SHIFT BUSINESS EXCELLENCE INTO HIGH GEAR: DRIVE STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE THROUGH PROCESS ... · 2017-05-09 · Shift Business Excellence into High Gear CONTENTS ... Embedding Process

Shift Business Excellence into High Gear

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SHIFT BUSINESS EXCELLENCE INTO HIGH GEAR: DRIVE STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE

THROUGH PROCESS EXCELLENCE

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CONTENTS

Foreword ................................................................................................................................................ 3

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................ 4

About this Research ............................................................................................................................... 5

Mind the gap! Why is Linking Process improvement with strategy so difficult? ................................. 6

Aligning strategy with execution – Putting PEX in the C-Suite agenda: Interview with Appian’s Matt

Calkins ................................................................................................................................................... 12

What’s in a name? Defining the purpose of process excellence ........................................................ 13

Process alignment – The core competencies of process excellence: Interview with Bizagi’s Tomasz

Jasinkiewicz .......................................................................................................................................... 17

Embedding Process Excellence as a Strategic Capability .................................................................... 18

Aligning Strategy, Process Excellence and Technology in the Age of the Customer: Interview with

MatsSoft’s Martin Scovell .................................................................................................................... 21

Role of Technology ............................................................................................................................... 22

Bringing data and process together - the future for process improvement: Interview with K2’s Rob

Speck ..................................................................................................................................................... 25

Recommendations: .............................................................................................................................. 26

#1: Ask the tough questions ............................................................................................................. 26

#2: Use data to your advantage ....................................................................................................... 26

#3: Experiment with technology to support a culture of continuous improvement ..................... 27

#4: Stay disciplined ........................................................................................................................... 27

#5: Break down the silos between methodologies ......................................................................... 27

Conclusions: ...................................................................................................................................... 28

About the Report Sponsors .................................................................................................................. 29



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FOREWORD Throughout the centuries, strategy and execution have played a

key role, both in war and in producing some of the world’s

greatest wonders. From the Egyptian pyramids to rockets and

computers, we continue to push the limits of what we can

accomplish. However, these inventions were not built overnight.

Nor were they built without careful thought and planning.

Strategy and execution go hand in hand and cannot be

separated. A strategic plan that is poorly executed accomplishes little; likewise, the best plan in the world,

without someone to execute it, accomplishes nothing.

No one would expect a team of workers to build a bridge without having an engineer first create a blueprint,

just as no one would expect the blueprint, no matter how brilliant, to magically transform into a bridge

without careful execution. However, falling into one ditch or the other is a risk corporations in every industry

face as they work to find the balance between short-term pressures for immediate results and long-term

strategies that will improve organizational processes over time.

The good news is that there have never been more opportunities to create the kind of balance that companies

are hoping to achieve. While strategy will always take a certain amount of time and investment, supporting

technologies in this day and age are lowering the barriers between planning and results. This may mean

learning to adapt to new ways of thinking, but the upside is better relationships with employees, customers,

and partners as core processes and systems are better aligned to keep up with the pace of change.

Through a survey of over 400 individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds and industries, this research

report, produced by PEX Network, explores the gap between linking process improvement with strategy. It

examines the ways in which companies define process excellence, as well as barriers that prevent them from

achieving desired results. The report also looks at the role technology is playing in helping companies combine

strategy with tactics, and provides recommendations that will help companies create a blueprint for success.

I hope you enjoy the report, and here’s to the years of innovation and discovery we have ahead of us.

Jonathan King

Vice President, Technical Pre-Sales K2


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The strategy versus execution gap is a well-

documented phenomenon. In the best-selling

book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things

Done, the authors, which include Larry Bossidy,

former AlliedSignal CEO, stated that “strategies

most often fail because they aren’t well executed.”

But the dilemma is that without strategy to set the

direction, execution is aimless. An organization

may work hard but will not be advancing towards

any coherent set of goals and objectives.

Operational improvements may result in achieving

things faster, cheaper and at lower cost, but for

what purpose? How will you know you’re winning?

On the other hand, without execution, strategy is

only a set of good intentions. It remains words or

ideas written in a PowerPoint document

somewhere without a clear set of plans to

translate them into reality.

Clearly, striking a balance between setting a well-

defined, coherent strategic vision and a focus on

translating that vision into reality is critical to

setting an organization up for success.

Process Excellence, by which we refer to a wide

variety of methodologies (e.g. Six Sigma and Lean)

and technology (mapping and modelling, process

automation, data analytics), could be defined as

the execution side of the equation. Through a

variety of methods and technologies, businesses

seek to continually improve and optimize business

processes (i.e. the way work is carried out) in

pursuit of better quality, efficiency, lower costs

and improved customer satisfaction. But linking

process improvement to business strategy has

consistently been cited as the top challenge facing

process practitioners for two years running in PEX

Network surveys.

There are well established approaches such as

Hoshin Kanri that focus on cascading the strategy

of a company down through the layers of an

organization and translating strategy into action.

So why does linking process improvement with

strategy consistently rank as one of the top

challenges for process professionals? Moreover,

what can be done to overcome the challenges?

This report, based on a survey of 404 process

professionals and telephone interviews with

selected individuals, looks in more detail at the

issue and proposes a series of 5 practical steps that

process professionals may consider to help better

align process improvement with strategy.

Key Findings: Linking process improvement with top level

business strategy ranks as the number one

priority for the second year running with 23.1%

of process professionals citing it as their biggest

challenge

Many companies (nearly 50%) have identified

process excellence one of the top priorities in

the year ahead but a significant proportion of

companies (32.2%) find it difficult to commit

adequate resources and investment for process

improvement

A low level of commitment to process

improvement (low priority) is associated with a

predominant focus on targeted quick wins,

while a high priority focus on process

improvement is most associated with improving

processes across the enterprise

Many names exist for process excellence

approaches and methodologies and this “brand

confusion” may contribute to a lack of general

awareness of process improvement as a core

capability within companies

Investment in all categories of technology is up year

on year, with “Big Data” and Analytics emerging as

the number one investment area for the year ahead

with 33.2% of professionals stating that it is a key

investment area


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ABOUT THIS RESEARCH Process practitioners frequently define the role of

process excellence as “to support and enable

business strategy,” according to PEX Network’s 2014

State of the Industry survey results. Yet, perhaps

ironically, linking process excellence initiatives with

top level business strategy is also frequently cited as

one of the biggest challenges by process excellence

practitioners. What explains this apparent gap and

how can process excellence more effectively support

business strategic strategy drive positive outcomes?

This report is based on a survey conducted in July

2014 process professionals focusing on process

excellence and strategic business alignment. Further

in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with

selected individuals. Where possible, the survey

results have been benchmarked with similar surveys

conducted by PEX Network in 2013.

Over 400 individuals responded to the 2014 survey,

from a wide variety of backgrounds, and industries

(see Chart 1, right, and Chart 3, below). Meanwhile,

the majority of respondents were from larger

companies with over 1000 employees (see Chart 2,

right).

