The impact of the disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic can be felt in the intensified volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of all business operations in the VUCA world. It has challenged the way we work, functional silos are being broken and people processes and technological applications are undergoing major changes.
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis shall also pass. Along this journey and in the post-pandemic period the business models of innumerable factories, institutions, service centers, healthcare setups and other organizations are likely to dramatically transform. Cobots and Artificial Intelligence in production shop floors, online / hybrid teaching-learning in graduate schools, e-business leap in safe shopping, shrinking time to market of new product / service developments in healthcare and the lean and green supply chains of perishable farm produce are triggers for accelerating improvements in this pandemic-affected competitive world. Improvements in the innumerable micro, macro and mega business processes reduce wastes, enhance efficiency & effectiveness, create value and make the value streams flow to customers. The speedy business model transformations taking place today call for a structured approach of capturing the current state, analyzing the gap areas and new needs, envisaging the perfect future state, implementing breakthrough changes, realizing the benefits and thereafter planning for the next breakthrough improvement again. In short, business process mapping has become imperative in this business world undergoing consistent dynamic changes.
Business Process Mapping methodologies
The genesis of the application of process mapping lies in one of the seven Quality Control (7 QC) tools – Flow charting. It was in the 1990s when a major concept of mapping was designed by Womack & Jones. It was based on the five principles of Lean which pivoted on a powerful methodology of Value stream mapping (VSM). The five principles in business process redesign were: specify customer value, identify value streams, make the value flow, ensure customer pull and seek perfection. It did gain significant traction in the industry in the last two decades but seems to be finding higher momentum in the current pandemic period.
For understanding and improving agile transformations in business models there exist a few common methodologies – Value stream mapping (VSM), Four field mapping (FFM) and Brown paper mapping (BPM). These mapping approaches are very structured, methodical, team oriented, high-touch and low-tech, data-loaded and big-picture, facilitating breakthrough improvements in business process transformation. These mapping processes, in simple terms, are sequential / schematic representation of all activities flowing through various workstations, providing material and information flow data in the value chain.
BPM are short-cycle micro processes applied for improvements in departments / functions. Naturally evolved employee teams within a domain, meet to carry out simple process improvements for internal efficiencies. FFM are mostly used for office related macro processes which deal with multiple departments, functions and factories. A yet another service mapping approach – Service blueprinting process, focuses on interaction between customers, service providers, touch points and activities directly seeable and behind stage to users. However, the most widely used VSM approach deals with complex macro and mega processes which depict material and information flow across value adding workstations with all key details on inventory, lead time, bottleneck operation, operational factors, capital resources, people etc. The methodology commences with the creation of the current-state map, followed with deep analysis and then creating the desired future-state map in context of tomorrow.
VSM and its power
The application of VSM approach demands investment in terms of time, effort, ‘walk through’ along the value flow, many Gemba rounds and high people involvement. It is a powerful approach highlighting key performance factors to dwell upon – Inventories, Inventory turns, Lead time, Process / touch time, Not right first time, people productivity, redundant waits, information quality, logistics, resource utilization and many more.
Understanding the business processes and appreciating the need for speedy improvements in the gap areas is becoming very common for the executives / managers / leaders in the current dynamic business world. The speed to deliver value with investment today has never been so fast in the past. It is all to make ROI relevant by leveraging technology, systems and people. The logistics companies, banks, startups, manufacturers, service providers and the others are all going through a metamorphosis which is demanding data availability – deep analysis – reimagining new business processes – swift implementation – new delivery realizations.
VSM application
Interactions with business leaders, business consultants and academia have indicated that there is a growing awareness in the application of VSM across areas. A few value stream with the relevant application domain in discussion these days are:
· E-commerce: Receiving — Sorting — Placing — Picking — Packing — shipping process,
· R & D: New product or service design and development process,
· Health & safety: Large scale COVID-19 vaccination drive for people,
· Healthcare: High-demand, costly, life-saving machinery arrival to installation process,
· Banking: Process of Letter of credità Letter of guarantee à transfer of money,
· Selling – Buying grocery: Sales process delivering efficiency and profits,
· Agri. supply chain: Farm-produceà Distribution-centerà Packagingà Sellingà Kitchen,
· Education sector: The New teaching-learning process for Higher education.
For a sustainable and profitable growth of organization, hundreds of such key processes (micro, macro and mega) will have to be identified, analyzed and improved. This has been one of the many reasons for a robust profitable growth in industry giants like Toyota and Pratt & Whitney.
Immediate actions
To ensure that business thrives in the post COVID-19 pandemic period, the system would require deep and quick understanding of the business processes, innovative mindset for identifying the relevant weak links having opportunities, reimagining competencies for new processes, restlessness for speedy implementation of breakthrough changes, application of technology, systems and people excellence with first time right targets. This can be accelerated by a learning Value flow and VSM methodologies of Lean systems. This would mean business leaders embracing Value stream management approach and leading from front in its application in their organizations, lean consultants training practicing business managers for extensive application of VSM in their areas and teaching faculty equipping young graduates of education institutes with this competency so that they quickly and effectively get aligned to the business process improvement drive in their corporate world.
Dr Ravindra Ojha is the Professor – Operations at Great Lakes Institute of Management Gurgaon.