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TOOLS FOR RE-ENGINEERING YOUR PROCESSES

Business process re-engineering aims to change the way is work is done in order to achieve organizational goals such as reducing costs, improving customer and employee satisfaction, and increasing market share. Given the wide variety of processes and end goals, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach for process re-engineering. This article provides an overview of seven popular approaches to help you choose the best-fit tool for your re-engineering needs.

Customer Journey Mapping A customer journey map is a depiction of a customer’s key interactions with the organization. Journey maps incorporate data about customer behavior, feelings, and motivations for each interaction or touchpoint. They are typically tailored to a specific customer experience and a specific product or solution. While customer journey mapping was initially designed to help organizations better serve external customers, this approach can also be applied to internal customers (i.e., employees).

The customer journey can be presented as a text-based timeline, but most organizations depict customer journey maps visually. Maps can be more or less complex, depending on the information that needs to be integrated and the number of touchpoints between the business and customer. Common journey map components (Figure 1) include the following.

1. Persona: a fictional character that distills information about a specific customer demographic.

2. Phases: core stages of the customer journey (e.g., awareness, onboarding, order, delivery, and support)

3. Touchpoints: moments of interaction between the customer and organization.

4. Customer goals, emotions, and pain points: what the customer wants and feels at key phases and touchpoints.

5. Customer questions: common questions that arise for customers at certain phases (e.g., “Which product is right for me?”).

6. Business goals/intention: what the organization aims to achieve at each phase or touchpoint.

Must Have:

» An understanding of the

organization’s mission, goals, and

customer needs

» Defined processes in need of

improvement, their business

impacts, and process owners

Should Have:

» Overarching business process

management approach

» Prioritization methodology for

improvement initiatives

» Process improvement team (can

be ad hoc)

» Communication and training plan

for rollout of improvement

» Measurement approach to gauge

the business impact of

improvements

Nice to Have:

» Dedicated process management/

improvement staff

» Long-term, strategic continuous

improvement plan

Are You Ready to

Re-engineer?

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7. Measures: data insights for key phases and touchpoints (e.g., conversion rate, net promoter score, resolution rate).

8. Departments involved: to prevent a siloed understanding of the journey, maps often include which departments are involved at key phases and touchpoints.

9. Systems used: can include internal and customer-facing technologies and platforms.

BEST FIT FOR Customer journey mapping is a smart choice for any people-related process challenge. For external customers, that includes scenarios such as failure to convert leads, customers not responding as desired to a new product or service, customer dissatisfaction, and lapsed customers. Internally, people-related processes challenges may include employee productivity issues, turnover, and discrepancies between process execution and process documentation. Journey mapping humanizes processes and helps identify insights that aren’t always captured by traditional tools such as process maps.

Customer journey mapping is also beneficial when you need to apply an outside-in perspective to a current process. If you keep hearing, “That’s just how we’ve always done it,” that’s a good indication that you should consider this approach. Both the process of creating maps and the resulting maps can help break down long-held beliefs about how work should be done.

Common Customer Journey Map Components

Figure 1

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Design Thinking Design thinking is a human-centric, solutions-based approach to problem solving that enables organizations to ask better questions and generate more compelling solutions. This methodology originated in the field of design and stems from the emphatic design approach. Emphatic design is founded on the idea that most people design products and ser-vices without knowing what the client really wants or needs. Emphatic design methods—like observation, interviews,

PROS

» Identifies gaps and hidden pain points. Tracing the

customer experience shows where and why on-

paper processes break down or don’t generate ex-

pected results.

» Builds empathy for the customer. Journey mapping

enhances the organization’s understanding and ap-

preciation of customers, be they internal or exter-

nal.

» Engages people in process. The process of creating

journey maps—and the resulting maps—can be

highly creative, interesting, and even fun.

» Breaks down silos. Journey mapping helps all func-

tions and business units see their role in the cus-

tomer experience.

CONS

» Susceptible to bias. Organizations may be tempted to

cherry-pick customers and journeys that align with pre

-determined improvement ideas.

» Difficult to incorporate external factors. Journey maps

focus on two things: the customer, and the organiza-

tion. As a result, they may miss important external fac-

tors that shape customer behavior and sentiment.

» Customer insights do not always reveal the best solu-

tion. Customers may have hidden needs and desires

that cannot be discovered by looking at their past ex-

periences and behaviors. As Henry Ford famously said,

“If I asked people what they wanted, they would have

said a faster horse.”

Design Thinking Methodology

Figure 2

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immersion, and guiding concepts—allow designers to link unknown or intangible customer needs with their design ca-pabilities in order to provide optimal customer value.