Lean professional

17%

Six Sigma professional

19%

Business Process

Management professional

35%

IT professional

5%

Business professional (e.g. Line of

Business Manager)

17%

C-Level 7%

Chart 1: Job profile of survey respondents

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

1 to 100

101 to 1000

1,001 to 5,000

5,001 to 10,000

10,000+

Chart 2: Company size of survey respondents

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14%

Construction

Textile/Apparel

Retail

Aerospace/Defense

Mining/Minerals

Automotive

Transport, Logistics & Distribution

Chemicals

Education/Research

Government

Food and Beverage

Computers/Electronics

Insurance

Energy

Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology

Telecommunications

Business/Consulting Services

Healthcare

Other/Misc

Financial Services

Manufacturing

Chart 3: Industry of survey respondents


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MIND THE GAP! WHY IS LINKING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT WITH STRATEGY SO

DIFFICULT? Companies often fall into one of two

camps: a) functioning on auto-pilot,

carrying out tasks and processes –

perhaps even making those

processes more efficient or

moderately improved - without

questioning whether those habits

are what will set the organization up

for success or b) having lots of great

ideas on where the market is going

next, without the discipline to

operationalize that vision through

the appropriate processes, systems

and training.

It is a rare company indeed that is

able to consistently get the balance

right between having a clear vision

that is understood by everyone in

the organization and that is

supported by the right systems and

processes to achieve the results that

leadership is looking for.

Process professionals have, for the past two years,

consistently cited “linking process improvement

with top level business strategy” (see Chart 4,

above right) as their main process excellence

challenge in the year ahead in PEX Network PEX

Week surveys conducted in 2013 and 2014.

Indeed, the percentage of professionals citing the

challenge of strategic alignment rose moderately

from 18.5 percent in 2013 to nearly a quarter of

respondents this year.

“It’s essential to tie any work I do here to the

business goals otherwise I’m not going to get the

support. Executive support will fall by the wayside

as other priorities take over,” explains Jeremy

Tranmer, Operational Excellence Manager at

mining giant Rio Tinto Minerals.

So why do so many companies find linking process

improvement to strategy so difficult? One of the

reasons that several telephone interviewees cited,

was that often the corporate strategy wasn’t

clearly articulated in the first place.

“Strategic planning is hard work and that’s where

everything starts,” says David Behling, Director of

Process Improvement at Goodwill Industries. “But

so many people look to the fads to come up with

the silver bullet. They misapply these new tools

because they don’t really understand them and

aren’t prepared to do the hard work necessary to

get the fundamentals right.”

Mike Ensby, Operations Excellence Support Leader

at Bioclinica agrees citing the fact that in publicly

traded companies in particular senior leadership is

under so much pressure to deliver quarterly

earnings results that long term strategic focus

often takes a back seat to short term fire fighting.

0% 20% 40%

Lack of alignment between businessand IT departments

Skills shortage

Deploying new technologies

Other (please specify)

Maintaining executive buy in

Ensuring a customer focus throughoutthe business

Overcoming resistance

Sustaining change

Overcoming too much short-termfocus

Linking process improvement with toplevel business strategy

2013

2014

Chart 4: Comparison of 2013 and 2014 response to question what do

you see as your primary process excellence challenge for the year

ahead?




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“Senior leaders aren’t short sighted but

the pressures they’re under are short

sighted pressures,” he explains. “And

when you’re focused on the short term,

you don’t need strategy, you need

results.”

Nearly half of survey respondents

indicated that process excellence was

“one of the top priorities of the

company”; however, 32.2% of survey

respondents reported that “getting

anyone to commit much in terms of

resources or budget is difficult”.

Interestingly, the level of executive

commitment to process excellence seems

to correspond with the types of process

projects that an organization tackles (see

chart 6, below). A low level of

commitment to process improvement

(“company is not paying attention to or taking any

proactive steps to improve processes”) is

associated with a predominant focus on targeted

quick wins, while a high priority focus on process

improvement (“highest priority of the company")

is most associated with improving processes across

the enterprise.

Tamarah Usher, Business Analytics Process Leader

at agricultural company Monsanto explains that

it’s not that leadership doesn’t understand that

execution is important but that there are multiple

means through which corporate strategy can be

achieved and executives must prioritize where to

put their focus.

“I think leadership in most of these organizations

agree that processes are important and the

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Company is not paying attention toor taking any proactive steps to

improve processes

Highest priority of the company – it has full backing of company

leadership and resources/investment assigned to it

Company is paying attention toprocess excellence but getting

anyone to commit much in terms ofresources or budget is difficult

One of the top priorities of the company – top management is

committed and some resources and budget have been assigned

Chart 5: Overall, which statement best describes how important your

executive leadership team views process excellence at your company?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Company is not paying attention to or takingany proactive steps to improve processes

Company is paying attention to processexcellence but getting anyone to commit much

in terms of resources or budget is difficult

One of the top priorities of the company – top management is committed and some

resources and budget have been assigned

Highest priority of the company – it has full backing of company leadership and resources/investment assigned to it

Targetted QuickWins

Functionally-based

Enterprise-wide

Chart 6: Types of projects predominantly undertaken versus priority level of process excellence at the

organization

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Company is not paying attention to or takingany proactive steps to improve processes

Company is paying attention to processexcellence but getting anyone to commitmuch in terms of resources or budget is…

One of the top priorities of the company – top management is committed and some

resources and budget have been assigned


Targetted Quick Wins

Functionally-based

Enterprise-wide


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operational excellence work that we as process

professionals do is important,” she says.

“Everyone would agree with the principle of

improvement. But the amount of effort and

resources we want to put into it is another

question and that has bearing especially when

we’re looking for investment.”

Devin Rickard, Head of Change Management,

Office of the Corporate Controller, Adobe Systems,

adds that the real challenge comes down to

“getting the right level of executive understanding

of the importance of different improvement

efforts on helping to execute strategy.”

Survey results would appear to back that up. Only

6.2% of survey respondents indicated that their

companies are not interested in improving process

(see Chart 5, previous page. Meanwhile, nearly

half of all respondents indicated that they felt

process improvement was one of the top priorities

of the company while 11.7% of respondents said

they felt that process excellence was the highest

priority of the company with full leadership

backing and appropriate resources and investment

assigned to it.

However, a significant proportion of survey

respondents (32.2%) felt that leadership was only

paying “lip service” to process excellence and not

actually making real commitments to it.

A separate survey that PEX network conducted in

2013 of C-level executives sheds some light on why

that would be the case. Over 60% of business

executives cited “competing resources for time

and resources” as the main reason their

organization hasn’t adopted a process excellence

program (see Chart 7, below). It can be difficult in

a tough economy to justify investing in fixing

processes when there are so many other holes to

plug: investment in machines or computers, for

instance, or the training of staff in the skills critical

to growing your business.

“In one’s role as a process excellence and strategy

leader – you need to be aware that some of your

senior leadership may not have a strong affinity

towards processes and therefore may not be

highly receptive of those ideas,” says one

telephone interviewee from a major car

manufacturer, who wish to remain anonymous.

“But you need to influence them. You need to turn

them around and that’s something that we as

process professionals need to focus on.”

