Business Process Mapping Software Is Only A Tool

Business Process Mapping (BPM) software is only a tool that aids in the graphical display of a process and it does not provide the answer on how to improve a process.  This results from the assessment of the process by an individual with experience of business processes, which is typicall not the programmer of the BPM software application.
Enterprise problems are typically caused because of the flawed implementation of an Enterprise level Software Package. This software package was believed to be the solution to a previous problem.
A flawed implementation includes bad employee training, inconsistent integration, and incomplete understanding of the company’s business needs and processes.

What Should You Do

Understand the needs of your Business, customers, suppliers, and all associated information that is needed to ensure the process is performed and completed successfully. 

Identify the Business Processes and understand  the tasks that must be performed to successfully complete the process, this includes the identification of the associated material and information needs of the customers and suppliers of the process.

Software is Not the Only Solution

Software is not the only solution for Process Improvement. I have significantly research Process Improvement and only found one site Big Dog’s Continuous Process Improvement Page http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/perform/process.html that did not mention software as an assumed prerequisite.

The functional purpose of the process (including information, physical movement, expectations, possible impacts (external/internal), requirements) must be known/understood before a viable solution can be developed. Software may be one of the solutions, but it is never the only one.

American Education Is Broke

This has become a favorite saying, especially when a reason for things being bad is to be cited.

Most often people will point out what is wrong, but never provide a solution, as an example http://www.mb-soft.com/public2/school5.html. 

I agree that “education is supposed to prepare children to later be productive members of society. For that they need to learn how to learn.“, but I do not agree that “prior to maybe 40 years ago, the system understood that it was intended to enable kids to learn how to learn.”

I received my elementary and high school education in New York State in the ’50s and ’60s, which is over 40 years ago. I have two High School graduation diplomas, a local and a Regents. I have the Regent’s diploma because I passed all of the Regent’s tests that I took and I was taught for the test, actually we had a paperback book that we studied from that provided past tests. I was taught how to pass the test and not how to learn.

Teachers are still taught to lecture to students, even though it has been proven in brain research http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v89/k0802jen.htm that an individual learns best by doing or showing someone else how to do something.

In “old school teaching” it is expected that the teacher knows every fact about a subject i.e.: “sage on the stage“.

The ideal (constructivist teaching) is where the student is shown how to learn, the teacher is not the center of attention, but the “guide on the side“.

Form Follows Evolving Function

I just finished reading the book “cradle to cradle“ http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

The book describes our current design process that evolved during the Industrial Revolution and discusses why this has led us astray. The authors present a different viewpoint on how design must occur, which will enable us to leap out of the box into which we have designed ourselves. This design method will enable us to be a positive member of the planetary system and does not require us to move back into a cave.

You should read the book, it helps an individual realize how things can be viewed differently.

We must look at & design everything differently than we have previously.

The Human Legacy

Humans have made a noticeable effect and we have made it very apparent that we have been here. But, we don’t want to leave a negative legacy.

We have done great technological things but we have damaged the surrounding eco-system of which we are a member.

We must rethink how we design things, see http://mbdc.com/c2c_home.htm.

We can do better and we must or we will not be remembered positively.

Process Improvement

Any process can be improved.

We have added complexity because we have added a personal component. This component provides  specific elements that perform a unique task for a one-of-a-kind situation. 

We must identify & define what truly needs to be done (output, format, performance expectations, available inputs, etc.), basically define & document the business requirements, this enables what really needs to be done to be identified and defined.

This is not a definition of how your business currently does things, which is known as the current state. What you have developed is a future desired state.

This is the future state of your process and once it is fully implemented it will be the current state of your operation.

All of the documentation of the current state can be used in any assessment of process change before the change is implemented, to see what the change really does, see if it is already provided/available in the current process, if it adds value and should be added to other processes, or if it needlessly complicates the process.

It is important that you keep this as the true documentation of your current state by making representative notes of any changes that you made.
Business requirements must be used to drive the selection of any business software.

ERP Is Not Needed

The prime mission of ERP is to stock product (inventory), while the prime mission of a profitable business is to produce the product that the customer wants when the customer wants the product.
ERP pushes product to inventory and what is stored may not be what the customer wanted. The customer wants to pull what they want, which is usually what is currently in style or a big seller.

