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Quality management has become one of the most important sectors within the business realm. Considering that this particular sector deals with maintaining quality, increasing quality, and determining how to achieve higher/better quality it can be the determining factor within the success of a corporation. The main position within a company that deals with quality management the most is the managerial position. There have been many influential individuals throughout the ages who have changed the definition of quality management and quality leadership but the main idea remains the same.

A. Edwards Deming is world renowned for his opinions and advice revolving around productivity, management philosophies, the quality improvement process and his ideas revolving around establishing beneficial quality. He created 14 important points for managers to be aware of and they include:

1. Learning how to dissolve any barriers between departments in the company.
2. First management should learn their particular responsibilities and then take on a leadership role.
3. Establishing a strong supervisory schedule is beneficial to help machines, people, and other technological aspects to complete their job more efficiently.
4. Maintaining the quality of service and increasingly the amount of productivity is exponentially beneficial.
5. Every corporation should implement educational programs that allow employees to have room to self improve.

These aspects are all fundamental in the assurance of quality management.

As with the key points developed by W. Edwards Deming, there are a variety of different principles that are wrapped within quality management. These principles are regularly used by upper management in order to improve the overall performance of their company and employees. Some of these principles are:

1. Leadership
Establishing a strong leadership sector can drastically improve a company and guide it to positive direction.

2. Involvement of Individuals
Involving every person who is a part of the organization can drastically benefit the company as per the abundance of abilities that will be added to the process.

3. Focussing on the Customer
Understanding and answering the customer needs is of the utmost importance considering that customers are what keep organizations in business.

4. Factual processes in decision making
With the implementation of analysis and hard information, predictions and assessments can be made efficiently.

5. Continual product improvement
Improvement is what keeps an organization appealing to the customer and to investors. Showing a constant stream of improvement shows how versatile and dependable the company is.

6. Beneficial relationships between the company and the suppliers
Companies rely on suppliers and vice versa therefore establishing beneficial relationships can make the business process far easier.

7. Having a systematic approach to management
Understanding the systematic workings within an organization can help to create a strong managerial structure.

Quality management is of the utmost importance within organizations as per the fact that it is one of the main reasons for the success of a company. With the implementation of strong quality management, there is a higher chance that the company will show profit rather than decrease in overall value.

All businesses to some extent will look to excel at a number of activities – for example revenue and profit generation, customer satisfaction and delivering value to stakeholders and shareholders – to achieve all of this and more the business needs to rely on its “engine room” its internal business processes in order to succeed.

There two key types of of internal business processes operations based and serviced based.

For many organizations they will see their products “manufactured” in a wave of activity – this will utilize various operational related process for example production and assembly – these typically require standardized and consistent processes that deliver both efficiency and value every time they are used.

There are often a variety of service-based support processes that are required for the organization to function and for its operational processes to be executed effectively – personnel, finance, procurement for example. There are then sales processes to consider – both from a sales capture activity and the post sales services.

Most businesses will be strategically structured into functional silos – each with the accountability for delivering their internal processes to a satisfactory standard (for example the purchase of raw materials to fuel a production line). Some businesses opt to utilize an integrated team approach (sometimes referred to as an IPT or integrated project team). Such teams contain different functional support and processes for a particular product or value stream.

Internal business processes can often be seen as a ” value creation wave” where value is incrementally added by various processes and functions until the product is in a state whereupon which it can be provided (sold) to the customer. The very nature of a process (taking an input then performing activities on it to transform it into an output) means that there is often a significant reliance between functional groups within organizations (think for example the reliance on the procurement function by the manufacturing team). The inter-dependency and interfaces are often a key focus when looking at process improvement opportunities.

Role of KPI’s in measuring Internal business processes

The importance of internal processes often requires some form of monitoring. This is often carried out through the deployment of key performance indicators (KPI’s). Most businesses are well served through the deployment of traditional KPI’s often focusing on Cost, Quality and Delivery – these measures are typically straightforward to deploy and offer a standard mechanism upon which to benchmark the organization.

