Process mapping is one of the stages of the business management BPM cycle. To fully understand what process mapping is, it is important to know the definition of process.
A process is a sequence of tasks, or activities, that when executed turn inputs into a result with added value. A business process execution consumes material and human resources that come from internal or external suppliers that feed the process. The results are products or services that meet the needs of clients both internal and external.
To perform a process mapping, you should analyze all details of the process. Only after grasping a clear vision of the process and its components, create a map of the process, showing the operational flow and the interrelationships between areas and processes.
Process mapping is an empiric activity. It is based on the knowledge of the general functioning of the company. The most common techniques used in mapping are interviews, meetings, collaborative workshops, questionnaires, field observation, data collection, and brainstorming.
So what process mapping can do for your company? Its purpose is to identify, understand and know the existing business process (AS-IS), and to define the future business process (TO-BE). With this, the level of client and employee satisfaction increases, the costs drop, the quality of products rises, and the input and business performance expand.
See also: Business Process Mapping Software – Create your Free Account.
What is process mapping? What are its benefits?
The mapping helps the company to clearly see its strengths and its improvement points, such as complexity in operation, high costs, bottlenecks, integration errors, redundant activities, low value-added tasks, too much documentation, approvals, etc. Besides, it is an outstanding way of improving the knowledge about the processes and enhances business performance.
Process mapping also makes it both possible and easy to build measure systems and effective key performance indicators, evaluating in real-time the execution of tasks, results, costs, production, productivity, risks, etc. All this makes it a lot easier to monitor and to manage.
Through this mapping, it is viable to calculate the entire cost of the process, the time that it will take to execute it, the people responsible for it, the time that each resource has to be used, and the establishment of improvements and optimizations.
And what are the process mapping techniques that a company can use? To further know about process mapping techniques – a simple guide through the process, just click on the link.