of pounds of product were made in huge tanks. 20-liter. Strange things happened in those tanks. The workers told me that some days, they could not control what was happening in parts of the tank. There were "good" days and "bad" days. The "blendtrol" operators became "artists" in managing their processes.
When I was studying other operations in the plant, a company was redesigning the mixing process so that it took place in tiny tubes at extremely high speeds. The processes were measured, adjusted, and controlled many times a second.
Management did not trust the employees or the blendtrol operators. So, they located the controls for the new process in the foreman's office. However, the engineers move back and forth between the blendtrol operator and that office because they had to study what he did in order to design their automated process.
Over and over again, we discover process workarounds that are necessary to make engineered processes work. In my experience, over 60 years, I have never seen factories, service operations, and many other facilities that did not require workarounds.
In one case, the factory had a morning meeting with management to discuss the day's problems and challenges. After the meeting, a second meeting continued without management to discuss all of the rest of the problems. Why was management absent? So they could assert "deniability." It was their way of protecting necessary workarounds.
In the old days, we would discover notebooks where the employees managed the workarounds. They would records what worked and what did not work. This became "tribal knowledge." I also discovered a PC computer in the corner of one plant which was used to run the plant. The main systems chugged along, were fed data, and produced reports that were or were not read. The actual work on the floor was managed by a PC in the corner. That is an advance over notebooks.
In that corporations, in its most rapid manufacturing process, it could make emergency parts in eight days. On the other hand, if the expediters came in after midnight, the machinists could produce the same part in 8 hours. Most of the eight days was "process management" and extremely high overhead costs.
Remote definition and control of process management does not make sense.
Thank you Mr.Eli Berniker for higly meaningful feedback.
Kind regards.
process management is a discipline in operations management in which people use various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company's business processes is process management
Here are some more relevant views on process management. One of the leading American and international scientists for improving business processes and the author of many books, James Harrington claims that processes play the key role in achieving success, indicating that it has to be senior management that creates the vision and the guidelines, a team then works to resolve problems, some associates can provide creativity, but that it is the processes that actually enable the performing of tasks inside an organization. On the basis of a three-year study of the organization of companies in both Sweden and the USA, a famous Swedish expert for processes, Olof Rentzhog, came to the conclusion that results primarily depend on improving processes, that a process actually creates the results which have to be managed and improved, and that, as long as there are variations in the way the job is performed there will also be variations in the result. For Rentzhog a process is a chain of activities that in a recurrent flow creates value for the customer. Shigeo Shingo, one of the creators of the astonishing Japanese development in the post–World War II period, added the following recommendation to the “new production philosophy”: The general rule is: first study and rationalize processes, then consider options
As we have already said, a process may be defined as a set of interrelated or interacting activities which transforms inputs into outputs. Consequently, each activity, or a set of activities which receives inputs and transforms them into outputs may be considered a process. To function efficiently, organizations have to identify numerous interrelated and mutually interacting processes. Inputs into a process are usually outputs from other processes. Consistent and predictable results are recorded more effectively and efficiently when activities are explained and managed as an interrelated process functioning as a single coherent system. Understanding how results appeared using such a system, including all its processes, resources, management and interrelations, enables the organization to optimize its performance.
The process management is and overburdened (and therefore vague) term. It also consists of two vague enough terms used in many scientific fields. From management (economics) perspective the main elements of a process are as follows:
1. Goal - expected result from the process execution;
2. Activities - complex or atomic actions, including technical, monitoring and steering;
3. Actors - people executing activities;
4. Start, end, scope, etc. preferences related to the activities and actors.
The goal, as well as process improvement toward effectiveness and efficiency can not be given by the process itself - they are set-up of an organisational or theoretic environment.
In this regard, from my point of view, process management can not be considered itself, but only in context of some methodological or organisational framework.
The framework gave rules for goals and improvement set-up for process management, as well for identification of the four elements above, intermediate products and their measurement. Probably the first such frameworks are the Total Quality Management and Project Management.
There are many other concepts based or focused on processes management like Toyota Production System, SIX SIGMA, Business Process Management, Theory of Constraints, Balanced Scorecards and variations.
Thus, there is no "universal" process management definition - it can be given just partially in regard to the broader management concept in use.
Hello Dragoljuv,
I had sent you the set of PPT's on process management as desired by you.
I have not received EVEN AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FROM YOU, not to talk of any of your comments on the same.
Have you just stored these or have taken the trouble to glance through /study the PPT's?
Thank you Mr.Virendra kumar Gupta ,
your work is very useful and interesting.
Kind regards.
There is an assumption in these discussions that variation can be eliminated from processes. That, generally, leads to a second assumption that control is equivalent to efficiency. Both are wrong. Variations are inherent in all processes. That is a necessary result of physics. Boltzmann's formulation of entropy makes that clear. Second, and perhaps more important, is the problem of "controlling costs" which is a mantra among process control specialists. It makes sense until one asks, "What are the costs of control?" far too often, the costs of control are many times the costs that have been controlled. The costs of control are embedded in overhead costs. There are firms where overhead costs are five to ten times direct labor costs. Managing others is far more costly than those arrangements where people manage themselves.
Dear Dragoljub Šarović,
Thank you for answering this question.
Product or service industries.....process is common! Even in normal life.
Just See Former Indian Cricket Team Mr.MS Dhoni about success on process management quotes. Source: google Images.
Dear Mr. Šarović,
I think in opposite – the answer to question ‘what is the process management’ is not difficult to find. In my works I use many definitions by different authors – naturally different. In my opinion the process management is a main approach to describe and to analyze the management. The other basic approaches are mechanistic, functional, non-linear, and eclectic.
Inputs and outputs relations. Not only material, but managerial and cultural-spiritual too.
Girdileri çıktılara dönüştüren süreci yönetmekle ve yürütmekle ilgili faaliyetlerdir.
Currently, there is several literature on process management. In my opinion, managing processes is, firstly, identifying the organization's critical process. Then, study the process, map it, identify your customers' requirements, analyze whether the process meets these requirements. If the customer's requirements are not being met, identify what is causing the problem. Develop solutions to eliminate the root causes of problems. Establish goals for process improvement. Create an action plan, and then apply this action plan. Wait for the results to be consolidated and make a new analysis to verify that the goals have been achieved. This must be a continuous and virtuous cycle.
Process management is much improved when we apply the Theory of Constraints (TOC) model. If all the process steps are operating at peak efficiency, it is certain that the process is not at peak efficiency. Why? Because a system is governed by its constraints, i.e. the element or elements whose capacity limits the entire system. Only the efficiency of the constraints determines system efficiency. The fact that there non constraints are not at peak efficiency is irrelevant.
Dragoljub Šarović
That is an entirely different question. The quality of a process outcome depends on a variety of factors that may be independent from the efficiency of that process. Managing a process for efficiency need not contradict managing it for quality. The opposite may be true. If poor quality products arrive at the constrained resources, machines, or equipment, the capacity of the constraint is reduced and, therefore, the capacity of the entire operation is reduced.
Dear Eli Berniker ,
That's true in itself. Otherwise, the implementation of a Quality management system (QMS) based on PDCA cycle, process approach, and risk based thinking ensures continuous process improvement and so called zero defect( for example, one error per million products.).
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