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Chapter 7
step, then asking, “What is actually being accomplished, and what is the value?” can help
identify areas for process improvement.
Each step in a business process should be challenged to determine if it is providing
value. H. James Harrington, in his book Business Process Improvement, suggests that
companies ask the following questions about their business processes to identify areas for
improvement:
• Are there unnecessary checks and balances?
• Does the activity inspect or approve someone else’s work?
• Does it require more than one signature?
198 • Are multiple copies required?
• Are copies stored for no apparent reason?
• Are copies sent to people who do not need the information?
• Is there unnecessary written correspondence?
• Are there people or agencies involved that impede the effectiveness and
efficiency of the process?
• Do existing organizational procedures regularly impede the efficient,
effective, and timely performance of duties?
• Is someone approving something they already approved (for example,
approving capital expenditures that were approved as part of a budget)?
• Is the same information being collected at more than one time or location?
• Are duplicate databases being maintained?

Harrington also suggests using the following approaches to improving processes:
• Perform activities in parallel (for example, approvals).
• Change the sequence of activities.
• Reduce interruptions.
• Avoid duplication or fragmentation of tasks.
• Avoid complex flows and bottlenecks.
• Combine similar activities.
• Reduce the amount of handling.
• Eliminate unused data.
• Eliminate copies.

Evaluating Process Improvement Prior to Implementation
While identifying process improvements can be difficult, implementing them is even more
challenging. Disrupting the current process to make changes can be costly and time
consuming, and managers are frequently reluctant to risk trying process-improvement
ideas—especially if the ideas require a significant change in the way an activity is
completed. One way to mitigate this risk is to use dynamic process modeling to evaluate
process changes before they are implemented. Dynamic process modeling takes a basic
process flowchart and puts it into motion, using computer simulation techniques to
facilitate the evaluation of proposed process changes. Computer simulation repeatedly
generates random variables (such as customer orders) that interact with a logical model of
the business process to predict the performance of the actual system. A dynamic process
model can estimate the performance of a system, using measures such as cycle time (how
long the process takes), productivity, total cost, idle time, and bottlenecks.

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