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Don't know what process excellence is

Have unsuccessfully tried to set up a processexcellence program in the past

It's just another unnecessary overhead

Don't see any benefit in process excellence


Other competing priorities for time and resources takeprecedence

Chart 7: Why don’t you have a process excellence program? Responses from C-level executives, PEX Network

Executive Priorities Survey (June 2013)

32.2% of respondents felt that

getting investment and

resources dedicated to

process improvement was a

challenge


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In addition to influencing senior leadership, it is

clear that in the face of competing priorities, it is

focus and the discipline to follow a series of

actions through is what can separate a company

that consciously drives towards a goal rather than

simply reacting to external forces.

David Behling, Director of Process Improvement at

Goodwill Industries, says that at his organization,

the discipline to focus only on those things that

support the strategic direction will be the

challenge over the course of the next year: “This

year we made a big step with our strategic

planning and I said now comes the hard part.

You’ve said you only want to work on ‘X’ number

of things and now the hard part is just working on

‘X’ number of things.”

Getting executives to agree that process

excellence is the way to achieve corporate

strategy, though, is not an easy task. Monsanto’s

Usher explains that with process improvement

projects it can be a challenge to demonstrate the

“hard” benefits of process improvement. “You

start to look at different benefits related to quality

and growth and they’re very hard to quantify

because they’re spread across initiatives in so

many ways.”

That leaves process improvement pigeon-holed

into delivering cost savings or efficiency gains

rather than as an enabler of corporate strategy. As

Usher points out, “that creates problems in itself

because people in the Process improvement

department become feared by the organization.

The perception is that they’re all about eliminating

FTEs [Full Time Equivalents].”

Indeed, cost savings and efficiency consistently

come out the top of the list when process

professionals are asked about the three primary

objectives for their process improvement. Chart X,

below, shows how these key objectives have

remained remarkably consistent over the past 3

years. But is a drive to improve costs and efficiency

perhaps too narrow a focus?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Adapt to a Merger or Acquisition

Align IT Activities with Processes

Adapt to New Regulations/Regulatory Compliance

Support Innovation

Increase Market Share and Revenue

Increase Business Agility*

Decrease Defects

Improve Customer Satisfaction

Reduce Costs

Improve Efficiency

2011

2013

2014

Chart 8: What are the top 3 drivers for your process excellence program? Comparison of 2014 results

with previous years.

“This year we made a big step

with our strategic planning and I

said now comes the hard part.

You’ve said you only want to

work on ‘X’ number of things

and now the hard part is just

working on ‘X’ number of

things.”

- David Behling, Director of Process

Improvement, Goodwill Industries


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Mike Ensby from Bioclinica observes that “the true

facilitation of a process excellence person is being

able to take the high level ‘here’s where we’re

going’ systems approach that senior leaders take –

and translate that into what somebody needs do

everyday when they come into work.”

Jeremy Tranmer from Rio Tinto Minerals takes it

one step further and says that process

practitioners need to take a wider, more strategic

and systematic view of how their work fits into

corporate strategy.

“Instead of coming from the perspective of ‘we

want to do process excellence’ and then trying to

link it to strategy, we need to look at the strategy

targets and goals first,” he says. “Then use

whatever tools and techniques to best achieve

these goals.”

This pragmatic view of the role of process

excellence is a shift from some of the ways that

companies have deployed approaches like Six

Sigma in the past where following the

methodology was seen as all important.

“I’ve worked with Six Sigma black belts whose

solution to every problem is to start with the

Define phase in the D of DMAIC and work your

way through the alphabet and do every last

deliverable that is outlined in the methodology,”

explains Devin Rickard, Head of Change

Management, Office of the Corporate Controller,

Adobe Systems. “The problem with that is that you

do a lot of very unnecessary work that your

sponsors don’t understand what kind of value it’s

delivering.”

Bob Abel, Senior Director of Global Continuous

Improvement at Walmart says that ultimately the

function fulfills a range of problem solving needs

for organizations and shouldn’t be thought of

merely as DMAIC projects or cost-cutting

exercises. “It is internal consulting. It’s

understanding your processes,” he says. “Then

what’s your prioritization of taking all your

projects coming in and managing that? How do

you execute? How do you change management

Sponsor Advertisement


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that back in so that your changes stick?”

Devin Rickard from Adobe agrees: “The really

powerful skillset is being able to quickly

understand a business problem and understand

what the impact of that business problem is and

then devise a strategy for solving that problem

that uses select tools from the methodology. You

have the ability to look at a problem and see

exactly what the issues are and what the

constraints are that the business is faced with. In

order to solve the problem in an expedient way,

here’s the strategy we’re going to take and here

are the things we’re going to do.”

Better aligning process excellence with corporate

strategy also cuts to the heart of the question:

what is process excellence for? The next section

will look at the wide range of definitions and

names that practitioners have given to process

improvement activities.

“The really powerful skillset is being able to quickly understand a

business problem and understand what the impact of that business

problem is and then devise a strategy for solving that problem that

uses select tools from the methodology. You have the ability to

look at a problem and see exactly what the issues are and what the

constraints are that the business is faced with. In order to solve the

problem in an expedient way, here’s the strategy we’re going to

take and here are the things we’re going to do.”

- Devin Rickard, Head of Change Management, Office of the Corporate Controller,

Adobe Systems


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PEX Network: Do you think

that process excellence is

moving up the agenda of

the C-Suite? (Why or why

not?)

Matt Calkins:

Understanding of the

definition and role of

“Process” is changing. A

traditional mind-set makes it easy to relegate

process to the ivory tower of theoretical “to-be”

states, or the grunt work of marginal

improvements to discrete departmental tasks. The

truth is that “process” really means “how work

gets done,” and work has fundamentally changed

in the wake of mobile, social, cloud, and data

technology disruptions.

C-level executives who see opportunity in change

are embracing new ways of doing business.

Creating new revenue streams, driving mobile

engagement with customers, increasing

collaboration among employees, etc. all require

process transformation. New technologies offer

little business value if disconnected from actual

work. As the concept of “process” evolves to the

concept of “work,” it is getting serious attention

from the corner offices.

PEX Network: In theory process excellence is

about enabling corporate strategy. In practice,

many companies fail at this strategy-execution

alignment. Why do you think that so many

companies struggle with this?

Matt Calkins: There have always been two

problems. The first is the pain involved in

operationalizing new ways of working –

development/rollout time for new process

applications, change management needs, training

time and the possibility of user rejection. The

second problem has been that there is limited

value to be derived from departmentally-bound

process improvement initiatives across a relatively

small group of employees. Enforcing goal-seeking

behaviour requires a broader approach at every

level.

Vitally, the goal of process excellence must be to

rapidly, and continuously maximize the unique

qualities that an organization brings to its market.

How you do what you do is not a commodity – it is

the heart of your competitive advantage. For

decades, organizations have developed, deployed

and maintained expensive, rigid, cumbersome

custom applications to support and enforce their

uniqueness. Ask any IT manager for their least

favorite application, and they’ll point to a piece of

custom software. It is likely to be functionally

archaic, difficult to use, poorly integrated and

difficult to repair or upgrade. What’s worse, the

cost of building and maintaining these applications

scales linearly, because each one is a separate silo

from top to bottom.

