Start with why

Waste - or “muda” - in the lean world has been described as “any human activity which absorbs resources but creates no value…”[1]

We could quarrel over words here, but that would do us no good. Instead, let us run with this definition.

Waste is when resources are expended, yet no value is produced.

Waste – to put it another way – is doing something simply for the sake of doing it.

With that established, here is a question: Are your process documentation efforts wasteful?

Why are you spending the time to document your business processes? Are you documenting your processes simply for the sake of documenting them? This may seem like a silly question, but if you do not have a clear answer, perhaps you are expending the energy to document processes simply for the sake of documenting them…

My intention with this blog is to challenge the assumptions that underlie your process documentation efforts. In doing so, my hope is that some readers will be encouraged, seeing that they have clear and articulate purposes for investing in process documentation. For others, my hope is that they see some structural deficiencies in their process documentation endeavors and do the necessary work to bolster them.

Let me quarrel over words for just a minute…

As we begin, it will be helpful to draw a clear distinction between process documentation (the wording used above) and process management (the wording I will use henceforth).

Process documentation is exactly what it sounds like - the act of documenting in some explicit way (flowcharts, models, procedures, etc.) your business processes. But this act of documentation is not tied to larger, value added, goals and objectives.

Process management, on the other hand, is an organizational discipline. It certainly includes process documentation, but it does not end there. As I have offered many times in the past, process management is the practice of improving company performance through managing and optimizing business processes.

Right away, we can see two broad benefits or purposes in this definition that give value above and beyond process documentation - managing business processes and optimizing business processes.

With that in view, I would like to propose three high-level benefits - or, pieces of value - that organizations can expect to gain by pursuing the discipline of process management. Each high-level category will contain more tactical-level benefits that are specific to each organization and their use case. These three benefits are:

1. Process as a work resource and knowledge asset

2. Process as a foundation for continuous improvement

3. Process as risk and compliance management

These, of course, are not exhaustive, but represent three significant categories of purpose that could underlie a value-adding process management program within an organization.

Let us take a quick look at each one in turn.

Process as a work resource and knowledge asset

This is perhaps the most basic process management benefit an organization can obtain. It focuses, quite simply, on creating accurate and easy to understand process assets, and sharing those assets with the process doers across the organization.

Instead of workers having to learn by osmosis or by Slack messaging (or shoulder tapping) the resident process expert, they can “self serve” by reading and following the approved process standard. An accurate and accessible library of process documentation can reduce employee frustration by improving their work experience. Instead of being forced to “search the portal” for random and outdated information, employees can confidently leverage these documented and managed processes.

Related benefits that can also be obtained under this heading are things like consistency in work output (less defects), a more safe work experience (less liability), and increased customer satisfaction (more customer retention).

As employees perform work in accordance with the published standard, we can reasonably expect less variation in their work products. Assuming the process is designed to produce a quality output, this means that we will have less defects to address. Once again, assuming the process is designed with the appropriate safety considerations, we can expect less incidents to occur. Finally, this consistent work output means our customers regularly have a normal experience when doing business with us, leading to increased satisfaction and retention.

One additional benefit in this category of process as a work resource should be mentioned. By making tacit process knowledge explicit and shareable - organizations can more easily navigate challenges that result from things such as resignations, retirements, or layoffs.

Needless to say, when employees leave, they take their brains (and business know-how) with them. If we are solely relying upon peer-to-peer interactions to facilitate the transfer of business knowledge, this becomes much harder when we account for the reality of employee turnover.

This highlights the necessity and urgency organizations should have regarding the creation of process assets that can be managed and shared. In other words, the extracting of business know-how from the brains of employees and putting it into some explicit format that can be shared and leveraged across the business should be a priority. Using process management as a way to generate work resources can help accomplish this.

Process as a foundation for continuous improvement

When I am introducing a new client to the discipline of process management, I like to ask a series of logical questions.

1. Can you optimize a process you do not understand?

Most people will answer right away - “No, of course you cannot make something better if you do not understand it.”

So far, so good.

2. Can you optimize a process you cannot see?

Here, some folks might argue, “Sure, you can improve a process without seeing it visually.”

Now, I will concede that you do not have to visually see a process in order to improve it. But, if you are truly going to optimize it, then my contention is that you must see it visually. And why is this? Well, if the process exists only in your head, no one else can examine it, no one else can critique it, no one else can challenge the assumptions that you have made.

Visualizing a process removes it from the confines of your mind and makes it explicit. Now the appropriate subject matter experts can gather round the process and examine it, analyze it, and look for ways to truly optimize it.

So, process optimization requires both an accurate intellectual understanding of a process and the explicit visual representation of that process. This leads naturally to the third and final logical question.

3. How can you understand, document, and optimize your processes?

With this question, we can now introduce process management as the answer. Remember our definition, process management is the practice of improving company performance through managing and optimizing business processes.

Process management as a discipline now becomes the foundation for continuous improvement. With our processes understood intellectually and documented visually, we can now begin analyzing our current state performance, identifying waste, and designing more effective future states.

