Process Management, Criteria Development for Cell Phone Housing - Coursework Example

Process Management Abstract Quality is an indispensable aspiration for any serious company in these days of high competition and globalization. It does not matter whether the company is in manufacturing car parts, cell phones or is in service delivery as a non profit. For any business to keep its competitive edge it has to keep quality standards at the core of its management. But what are these standards? There are many standards, and they do not only refer to product quality but it is much more encompassing covering diverse areas of a company’s infrastructure from human resources to product development to marketing. Whenever quality is a concern it is true that most of us think of the quality of the product, but this can only be assured if quality standards are met in other areas of the organizational structure. A demoralized workforce cannot be expected to perform effectively to produce a high quality product. A disorganized product conception and production process cannot be expected to yield a high quality competitive product. Effective communication is central to all processes of a business, be it to communicate standards or to mobilize workforce leading to high standards. All these processes put together are useful for both small and big businesses alike. Nomenclature R&D Research and Development A department within most modern industries that is concerned with researching and developing of new products. BPM Business Process Management The ensemble of activities within a business aimed at improving all processes to maximize production and profitability. Introduction I have outlined the importance of standards above. I am sure all good managers and business owners understand and believe in the importance of quality standards. Then the next thing is to determine and organize these standards. This calls for a kind of criteria framework or guide to help establish and implement these standards. For the best results, it is best to apply them to all departments of the business. There are various areas that can be managed to attain high standards. This paper will limit itself to process management as outlined and recommended by Baldrige National Quality Program that also runs the Malcolm Balridge National Quality Award. Malcolm Balridge National Quality Award aims to reward organizations performance excellence based on the competitiveness of their performance processes and any improvements undertaken. The program is a concerted effort of government departments, non profit organizations and the private sector. Award recipients are determined using criteria determined by the standards set by the Balridge National Quality Program with recommendation from other industry players like the American Society for Quality and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Award recipients get to present their “exceptional performance practices”1 with other leading organisation from varied fields and practices. They also have a choice to share information with others, a voluntary process; in the past award recipients have been generous sharing information beyond what they are required to sharing proprietary information, even if such information was part of their Award application. The Balridge Criteria for performance excellence identifies six priority areas or categories in its criteria for performance framework. These areas are in the order leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, measurement, analysis, and knowledge management, workforce focus, process management and results. For this paper the focus will be on process management as can be applied to cell phone housing development. Literature Review What is process management? Wikipedia defines process management as “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, techniques and systems to define, visualize, measure, control, report and improve processes with the goal of meeting customer requirements profitably”. It also differentiates it from program management which is the management of a number of inter-independent and separate programs and warns that it should not be confused with reengineering which is the redesign of a business’s processes. Process management is an important process that a business engages in order to meet customer aspirations and wants. It is particularly important in the climate of globalization where businesses may face more competition than ever before. It is aimed at optimizing efficiency and effectiveness of the processes that runs a business; it is ...”a holistic approach…striving for innovation, flexibility and integration with technology. As organizations strive for attainment of their objectives, BPM attempts to continuously improve processes - the process to define, measure and improve your processes – a ‘process optimization' process” (Wikipedia). According to Wikipedia process management is a cyclic process composed of five main actions; design, modeling, execution, monitoring, and optimization. BPM is about the management of business processes; although it involves technology it is erroneous to think that it is all about technology. XYZ defines BPM as, “The achievement of an organization’s objectives through the improvement, management and control of essential business practices”. He further explains that BPM is an integrated form of the normal management process and that there is no finish line, i.e. it is a continuous process (Jeston 11). Process Management Process management is a process of management geared towards better result in the end product but also in the work force and the working environment. Although process management will include automation at one point or another, automation is not the be all of BPM but automation can make or break the BPM process. The Balridge National Quality program identifies seven categories in it’s criteria for performance excellence framework. Process management is the last step before the results but does not nonetheless make it the least important. Figure 1 illustrates the interdependent relationship between the categories. Indeed process management occupies a central position in the complete performance excellence frame work as described by Balridge. It concerns itself with core competencies, work systems, key work processes, customer value, sustainability of company processes and production. These components are grouped into three categories which are: core competencies, work process design and emergency readiness. Core