Business Process Management (BPM) (for Masters of ETM) Lecture 4: Process Analysis & Improvement

Transcription

1 MTAT Business Process Management (BPM) (for Masters of ETM) Lecture 4: Process Analysis & Improvement Marlon Dumas marlon.dumas ät ut. ee

2 Agenda for Today Time Contents t Review of homework Process analysis Lunch break Process analysis (cont.) Process Re-Design 2

3 Process Analysis

4 Once I ve got a model, what s next? Analyze: Cycle time Capacity, resource utilization Cost (Activity-Based Costing) QoS Risk 4

5 Process Analysis Typical Questions What processes do we perform? What objectives do the processes have? What value do they generate? What risks are embedded d in this process? What are general benchmarks and how close are we? What is the internal benchmark? What is best-in-class? What constraints exist (e.g. policies, IT, culture etc.)? What are the perceived and actual process problems? What technology is (will be) available? What are the customers expectations ti of these processes? M. Rosemann 5

6 Process Analysis Typical Questions (cont.) How much do existing processes cost? How scalable and flexible are processes? How are processes interrelated - horizontally & vertically? How do processes align with strategy? t How do existing processes facilitate new strategies? When will changes be implemented (internal/environment)? Where are the critical customer interfaces? Why are the processes executed this way? Who is accountable for these processes? M. Rosemann 6

7 Business Process Analysis Techniques Qualitative analysis Scenario analysis Cause-Effect-Analysis Issue Register Human Performance Analysis (paper on Analyzing Activities in readings list) Quantitative Analysis Cycle Time Analysis Capacity Analysis Queuing Theory Process Simulation 7

8 Scenario Analysis not O.K. O.K. deciding who informs the claimant Module 1 checking calculations of interest checking calculation of costs decided for the registrar decided not for the registrar calculations checked but not verified informing the claimant registrar asking claimant to adjust the application within 4 weeks registrar gives writing office order to compose a letter issueing payment order informing the defendand about his options letter composed claimant informed and asked writing office transmitting the letter and order to the courts office payment order isssued defendand informed transmitted to the courts office giving order to the courts office to serve payment order registrar adding the order to the file courts office transmitting the letter to the post office order given order not given Module 2 order added letter transmitted comissioning to serve the payment order sending objection to the post office defendand sending letter to claimant served by the post served by the police objection received by the post office letter sent to claimant sending objection to the courts office post office checking if serving was successful objection sent incorrect/incompl ete document serving has not been possible successful adding objection to the file courts office transmitting objection to registrar objection added transmitted to registrar giving order to demand a repeated serving to the post order given informing the parties (module1) parties informed registrar informing claimant&ask him to adjust the direction of the defendand within 3weeks using Module 1! transmitting the serving document to the court serving document transmitted informing claimant about objection and his options to react (Module1) registrar claimant informed examining the serving document registrar claimant informed executing the procedure serving document examined checking if claimant wants to engage the ordinary legal procedure procedure has finished yes no arranging the archiving of the file registrar arranged applying for the divesture to the judge claimant paying the costs for an ordinary procedure issueing the enforcement order upon application of the claimant (Module2) registrar issueing a executed copy declaration about all payments archiving the file courts office applied costs payed enforcement issued executed copy issued file archived transfering the procedure to the competent court giving an order to inform the central costs office to send him the file registrar checking if application is conform to the time limit checking if file is archived three years transfered order given no yes informing the parties about the transfer (Module1) sending file to claimant cost office not O.K. registrar O.K. arranging the serving procedure parties informed destructing all costituent parts of the file except for the enforcement order check if procedure should be transferred to other court upon request of claimant sent to claimant executing the file serving procedure arranged destructed signalizing on the file if executed doc has been issued signalized no request of claimant registrar request of claimant informing defendand about the request (Module 1) file was executed sending back the file to courts office claimant destroying the whole file after 30years file destroyed after 30 years defendand agrees to transfer to another court defendand informed asking if defendand agrees (Module2) defendand agrees not file received in courts office 8