Design thinking incorporates the core elements of emphatic design with the need for experimentation, speed, and via-bility testing to allow teams to quickly develop people-focused solutions. Most commonly, design thinking methodolo-gy is structured as a five-step process (Figure 2).

Design thinking incorporates a wealth of tools and approaches that help teams work thorough each step. These include well-known techniques like interviewing and brainstorming as well as approaches that may be less familiar to process professionals, like analogous empathy (where participants relate unfamiliar customers or scenarios to similar, more familiar ones in order tot better understand new design challenges). The number of design thinking approaches contin-ues to grow as design thinkers generate new ways to understand user needs, generate ideas, and bring ideas to life. For an overview of approaches associated with each step, see Introduction to Design Thinking.

BEST FIT FOR Design thinking is an excellent way to get to the root of complex and ill-defined problems. If your organization is faced with a “wicked problem”—that is, a business challenge with incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements—then design thinking might be the right approach for you. Design thinking gives teams the time, permission, and space to truly dive deep into a problem as well as a big toolbox of approaches to solve it.

Design thinking is also good fit for process problems that require top-to-bottom re-engineering. This approach offers a structured way for teams to explore new solutions without getting bogged down in the details of existing process docu-mentation. This can open the door to engage in disruptive—rather than incremental—innovation.

Like customer journey mapping, design thinking is also a wise choice for tackling people-related process problems. (In fact, design thinking often incorporates customer journey mapping into the empathize and define phases.) Both ap-proaches force process teams to focus on people and their experiences, rather than technology tools or process refine-ments. This helps process teams get out of their own heads, look beyond the improvements that seem appealing or exciting, and prioritize those that will make the biggest impact on customers.

PROS

» People buy into what they help build. End-users

are involved throughout the design thinking pro-

cess, which means they’re much more likely to

adopt the end result.

» Iteration enables agility (and cost savings). Design

thinking’s iterative approach allows teams to rapidly

generate and test multiple ideas, which often helps

identify solutions faster and at a lower overall cost.

» Sparks innovation. Design thinking encourages cre-

ativity and disruption in ways that might not be pos-

sible with more traditional improvement approach-

es like Lean or Six Sigma.

CONS

» Can be dismissed as a fad. There’s a lot of buzz

around design thinking, which can lead some stake-

holders to think it’s a passing fad that’s not worth their

time.

» Requires time investment. It can be a challenge to

secure the customers’ time to participate throughout

the process, especially if there are multiple rounds of

ideation, prototyping, and testing.

» Ideation phase can be a sticking point. Some teams

may want to move too quickly (dismissing or seizing

upon early ideas before exploring all options), while

others may feel like they have to find the “perfect”

idea before they move on to prototyping.

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Process Frameworks A process framework is a means of grouping processes into appropriately related categories. This creates a common language to discuss, benchmark, and organize the work that businesses perform. There are different process frame-works including those that are specific to certain industries and functions. By aligning your organization’s processes to a standard framework, you can more easily compare and assess your processes in relation to established metrics and best practices.

Most process frameworks break work down hierarchically. This is true of APQC’s Process Classification Framework® (PCF), one of the most widely used process frameworks in the world. The PCF includes 13 high-level Categories of work, each of which breaks down into increasingly granular levels called Process Group, Process, Activity, and Task (Figure 3).

PCF Levels with Examples

Figure 3

In the figure above, the numbers offer two ways of navigating the framework. The numbers in red are called process element identification numbers. Each process element in the PCF has a unique identification number, which allows for benchmarking even when process element names and definitions change. The numbers in front of the process element name (e.g., “4.3.1”) are called hierarchy numbers. With hierarchy numbers, you can easily locate a single process ele-ment by following the hierarchy.

It’s important to note that process frameworks, including the PCF, are not intended to serve as a visual representation of the flow of work. They can be used to create visual representations such as process maps, flow charts, and swim lane diagrams. But in and of themselves, frameworks lack the additional information traditionally contained within these visualizations.

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BEST FIT FOR Process frameworks are a huge asset in process definition and management. If the organization lacks process definitions or a management approach, a framework like the PCF can provide a baseline to get started. Frameworks are also a good foundation for enterprise-wide modeling efforts such as enterprise archi-tecture. Frameworks provide a consistent language to bring all the models together, and that language maps directly to the way that work is performed within the organization. This reduc-es the effort needed to develop and manage a variety of en-terprise models and can help rationalize the impact of develop-ment or change across models.

