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Aligning by Process Across a Large Enterprise How one worldwide organization has customized APQC's Process Classification Framework to enhance performance and information
sharing By Michelle Cowan
One of APQC's members, a large energy (petroleum, oil, gas, chemicals) organization with assets of $150 billion and operations in more than 30 countries, is aligning its work according to processes outlined in APQC's Process Classification Framework (PCF). Each department within the organization is taking the PCF and tweaking it to match the processes particular to its business. The enterprise has achieved tremendous success with this in IT, and the methods employed there are being replicated in the other areas.
STARTING TO ALIGN BY PROCESS
Trying to standardize processes across a worldwide enterprise can be daunting. With upstream petroleum operations across the lower 48 states, Alaska, Norway, and other countries, the organization struggled to align processes so that improvements could be made across the board.
The organization needed a way to store knowledge and information about all of its sites and activities so that the information could be leveraged by outposts around the globe. The best solution seemed to be to implement content management systems and other technologies based on a common framework of processes. The organization finally settled on APQC's Process Classification Framework (PCF) as the backbone of its process inventory.
APQC’s PCF had the highest‐level, most comprehensive structure they could find. It offered enough structure to set a standard and then familiarize people in each part of the business with process thinking, but it was open enough to allow for customization where necessary.
MAKING THE CASE FOR PROCESS ALIGNMENT
It was easier to implement a process framework within the downstream petroleum part of the business than in the upstream segments. Upstream processes deal with all the activities necessary to pump and acquire the oil. Downstream processes include the refinement and delivery of the product to customers. Downstream employees more readily saw their work as congruous to that of other downstream functions, but upstream employees believed the work performed at their individual sites was relatively unique and did not immediately understand the need to link their work in a process chain to other functions in the business.
For additional information, e‐mail [email protected]. ©2010 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. K01494 Page 1
For additional information, e‐mail [email protected]. ©2010 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. K01494 Page 2
Despite early hesitation, what appealed to managers at upstream sites was the potential to share best practices across the diverse site locations. Even though they could not envision all their work processes lining up according to a framework at first, they are becoming increasingly willing to see how a framework could be used to standardize the way information is documented, organized, and shared among different sites and business units.
To increase buy‐in, leadership has had to educate employees on what "process" means and the benefits that can result from content and performance management based on process (e.g., learning from a variety of sites, standardization, increased efficiency, enhanced communication). The top‐down nature of the process edict also helped move change forward.
ASSIGNING PROCESS OWNERSHIP AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Each organization within the enterprise (e.g., IT, HR, finance, all international organizations) is tasked with customizing the PCF to match their processes. APQC's PCF provides a consistent backbone and starting place for each group, but each business has free reign to ensure that their framework accurately reflects the work being done.
The various businesses are creating these individual process hierarchies and making suggestions for the enterprise framework, but leaders will review the recommendations and preliminary process frameworks to create standardized versions that can span the entire enterprise. Each group has a framework it is already using, so adopting a consistent standard is fairly challenging. Some businesses have embraced process thinking and understand the need to align the enterprise according to a single standard, but leadership still faces some obstacles to getting complete buy‐in across all divisions or areas.
ALIGNING PROCESSES WITHIN THE IT FUNCTION
IT had a particular interest in moving toward process thinking because it needed to find a way to supply and maintain technological systems in every location as cost‐effectively and with as little conflict as possible. To streamline its processes, IT developed an "IT Process Inventory" specific to the organization, which combines APQC's PCF, COBIT1, and ITIL®2. This has proved extremely effective, and all of their processes align to it. IT can share and look up information based on the numbers of the processes rather than trying to search according to other factors (e.g., location, equipment, systems). It is much easier to find solutions that have worked before as people begin to file new records (and retroactively file older records) according to the process framework.
1 Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is a widely‐used framework for IT management created by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and the IT Governance Institute (ITGI). 2 The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a collection of best practice approaches and models for IT, a registered trade mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.
