Business Process Assignment

 

 Introduction

 

Organisations, their business processes, and the environments that they develop and operate in can change over time as they try to meet new business needs. If an organisation does not take the time to review and analyse its business processes throughout these periods of change, they can become inefficient.

This assignment asks you to look at an "organisation", identify and map some of its processes, and thoroughly analyse one with the intention of identifying inefficiencies and make recommendations on how to correct these inefficiencies.

The assignment will put into practice what has been learnt and covered from Week 1 through to Week 6. The assignment will consist of:

 the initial identification of an "organisation",

 its target goal (usually through the laying down of a formal statement such as for example, a corporate mission statement) that has been set, and

 the journey to achieve it as effectively and efficiently as possible, through a predetermined set of procedures.

 

Selecting an organization and identifying its target goal

 

The organization you choose for this report may be either

a) one that you are currently employed in, or are very familiar with its processes, or

b) one that is unrelated to industry or your working career.

 

If you select your current employer or an organization you are familiar with, the target goal may be easier to identify as one would expect the presence of a mission statement. When the mission statement is combined with a realistic awareness of the target market the company is intending to serve (either through products, services or both) a strategy must be formulated on how to achieve the objectives of the mission statement successfully in view of the target market. All of the subsequent processes must then align with the strategy in order to accomplish the objectives of the mission statement.

If you select an organization unrelated to your working career, it may consist of identifying a target goal of say, paying the mortgage off in 20 years and the processes involved in achieving this. In cases such as these the situation should be looked at from the number of other target goals which can be identified until one emerges as the dominating one. Others, like the overall process of feeding the family and its related sub-processes, or the process of clothing the family and its related sub-processes, or planning for the yearly holiday and its related sub-processes should be aligned in such a way to support the overall goal. 2

Tasks and Structure of the Report

Task 1 – Identification, Description and Justification of the organization/activity

Identify and describe the organization you have chosen for analysis. Justification should be given as to why you have chosen this particular organization. This could be as simple as "it is where I work." However, the best justifications are those that recognize an issue in terms of performance or lack of structure, etc. that explains why there is a need for this business process analysis.

The description of the organization should include:

 the context (e.g. product market and the business environment) that the organization operates in;

 the identification of a mission statement. If a mission statement exists for your organization you can use this otherwise you will need to formulate your own mission statement;

 The identification of the target market of the organization;

 The identification of at least three (3) but no more than (5) key processes (business processes) contributing to the running of the "organization", one of which you will focus on in your analysis.

 

You may wish to focus on a particular part of the "organisation" that produces a dis crete product or service and a strategy on how to achieve this through the "organisation's" resources.

 

The necessary information and skill to write the introduction are found in the Introductory phase of unit content for IBA218 – lecture recordings, associated readings and exercises.

For the next part, you will focus on at least three overall processes (business processes) to map out using relationship and cross-functional maps.

 

Part 2 - Relationship and cross-functional maps

Once you have identified a number of overall processes (business processes) that contribute to the running of the "organization", draw the relationship and cross-functional maps for these processes.

You will need to identify the sub-processes in your maps but you do not need to go down to the "flowcharting detail" of the processes.

The output from this part of the report should be a relationship and cross-functional maps.

 

The necessary information and skills to accomplish this are found in the Introductory and Mapping phases of the unit content - lecture series, associated readings and exercises.

For the next part please single out one overall process (business process) to analyse.

 

Part 3 - Analysis, Discussion, Conclusion

Once the maps have been developed, an analysis of the sub-processes and their relationships should be carried out with a view of identifying potential problems. An initial analysis should be carried out in a similar fashion as to the Phil's Garage mapping exercises. At this point of your report, suggestions for improvement can be made if needed. 3

A follow up analysis on the sub-processes should be carried out according to the material covered in the "Process Measurement and Analysis" reading. Of course, every single measure may not be adequate, but comments on at least measures of Quality, Speed of Delivery and Process Velocity should be given.

In terms of process analysis, please comment on (at least) the process Tightness and Dependence, and Bottlenecks. The analysis must cover Service Blueprinting and a line of visibility should be identified and comments on how sub-processes differ above and below this line should be given. Statements about how the processes are benchmarked should be given in terms of the material covered in lectures and found in the "Process Measurement and Analysis" reading.

 

The necessary information and skills to accomplish this are found in the Analysis phase of the unit content - lecture series, associated readings and exercises.

The conclusion should draw the report together and clearly state how improvements are likely to be achieved as a result of the analysis. In particular, the report should identify the important issues and challenges facing business process management in the organization.

It is important that relevant issues are covered and also integrated in an overarching and coherent fashion (reflecting the systemic nature of business processes). The analysis should be critical in nature, and the use of unsupported rhetorical statements should be avoided, (e.g. 'This organization is devoted to quality').

Recommendations should be based on your analysis and outline where changes need to be made to the processes to increase efficiencies. They must be explained and supported with evidence from your analysis.

 

Part 4 - Referencing

Your referencing section should draw on not only the readings provided in the unit, but also any material you have sourced or researched during all parts of the report. Don't forget to cite material in your report correctly and then include these sources in your References section. Please use either the Harvard or APA referencing style – choose only one style and be consistent throughout the report.

Resources on referencing and how to use these referencing styles are available in the Assessment section of the unit web site.

 

 

Format of the Report (overall)

The format of your Report should be:

1. Introduction

2. Mission, target market, and strategy.

3. Identification of at least three overall processes (business processes) contributing to the operation of the organisation.

4. Relationship and cross-functional maps

5. Analysis

6. Discussion

7. Conclusion

8. Recommendations

9. References

 

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Warm regards,

 

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