PEX Network: What do companies need to do in

order to make their processes better support and

enable business strategy?

Matt Calkins: To tune the way work gets done to

the overall business strategy, organizations need a

new approach to quickly capturing and automating

their unique competitive advantage. A new breed

of business process management (BPM)-driven

enterprise application platforms is revolutionizing

this sort of custom software development.

Through a model-based approach, companies are

no longer dragged down by the limitations of

traditional coding. Process applications built on

such a platform are modern, affordable, and

synergistic with each other. (Traditional custom

software was none of these things.) When such a

platform is hosted in the cloud (as an Application

Platform-as-a-Service) the benefits are

compounded with automatic, hands-free upgrades

as device platforms evolve. By working on mobile

devices as easily working on a desktop and with no

extra cost, application platforms will transform the

way custom software is delivered and used. Easy-

to-use mobile-available custom software will now

unite the organization rather than drive it apart.

Matt Calkins,

President and CEO,

Appian

ALIGNING STRATEGY WITH EXECUTION – PUTTING PEX IN THE C-SUITE

AGENDA: INTERVIEW WITH APPIAN’S MATT CALKINS

Sponsor Interview


13 | P a g e



WHAT’S IN A NAME? DEFINING THE PURPOSE OF PROCESS EXCELLENCE

There are many different variations in how process

practitioners define their mission at different

organizations. One of the questions respondents

were asked in PEX Network’s July 2014 survey was

how would they define the purpose of the process

excellence at their company.

Below is a small sampling of some of the variety of

definitions that came back from respondents:

“To continually improve the current

processes & develop new and innovative

ways to exceed our customer's

expectations.”

“Build a more agile framework that

breaks down departmental silos and

allows us to adapt to new

products/services and customer

experience changes quicker and with less

manual work-arounds”

“Continuous improvement and ensuring

that all teams globally are consistent in

their processes and that we learn from

one another and capture those learnings

in our processes”

“To meet the constant

review/improvement requirements for

ISO registration”

“Reduce cost and increase efficiency”

“Reduce variability of process output to

the uncontrolled limit”

“To retain employees.”

“Enable the operation to improve faster: -

facilitate the target setting and

improvement planning process - coach

improvement projects to deliver results -

establish and support lean at the

workface”

“Software quality”

“Constant and never ending continuous

improvement in in line with client needs

and our strategic goals aiming at being

best in class”

“Reduce defects by improving the overall

knowledge base and efficiency”

“Drive inefficiency out, support

continuous improvement ethos”

“Streamline and standardize the

enterprise-wide processes across business

divisions”

“Improve compliance, efficiency and

quality of outcomes”

The range of names that companies call process

excellence also varies hugely. Some have been

specific to the methodologies used to support

process improvement such as Six Sigma, Total

Quality Management, Lean, Business Process

Reengineering, Statistical Process Control, etc.

Other common terms that companies use include

“operational excellence”, “continuous

improvement” and “process improvement” in

addition to company-specific terms for their

process excellence program (e.g. “The Toyota

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Six Sigma

Business Transformation

Performance Excellence

Lean

Lean Six Sigma

Process Excellence

Business Process Management…

Process Improvement

Continuous Improvement

Operational Excellence

Chart 9: Which term most closely approximates what your

organization calls process excellence?


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Way”). Chart 9, above right, shows the most

common naming conventions used by

organizations to describe their process excellence

program.

The problem is that there is no one single term

that the industry has consolidated around that

encapsulates the meaning or purpose of process

excellence.

“The branding is a challenge because what we call

it can create confusion,” observes Paul Sandell,

Senior Master Black Belt at Intel. “Within

accounting and finance, for instance, the function

is always called accounting and finance. There

really is no other brand. But you go to other

companies and process improvement can be called

any number of things. This causes a great deal of

confusion with not only the lay person within the

organization but also with the business

leadership.”

Bob Abel, Senior Director Global Continuous

Improvement at Walmart agrees: “When I was at

USAA we called it Operational Excellence. At Kelly

we called it Process Support. At Armstrong we

called it Process Improvement. Here [at Walmart]

we call it Continuous Improvement. That lack of

consolidation or consistent terminology means

that process excellence has not been elevated

from an industry standard perspective and makes

it difficult for CEOs and other executives to

recognize that processes and their improvement

are a critical function.”

It is ironic that something that supports what all

organizations must do in order to compete for

business – i.e. carry out work, solve problems,

manage projects, execute on strategy,

continuously improve operations, keep customers

happy – is not formally acknowledged as a

function nor does it have any universally

acknowledged name.

This could be partly because process excellence

practitioners often aim to make process excellence

a part of the culture of the organization rather

than think of it as separate from the day to day

operations. The theory is that the real gains from

improving processes comes when the skills of

problem solving and continuous improvement are

practiced by everyone, rather than seen as a

separate function that only a few specific people

do.

Ulf Pettersson, WCM Manager at flooring

manufacturer Tarkett Ronneby, observes that

naming the function can even lead to problems

with the way the rest of the business

conceptualizes process excellence: “when I started

here, they had been running their World Class

Manufacturing (WCM) operations [what Tarkett

Ronneby calls process excellence] for 2 ½ years

and people were making a distinction between

“normal work” and “WCM” work. That led to the

sentiment that WCM would blow over rather than

becoming part of the way we work. Since then, the

organization has integrated and accepted that

normal work is doing according to WCM.”

“When I was at USAA we called it Operational Excellence. At Kelly

we called it Process Support. At Armstrong we called it Process

Improvement. Here [at Walmart] we call it Continuous

Improvement. That lack of consolidation or consistent

terminology means that process excellence has not been elevated

from an industry standard perspective and makes it difficult for

CEOs and other executives to recognize that processes and their

improvement are a critical function.”

- Bob Abel, Senior Director Global Continuous Improvement, Walmart


15 | P a g e



Adobe’s Devin Rickard says that people rename

process excellence when previous efforts have not

been successful. The underlying tools and

methodologies will be the same, but practitioners

try to wallpaper over the cracks by calling it

something different.

“The majority of executives here in the Silicon

Valley have developed antibodies to a lot of the

terminology of a business process professional –

Six Sigma, Lean, Lean Six Sigma,” he explains. “The

executive community here is fairly tightly knit so if

there’s one company that has tried a large,

executive level driven business process

improvement effort and was not successful with it,

the word is going to spread. You have to brand

yourself in a way that doesn’t trigger any

antibodies.”

Does lack of coherent terminology across

companies matter? The answer is that infuriating

consultant’s response: it depends.

Within companies that have long practiced and

supported process excellence, for instance, it is

likely that the wider organization will have a

reasonable understanding of what process

excellence is and means. As David Behling,

Director of Process Improvement at Goodwill

Industries says, it doesn’t really matter what you

call process excellence as long as the name holds

meaning for people within your organization: “it

matters what everyone understands it to mean.”