Because we can actually see our process, we can begin to apply some process optimization tactics. Gemba Academy has done a nice job outlining some of these tactics.[2] I will attempt to summarize (and slightly modify them) below:

Eliminate - Is this process even necessary? Are we fulfilling any specific internal or external customer demands? For many internal processes, specifically, certain types of reporting, this question should be explored before doing any documentation. Is the data generated by this reporting used to make business critical decisions? Does this process generate data that is redundant within the organization? If so, the process might be a candidate for elimination and not management and optimization. There is no easier way to decrease waste and inefficiencies than by eliminating entirely unnecessary processes altogether.

Combine - Once we have verified that the process is a necessary one, we will want to explore combining multiple steps into one. This is common in office processes when a single person touches a piece of information multiple times, and at different stages, of the process. Can these multiple touches be combined into a single step? If so, we have eliminated unnecessary handoffs and reduced the opportunity for mistakes and defects.

Rearrange - Will the process flow more efficiently if we change the order of the steps? What  if we changed who was responsible for performing the steps? This tactic helps us confirm that the process is being performed at the right time and with the appropriate resources.

Simplify - How can we simplify the tasks of any required process step? As the process flows from step to step, can any of the requirements within each step be simplified, and thus, completed faster? Imagine a step that requires a person to gather project data from multiple individuals. Currently, the data is gathered through email and has to be organized manually by the process performer. In this case, we may be able to create a digital template to collect the data from the individuals. This would simplify the data gathering process and result in more organized information.

Automate - Now that we have documented the process and optimized the flow using the redesign tactics above, we can begin to search for parts of the process that can be completed faster and/or more accurately using automation. Process automation is where software technology is used to replace human actions in completing process tasks.

Remember, since automation will most likely require the purchase of new technology, it is critical that the return on investment be known before making that purchase. This, again, is where process management is helpful. With clear current state time and cost metrics built into the process design, you can make a responsible decision as to whether the benefits of automation are worth the investment.

I trust you see some ways in which process management can serve as the foundation for continuous improvement.

Process as risk and compliance management

A regularly overlooked benefit of process management is tighter risk mitigation. Many organizations work to identify organizational risk, and even go so far as to try and develop control measures for those risks. Unfortunately, those control measures often fail to make it to the worker on the front line. As a result, risks are managed in theory only, but not in reality as the process doer continues to do their job the way they have always done their job.

The discipline of process management can bring much needed structure to risk mitigation. As risks are identified, organizations can then reach into their process library and determine what actions are critical to the mitigation of said risk. If they find that no standard process exists that will control the identified risk (which happens) - then that missing process becomes a priority for documentation and ongoing management.

This integration of risk management and process management helps to ensure that work standards are designed with the needs of the business in mind. Process doers will then have a unique view into how their work not only produces value for the customer - but how their work helps protect the organization from liability.

Additionally, clearly defined processes can help manage various forms of organizational compliance. ISO 9001 is one such popular credential. Consider this from the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) Quality Management Principles publication:

“Consistent and predictable results are achieved more effectively and efficiently when activities are understood and managed as interrelated processes that function as a coherent system.”[3]

ISO goes on to list specific actions organizations can take to support compliance with the 9001 standards, including:

• “Determine process interdependencies and analyse the effect of modifications to individual processes on the system as a whole.

• Manage processes and their interrelations as a system to achieve the organization’s quality objectives effectively and efficiently.

• Ensure the necessary information is available to operate and improve the processes and to monitor, analyse and evaluate the performance of the overall system.

• Manage risks that can affect outputs of the processes and overall outcomes of the quality management system.”[4]

Obviously, process management will play an important role in obtaining and maintaining certifications such as ISO 9001.

Finally, regarding risk mitigation, it is worth mentioning again that the intentional documentation and management of process information is a helpful way to mitigate the effects of employee attrition. As mentioned above, when employees leave an organization, they take with them more than the pens, papers, and pictures that once littered their desk. More importantly, they take with them process know-how. Organizations that make no effort to capture this process knowledge before an employee leaves are exposing themselves to great risk. The discipline of process management can help protect a business from knowledge erosion.

Once more…

To ask the question I asked at the beginning of this blog - Are your process documentation efforts wasteful?

Why are you spending the time to document your business processes? Are you documenting your processes simply for the sake of documenting them?

If so, my hope is that you see the importance of moving from wasteful process documentation to value-added process management. And in doing so, you also see several categories of benefit that can be generated from such a move.

[1] James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, Lean Thinking (Free Press, 2003 ed.), 15.

[2] Jon Miller. Gemba Academy. https://blog.gembaacademy.com/2020/08/10/better-business-processes-through-ecrsa/ (accessed June 28, 2023).

[3] ISO Quality Management Principles. https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100080.pdf (accessed June 28, 2023).

[4] ISO Quality Management Principles. https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100080.pdf (accessed June 28, 2023).