9 j Scenario Analysis not O.K. O.K. deciding who informs the claimant Module 1 checking calculations of interest checking calculation of costs decided for the registrar decided not for the registrar calculations checked but not verified informing the claimant registrar asking claimant to adjust the application within 4 weeks registrar gives writing office order to compose a letter issueing payment order informing the defendand about his options letter composed claimant informed and asked writing office transmitting the letter and order to the courts office payment order isssued defendand informed transmitted to the courts office giving order to the courts office to serve payment order registrar adding the order to the file courts office transmitting the letter to the post office order given order not given Module 2 order added letter transmitted comissioning to serve the payment order sending objection to the post office defendand sending letter to claimant served by the post served by the police objection received by the post office letter sent to claimant sending objection to the courts office post office checking if serving was successful objection sent incorrect/incompl ete document serving has not been possible successful adding objection to the file courts office transmitting objection to registrar objection added transmitted to registrar giving order to demand a repeated serving to the post order given informing the parties (module1) parties informed registrar informing claimant&ask him to adjust the direction of the defendand within 3weeks using Module 1! transmitting the serving document to the court serving document transmitted informing claimant about objection and his options to react (Module1) registrar claimant informed examining the serving document registrar claimant informed executing the procedure serving document examined checking if claimant wants to engage the ordinary legal procedure procedure has finished yes no arranging the archiving of the file registrar arranged applying for the divesture to the judge claimant paying the costs for an ordinary procedure issueing the enforcement order upon application of the claimant (Module2) registrar issueing a executed copy declaration about all payments archiving the file courts office applied costs payed enforcement issued executed copy issued file archived transfering the procedure to the competent court giving an order to inform the central costs office to send him the file registrar checking if application is conform to the time limit checking if file is archived three years transfered order given no yes informing the parties about the transfer (Module1) sending file to claimant cost office not O.K. registrar O.K. arranging the serving procedure parties informed destructing all costituent parts of the file except for the enforcement order check if procedure should be transferred to other court upon request of claimant sent to claimant executing the file serving procedure arranged destructed signalizing on the file if executed doc has been issued signalized no request of claimant registrar request of claimant informing defendand e da d about the request (Module 1) file was executed sending back the file to courts office claimant destroying the whole file after 30years file destroyed after 30 years defendand agrees to transfer to another court defendand informed asking if defendand agrees (Module2) defendand agrees not file received in courts office 9

10 Issue Register Purpose: categorise identified issues as part of as-is process modelling contents: Issue number name description consequence priority type (IT / organ. / policy) short term / long term Impact: Qualitative vs. Quantitative possible solution 10

11 Process Throughput Inflow and Outflow rates typically vary over time IN(t) = Arrival/Inflow rate of jobs at time t OUT(t) = Departure/Outflow rate of finished jobs at time t IN = Average inflow rate per time unit OUT = Average outflow rate per time unit A stable system must have IN=OUT=λ λ = the process flow rate λ = process throughput Laguna & Marklund 11

12 Work-In-Process Jobs that have entered the process but not yet left it A long lasting trend in manufacturing has been to lower WIP by reducing batch sizes The JIT philosophy p Forces reduction in set up times and set up costs WIP = Average work in process over time WIP(t) = Work in process at time t WIP(t) increases when IN(t)>OUT(t) WIP(t) decreases when IN(t)<OUT(t) Laguna & Marklund 12

13 Little s Formula (Due to J.D.C. Little (1961)) Cycle time: Difference between a job s start time and end time Fundamental and general relationship between the average: WIP, Throughput (= λ) and Cycle time (CT) Little s Formula: WIP = λ CT Implications, everything else equal Shorter cycle time lower WIP If λ increases to keep WIP at current levels CT must be reduced Laguna & Marklund, chapter 5, exercise 3 Laguna & Marklund 13

14 Cycle Time Analysis Cycle time analysis: the task of calculating the average cycle time for an entire process or process segment Assumes that the average activity times for all involved activities are available (activity time = waiting time + processing time) In the simplest case a process consists of a sequence of activities on a single path The average cycle cle time is just the sum of the average activity it times involved but in general we must be able to account for Rework Multiple paths Parallel activities Laguna & Marklund 14