Internal business processes as competitive advantage

Most organizations will operate within a competitive market with various other organizations vying for a share in the market. The success of the organization in such an environment will be dependent on a number of factors primarily

• The nature of the product and its ability to satisfy the customers needs
• The efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s internal business processes to deliver the product consistently

This second point should not be overlooked – process effectiveness can be a key factor in achieving competitive advantage (consider for example the time a customer waits for a product to be delivered how that may influence consumer choice).

While all businesses will recognize that market share, revenue and customer satisfaction are of vital importance- this can’t be achieved without constant focus on ensuring that the business has effective processes and systems.  In today’s marketplace competitors will consistently look to innovate and improve if your organization looks to standing still and be complacent its more than likely your business will suffer.

So a structured approach to business process improvement is key  – but what is it and where do you start?

For a lot of businesses – process improvement and monitoring is important enough that the organization employs a functional group (often a QA or Quality function) who are responsible for tuning business processes, rolling out tools and techniques into the workforce to drive continuous improvement and innovation.

Improving business processes is usually centred on one of the following activities:

a)    Reducing errors

b)   Improving productivity/efficiency

c)    Cost reduction

d)   Lead time reduction

e)    Increasing value add to the customer

Clearly process improvement requires a level of understanding regarding the performance of existing processes and businesses will need to be cognisant of this and look to have an established set of KPI’s (Key performance indicators) that provide a “under the hood” view of business performance so that issues are highlighted and the improvement team knows what areas to focus on.

Tools for business process improvement 

There are a variety of tools and techniques that can be used to improve business processes for example:

Seven wastes – The Seven wastes is a tool often used in Lean to determine weaknesses in business processes – i.e. excess processing, inventory, travelling etc it can be used to identify areas for improvement.

Value Add Analysis – This is a technique that can be used to determine the value that the process is contributing to the customer.  Each step within the process is analyzed to identify where its adding value – where it is not the process improvement team will attempt to eradicate that step.

Aligning processes to business objectives – this is usually a root and branch review of the organizations activities to ensure that processes are contributing positively to the businesses key objectives – where they aren’t processes can either be eradicated or re-engineered.

Benchmarking – This is an activity that involves analyzing performance of one organization’s processes against an other and offers an easy to implement method of adopting innovation from outside the organization.

Six Sigma – While actually a management strategy – Six sigma offers a statistical approach to reducing errors in business processes.

Summary

Whatever the method used process improvement is an integral activity that most businesses will utilize to provide a competitive advantage increasing margin and reducing cost.

All companies must have some form of organization to function. The term “organizational structure” refers to the framework within which a company arranges its hierarchy of authority, assigns duties and responsibilities and controls the flow of information. The type of structure depends upon the type of company and what goods/services it provides. There are three different ways a company can organize itself, and each has its own particular benefits and deficits.

Functional Organization

Businesses that use Functional Organization group each portion of the business according to purpose. For example, there will be a marketing department, a sales department, a human recourses department and others. Employees within this framework perform sets of specialized tasks, so that they become specialists in their own areas of expertise. This results in good efficiency within a group. The coordination and specialization of tasks are centralized: the hierarchy consists of a president in charge of the organization, along with numerous supervisors who report to the president.

This type of organization is best used for producers of standardized goods and services; it is able to handle large volume. Also, customers need to depend upon the stability of the good or service offered: they need a standard range of products that are not continually changing. A drawback to this form of organization is that it is difficult to sustain communication between departments working separately; this can make businesses slow and inflexible. Companies using functional organizational structure need to work to ensure effective communication both vertically and horizontally within the organization.

Divisional Organization

Divisional organization is also called “product structure.” Businesses using this type of organizational structure group each function into separate divisions. For example, there may be different offices in different places, or different sales teams assigned to different areas. Typically, with divisional organization, each division has all the resources it needs to function independently and to satisfy customer demands. Like functional organization, divisional organization results in a high degree of specialization within divisions. Divisional organizational structure is best for businesses that offer a variety of different products and services, or that conduct business in several different markets. An advantage of this method is that customer needs can be met rapidly. However, divisional organizational structure is costly because of its size and scope. And, like the communication problems of functional organizational structure, communication is hindered because the employees in different divisions are not working together.

