Process Organization

Being aware that lots of competition problems can be related to the way the company is structured. Lots of companies want to organize itself by process, but they don’t have a clearly idea about which steps to follow.

Process understanding is important to define people organization and business’ resources as well. It makes possible to plan the ways in which the business will deliver its products and services with less loss. Process in the business administration is not a new idea, but it is the understanding that the business has to focus in what to do to pleasure their customers without risking its survival.

In companies that offer services, the process understanding is especially important, once in the major of times, its customers cannot see each activity, or each person who is responsible for doing the activity, which the final service is made by. And the more intellectual capital is composed the service, the more important is the process definition.

The changing process is always painful and it is impossible to set up such a changing without a clear understanding about what makes that company work well. Changing a company from task organization to process organization means that they have to be ready for a new way of doing business. And the first step is to map every little process that a final product (or service) is formed. Even the less visible process has to be mapped. The hierarchy process should be also considered and process should be separated in macro-process and sub-process where macro-process is form by essentials processes and sub-process the ones that subsidize the macro-processes.

The result’s point of view

In the past, companies were created focusing in its internal reality. Everything used to be started inside the company and the customer opinion would be observed just in the end of the process and usually the company could not pleasure its customers because they could not understand, in the beginning of the process, exactly what he needed.

To include the customers’ perception, it is demanded that its processes will be changed. And structuring the company based on processes means that the internal, the functional structure will be less considerate in order to understand what exactly is to be produced. It demands different management models.

To this NEW organization, it is needed to focus in the external customer, once everything starts and ends in it. Process means an activity’s sequence where those activities start with the understanding of what the customer wants and ends when he gets what he needs. Then, the final objective is quite similar to the triple constraint (project scope/time/cost), which in organizations is: offering to the customer more value, in a fast way, in an appropriate budget.

The evaluation, made by customers regards to the advantage or benefits that he gets in each dealing with the company evolving irrational and emotional aspects.

The changing process

In prioritizing functions, traditional companies find problems during the changing process once the vertical process lead to hyper-specialization. The hierarchy structures are rigid and heavy where each piece of structure executes a little part of process of work. Each one of these little pieces are controlled by lots of management levels in the company hierarchy where its main function is to “guarantee the execution of the rules” and not enough, hierarchy levels leads to slowness and resources waste.

In a process organization company, instead of tasks and individual work; team work and cooperation and highly valued without discard the individual responsibility. Processes are carefully studied and it makes employees understand them and be responsible for them. It is a feeling of “process property”.Instead of hierarchy (vertical) priority, horizontal vision is a way to perfect functional interfaces, which is the point where a work that is being made is transferred to another department or unity. In this way the company can use better the experience and knowledge acquired in all of its departments, sharing then in an optimized horizontal flow.