Frameworks are also key for integrating benchmarking into pro-cess improvement. If you want to compare performance across your organization or against other companies, you need to have a clear definition of what you want to compare. Frameworks offer a way to objectively benchmark within an organization and against other companies.

PROS

» Standardization is the best foundation for im-

provement. Time and again, APQC has found that

the best practice is to understand, standardize, and

document processes before beginning the work of

process improvement. You can achieve small im-

provement wins without doing so, but broader im-

provement requires established governance and

accountability to be sustainable.

» Creates structure to assess the current state.

Frameworks make it easier to spot gaps and redun-

dancies, understand process variations, and estab-

lish a current-state baseline for the performance

and value of processes.

» Aids prioritization. Framework hierarchies help or-

ganizations determine at which level a process

should be improved. For example, there may be a

small issue at the task or activity level that, if fixed,

could solve a bigger process problem.

CONS

» Requires time and commitment. Adapting and

adopting a framework often requires significant input

from stakeholders, especially if it’s an enterprise-wide

framework.

» Provides structure, but not all the answers. Frame-

works help organizations identify and prioritize im-

provements, but other tools are needed to determine

exactly how to make those improvements.

Even smaller organizations will be well-

served by starting with standardization

and process documentation before

improvement. Doing so helps the

organization get a handle on the

current state of its processes, which

provides a starting point as it begins

working toward a future state. Simply

put, it’s best to know where you are

before you start thinking about where

you want to go

-Holly Lyke-Ho-Gland

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Simulations Process simulation is a model-based representation used to simulate and test process improvement solutions. Typi-cally, simulations are used for technical processes in industries such as chemicals, energy, mining, and manufactur-ing. There are many simulation software packages available, and some are best-suited to certain industries and busi-ness needs. With advanced software, organizations can create “digital twins” (complete, working digital replicas of physical entities that incorporate live data from those physical entities) that allow them to explore potential adjust-ments and improvements that need to be made at any time.

To use process simulation, you first need to build a process model (i.e., a computer representation of the process), which in turn requires:

» process mapping;

» training the process team on modeling and simulation software;

» securing and ensuring the accuracy of relevant data;

» consultation with process and program owners, subject matter experts, and process workers to verify that pro-

cesses and physical spaces are accurately represented;

» testing and verification of the process model with stakeholders.

Although process simulation involves a considerable amount of prework, the end result (Figure 4) is powerful. It al-lows the organization to test multiple scenarios, determine whether goals can be feasibly achieved, and identify which improvement opportunities will generate the most desirable results.

Process Simulation Example

Figure 4

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BEST FIT FOR Process simulation is a smart choice for exploring improvement opportunities in dangerous, costly, or otherwise high-impact processes. Simulation allows organizations to safely mimic, and thus plan for, worst case scenarios. It also al-lows organizations to safely explore adjustments that, if implemented in real time, could result in disruptions and cost escalations. Additionally, it can help organizations make decisions about whether high-cost purchases (e.g., new equip-ment) will generate desired results.

Process simulation is also a good fit for improving processes that already require significant monitoring. This means that the organization should already have the accurate data needed to build the model. Once the simulation is in place, it will facilitate ongoing monitoring efforts and make it easier for organizations to adjust their monitoring to meet new key performance indicators and changes in the business environment.

Additionally, process simulation is useful for understanding and improving end-to-end processes. It allows stakeholders to visually see the process, which makes it easier to identify where timing issues, redundant handoffs, ineffective staff allocations, and other inefficiencies create problems across teams and functions.

Process Mining Process mining is a process analysis method automatically generates process visualizations based on real-life data. Pro-cess mining tools integrate information from “event logs” in enterprise transaction systems such as ERP and CRM to generate graphic depictions of how work was actually done (Figure 5). There are many process mining solutions availa-ble, some of which are free and open source. These tools can process large data sets and can be applied to any process that leaves a digital trail.

Process mining offers many advantages, first and foremost of which is that presents a truly objective view of the cur-rent-state process. There is no need to interview stakeholders or argue over the accuracy of existing process documen-tation when everyone can see a visualization built on real-life data. Because these tools can incorporate many different data sources, process mining can also help connect disparate processes and systems. This can help the process team identify redundancies and pinpoint the most fruitful opportunities for improvement and process automation. Addition-ally, process mining can be used post-improvement to identify new exceptions and monitor performance.

PROS

» Can test multiple what-if scenarios without dis-

rupting operations. Simulation allows organizations

to experiment with different situations and im-

provement ideas without interrupting the business.

» Offers tangible insight into deeply complex prob-

lems. When a process problem involves multiple

inputs, simulation can help determine which inputs

need to be altered to achieve the desired output.