Matrix Organization

Matrix organization is a hybrid of functional and divisional organization; it takes advantage of the benefits that these approaches offer. This approach groups employees by function and product. The hierarchical structure of businesses organized along these lines is made up of a president or CEO, a vice president, and several general managers. After this, the business is broken down into branches, which may have their own human resources, accounting, sales and other departments. However, unlike functional and divisional organization, the branches do not work independently. The branches work as teams across all departments to accomplish tasks. This teamwork promotes a sense of shared authority and responsibility. A deficit of this system is that it can create power struggles because areas of the company have dual management: a functional manager and a divisional manager at the same level. These two managers may have overlapping territories.

A company’s organizational structure provides the foundation for standard operating procedure and routines. It determines who has authority and makes decisions. The organizational structure can help or harm a business; businesses need to have an appropriate organizational structure to maximize efficiency and profit.

Microsoft Office has long since been imbedded with a rudimentary ability to design and imbed flow charts and process maps. This is not just limited to Excel – using the same techniques you can design and embed flow charts in MS Word as well.

What is a flow chart

A flow chart is a simple but effective business At its heart is that it is a series of symbols (often joined or connected together) tool that allows you to pictorially represent a process or activity.

The basic ingredients for a flow chart is a series of symbols and connectors arranged in a structured way describing the process being mapped.

What flow chart functionality is there Excel?

Whilst its never going to rival the functionality in dedicated drawing and design packages (such as Microsoft Visio) what it does offer is a simple and rudimentary tool in quickly designing flow charts and process maps – its got a limited but useable palette of icons – which can be presented pretty much however the user requires.

How to use Word to create Flow Charts

Creating flow charts in word is fairly straightforward – you can utilize the Insert – Shapes Menu option – there is a palette of shapes termed flow charts that you can then choose from.

The Shapes option in Excel is equipped with 26 flow chart symbols which include

• Process
• Alternate Process
• Decision
• Data
• Predefined Process
• Internal Storage
• Document
• Multi-Document
• Terminator
• Preparation
• Manual Input
• Manual Operation
• Connector
• Off-page connector
• Card
• Punched tape
• Summing Junction
• Or
• Collate
• Sort
• Extract
• Merge
• Stored data
• Delay
• Sequential Access Storage
• Magnetic Disk
• Direct Access Storage
• Display

You can imbed the flow chart symbol into your excel spreadsheet quite easily. Bring up the Insert Shape menu – Select the shape you wish to use by clicking on it (the cursor will show a crosshair) – click on your spreadsheet using your mouse holding down the left button and drag until you have achieved the correct size for your flow chart symbol.)

Microsoft Excel comes with a slew of formatting options for your shapes from color, shading, shadow effects etc – so given this its quite easy to create a visually compelling process map in no time at all.

Summary

Whilst you may think that for creating flow charts you need a dedicated piece of software Microsoft Office comes imbedded with some rudimentary functionality that can help you create quiet

Whilst for many looking to construct flow charts products such as Microsoft Visio may be the first software package you reach for there are many other packages that offer flow chart functionality.  Perhaps surprisingly the Microsoft Office software package offers this and it is possible to construct Flow Charts in Word with reasonable results.

What is a flow chart

Before we start on how you can utilize Word for flow charts – lets take a look at what a flow chart is – a flow chart is a pictorial representation of a process that utilizes symbols and icons to represent activities and flow.

The basic ingredients for a flow chart is a series of symbols and connectors arranged in a structured way describing the process being mapped.

Flow Chart in Word – what functionality is there?

Microsoft has included rudimentary flow chart functionality for a while in Word – whilst you shouldn’t expect something akin to MS Visio – the toolset in MS word is perfectly usable if your constructing basic flow charts.

How to use Word to create Flow Charts

Creating flow charts in word is fairly straightforward – you can utilize the Insert – Shapes Menu option – there is a palette of shapes termed flow charts that you can then choose from.

