Would you like that your organization, or a part of it, delivers better results, improves its work environment, and decreases its errors and the amount of wasted resources it has? Would you like to have a continuous understanding of the organization’s working methods? How to effectively document an organization? How to quantify the results of that improvement.

Inside an organization that worries about improvement, the proper use of resources and the adaptation of its organizational scheme based on standards and methodologies developed, these are very important questions.

So, where should we start? Horace, a latin poet (65 BC - 8 BC) said "The one who has started well, is in the middle of the work.". We could say that, now-a-days, adopting a "Management by Processes" is the starting point to complete a project that searches for competitive development.

During the early XX century, the management concept was introduced by American businessmen such as Frederick Winslow Taylor; others such as Henry Ford linked process management with business. This concept gradually emerges in the enterprises. Historically, even if it continues until today, the companies were organized based on the principles of scientific management proposed by Taylor; using a method where tasks were distributed depending on the different types and departments. This allows tasks to be distributed by hierarchies of posts and by the continued use of organizational charts to visually situate the different posts according to that hierarchy. However, it did not allow to visualize the interdepartmental tasks and its connections.

We currently recognize the BPM (Business Process Management) as a management discipline which has a methodological focus in the improvement of the performance results; measuring, optimizing and controlling the processes of an organization.

Today, modern organizations choose models that allow the adaptation of administrative tools, and whose flexibility allows them to adapt to the changing current context.

Current versions of the standards for ISO management (Quality, Environment, Occupational Safety, Food Safety, Medical Devices, etc.) promote the adoption of a process-based approach. For example, Standard ISO 9001:2015, in its introduction paragraphs: 0.1 General, 0.2 Principles of quality management, 0.3 Approach to Processes, creates a "macro requirement" for managing the specific processes of the quality management system defined by this standard. So the ISO standards for management standardization, or a model like the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) aim for organizational excellence under a process scheme.

Which are some benefits of process based management?

• It promotes work in multidisciplinary teams.
• It generates an organizational flexibility that isn’t present in a model of hierarchies.
• The people of the organization are reflected in the processes, know their role, and learn to give new ideas.
• It provides an integrated overview of the organization based on its functioning.
• It provides a broader framework for improving interpersonal relationships.
• It allows the measurement of processes and their results with metrics, indicators, objectives and targets.
• It gives the opportunity through metrics to know customer satisfaction both internal and external.
• It helps to more quickly detect errors and implement improvements.
• It is consistent with digitization, cost reduction, and resource optimization.
• It promotes the continuous improvement of the organization and helps in the preparation of new challenges.

We are here to accompany you to a good start!

Written by master and engineer Roberto Solano, Management Systems consultant