The solution must be a demand (pull) system and not a storage (push) system.

Therefore, I believe that traditional ERP is no longer what is needed.

You will find Goldratt’s book “Necessary But Not Sufficient” interesting

The LEAN Journey

Many operations are working on LEAN Manufacturing or LEAN Enterprise journeys, and many more claim that they are working on LEAN efforts, but they are not.

LEAN is a system for organizing and managing product development, operations, suppliers, and customer relations and how to move forward to a LEAN operation, and how to measure progress is an important aspect of implementing LEAN that must be a component of the implementation.

A common misconception is that LEAN means staff reduction to minimize expense. Using this as the only driving goal can cripple an operation so that it can barely function. There is nothing wrong with operating with as few people as needed. Often this is what is needed to compete or to make do with the budgeted funds. However, this is not LEAN.

LEAN concepts are:

Value is a capability, delivered to the customer, at the right time and right price, as defined by the customer.

Time - One component of this is to match production rate (cycle time) to the customer’s demand rate (TAKT time). Produce too fast you make excess inventory, too slow you do not keep up with customer demand. 

Another time component is throughput time, which is an average of the time it takes materials to proceed from the start to the end of your process, the shorter the better. Materials usually spend more time waiting to be worked on than being worked on, many LEAN projects are devoted to the reduction of waiting time. Waiting time is one of the Wastes defined below.

Flow is the minimal throughput time which means materials flow rapidly/smoothly through your system. Ideally, they never stop – there are no lagoons of inventory. 

Waste, for which the Japanese word is MUDA. Taiichi Ohno of Toyota identified seven types of waste:

• Overproduction
• Waiting Time
• Transport
• Over Processing
• Excess Inventory
• Movement of People
• Defective Production

Pull Production, the final concept, means producing on demand only and not before. Each step in the process does not finish production until the next step asks for its product. This is sometimes referred to as just in time production, and is often driven by a Kanban, which is a signal to begin production.

The book LEAN THINKING by James Womack and Daniel Jones is a good next step.

Should I Join All Online Social Networks

I was talking with a contact of mine yesterday on many things, but the topic of Social Networking kept surfacing in our discussions.

The number of On-line Social Networks increases daily and with it the quantity of invitations from your contacts and the more contacts the more invitations.
He asked, \”What should an individual do\”. It is hard enough to maintain communication with the contacts you have in addition to keeping track of the Social Networks in which you are a member.

My suggestion – limit the Social Networks in which you are an active member, this also means which ones you will accept invitations from.

What I do – I have an active account on LinkedIn, Facebook, and CollectiveX(used to be PLAXO Pulse till I ran into the undisclosed friend limit), in addition, I am a member of several groups on NING and Yahoo. I am currently in the process of closing my accounts on the other Social Networks, but this goes slow since many of the sites do not have easy ways to close your account or your information is kept within their systems even after your account is closed.

Another question he posed; \”What can be done with Social Networks\”.

My Suggestion – you have to decide what you expect from the Social Networks and this is for each one in which you are a member and the expectations do not have to be the same.

What I do – I selected the Social Networks in which I am active, realizing that each is composed of a different type/age/outlook/viewpoint individual. I must get to know some of these individuals and this requires active communication (visual, F2F, e-mail, VOIP, etc.) and this is not an overnight thing, eventually they will get to know me and maybe refer me to a friend of theirs, because now I am more than a Virtual Business Card and you do not know who they know.

We talked for about 30 minutes more and this was a SKYPE call, he was on the other side of the world so thanks for technology support to enable worldwide Social Networking.

So Many Online Social Networks

It is almost daily that I receive an invitation to another Online Social Network.

There are too many as it is and I have found that I am a member of too many online social networks and too many groups within them. Therefore, I have limited my active membership to three Social Networks; LinkedIn, FaceBook, and CollectiveX. I have selected CollectiveXbecause of the ability to setup special interest networks within myCollectiveX network and as a replacement to PLAXO Pulse, which I just found out (without prenotice), limits the number of contacts that a member has, and the only way that you can add more is by deleting contacts/friends that you already have. Somehow this seems to be contrary to networking philosophy.

However, since I have limited myself to 3 Social Networks, I am currently in the process of deleting my profiles and leaving other Online Social Networks.

I am a member of Twitter, but I define it as an Online Social Communication/Status network.