Word comes equipped with 26 flow chart symbols out of the box including

• Process
• Alternate Process
• Decision
• Data
• Predefined Process
• Internal Storage
• Document
• Multi-Document
• Terminator
• Preparation
• Manual Input
• Manual Operation
• Connector
• Off-page connector
• Card
• Punched tape
• Summing Junction
• Or
• Collate
• Sort
• Extract
• Merge
• Stored data
• Delay
• Sequential Access Storage
• Magnetic Disk
• Direct Access Storage
• Display

Placing the flow chart symbol into your document is fairly easy – click on the shape you wish to use – you’re cursor will change to a cross hair – using your mouse you can then click your left mouse button (holding it down) and drage to size the shape.

You have a variety of formatting options available (either from by selecting the shape on your document and using the formatting options on the menu or by right clicking on the item and selecting Format Auto-Shape.  You can even add text to the flow chart symbol by right clicking on the shape and selecting “Add Text” – this will place any text you type inside the shape.

 

Summary

 

Whilst you can never expect this rudimentary approach to match the versatility of dedicated process mapping software – this does offer a versatile and easy approach that you can use.  The fact that it is available from within Microsoft Office application makes training very easy (for previous users of the package) and the fact that many staff will have some form of access to Office means that they have already have flow chart software on their PC – that in itself can remove some barriers to start with.

Business process mapping is one of the most important ingredients when it comes to ensuring the success of any company. It doesn’t matter if a company is large or small, it can surely benefit from utilizing a bit of business process mapping. The secret to the usefulness of business process mapping can be found in the inherent value of using flow charts. As you may already know, flow charts are very useful tools. And contrary to popular belief, they aren’t that hard to set up and draw out at all. So if you want to learn more about how you can best put flow charts and therefore business process mapping to good use for the benefit of your company, then waste no time in reading the rest of the details in the next few paragraphs in this article.

What is a flow chart?

A flow chart is simply a tool that you can use in order to draw specific, logical diagrams of processes for just about anything you can think of. When applied to business, this has tremendous benefits because it can help save you and your company a lot of time, money, and other valuable resources. At the same time, it makes it very easy for other people to understand all of the different business processes that need to be done on a daily basis within the company–and sometimes even outside the company itself.

The above already offers you a glimpse as to why you would want to use a flow chart. And when applied to business process mapping, the whole thing becomes ridiculously simple and easy to understand. For instance, doing business process mapping for a small company with very few employees makes it easy for the business owner and each and every individual employee to stay on the right track towards growing and being able to serve more and more customers. Likewise, for larger businesses, the same benefits apply, and more. You will also find it useful to perform business process mapping with the use of flow charts to keep a solid representation of the company’s duties to customers, as well as the responsibilities of all employees to the company that they work in.

There are many different types of business flow charts that you can use for business process mapping. Which one you use really depends on the kind of business that you want it to be used for. As you can imagine, a small business will end up with a rather different kind of business flow chart when compared with a large business. But fundamentally, no matter what the size of the business, they will also use the same underlying process which relies on flow charts.

Business process mapping makes it possible for businesses, business owners, and employees to keep moving forward with an eye on the future and a picture of what they should be seeing as they make their way to the top. That’s why business process mapping is extremely important, and with the use of flow charts it will be very easy to implement in any company.

How to Create a Flow Chart

A flow chart is a diagram that shows the steps involved in a process. The steps are presented in various shape and color forms to distinguish them from one another.

When learning how to create a flow chart, it is best to first lay out all the steps involved in a business process, as detailed as possible. A flow chart may also represent and address any possible outcomes in the business process. Consider this to be a type of process map, that you can follow along to get to where you need to go, or what you are trying to accomplish. A flow chart may be created using software such as Smart Draw, Excel or any basic drawing program. A flow chart may also be created with pencil and paper, either freehand or using a stencil system to draw the shapes and arrows.