» Allows for incremental and ongoing improvement.

Simulation allows the organization to easily explore

additional improvement opportunities—and to pre-

pare for new scenarios—at any time.

CONS

» Requires specialized software and training. Success-

ful deployment of this technology typically requires a

high degree of analytical, mathematical, and technical

skill as well as training in the specific software pack-

age.

» Mistakes can multiply. A single bad data point, inac-

curate process map, missing decision rule, or other

error/omission can result in an erroneous and mislead-

ing model.

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Process Mining1

Figure 5

BEST FIT FOR Process mining requires event logs with, at minimum, a case ID number, time stamps, and activity. Thus, it is typically best suited for processes that touch major enterprise systems such as CRM, ERP, workflow, and ticketing systems. However, process mining can also be applied to custom systems and spreadsheets. Even legacy systems may produce log data that can be used for process mining.

Process mining is a good fit for analyzing complex and inter-dependent processes, especially those that cross multiple functions and systems. Documenting such processes in other ways (e.g., workshops) can be extremely tedious and time-consuming. Process mining allows the organization to quickly understand how all the tasks and activities in a complex process come together.

PROS

» Fact-based. Process mining eliminates a lot of the

guesswork and assumptions that lead current-state

assessments astray.

» Good for identifying bottlenecks and redundan-

cies. Process mining can help organizations visually

spot unnecessary steps and time delays.

» Supports digitalization. Process mining is a major

asset when organizations pursue process re-

engineering as part of their digital transformation

strategy.

CONS

» Garbage in = garbage out. As with process automa-

tion, if you input bad data you will not achieve desired

results and may even end up doing more harm than

good.

» Shows where problems are, but not how to fix them.

Process mining shows where problems lie, but it does

not always reveal root causes (especially human-

related root causes) or how to fix them.

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Workshops Workshops are group discussions wherein participants share experiences, discuss ideas, and ideally arrive at a shared understanding of a concept and plan of action. Workshops can be conducted virtually, but they are usually more effec-tive in-person. Whether the workshop is held in a physical or virtual space, it should include:

» a designated facilitator to guide and moderate the discussion,

» a notetaker to capture results as well as “parking lot” ideas (points that are important and may require action, but

are outside the scope of the current discussion),

» physical or virtual sticky notes and/or whiteboards for brainstorming, and

» a diverse group of participants that can speak to different aspects of the topic at hand.

In process re-engineering, workshops typically combine a current state assessment with process mapping and estab-lishing future state efforts (Figure 6).

Current State Assessment Workshop

Figure 6

Step 1: Collect Information » Target function to send over any relevant documents (e.g., templates, standard operating procedures, process

maps). If the function does not have documentation, it can use interviews and surveys to collect information.

» Identify workshop participants (e.g., subject matter experts, technical specialists, upstream and downstream stake-

holders).

Step 2: Assess Current State » The facilitator explains the purpose of assessing the current state, then leads a process mapping exercise using the

information collected in Step 1.

» This results in an initial current-state process map.

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Step 3: Determine Future State » The group discusses how the current process does and does not meet their needs and the purpose of the process

work (e.g., automation, cost or efficiency improvements, standardization).

» Through this discussion, the team identifies new processes, redundant processes, and improvement opportunities.

The facilitator helps the group document their pain points and flag “low-hanging-fruit” improvements for immedi-

ate solutions.

Step 4: Prioritize and Plan » The group prioritizes improvement projects based on impact and resource availability.

» This results in an improvement portfolio.

BEST FIT FOR Workshops are best suited to process work that is narrow in scope, such re-engineering a specific process category. When the work is narrow, it’s easier to identify a relatively small group of stakeholders who can represent different perspectives in the workshop. It’s also more likely that those stakeholders will have a common understanding of terms and needs, which will allow them to move forward quickly.

Workshops are also a good choice when the organization needs to secure a high level of employee buy-in or standard-ize efforts across multiple groups. Workshops are a venue for diverse perspectives to be heard and seen. They surface hidden pain points, employee-created shortcuts and fixes, and other process execution issues. They also offer all partic-ipants—not just leaders and process experts—the opportunity to share improvement ideas and contribute to the fu-ture state vision of the process.

In a nutshell, workshops allow stakeholders to “get it all out on the table.” Every pain point and improvement idea will be recognized, even if it cannot be fixed or implemented right away. This builds empathy and a common vision of what’s best for everyone involved in the process.