However, the larger question is whether the lack

of a coherent “brand” across companies for

process excellence means it will always be a

struggle to get process improvement capabilities

understood and accepted by business executives

as a strategic function. For non-process experts,

the vast array of terminology can be baffling and

can lead to the lack of understanding that the

various terms are all describing the same general

set of capabilities and approaches.

As a result, each time the capabilities are

introduced into an organization, the process of

education and “selling” the approach begins as

many business users will have had no prior

exposure to the concept of process improvement

(or may not be aware they have if it is called

something different in previous organizations in

which they have worked).


16 | P a g e



THE MANY SHADES OF PROCESS EXCELLENCE:

Process excellence goes under the moniker of different names in different industries. Here are the

most popular ones by selected industry.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%



Lean Six Sigma

Process Improvement

Lean


Process Excellence


BPM

Financial Services

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

BPM



Process Improvement

Lean


Process Excellence


Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%


Lean Six Sigma

Process Excellence

BPM

Lean

Process Improvement




Insurance

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%


Process Excellence

BPM


Lean

Process Improvement


Lean Six Sigma


Manufacturing

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%


Process Excellence


BPM

Lean

Lean Six Sigma

Process Improvement



Healthcare

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%


BPM

Lean

Process Excellence


Lean Six Sigma


Process Improvement


Energy

Chart 10: How energy companies term process

excellence

Chart 11: How healthcare organizations term

process excellence

Chart 12: How manufacturing companies term

process excellence Chart 13: How insurance companies term

process excellence

Chart 15: How pharma/biotechnology

companies term process excellence

Chart 14: How financial services companies term

process excellence


17 | P a g e



PEX Network: Would you consider process excellence a key strategic capability? Why or why not? Tomasz Jasinkiewicz: It is a very strategic one! I believe we’ll see pretty soon a lot of formally nominated CPOs – Chief Process Officers. Process Excellence is strategic

because it helps with your bottom line as well as your top line. Good processes are traditionally associated only with the bottom-line, with operational efficiency, and with lower costs. But good processes can also give you better customer service, wider market reach and faster time-to-market. And that’s your top line. I also see an important reason why process excellence is more important today than a decade ago. The markets move too fast and generate too much data so our human minds just can’t absorb it all. You can’t survive today without automated processes. And you can’t automate them if they are not optimized – well you can, but that’s a rather bad idea – so you need process excellence for both – to optimize and to automate. PEX Network: What does it mean from your perspective to align process excellence effectively with business strategy? Tomasz Jasinkiewicz: You could write a PhD thesis in response to this question, but let me try to tackle it briefly. In a nutshell it has to work in two directions:

1. Top-down you need to define what you’re trying to achieve and how you’re going to measure it. There’s no excellence without measures. You need to clearly communicate it to all levels of your organization and then you have to listen to the feedback you get from the ground. And re-adjust your strategy if it doesn’t work.

2. Bottom-up you need to constantly measure the SLAs/KPIs for every running process as well as the impact of every change in the processes you make. Then you check if what you measured is in line with what the strategy asked for and if not, then you adjust your processes again.

The key thing to stay ahead of your competition is that you can’t wait for a monthly SLA report. You need to see your KPIs in real time and react fast both directions: top-down and bottom-up. PEX Network: What core competencies should process professionals consider as critical to successful alignment? Tomasz Jasinkiewicz: There are many but I would focus on three of them: Collaboration, IT and… Imperfection. Let me explain. You need collaboration top-down, for the managers to cascade their vision; bottom-up, for the employees to give them a reality check; and peer-to-peer, for co-workers to trust each other and work towards the same goal. You need IT because there’s no process automation, or even basic process control, without IT. And your IT has to be in perfect sync with your business. Think of collaboration again, think of cross-functional teams, think of IT-savvy Business Analysts. Finally, you need the Imperfection. Process improvement is a process itself. You can’t deploy a perfect process in a big bang. It just takes too much time and money, and by the time you’re finished your process is obsolete. Don’t be perfect! Start with an imperfect version of your process and use it. Then improve this, and improve that. Progress in small steps or – as I like to say – eat with a small spoon. Also, make sure you use tools that allow you to make those small but frequent changes. Just grab the right spoon. PEX Network: What’s your approach to make process excellence work in practice? Tomasz Jasinkiewicz: We just follow the philosophy of “Start Small, Think Big and Scale Fast”.

Start small by picking a small process project to quickly demonstrate ROI and ease-of-use.

Think big by aligns this first process to at least one strategic goal and at least one big problem to solve

And then we scale fast – to keep the momentum – by adding more processes, ramping up the skills and growing the BPM culture within the organisation.

Tomasz

Jasinkiewicz,

Account Director,

Bizagi

PROCESS ALIGNMENT – THE CORE COMPETENCIES OF PROCESS EXCELLENCE:

INTERVIEW WITH BIZAGI’S TOMASZ JASINKIEWICZ

Sponsor Interview


18 | P a g e



EMBEDDING PROCESS EXCELLENCE AS A STRATEGIC CAPABILITY

While linking process improvement with top

level business strategy never gets easy no

matter how long an organization has been

formally practicing process improvement,

companies that have long had a formal

process excellence program (6+ years) are

more likely to agree – or strongly agree – with

the statement that process improvements are

aligned with the company’s strategic

objectives than those who are just starting

their journey (see Chart 16, opposite).

Interestingly, though, the priority level that an

organization assigns to process excellence

does not appear to have any correlation at all

to how long an organization has been

practicing process excellence. (See Chart 17

below). At 0-2 years, for instance, 68.49% of

survey respondents report that process

excellence is either one of the top priorities or

the top priority, a number which remains

relatively consistent across all maturity levels.

Indeed, a slightly smaller percentage (65.96%)

of companies that have been doing process

excellence for 10+ years report that process

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

0-2 Years

3-5 Years

6-9 Years

10+ years


One of the top priorities of the company – top management is committed and some resources and budget have been assigned

Company is paying attention toprocess excellence but gettinganyone to commit much in terms ofresources or budget is difficult

Company is not paying attention toor taking any proactive steps toimprove processes

Chart 17: Number of years with a formal process excellence program versus the priority level of the

program.

Chart 16: To what extent would you agree with the following

statement at your company “Process improvements are aligned with

the company's strategic objectives” compared with number of years

the organization has had a formal process excellence program

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

10+ Years

6-9 Years

3-5 years

0-2 years

To what extent would you agree that process improvements are aligned

with your company’s strategic objectives?


19 | P a g e



excellence is either one of the top priorities or the

top priority (although moderately more report that

it is a “top priority” than any of the other maturity

levels).

These results indicate that support for process

excellence remains relatively constant over the

course of a deployment. In fact, at the beginning

of a process excellence deployment it could be

that support is moderately stronger, if the

organization has a “burning platform”, which it

believes employing process excellence

methodologies will help resolve.

There is a risk, though, that if process

improvement only is associated with solving a

specific problem at a specific point in time, that it

becomes something that burns brightly initially but

quickly burns itself out.