To begin:

1. Start with the start shape or box. Clearly label this button START so that the user is clear where the process begins. This will typically be the same shape and/or color used for the End box. Draw an arrow from the start box to the first step in the business process button.
2. Choose a shape and color for the first step in the business process. Inside the shape (a rectangular shape is a good choice if you will have lots of text) include detailed instructions on what to do in that step in the process. After the box is completed, be sure to draw an arrow in the direction of the next step, typically this would be downward.
3. Choose the same shape for this step as you did for the one before. This provides continuity and helps the viewer to follow clearly. If there is a decision or option to be made in this or any other box, you will need to select a different shape to be placed after it, and a lateral shape beside it, allowing the user to choose between the two and follow the course of action from there.
4. After all the steps and options have been outlined, the END box will signal the end of the process.

A flow chart can be as detailed or as simple as you wish to make it. A well laid out and detailed flow chart will help anyone to follow a business process.

 

What Is a Flow Chart Diagram

Any sort of planning or analysis of data done before the start of a project needs to be mapped out in a systematic and methodical fashion. This data is going to include the different phases of the project, the allocated budget, the resources needed, people working on the project, the deadline, the providers of the raw material and the end result. These are just some of the important informational points, which are mapped out in a flow chart.

So you can consider a flowchart to be an analysis, as well as a planning graphic tool which gives you step-by-step process data information.

What Is A Flow Chart Diagram Used For?

A flow chart diagram is normally used by a team when you want to look at these following points –

1. Overview of the complete process.
2. What are the expected problem areas and bottlenecks and what are their solutions?
3. Are there any critical phases which can influence the successful completion of the project?
4. How are the different units of the complete holder related to each other and how are they going to be linked in one cohesive mass.
5. How is the project going to be accomplished from the starting point to its successful finish?
6. How are different work processes going to be designed and implemented within one given project range.

These are just some of the uses to which you can put a flow chart diagram. So while completing a flowchart, you need to keep these things in view and perspective – what are going to be your beginning and ending points? Do you have a clear vision of the different phases? Do you have an understanding of the work process which is going to be used in the completion of the project? Once these three steps have been thought out, you start putting all these actions and activities in a sequential form. After that, you can add all the pertinent and relevant minor information to different parts of the work process.

Symbols Used In A Flow chart Diagram

There are a number of symbols which are normally used in a flowchart diagram. These symbols are connected with an arrow so that you can see the direction in which the process is going. Once you have tested out your flow chart diagram, you need to finalize it.

What Is Business Process Change

If you want to know what is business process change, it is the modification of your business processes in such a manner that you are able to reduce costs, take full advantage of your human resource and increase the profitability percentage of your products and services all over the world. Global markets are not static. That is why your company needs to adapt itself to change, whenever it occurs. This change can be in the shape of political, economic, and financial change in different markets. Costs can escalate and intensify; however, with the proper implementation of a business process change, – in, for example, finances and operations – you can sustain a profitable growth margin in your company, and also gain advantage over the competition.

Factors Influencing Business Process Change

if you want a business process change to be done in your organization, these are some of the factors which you need to keep in mind. While implementing or initiating this program, you have to look at the amount of support that is going to be given to you by your shareholders, employees and management. Many people are definitely not receptive to change of any kind, even if it is for their own good. You also need 100% commitment from all of these human agencies, so that you know that they are also working towards the same goal you have in mind.

If you have the already proven results to show them, in the shape of data, any sort of business process change can be accepted in your company, as a major part of business strategy while laying out goals, objectives and looking for visible results.

Along with this, there should be clear methods of communication where people can get to know all about their personal and professional roles in achieving those goals. The responsibilities of their job profiles are also going to be communicated to them in a very clear and systematic fashion.

Remember that business process changes are always based on systems and practices which have already been implemented successfully in a number of companies. The results are visible and quantifiable. So there is no question of any brand-new theory being implemented as an experiment in your enterprise.

Business Process Change – Win-Win Solutions

Once your stakeholders, your management and your employees know that you are in a win-win situation, when a particular business process change is implemented in your company, there is the chance that they are going to tell you to go for it. This change can only be done with the support of experienced partners and consulting advisors who can give you the best advice on how to implement the most useful business process change in your company.

 

 

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