competencies refers to the relative advantage that a company has in its expertise giving it an edge in the market and which is hard to be copied by its competitors. This advantage should also be durable that is the company can enjoy it for a reasonable time in the market. Work process design deals with what the main work processes are in place at the company, how they can contribute to the core competencies or advantage, lead to customer value, profits, success and sustainability. It is also what requirements for work process are arrived at and how they take input from customers, suppliers, partners, and collaborators. It is also the design of these processes in order to meet the key requirements; new technology, organizational knowledge and need for agility in design and consideration for efficiency and effectiveness. Emergency preparedness refers to the plans in place to counter disaster and emergencies (weather, security pandemics etc at the workplace and in the work system in way to prevent, manage and continue operations and recover. Challenges in Development, Focus, Organization and Organization performance The first step in the implementation of process management is to analyze your needs. The second step is to decide on how to implement the process and which tools to use. The design of the process has to be decided on and what tools to use as in the of work process improvement one could choose any of these Lean Enterprise system, six sigma methodology, or ISO 9000:2000 standards. The design that is chosen will have to be tested to see how it runs before it is adopted in general (modeling). At the next step of execution software may be used to enable the implementation of the design chosen. The design chosen is computerized and put in software; it may allow a complete business process to be run or it may provide an option for human data in out; for example to calculate loan repayments. Criteria Development for cell phone housing Cell phone housing not only needs to be sturdy and durable but increasingly its development has to take account of customer needs for aesthetic appeal and also to integrate new technology like camera lens, speaker display screens and various other controls. As concerns developing or applying process management criteria for cell phone housing these are the steps that will be applied: 1. Identification of core competencies of our company Our company is a leader in the innovation of new materials to produce cell phone housing. In order to keep this leading edge it is important to strengthen our R&D department to keep abreast of new developments and products. a) In order to gauge our standing against our competitors we intend to carry out product benchmarking among our top competitors. a) Also we intend to attract and keep the best talent in this area. It is important that we keep breast of new technology developments and new materials by keeping a close relationship with universities and technology schools. 2. Application of work process designs actions that will uphold and improve the standards and competencies identified in the first step. 3. a) Implementation of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in order to monitor and incorporate customer needs and aspirations into product development. QFD collects data on customer preferences in cell phone housing e.g. durability, light weight, and color choices and fashionable. These are then used in product conception and production. b) Information gathered for new developments needs to be incorporated into the company by for example ongoing training of staff. In order to improve our product (cell phone housing) we need to keep abreast of customer feedback. c) Collection of feedback should be easy and accurate. The customer service department will be charged with collecting this information and automation technology measures will be put in to enhance the sharing of collected information with decision making departments. In particular data on customer trends and tastes and new developments in cell phone technologies (camera, television viewing, emailing etc.) so we can offer products to meet these demands. d) Implementation of computer aided manufacture to reduce costs and simplify tasks. This will ensure that we can meet our production targets and reduce manpower. e) Because aesthetics is important in the design of cell phone housing as much durability and resilience we intend to keep abreast with consumer tastes through grass roots research –through focus groups and maintaining relationships with vendors. f) An improvement on the existing computer aided quality check will be done so we can offer a consistently high quality product and consistent t product. 4. Emergency readiness actions against weather or disaster must ensure that production can be continued and that market is not lost. a) Towards this our company will establish major production centers on three continents so that in the event of disaster in one area, supply will not be affected. In normal times establishing these centers will save the company costs of transportation to the market. b) As regards disaster management too it is important that our data is well protected. An automated process will continually backup data offsite on a daily basis. To avoid piracy of our proprietary information we will be in charge of this offsite facility, (instead of using vendors of data storage services) although it needs substantial investments but well worth it for our business. Conclusion Regarded as the backbone of enterprise content management business process management is a profitable venture, which encompasses both the mechanical and human process in the business. It leads to a better understanding or processes and how they affect each other as process management offer expanded views of the business. In the absence of any constraints BPM can be applied to all areas of the business and can call for the use of software. Constraints can include time, money or economically. Notes 1.2008 Business Non profit Criteria, Criteria for Performance Excellence, 2008, (the PDF doc) References 1. Malcolm Balridge, www.balridge.nist.gov. 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_management, Accessed 17th April 2008 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Management 4. Jeston,John,Nelis,Johan,Business process Management: practical guidelines to successful implementations, Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006 Appendix Fig 1 Adapted from Malcolm Baldridge 2008 Business Non-Profit Criteria Read More