Why Do You Need Process Maps to Enhance Your Business Operations?

Wouldn’t It Be Nice Not to Have to Check and Re-check Work?

We’ve all experienced moments where we knew there had to be a better way to do something. This is where we help you discover that better way.

What is a Process Map?

We use process mapping to provide a visual of the current state. This helps with analysis of roles, tasks, process inputs and outputs, systems and pain points within the current process. We then create a future state model process map that preserves what’s working while eliminating existing issues that are considered pain points. Pain points are essentially bottlenecks in the process that don’t add value, lead to errors, inconsistencies and detract from efficiency.

Process mapping can provide a bird’s-eye view of your company’s processes from end to end, represented by a sequence of activities in a diagram and how they are interconnected to other areas of the business. These maps can include anything from what activities should happen and when, to the output of a process activity (like a purchase order), or the flow of resources involved along the way such as individual roles, other divisions/departments, employees, equipment, or systems.

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Process mapping is not a “one-size-fits-all” solution but rather a methodology that can be applied in various ways to solve a multitude of business challenges.

The true value often lies in what the map reveals – your opportunities to remove non-value-add activities, duplication of effort, bottlenecks and other forms of waste.

Why Do You Need a Process Map?

As continuous improvement practitioners, we are often hired to help clients identify where they can find more value within their organization. We use process mapping to document and map our clients’ workflows into repeatable systems and processes. From there we can identify how to improve processes to reduce waste, identify cost-saving alternatives, speed up process lead times and/or ensure quality remains consistent by standardizing commonly repeated activities.

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Process maps can also serve as communication tools or as training tools for new employees when tasks are largely process-driven. Implementing process maps for these purposes can save your company valuable time and money while improving outcomes from what exists.

To answer this, it’s important to understand the needs of your business and what the ideal state of your company will look like in the end.

  • Standardizing a Process: By documenting a process, you can standardize it, ensuring there is one way to perform it – the most optimal against which performance is managed. This eliminates confusion and inefficiency.
  • Training Employees: Process mapping provides a standard training document for both new and tenured employees.
  • Improving a Process: Once an existing process is mapped, it can be analysed for bottlenecks and other inefficiencies that need to be removed.
  • Communication: Process mapping offers a visual representation of the process that may be easier to understand than narrative text.
  • Internal Audits: Businesses want to ensure that they are meeting company standards and that their processes align with their mission and goals.
  • Compliance: Process mapping aids in compliance with standards such as ISO 9001 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
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Besides offering a visual representation of how your business operates on multiple levels, a successful business process mapping (BPM) initiative will typically result in one or more of the following benefits:

  • Productivity: Process improvements such as the removal of bottlenecks, the introduction of parallel processing, and the elimination of redundant steps can be easily achieved with BPM.
  • Efficiency: BPM enables organizations to work more efficiently, saving valuable resources.
  • Compliance & Transparency: When you adopt BPM, compliance is integrated into the process life cycle, making organizational processes transparent and visible to employees.
  • Employee Satisfaction: Process automation reduces repetitive work and simplifies information access. BPM eliminates a lot of red tape in organizations, allowing employees to focus 100% on their work.
  • Process Consistency: With an optimal process in place, identical problems are addressed consistently, eliminating the need to reinvent the wheel, even with role or staff changes.
  • Sustainability: Business processes are continually improved to adapt to changing organizational conditions, ensuring they deliver the expected results.
  • Measurability: All processes can be measured end-to-end and compared to expected or benchmarked results.
  • Technology Integration: BPM, when implemented with technology, provides reporting and analytical tools for making informed executive decisions.

Need Help?

At TPG, we excel in mapping complex businesses and processes, identifying areas of improvement and implementing solutions tailored to your needs. We work with you to remove unnecessary re-work from your current processes, streamlining your workflow and eliminating those frustrating extra steps. Our goal is to make your business more efficient and effective so that it remains competitive and takes advantage of the innovations in technology to free up capacity and allow your organization to grow.

Are you aware of all the opportunities in your organization that are waiting for action? Let’s connect to discuss the possibilities.

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