15 Rework Many processes include control or inspection points where if the job does not conform it will be sent back for rework The rework will directly affect the average cycle time! Definitions T = sum of activity times in the rework loop r = percentage of jobs requiring rework (rejection rate) Assuming a job is never reworked more than once CT = (1+r)T Assuming a reworked job is no different than a regular job CT = T/(1-r) Laguna & Marklund 15

16 Example Rework effects on the average cycle time Consider a process consisting of Three activities, A, B & C taking on average 10 min. each One inspection activity (I) taking 4 minutes to complete. X% of the jobs are rejected at inspection and sent for rework A B C I (10) (10) (10) (4) What is the average cycle time? a) If no jobs are rejected and sent for rework. b) If 25% of the jobs need rework but never more than once. c) If 25% of the jobs need rework but reworked jobs are no different in quality than ordinary jobs. Laguna & Marklund 16

17 Multiple Paths It is common that there are alternative routes through the process For example: jobs can be split in fast track and normal jobs Assume that m different paths originate from a decision point p i = The probability bilit that t a job is routed to path i T i = The time to go down path i +p m CT = p 1 T 1 +p 2 T 2 + +p m T m = p i T i i=1 Laguna & Marklund 17

18 Example Processes with Multiple Paths Consider a process segment consisting of 3 activities A, B & C with activity times 10,15 & 20 minutes respectively On average 20% of the jobs are routed via B and 80% go straight to activity C. A (10) 0.8 C (20) 0.2 B (15) What is the average cycle time? Laguna & Marklund 18

19 Processes with Parallel Activities If two activities related to the same job are done in parallel the contribution to the cycle time for the job is the maximum of the two activity times. Assuming M process segments in parallel T i = Average process time for process segment i to be completed CT parallel = Max{T 1, T 2,, T M } Laguna & Marklund 19

20 Example Cycle Time Analysis of Parallel lactivities iti Consider a process segment with 5 activities A, B, C, D & E with average activity times: 12, 14, 20, 18 & 15 minutes B (14) A (12) C (20) E (15) D (18) What is the average cycle time for the process segment? Laguna & Marklund 20

21 Cycle Time Efficiency Measured as the percentage of the total cycle time spent on value adding activities. Cycle Time Efficiency = Theoretical Cycle Time CT Theoretical Cycle Time = the cycle time which we would have if only value adding activities were performed That is if the activity times, which include waiting times, are replaced by the processing times See example Cycle time analysis Exercise 9 & 10, Laguna & Marklund Chapter 5 Laguna & Marklund 21

22 Cycle time Reduction Cycle time analysis provides valuable information about process performance Helps identify problems Increases process understanding Useful for assessing the effect of design changes Ways of reducing cycle times through process redesign 1. Eliminate activities 2. Reduce waiting and processing time 3. Eliminate rework 4. Perform activities iti in parallel l 5. Move processing time to activities not on the critical path Laguna & Marklund 22

23 Example Critical Activity Reduction Consider a process with three sequences or paths B 14 A C E D Sequence (Path) Time required (minutes) 1. A B EE = A C E = 47 = CT Critical path 3. A D E = 45 By moving 2 minutes of activity time from path 2 to path 1 the cycle time is reduced by 2 minutes to CT=45 minutes Laguna & Marklund 23

24 Exercise Laguna & Marklund, chapter 5, exercises 7, 8 24

25 Capacity Analysis Focus on assessing the capacity needs and resource utilization in the process 1. Determine the number of jobs flowing through different process segments 2. Determine capacity requirements and utilization based on the flows obtained in Determine bottlenecks Complements the cycle time analysis Laguna & Marklund 25

26 The Effect of Rework on Process Flows A rework loop implies an increase of the flow rate for that process segment Definitions N = Number of jobs flowing through the rework loop n = Number of jobs arriving to the rework loop from other parts of the process r = Probability that a job needs rework Assuming a job is never reworked more than once N = (1+r)n Assuming a reworked job is no different than a regular job N = n/(1-r) Laguna & Marklund 26

