Process optimization

The optimization process is used in organizations (businesses, social institutions, etc.) to improve the efficiency of existing business, production and development processes and the use of resources needed to continuously (especially with the help of IT tools ).

Importance

The optimization process has been considered for a long time as the task of quality management, but today it is increasingly grown to become part of a comprehensive integrated process management of companies and institutions. Process thinking and optimization as the basis of an effective type of farming is now an indispensable part of any modern business management in order to survive in the national and international competition.

Basics

It is based on a process-oriented approach throughout the operational processes. For this purpose it is necessary to abandon hergebrachtes hierarchical " department thinking" and instead define process chains across divisions ( expiration vs. Organizational structure ). The processes have to be given, for example, recorded and classified as part of the process analysis using process modeling first time. To evaluate the quality and performance of such processes to be described, suitable highlights ( so-called Key Performance Indicator, KPI short ) must be introduced. With the help of a process description thus obtained can be created of the company, which serves as the reference basis for further optimization a process map ( Prozessogramm ). Affected thereof may be all business sectors, starting with research and development, through production, management to purchasing, sales and delivery. Ideally, the entire business processes as well as the human and material resources of such evaluation and classification are examined in the context of an integrated e-business concept. The on the basis of such evaluation onset, continuously ongoing process optimization has the given processes to better target resistant, without thereby interrupting their workflow. Well-known management concepts in this context are, for example, Business Process Reengineering ( BPR) in 1991, Six Sigma ( early 90s ), Kaizen ( 1994) and Balanced Scorecard ( 1996), see Fischer 's, practical manual process management, S.40ff.

Tools

The mastery of complex business processes and their optimization is without appropriate software tools nowadays no longer conceivable. For this, more or less appropriate software packages are offered by a variety of vendors that can be adapted to the specific operational requirements. These are in particular the analysis of the defined processes and the codes to classify these terms of their contribution to value creation can. On the basis of its findings should then focuses on key processes with the help of these tools, the operational resources and corresponding targets are developed. In the context of software engineering realized simulations, the results thus obtained are checked in sequence to their effectiveness.

Status

As part of the global complexity of today's business processes ( e- business concepts, etc.) are such process-oriented approaches are increasingly indispensable. However, companies and institutions that have achieved in this respect at least approximate integration, still rare ( cf. IDS Scheer Business Process Report 2006). Production processes, and sales and logistics processes are nowadays mainly optimized in terms of cost and lead times. Areas that have more soft key performance indicators ( KPI ) ( wherever the human factor directly comes into play ), are rarely collected and subjected to a process technology process optimization. This is not least because the creative and complex value processes can be based on their individual characteristics with the currently available software tools, often not expedient analyzed and improved, since it is often difficult in the modeling and analysis phase, these soft factors with static models ever to capture.