“If you start everything with a big bang then

people either expect a lot or they expect it to blow

over,” says Ulf Pettersson, WCM Manager at

Tarkett Ronneby. “If you start on a small scale and

pilot in a small area you’re creating a pool for the

need for other departments to follow. If you are

Sponsor Advertisement

“The best models are what I call

the mixed models where you have

the full time process improvement

professionals – Black Belts, Master

Black Belts – working on projects

as part of their day to day work

but where every level of the

organization and every person in

the organization does some

project work within either the

business group they work in or

expanding beyond in cross

business groups.”

- Paul Sandell, Senior Master Black Belt,

Intel


20 | P a g e



able to show results, people want to know how it

was achieved and they become interested.”

One of the ways to get incremental buy in

throughout the organization is by focusing on

getting business leaders involved in actually

leading process improvement projects.

According to survey respondents, process

Improvement projects are typically led by Process

Improvement experts (44.5% of respondents

indicated that projects were led by these experts

versus 28.6% said it was typically Line of Business

Managers who were responsible for leadership of

these projects (see Chart 18, opposite). Many of

the telephone interviewee felt, though, that this

was not the best model to encourage linking

process improvement with strategic objectives.

“The best models are what I call the mixed models

where you have the full time process improvement

professionals – Black Belts, Master Black Belts –

working on projects as part of their day to day

work but where every level of the organization and

every person in the organization does some

project work within either the business group they

work in or expanding beyond in cross business

groups,” says Paul Sandell from Intel.

“You want to put process improvement knowledge

in the hands of everyone,” comments Goodwill

Industries’ David Behling. “If it’s always the

process improvement experts who are leading

process improvement, then it’s not building

culture.”

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Human Resources

IT

External Consultants


Line of Business Managers

Process Improvement experts(e.g. Lean Six Sigma Black Belts)

Chart 18: Who typically leads process improvement projects at

your company?


21 | P a g e



PEX Network: Why do you think more companies are looking to invest in all categories of technologies this year as opposed to last? Martin Scovell: Given that the economy is recovering from the biggest recession since the 1930’s; no one will be surprised to see

technology investment rising at present. That much is obvious, but what is more interesting is that what firms are choosing to invest in isn’t the same today as it was before the recession. Gartner’s 2014 CEO Survey makes this clear; CEOs are keen to invest in customer-facing areas such as digital marketing, e-commerce and customer experience management. By comparison, focus on back office IT investment has declined. Forrester’s “Age of the Customer” research predicts that investment in what they call “systems of engagement” will overtake back-office IT investment by 2018. Correspondingly, responsibility for such projects is increasingly devolved to business departments, rather than centrally controlled by IT. This is a tremendous opportunity for firms like MatsSoft that have a pedigree not just in process automation, but in customer experience improvement as well. For projects such as this, platforms that can deliver improvements in days rather than months, have much more appeal compared to the heavy weight technology vendors that were once favoured by IT. The ability to provide instant and intuitive platforms for business improvement via the Cloud, and the ability to take a share-of-risk / share-of-reward approach with clients, is enabling a new and innovative class of technology vendors to liberate clients from the constraints previously imposed by centralised IT and monolithic procurement arrangements. PEX Network: Do you think technology is becoming more of a strategic issue for process excellence? Martin Scovell: It has always been strategic; it just has not always been very popular. For years the regrettable experience of many process excellence professionals has been that however fast they propose process improvements that streamline operations and raise customer service levels, IT has struggled to keep up. Constrained resources, long work queues and then the complexity and time required for development, have been a real barrier to implementing quick business improvements.

The advent of “low-code” development platforms that are available instantly via the Cloud, means process excellence initiatives can be unshackled from many of the restraints previously associated with technology projects. It’s really exciting to work in a domain where technology can be instantly available, immediately intuitive and incredibly quick to deliver results, without the need for hard-core programming. PEX Network: How can technology help better align process improvement with corporate strategic objectives? Martin Scovell: Linking process improvement to top-level strategy is the most significant and growing concern expressed in this year’s PEX member survey. Perhaps it’s more difficult to improve such alignment in a rising economy, because business leaders have more appetite for risk and radical innovation, which can easily sideswipe the best-made plans for process improvement. Various industry surveys tell us that customer experience improvement, powered by digital innovation is a top priority for businesses today. Improving customer experience across multiple channels is a top priority for many businesses. In this respect IT specialists, business people and process excellence specialists all need to collaborate better. Digital innovation that better serves customers really has to be a team effort. Low-code development platforms, that enable business and process excellence stakeholders to retain a simple common language that they both understand, are well suited to this challenge. By reducing the need for resource-constrained programming, solutions can be built so quickly, that an agile and iterative approach can be taken. It’s an approach termed “Test and Learn” by Forrester amongst others. The agility and speed which stem from this approach, can significantly assist in the quest to improve alignment between strategy, process design and technology delivery. That’s because you get results before the need has changed. You retain the involvement of business stakeholders – who don’t have time to lose interest. All stakeholders can see and understand what is being built, instead of development only being intelligible to highly trained technologists. In summary, speed and superior collaboration enable better alignment.

Martin Scovell, CEO,

MatsSoft

ALIGNING STRATEGY, PROCESS EXCELLENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE AGE

OF THE CUSTOMER: INTERVIEW WITH MATSSOFT’S MARTIN SCOVELL

Sponsor Interview


22 | P a g e



ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY

Technology is playing an ever greater role in all

aspects of business operations. Whether it’s

supporting and automating processes or enabling

new business models, Information Technology has

transformed the art of the possible within

companies. Technology enablement, when

correctly utilized, has the potential to make

process improvements higher impact and with

greater reach within an organization.

Currently, the vast majority of process excellence

practitioners (64.5%), according to our 2014

survey, use process modelling or mapping tools to

support their projects/initiatives (see Chart 19,

below). Workflow automation technologies come

second with 39.4% of respondents indicating some

form of automation tool or technology is helping

to support process, while Document Management

solutions for supporting the flow of documents

through processes rank third with 35.1% of

respondents indicating that they already use a

document management solution.

In the year ahead, all categories of technology

investment look set to experience growth over last

year (see Chart 20, next page), perhaps an

indication that an improving outlook for the global

economy means that companies are starting to

loosen the purse-strings on investment.

Interestingly, the technology that has emerged as

a frontrunner for investment is big data and

analytics technology. Over 30% of process

professionals (33.8%) indicated the data analytics

and big data technologies were an area of

investment in the next 12-18 months.

While big data is somewhat of a woolly term – the

software industry uses it to describe data that is of

greater variety, volume and velocity than

computers were able to effectively process until

recently – clearly companies are starting to look

more seriously at how data can be integrated and

Chart 19: Which technologies are you currently using to support your process excellence

projects/initiatives?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Social BPM solution

Mobile BPM solution

Process simulation

BPM Suites

Master data management

Process mining

Data analytics (Big Data)

Document management solutions

Workflow automation

Process modelling/mapping tools


23 | P a g e



utilized more effectively to aid business

operations.

