Kohderyhmän BPM:n muodostamisen perustana käytettiin joitain teorioita asiakkaiden vaatimuksista, lean toimistosta ja liiketoimintaprosessien mallintamisesta. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena on luoda ja toteuttaa liiketoimintaprosessimalli (BPM), joka toimii tukikohdan kohderyhmän jokapäiväisessä työssä.
Background
Other alternative fuels may emerge, but there is a common belief in the marine industry that LNG will still increase its market share. The member of the management team explains that the competition is very strong in the marine business and that it requires that organizational processes related to roles and responsibilities are of good quality, otherwise work cannot be done efficiently enough.
Problem area
In an interview with a member of the department's management team, including the focus group of this thesis, it was stated that the new IMO rules and regulations will have a major impact on the current market, given an increasing use of LNG as a fuel in the maritime market. It already has a big impact, otherwise we wouldn't be here," says the member of the management team.
Purpose of Thesis
New roles and responsibilities emerged, and the focus group was unable to update all processes. The aim of the thesis is to create and implement a business process model (BPM) and modernize the current end-to-end process for focus group related customer delivery projects.
Limitation
Dealing with the large number of projects today requires constant follow-up and the team and its processes must evolve to be able to deliver on time, on quality and within budget. The company believes that a business process model can help the team find a way to improve certain steps in the value chain from received order to delivered product.
Outline of thesis
The main objectives in this thesis are found within the theories of customer requirements, lean office and business process management. Finally, the theories around business process management will focus on how processes should be created to best shape the daily work of the focus group.
Customer requirements
Customer needs and expectations
To make things more interesting, customer needs often vary over time depending on the situation. Sörqvist explains that one of the best ways to determine these needs is to discuss them with the customer.
Requirements management
The result of analyzing these three categories can be used to understand the customer's expectations of the product, in other words the customer's requirements. Kozar, 2017, p. 343) Sörqvist explains that in normal cases the customer's expectations are at a level where all expected needs are met, otherwise it will result in an unsatisfied customer.
Lean Office
Value Stream Mapping
Once the product family or service is selected, the VSM team must draw the current state map of the selected process. Chen and Cox explain that each team member should fully understand each step of the process after drawing the current-state map. For the creation of the future state map, the members conducting the mapping session must look at the current state map and answer several questions for each task listed.
The purpose of the future state map is to illustrate the company's ideal process.
Business Process Management
Identifying the process
Process identification includes a set of activities aimed at the systematic definition of a business process of the company. It comes down to looking at different processes in the company and prioritizing them according to strategic impact or even the survival of the company. Various stakeholders are involved in the implementation and management of the business process, but generally only a handful of these keep the total overview of the process.
Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling and Reijers claim that it is this insight into the business process that is needed to fully understand which part of the process needs to be managed or improved.
Process flow chart
Business Process Diagram or Business Process Model
Business Process Modeling Notation, or BPMN, is another, like process flow charts, simple way of determining how to design a process and is best described as a method of illustrating business processes. Rouse, 2010) Even if the output of a BPMN is simple, it can also be described as a complex language with more than 100 symbols. A business process diagram or model is identified by three properties; "mapping, abstraction and fit for purpose." In theory, this means mapping out real-life events, documenting the relevant areas, and serving a purpose for a real-life aspect.
The four elements of BPMN
Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling, & Reijers, 2013, p. 83) In this way, a track is used to organize different activities based on responsibility, function and role. Artifacts are used to allow process designers some flexibility, allowing the modeler to add information specifically related to the process being modeled. Groups are indicated by a rounded corner rectangle with a dashed line and are used to group different objects, activities, etc.
The final element of artifacts are annotations used to include additional text that needs to be visible in the process.
Process flow chart implementation
Often there are several major obstacles to be found within the culture of the company itself, the use and development of the competences of employees and within the management team. The leader must, through his or her own actions, emphasize the company's values and contribute to creating a desirable organizational culture. In short, the leader must ensure that sufficient competence, necessary tools and other resources are available to create a working environment based on the design of the process.
The company may lack resources, or the resources may lack the competency needed to implement the process.
My theoretical frame of reference
Based on the expectations of the client, together with the focus group we can create a value stream map to follow the current process upstream to identify tasks, events and activities. When tasks, events and activities are known, we can create a process flow diagram that should explain what needs to be done to meet customer expectations. Finally, using standardized BPMN to visualize the streamlined process, the process flow diagram can be used as a foundation to create the final BPM for the focus group.
This chapter will focus on the methods used to create a BPM for the focus group.
Data and previous research
Based on the theoretical research done for this thesis, it was concluded that there is no one correct way to develop a focus group BPM.
Interviews and work-shop
After actively discussing the different areas of responsibility, a proposed way of working, in the form of a process flow diagram, began to take shape. This flowchart would be the rough draft of the BPM to come. As all members of the focus group did not have the possibility to participate in the workshop, individual interviews were conducted with the remaining members.
So most of the team from all different positions, from engineering, development, procurement, project management and more, had a say in creating the business flow diagram.
BPMN
Implementation
Conclusion
By clicking on the 'Review Quote' sub-process, the user will be directed to a new page showing a typical process when negotiating a contract with a customer. The project responsible reviews the contractual documentation according to the steps in the sub-process seen in Figure 13. Once all the necessary information has been received, an engineering request can be sent to the engineering team.
Every drawing produced will need to be checked and approved before it can be sent to the customer. Procurement is done by creating purchase requisitions or PORs according to the checklist available in BPM (Figure 18). In this milestone, the orders should be closed when the shipment is completed and the final documentation should be delivered to the customer.
Implementation and continuous update
In the beginning, there will continue to be frequent model presentation meetings to further assess whether and how BPM is working, and if necessary, changes will need to be made. The master BPM version is also stored in the documentation that controls the application M-files used by the company. BPM has been handed over to department management and will be implemented into the overall BPM made for the company.
If the BPM can be followed in the future, the goal is achieved as the BPM is believed to improve the overall delivery of the project.
Discussion
The aim has been achieved, as the result of this thesis is a first version of a newly implemented BPM for the focus group. In the process of designing the BPM, the focus group has agreed on what is currently believed to be the more correct way of working. This results in lower costs for transportation, as the focus group hopes to avoid expensive air freight costs.
The BPM should be a supporting pillar and help the focus group understand the end-to-end process.
Further research
I believe that the focus group in this thesis will accept possible changes and start following BPM closely, but there is always a risk that the focus group will revert to its old habits. As international rules and regulations, customer requirements and the focus group itself will continue to change in the future, it is important to continuously update and develop BPM so that it reflects reality. New roles may emerge with new responsibilities, and possible organizational changes may force other changes to the focus group.
I would also like to thank the focus group of this thesis for their support and interest in the development of the BPM.