27 Example Capacity Analysis with Rework 100 jobs 125 jobs 125 jobs 125 jobs A B C I N = (1+r)n = (1+0.25)100 = 125 Laguna & Marklund 27

28 Multiple Paths and Parallel Activities Multiple Paths and process flows The flow along a certain path depends on The number of jobs entering the process as a whole (n) The probability for a job to go along a certain path Defining N i = number of jobs taking path i p i = Probability that a job goes along path i N i = n p i Parallel Activities and process flows All jobs still have to go through h all activities iti if they are in parallel or sequential does not affect the number of jobs flowing through a particular activity Laguna & Marklund 28

29 Analyzing Capacity Needs and Utilization Need to know Processing times for all activities iti The type of resource required to perform the activity The number of jobs flowing through each activity The number of available resources of each type Step 1 Calculate unit load for each resource The total resource time required to process one job N i = Number of jobs flowing through activity i for every new job entering the process T i = The processing time for activity i in the current resource M = Total number of activities using the resource Laguna & Marklund M Unit load for resource j = N i T i i=1 29

30 Analyzing Capacity Needs and Utilization Step 2 Calculate the unit capacity The number of jobs per time unit that can be processed Unit capacity for resource j = 1/Unit load for resource j Step 3 Determine the resource pool capacity A resource pool is a set of identical resources available for use Pool capacity is the number of jobs per time unit that can be processed Let M = Number of resources in the pool Pool capacity = M Unit capacity = M/unit load Laguna & Marklund 30

31 Process Capacity and Capacity Utilization The process capacity is determined by the bottleneck The bottleneck is the resource or resource pool with the smallest capacity (the slowest resource in terms of jobs/time unit) The slowest resource will limit the throughput Capacity Utilization The theoretical ti process capacity is obtained by focusing on processing times as opposed to activity times Delays and waiting times are disregarded The actual throughput The theoretical capacity! Capacity Utilization = Actual Throughput Theoretical Pr ocess Capacity Laguna & Marklund 31

32 Limitations of Cycle Time/Capacity Analysis Cycle time analysis and capacity do not consider waiting times due to resource contention Cycle time & capacity analysis do not consider cost Queuing analysis and simulation address these limitations and have a broader applicability 32

33 Queuing Theory: Notation State of the system = number of customers in the system Queue length = (state of the system) (number of customers being served) λ = Average arrival intensity (= # arrivals per time unit) μ = Average service intensity for the system (average cycle time) ρ = Utilization factor = Fraction of time that the service facility is used Laguna & Marklund 33

34 Why is Queuing Analysis Important? Capacity problems are very common in industry and one of the main drivers of process redesign Need to balance the cost of increased capacity against the gains of increased productivity and service Queuing and waiting time analysis is particularly important in service systems Large costs of waiting and of lost sales due to waiting Prototype Example ER at a Hospital Patients arrive by ambulance or by their own accord One doctor is always on duty More patients seeks help longer waiting times Question: Should another MD position be instated? Laguna & Marklund 34

35 A Cost/Capacity Tradeoff Model Cost Total cost Cost of service Cost of waiting Process capacity Laguna & Marklund 35

36 Probability Distributions: Uniform 36

37 Probability Distributions: Normal 37

38 Probability Distributions: Negative Exponential 38

39 Steady State vs. Transient Steady State condition Enough time has passed for the system state to be independent of the initial state as well as the elapsed time Transient condition Prevalent when a queuing system has recently begun operations The state of the system is greatly affected by the initial state and by the time elapsed since operations started Generally, queuing theory focuses on steady state analysis Laguna & Marklund 39

40 Transient and Steady State Conditions Illustration of transient and steady-state conditions N(t) () = number of customers in the system at time t, E[N(t)] = represents the expected number of customers in the system. 30 Transient condition Steady State condition 25 the system, N (t) Num mber of jobs in N(t) E[N(t)] Laguna & Marklund time, t 40

41 Queuing theory: basic concepts arrivals waiting service λ c μ Basic characteristics: average number of arrivals per time unit: λ (mean arrival rate) average number that can be handled by one server per time unit: μ (mean service rate) number of servers: c Wil van der Aalst 41