The current list of level‐one processes within IT's customized process category 7.0 Manage information technology is:
• 7.1 Manage the IT portfolio • 7.2 Develop and manage IT customer relationships • 7.3 Manage IT policies and standards • 7.4 Manage enterprise content and information • 7.5 Manage IT infrastructure and applications • 7.6 Manage IT services and support • 7.7 Manage IT requests • 7.8 Manage IT people • 7.9 Manage IT knowledge
LESSONS LEARNED AND CURRENT ENTERPRISE CHALLENGES
Leadership support has been critical for process framework implementation. The designation of a special team, the Process Executive Council, in IT ensured that adequate resources were allocated for the effort of aligning the framework. Because alignment was a corporate priority, employees were granted the time needed to devote energy to the task of customizing a framework. This model of implementation is being replicated in other business units because it did prove so effective in IT.
The organization is still determining its measurement strategy. It cites this as one of the key missing (or underdeveloped) pieces of its current performance improvement and alignment approach. It wants to develop measures at each process level to track progress toward performance objectives. Right now, the organization tracks a dashboard of metrics and indicators, but none of these are aligned with the framework or coalesce in true "balanced scorecard" fashion. Some of the measures tracked in IT, for example, include:
• Budget performance • Total operating budget • Safety (e.g., accidents, near misses, ergonomic training assessments) • Compliance • Security (e.g., number of vulnerabilities patched, number of secured machines) • Operating efficiency • IT help desk resolution rate • Call time to reach IT support person • Call answer rate • Outages • Planned outages • Lost profit opportunity (i.e., how many dollars would be lost if X equipment went down)
For additional information, e‐mail [email protected]. ©2010 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. K01494 Page 3
The enterprise has been successful in generating change in most of its business units, despite reluctance or hesitancy in some areas. A few of the things it has learned during the process include:
• Getting a consistent group together to engineer the process alignment is key. When managers change, everything changes, and new people have to be trained. This is a challenging and time‐consuming ordeal.
• Bring frameworks to at least 80 percent complete alignment with actual work. If an 80 percent agreement can be reached among those working on the project, then the framework will likely pass executive scrutiny and be used effectively in many parts of the business.
• Do not wait too long to begin changing. The organization was stalled by spending too much time putting process owners in place. Many process owners would shift positions, move locations, or leave the organization before real alignment or mapping efforts began. In the end, the changes simply needed to be initiated, with the appropriate individuals identified and trained for various roles along the way.
• The roles and plans do not have to be perfect for implementation to begin. Spending too much time engineering frameworks and determining who will champion process alignment in each business can stop progress from being made. Ideas have to be tested under real conditions, and communication with the work force cannot be delayed. Starting at 80 percent readiness ensures that employees have the opportunity to provide input and that roles and responsibilities can change as efforts evolve toward 100 percent completion.
CONCLUSION
This organization feels that shifting to a process alignment is definitely the right move. The IT function has seen benefits in costs and efficiency from ensuring that records and services are tracked according to processes. Other parts of the business, particularly supply chain and finance, also lend themselves to a process structure. They are successfully moving toward total alignment, which is resulting in improved performance and bolstering the case for enterprise‐wide adoption of process hierarchies.
Implementing a process standard in the upstream petroleum business is still a challenge, but at this point, change management efforts have at least sparked the upstream business’s interest in sharing information and learning from the best in the enterprise. Top‐down leadership is ensuring that each part of the organization is aligned and learning how to use a process structure.
As a result of improvements already evident in some business areas, the organization sees potential performance improvements across the board as a result of customized process alignment. Much of the work force also recognizes this possibility. The difficulty now is keeping consistent teams in place to facilitate the alignment of site‐specific processes and the development of an overarching structure for upstream operations that can be used and accepted worldwide. Based on success in downstream and other supporting businesses, leaders believe process alignment is well worth the effort.
For additional information, e‐mail [email protected]. ©2010 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. K01494 Page 4
For additional information, e‐mail [email protected]. ©2010 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. K01494 Page 5
ABOUT APQC
For more than 30 years, APQC has been on the leading edge of improving performance and fostering innovation around the world. APQC works with organizations across all industries to find practical, cost‐effective solutions to drive productivity and quality improvement. We are a member‐based nonprofit currently serving more than 500 organizations in all sectors of business, education, and government.
CONTACT INFORMATION
123 North Post Oak Lane, Third Floor Houston, TX 77024‐7797 phone: +1‐713‐681‐4020 or 800‐776‐9676 fax: +1‐713‐681‐8578 e‐mail: [email protected] www.apqc.org