Process to Improve Processes

The September issue of BI Review in an article by Jeff Walter brings up process. He says that building a ‘sense and respond’ capability in a process context is critical to realizing continued improvement in business performance.

Further, he says that a complete performance management process should rely on more than efficient, timely and comprehensive reporting of performance data. It must operate in the context of a process that helps stakeholders develop a comprehensive performance improvement plan. The key process variables that affect performance must be identified and embedded in both the process and the application.

What he is talking about is a process to improve processes.

Our Thoughts...

When thinking of business intelligence, there are two kinds of performance numbers.
There are numbers that can be taken at face value like quarterly sales numbers, units sold, costs of goods sold [basically accounting numbers]. Management can easily look at the sales price, subtract the cost of goods sold and see the profit.

And, there are numbers that should be looked at in the context of the process they came from. An example might be the number of cars manufactured per week. There are many processes that contribute to that number. You can’t just look at the number of cars manufactured and learn anything about the processes that contribute to that number.

Given that, if you wish to increase the number of cars manufactured per week, you will need to improve one or more of the processes that make up that number. You must monitor these processes [gather metrics] and look for ways to shorten, eliminate or automate process activities.

If you are serious about performance, a key tool to improve performance will be a process to improve processes.

Your Thoughts...