42 Queuing theory concepts (cont.) λ Wq,Lq c μ W,L Given λ, μ and c, we can calculate : occupation rate: ρ Wq = average time in queue W = average time in system Lq = average number in queue (i.e. length of queue) L = average number in system average (i.e. Work-in-Progress) Wil van der Aalst 42

43 M/M/1 queue λ Assumptions: time between arrivals and service time follow a negative exponential distribution 1 server (c =1) FIFO L=ρ/(1- ρ) W=L/λ=1/(μ- λ) 1 μ Capacity Demand ρ = = Available Capacity λ μ L q = ρ 2 /(1- ρ) = L-ρ Wq=Lq/λ= λ /( μ(μ- λ)) Laguna & Marklund 43

44 M/M/c queue Now there are c servers in parallel, so the expected capacity per time unit is then c*μ ρ = Capacity Demand Available Capacity = λ c* μ Little s Formula Wq=Lq/λ W=Wq+(1/μ) Little s Formula L=λW= λ(wq+1/ μ) = Lq+ λ/μ Laguna & Marklund 44

45 Example ER at County Hospital Situation Patients t arrive according to a Poisson process with intensity it λ ( the time between arrivals is exp(λ) distributed. The service time (the doctor s examination and treatment time of a patient) follows an exponential distribution with mean 1/μ (=exp(μ) distributed) The ER can be modeled as an M/M/c system where c=the number of doctors Data gathering λ = 2 patients per hour μ = 3 patients per hour Questions Should the capacity be increased from 1 to 2 doctors? How are the characteristics of the system (ρ, Wq, W, Lq and L) affected by an increase in service capacity? Laguna & Marklund 45

46 Queuing Analysis Hospital Scenario Interpretation To be in the queue = to be in the waiting room To be in the system = to be in the ER (waiting or under treatment) Characteristic One doctor (c=1) Two Doctors (c=2) ρ 2/3 1/3 Lq 4/3 patients 1/12 patients L 2 patients 3/4 patients Wq 2/3 h = 40 minutes 1/24 h = 2.5 minutes W 1 h 3/8 h = 22.5 minutes Is it warranted to hire a second doctor? Laguna & Marklund 46

47 Process Simulation Drawbacks of queuing theory: Generally not applicable when system includes parallel activities Requires case-by-case mathematical analysis Process simulation is more versatile (also more popular) Process simulation = run a large number of process instances, gather data (cost, duration, resource usage) and calculate statistics from the output Simulation animation Simulation is a batch process, animation is interactive Some tools allow one to animate while simulating, but in practice this is too slow! 47

48 Process Simulation Basic steps in evaluating a process model with simulation 1. Building the simulation model 2. Running the simulation 3. Analyzing the simulation results (performance measure) 4. Evaluation of alternative scenarios 48

49 Elements of a simulation model The process model including: Activities, control-flow relations (flows, gateways) Resources and resource pools (i.e. roles) Resource requirements: mapping between activities and resource pools Processing times (per activity, or per activityi) resource pair) Costs (per activity, or per activity-resource pair) Arrival rate (also called: token creation) Conditional branching probabilities (XOR gateways) 49

50 Simulation Example BPMN model 50

51 Resource Pools (Roles) Two options to define resource pools Define individual resources of type clerk Or assign a number of anonymous resources all with the same cost Eg E.g. 3 anonymous clerks with cost of 10 per hour, 8 hours per day 2 individually named clerks Jim: 12, 4 hours per day Mike: 14, 8 hours per day 1 manager John at 20 per hour, 8 hours per day 51

52 Resource pools and execution times Task Role Execution Time Normal distribution: mean and std deviation Receive application system 0 0 Check completeness Clerk 30 mins 10 mins Perform checks Clerk 2 hours 1 hour Request info system 1 min 0 Receive info (Event) system 48 hours 24 hours Make decision Manager 1 hour 30 mins Notify rejection system 1 min 0 Time out (Time) system 72 hours 0 Receive review request (Event) system 48 hours 12 hours Notify acceptance system 1 min 0 Deliver Credit card system 1 hour 0 Alternative: assign execution times to the tasks only (like in cycle time analysis) 52