“Today, we can monitor almost anything with

embedded sensors that simply send data at

unprecedented frequencies,” says Rob Speck, Vice

President of Global Services at K2. “When we look

at that exponential growth you can store in the

enterprise, we can see that there's value to having

tools that can understand what's going on,

perhaps trends, correlations, patterns, that can

actually help aid in future decisions.”

Adobe’s Devin Rickard says that within his

company, data is becoming a much greater part of

process excellence projects.

“Business people are increasingly savvy about data

and their need to be able to make sense of it,” he

explains. “With every project that we have going

on, a huge piece is how are we going to measure

things? Where are we going to get our data from?

Are you going to be able to produce for me the

reports and information that I need in order to be

able to make decisions?”

Tamarah Usher at Monsanto says that analysis of

big data is playing a greater role in improving the

Research and Development pipeline as her

company mines the vast amount of genetic

information they have stored: “We’ve put our

process professionals side by side with our data

scientists. We want to make sure we’re looking at

our processes holistically can apply analytics

where it will make the most impact on decision

making.”

But many still remain skeptical about the value of

big data citing problems with the term (at what

point does data become ‘big’?), issues with data

quality (“garbage in, garbage out”) as well as the

fact that many businesses struggle to make sense

of and use efficiently the data that they already

have.

Chart 20: What process management technologies are you planning to invest in within the next 12-18

months?

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Social BPM solution

Mobile BPM solution

Process mining

Process simulation

Master data management

BPM Suites

Process modelling/mapping tools

Document management solutions

Workflow automation

Data analytics (Big Data)

2013

2014

33.8% of survey respondents

said that Big Data and

Analytics are a key

investment area in the year

ahead


24 | P a g e



David Behling from Goodwill Industries points out

that “if you don’t have a plan on how you will use

the data all you’re doing is collecting a lot of

something that won’t help you do anything.”

The traditional process improvement toolset of

identifying relevant metrics and data will become

more, rather than less, important. The key is to

identify the critical few metrics that matter to

business performance.

Devin Rickard from Adobe explains: “I’ve seen

many efforts that get carried away with their

metrics. Ultimately you want to keep things as

simple as possible and you need to know what the

fundamental things you need to know are, in order

to make intelligent business decisions that help

you drive your piece of the business. The whole big

data piece of it means, can you get me the

information I need to make effective decisions?”

“Business people are increasingly savvy about data and their need to

be able to make sense of it. With every project that we have going on,

a huge piece is how are we going to measure things? Where are we

going to get our data from? Are you going to be able to produce for

me the reports and information that I need in order to be able to

make decisions?”

– Devin Rickard, Head of Change Management, Office of the Corporate Controller, Adobe

Systems


25 | P a g e



PEX Network: Why do you think companies are starting to look to invest in big data and analytics in the year ahead? Why now? Rob Speck: I think it's a combination of factors, including pervasive connectivity devices that send data wirelessly about

everything: you've got machine states, customer locations, atmospheric conditions and on and on. You basically have all of these devices sending massive amounts of data. Today, we can monitor almost anything with embedded sensors that simply send data at unprecedented frequencies. If you couple those trends with ever-cheaper costs of storing data, we have a world full of data orders. When we look at that exponential growth you can store in the enterprise, we can see that there's value to having tools that can understand what's going on, perhaps trends, correlations, patterns, that can actually help aid in future decisions. PEX Network: How do you see big data and business process management sitting together? Rob Speck: It's still a very early growth stage. There are a variety of organizations that have technologies that can handle data flowing in using event-enabled processing, using services-oriented architectures. You've got things like in-memory processing. And you have other organizations that are storing everything that is coming in. Regardless of your architecture, regardless of the way you're handling the big data challenge, at a certain point you basically want to take action. If you’re a bank, for instance, you might see an inordinate amount of password changes with your online account. A certain level might pass a specific acceptable threshold, which then triggers an alert to investigate as maybe there's potential fraud activity hitting accounts. Next, you want some kind of action. It may be completely automated, like freezing the password change function across your system so no further changes could happen. But you may have other more complex set of activities that are manual as well. You may have roles in the organization that are alerted to specific human tasks that may be taking place, perhaps exploring the root cause of this specific suspicious condition.

In short, when we talk about value of big data and various technologies, at the end of the analysis you want to trigger a process. And this is where we've seen our technology become an important part of harnessing the power and value of big data. PEX Network: Now, there's always a risk with new technology like big data that companies just jump on the bandwagon and then become disillusioned when the reality doesn't live up to the original expectation. Do you have any advice for how process improvement professionals can help ensure that their companies don't fall into this “trough of disillusionment” with big data or any other technology investment? Rob Speck: I've seen that curve that Gartner draws out, and it does happen with nearly every technology wave. In my view, it's all about the business drivers: what are you trying to achieve? Where you've identified opportunities in the business, how can insight into things like customer behavior, operations management quality, demand generation, help these things be improved? I've seen companies like Federal Express use environmental monitoring to ensure biological samples stay within a necessary temperature range during transport from clinics to labs for testing. For this instance, they knew that they had a need to monitor conditions more accurately and with a constant flow of data monitoring because that would reduce the incidents of fault, which could ruin a shipment, which in turn can cost the company millions, of not just lost revenue, but also lost customer satisfaction and loyalty. So once you understand the business case and that business case is there, as with any technology, it's about taking a pragmatic approach. Another example is Microsoft. They started in one specific business area and after proving these technologies, the architecture, the approach, they moved to another business unit and so on. One of the impressive things I've seen working with Microsoft is they approach every new technology in a sensible way and I've never seen them take a boil-the-ocean approach. They realize the value quickly, expand, take a step back, look at how to leverage that across business units, and then centralize if, and only if, it makes any sense. So in short, I'd say use technologies that allow you to gain value in just a few months. Stay away from massive platforms that promise the moon. Do that, and you should avoid that trough of disillusionment.

Rob Speck, Vice

President, Global

Services, K2

BRINGING DATA AND PROCESS TOGETHER - THE FUTURE FOR PROCESS

IMPROVEMENT: INTERVIEW WITH K2’S ROB SPECK

Read the full interview here: http://goo.gl/ZAt93d

Sponsor Interview


26 | P a g e



RECOMMENDATIONS:

There is no “one size fits all” approach to linking

process improvement to strategy. Different

organizations will be at different levels of maturity

and be facing different challenges. Is the problem

lack of executive understanding of or support for

process improvement? Is it that the organization

hasn’t set a defined strategy? Do the business

leadership teams believe that process

improvement is something that someone else

does for them?

Despite the range of maturities where different

companies may be, here are 5 suggestions on ways

that process professionals can look at better

aligning process improvement with strategy:

#1: ASK THE TOUGH QUESTIONS

As discussed in one of the earlier sections of this

report, sometimes the strategic focus of the

company is unclear or lacking. While it can be easy

to blame upper management for the lack of clarity

or for lurching from one tactic to another,

ultimately, process practitioners can help draw out

and articulate the strategic direction of the

company by asking the right questions.

“Challenging and asking lots of questions – that’s

how you can get your leadership team to focus on

setting those objectives and goals,” says Jeremy

Tranmer from Rio Tinto Minerals.