PROS

» Captures a wide array of information. Workshop

discussions provide insight into root causes, im-

provement solutions, stakeholders, and potential

subject matter experts that the process team may

not have been aware of before.

» Identifies quick wins. Workshops often surface easy-

to-implement solutions to process problems.

» Builds standardization and buy-in. With the right

stakeholders at the table—and a good facilitator—

participants walk away with a shared understanding

of the current state and a vision for the future.

CONS

» Can be time-consuming. The process team will need

to identify, coordinate, and interview a wide range of

stakeholders in order to select participants and pre-

pare materials. Scheduling in-person workshops can

be a challenge. Sometimes, multiple workshops ses-

sions may be required.

» May fail without strong facilitation. When a few par-

ticipants with strong social capital (i.e., managers)

dominate the discussion, important details and ideas

may be pushed aside or not surfaced at all. This can

lead the group in the wrong direction and prevent par-

ticipants from feeling engaged.

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Automation Process automation is the use of software “bots” to mimic human action and connect multiple, fragmented systems together through automation. Process automation enables systems to carry out high-volume, multistep actions—without manual intervention by employees—to capture information, manipulate data, or trigger responses in other systems. The term process automation is often used interchangeably with robotic process automation (RPA). However, the distinction is that RPA is server-based and combines process steps with decision models or business rules with little to no human oversight. There’s also intelligent automation, a more advanced form of process automation that incor-porates machine learning or artificial intelligence for decision points throughout the process.

Process automation allows computers to take over tedious tasks and frees up human workers to do more value-added work. As such, this tool may seem like a silver bullet and quick fix for all process problems—but it’s not. Automation requires a strong process foundation, a clear strategy, and significant forethought in order to generate desired business value. APQC found that a majority of best-practice organizations apply the following seven-step methodology to auto-mation projects (Figure 7).

Automation Methodology

Figure 7

The execution of the above methodology may vary, as some organizations combine steps or conduct certain steps on an annual basis. However, our research makes clear that successful organizations take automation projects seriously by developing business cases, doing a deep dive into each process automation candidate, and performing rigorous testing before deploying bots into production. In addition, many best-practice organizations have dedicated automation teams or steering committees to ensure automation delivers maximum value across the business. They also create automa-tion project categories and portfolios to facilitate prioritization, monitoring, and valuation.

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BEST FIT FOR Process automation is best bit for high-volume, transactional processes that have clear business rules and few excep-tions. This enables a simple, straightforward use of automation with little risk and high economy of scale. Automating exceptions, such as the handling of special high-risk claims, usually does not pay off because they only happen a few times and may require special adjustments to the bot.

Automation is also a good fit for processes that involve moving structured data or information from one system to an-other. While RPA and even intelligent automation can be applied to processes that are contained within one system, one of the greatest advantages of this technology is that it can operate across systems through the software’s presen-tation layer. It’s best if the data is straightforward text or numeric data such as would be contained in a spreadsheet or word document. Optical character recognition (OCR) tools can be applied to collect data in scanned documents such as receipts, contracts, and handwritten notes, but OCR is not perfect, so human oversight may still be needed.

Automation can deliver significant value for processes with high error rates and low process adherence. In other words, when a process is so tedious that employees make mistakes or develop their own shortcuts, it’s often a good candidate for automation.

1 Pedro Robledo, “Process Mining plays an essential role in Digital Transformation,” Albatian Innovation Consulting. Retrieved April 29, 2020.

PROS

» Generates cost savings. Automation often reduces

FTE hours, removes waste, and improves cycle time.

» Improves quality. Automation reduces errors that

occur from manually transferring data and improves

overall data management.

» Makes employees and customers happy. Automa-

tion frees up employees’ time to do more strategic,

value added work such as providing more and better

services to customers.

CONS

» Garbage in = garbage out. When you build an auto-

mation on bad data, missing decision rules, or an oth-

erwise broken process, the end result will not deliver

business value. In fact, the automation may create

more problems than the manual process.

» More advanced forms require expertise. While entry

-level process automation can be relatively easy to

implement, more complex applications of RPA and

intelligent automation require coding expertise and

ongoing tuning that the organization may not have the

capability to do in-house.

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ABOUT APQC APQC helps organizations work smarter, faster, and with greater confidence. It is the world’s foremost authority in benchmarking, best practices, process and performance improvement, and knowledge management. APQC’s unique structure as a member-based nonprofit makes it a differentiator in the marketplace. APQC partners with more than 500 member organizations worldwide in all industries. With more than 40 years of experience, APQC remains the world’s leader in transforming organizations. Visit us at www.apqc.org, and learn how you can make best practices your practices.