53 Arrival rate and branching probabilities 10 applications per hour (one at a time) Poisson arrival process (negative exponential) Alternative: instead of branching probabilities one can assign conditional expressions to the branches based on input data 53

54 Simulation output: KPIs Resource Utilization Resource Cost % 4, $ 4, % 4, % 3, % 3, % 2, % 2, % 1, % 1, % 10.00% % $ # PI's % Cycle Time - Histogram $ % % 4 Clerk 2 Manager System Days 54

55 Simulation output: detailed logs Process Instance # Activities Start End Cycle Time Cycle Time (s) Total Time 6 5 4/06/ :00 4/06/ :26 03:26: :26: /06/ :00 5/06/2007 9:30 19:30: :30:38 Process Instance Activity ID Activity Name Activity Type Resource Start End /06/ :00 5/06/ :14 18:14: :14:56 6aed54717-f044-4da1-b543-82a660809ecb Check for completeness Task Manager 4/06/ :00 4/06/ : /06/ :00 5/06/ :14 17:14: :14:56 6a270f5c6-7e16-42c1-bfc4-dd10ce8dc835 Perform checks Task Clerk 4/06/ :53 4/06/ : /06/ :00 5/06/ :06 16:06: :06: d7c-1eda-40ea-ac7d-886fa03de15b Make decision Task Manager 4/06/ :25 4/06/ : /06/2007 5:00 6/06/ :01 29:01: :01: a64eb e6-e7de36d348c2 Notify acceptance IntermediateEvent (none) 4/06/ :26 4/06/ : /06/ :00 6/06/ :33 26:33: :33:21 60a72cf f31-8c7e-6d093429ab04 Deliver card Task System 4/06/ :26 4/06/ :26 7aed54717-f044-4da1-b543-82a660809ecb Check for completeness Task Manager 4/06/ :00 4/06/ :31 7a270f5c6-7e16-42c1-bfc4-dd10ce8dc Perform checks Task Clerk 4/06/ :31 5/06/2007 8:30 55

56 Simulation in Websphere BM: Data Model Marek Zäuram 56

57 Simulation in Websphere BM: Data Model Marek Zäuram 57

58 Simulation in BM: Additional Concepts Simulation snapshot: Copy of the process model to be simulated It is typical to simulate multiple variants of a process model, so multiple snapshots Simulation profile: Copy of simulation settings Costs, durations, resource requirements Token creation settings Steady state delay, breakpoints. Multiple simulation profiles per simulation snapshot A default simulation profile is automatically derived from the process model when a snapshot is created 58

59 Demo time Demo of IBM Websphere and simulation capabilities 59

60 Process Re-Design: From as is to to be Material borrowed from Wil van der Aalst ( workflowcourse com)

61 Re-Design Criteria A process design is evaluated on the basis of four key issues: time quality costs flexibility Often there is a trade-off! 61

62 Design criterion 1: Time Throughput time (see earlier), including service time (including set-up) transport time (can often be reduced) waiting time sharing of resources (limited capacity) external communication (trigger time) Several ways to improve time properties: Improve average Improve variance Increase ability to meet due dates Increase perception of wait time 62

63 Design criterion 2: Quality External: satisfaction of the customer Product: product meets specification/expectation. Process: the way the product is delivered (service level) Internal: conditions of work challenging varying controlling There is often a positive correlation between external and internal quality. 63

64 Design criterion 3: Cost Type of costs fixed or variable per time unit, per use (consumable resources) processing, management, or support. human, system (hardware/software), or external, 64

65 Design Criterion 4: Flexibility Ability to react to changes. Flexibility of resources (ability to execute many tasks/new tasks) process (ability to handle various cases and changing workloads) management (ability to change rules/allocation) organization (ability to change the structure t and responsiveness to demands of market or business partners 65

66 Trade-off Costs Time Flexibility Quality (T+/-,Q+/-,C+/-,F+/-) 66

67 (1) Check the necessity of each task Sometimes "checks" may be skipped: trade-off between the cost of the check and the cost of not doing the check. (T+,Q-,C+/-) 67