Tranmer recounts how a new financial controller

came in and kept asking the group the same

question over and over again: “how do we know

we’re winning?”

“He created a lot frustration but also discussion

and eventually it lead to more clarity,” Tranmer

says.

#2: USE DATA TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Clearly, the new emerging data analytics

technologies are in an early stage of adoption by

companies and many practitioners remain

skeptical about companies who look to the much

touted “Big Data” as the silver bullet for business

woes. Much work still must be done to lay the

foundation for incorporating the new data

technologies successfully as companies still

struggle with issues of data quality and even with

identifying the metrics that matter for

performance. However, the effective use of data

can be a powerful aid in both ensuring that

process improvement is linked with strategy as

well as keeping executives on side and supportive.

“After we found that offering up opportunities

based on opinion fell on deaf ears, we started

digging for facts. Presenting an opportunity,

backed up with, say, a value-stream map or an OEE

chart, has a much warmer reception,” offers Rio

Tinto Minerals’ Jeremy Tranmer.

This does not require major investment in new

“If you really have strategic planning done, everything should be

related to your strategic planning. That’s the discipline part. With

so much low hanging fruit you could do everything but you really

need to prioritize based on your strategy. We have to start running

our events through a committee to make sure they align with our

strategy.”

- David Behling, Director of Process Improvement at Goodwill Industries


27 | P a g e



technologies. Instead it requires a thoughtful

approach to the kind of metrics and data that will

help drive decision making forward and also keep

everyone focused in the same direction.

Additionally it requires thought on how to present

that information so that it can be readily

understandable by all relevant stakeholders. Once

a solid foundation has been established the new

data and analytics technologies that are emerging

can help embed, deepen and support the

capability into the business.

#3: EXPERIMENT WITH TECHNOLOGY TO

SUPPORT A CULTURE OF CONTINUOUS

IMPROVEMENT

Technology investment for process excellence

need not be expensive. Lightweight social media

platforms and technologies like wikis, etc. can help

all employees share best practice and identify

opportunities for improvement.

“As practitioners, we can’t always drive the culture

of the organization or make process important as

part of a larger strategy – PI is expensive in some

cases – but we should start to use some of the

social and collaborative platforms to help create

an asset of process so that it starts to catch on

with minimal investment and everyone can drive

process improvement,” comments Tamarah Usher

from Monsanto. “There are process-minded

people all over the place. You might not be putting

them into full time process projects that use those

skills but you can still leverage their ideas if you

give them tools that are easy to use so they can

spread a process improvement culture throughout

the organization.”

#4: STAY DISCIPLINED

Maintain a firm focus on what will truly help move

the organization forward and which opportunities

are those that will help support and enable the

business strategy.

“If you really have strategic planning done,

everything should be related to your strategic

planning. That’s the discipline part,” says Goodwill

Industries’ David Behling. “With so much low

hanging fruit you could do everything but you

really need to prioritize based on your strategy.

We have to start running our events through a

committee to make sure they align with our

strategy.”

Ulf Pettersson, WCM manager at Tarkett Ronneby

explains that his company uses matrices to identify

and prioritize opportunities based on the

company’s strategic objectives. More importantly,

though, is the fact that the company regularly

reviews those matrices to ensure progress is being

made.

“We used to review the matrices twice a year to

see whether we had progressed against our

objectives,” he says. “Now, though, we do a

monthly update where each production line does a

monthly matrix to make sure that the

improvements they have made are progressing

and sustained over time.”

“The matrices also serve as a prioritization tool

which means the key focus for the plant is what is

highlighted in the matrices,” he adds. “What

matters to the business is managed through the

focus on Process Excellence.”

#5: BREAK DOWN THE SILOS BETWEEN

METHODOLOGIES

Ultimately, at the end of the day, process

excellence is about enabling business strategy and

solving business problems. Too often, companies

employ just one process improvement

methodology such as Lean or Six Sigma and expect

that it will be able to deal with all the challenges

that the business throws at it. Clearly, a more

holistic and pragmatic approach is needed when it

comes to enabling business strategy. Six Sigma

techniques, for instance, may be an important part

of the overall approach, but there may be other

methodologies or technologies that can help to

drive results.


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“One of the things I’ve been exploring is the

connection between the work that a process

analyst does and the work that the Enterprise and

Business Architects are doing,” says Tamarah

Usher from Monsanto. “Much of the work of a

process analyst should be aligned with the

Business Architecture or at least have a huge

amount of overlap. That would help tie process

improvement and process automation to

something more strategic.”

Jeremy Tranmer from Rio Tinto Minerals agrees:

“It’s more about coming together to work out the

best business solution and breaking down barriers

of ownership. We each have a view of the world

and each of those views is valid. We need to

understand how each of these different

perspectives combine and contribute to achieving

the necessary results.”

CONCLUSIONS:

Linking process improvement to top level business

strategy ultimately needs to start at the top of the

organization with senior management. Then, those

strategic visions must be cascaded down into

specific tasks and activities and processes looked

at as part of an overall way of supporting that

vision.

Senior leadership and process practitioners have a

shared a responsibility to link process

improvement to strategy. Executives must set the

vision, objectives, and goals but also recognized

the discipline required to translate those

objectives into meaningful actions. Process

professionals, on the other hand, must influence

and educate senior leadership to invest in process

excellence by focusing on those improvements

that drive the business outcomes that senior

leadership cares about.

Terminology, project leadership and technology

may all contribute to how aligned process

improvement is to corporate strategy and need to

be considered as part of an overall mix of

approaches and tools.

“It’s about starting from the business objectives

and then determining the right tools, techniques,

and programs that will deliver those objectives

without being wedded to process excellence,” says

Rio Tinto Minerals’ Jeremy Tranmer. “We need

process excellence but without being evangelical

about it. It’s about adopting that level of

pragmatism and looking at the big picture.”

The Drive To Performance Excellence


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ABOUT THE REPORT SPONSORS Sponsors help PEX Network to make research like this freely available to practitioners in the industry and help

to contribute ideas and observations on industry trends. To find out how to get involved as a sponsor in future

reports, please contact [email protected].

K2

K2 provides software that makes your people more effective. K2

applications can be set up to automate and manage business

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Our Cloud iBPM platform “MATS” empowers business

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Bizagi


mailto:[email protected]

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30 | P a g e



Bizagi is a privately-owned company run by software

entrepreneurs who are experts in Business Process

Management (BPM). Bizagi disrupted the BPM market with its

true Business Agility, and supports over $10bn transactions and

the largest BPM projects globally. Over 350 customers including

adidas, Generali and BAE rely on Bizagi to transform their

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America, Bizagi is supported by a strong implementation partner network worldwide.

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Minitab

For over 40 years, world-class organizations in more than

100 countries have transformed their businesses with

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http://www.bizagi.com/

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SHIFT BUSINESS EXCELLENCE INTO HIGH GEAR: DRIVE STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE THROUGH PROCESS ... · 2017-05-09 · Shift Business Excellence into High Gear CONTENTS ... Embedding Process