68 (1) Check the necessity of each task (cont.) Other tasks to consider for elimination: Print Copy Archive Store More generally: non-value adding activities Task elimination can be achieved by delegating authority, e.g. No need for approval if amount less than Y Employees have budget for small expenses Employees keep track of their own holidays, no authorization, just notification 68

69 (2) Re-consider the size of each task: merge or split Pros: less work to commit, allows for specialization. Cons: setup time, fragmentation, less commitment. Pros: setup reduction, no fragmentation, more commitment. Cons: more work to commit, one person needs to be qualified for both parts. Also consider the trade-off between the complexity of the process and the complexity of a task. (T+,F-) 69

70 (3) Order tasks based on cost/effect Consider the class of knock-out out processes, e.g., hiring people, handling claims, etc. Execute highly selective tasks first. Postpone expensive tasks until the end. In other words: order the tasks using the ratio costs/effect. (T+,C-) 70

71 Example Consider resubmission Purchase Request process rejected Check purchase request for 1 st approval Purchase Request approved Check purchase request for 2 nd approval rejected approved Send approved request to requestor Purchase Order process Make copy of purchase request Forward to purchase department Approved Purchase Request 71

72 (4) Introduce parallelism More parallelism leads to improved performance: reduction of waiting times and better use of capacity. Two types of parallelism: semi and real parallelism. IT infrastructures which allow for the sharing of data and work enable parallelism. A B A + + B (T++) 72

73 (5) Generic process vs. multiple versions Process customization Differentiate by customer classes, geographical locations, time periods (winter, summer), Different activities, different resource pools, Process standardization All cases treated equally (as much as possible) Resources are pooled together F+/-, C+/- 73

74 (6) Generic task vs. multiple specialized tasks Similar considerations. Specialization may lead to: the possibility to improve the allocation of resources more support when executing the task less flexibility a more complex process monotonicity (T+,F-) 74

75 (7) Improve allocation of resources Use resources as if they are in one room: avoid one group of people overloaded and another (similar) group waiting for work. Let people do work that the are good at. However, avoid inflexibility as a result of specialization! Stimulate resources to build routine. When allocating work to resources, consider the flexibility in the near future. Avoid setups as much as possible. There are two kinds of setups: (1) case setups and (2) task setups. (T+,Q-) 75

76 (8) Improve communication structure Reduce the number of messages to be exchanged between the process and the environment. Try to automate the handling of messages (send/receive). Avoid communication errors (EDI, XML, Web services) If possible, use asynchronous instead of synchronous communication. A B C request information request command information response (T+,Q+,C+/-,F-) 76

77 (9) Investigate IT-driven improvements Data sharing (Intranets, ERPs) Increase availability of (subject to security/privacy) information to improve decisions or visibility Avoid duplicate data entry, paper copies Use network technology to: Increase communication speed: , SMS Enable self-service (e.g. online forms) Replace materials flow with information flow Tracking: RFID, GPS tracking Automation of tasks, automated support for tasks First re-design, then automate! (T+,Q+/-,C+/-,F-) 77

78 (10) Appoint process/case managers A process manager monitors a process to see whether there are bottlenecks, capacity problems and delayed cases. Management instruments: motivating the people involved in the process and control parameters. Case managers are assigned to a case. They are responsible and execute as many tasks as possible for the case. Benefits: commitment reduction of setup time one contact person (Q+) 78

79 Homework Continuation of homework 1 1. Identify key issues to be addressed / measures to be improved 2. Re-design process model to-be process model 3. Quantify costs and benefits of moving from asis to to-be sketch a business case Deliverables: To-be process diagrams + oral presentation next session Can be done in groups of up to 4 79

80 Additional Activities In preparation for the project Install IBM Websphere BM (if you can) Complete the step-by-step tutorials Modeling Simulation (optional, but desirable) See lab notes for practice 4, 5 and 5 at: ut ee/2009/bpm/main/practicals 80

81 Readings (See course web page for links) P. Harmon. Analyzing Activities BPTrends Advisor, April P. Harmon. Analyzing and Improving Customer- Facing Processes BPTrends Advisor, December