Süreç yönetimi ve bir süreç geliştirme uygulaması

Abstract

Süreç Yönetimi ve Bir Süreç Geliştirme Uygulaması isimli, Endüstri Mühendisliği - Mühendislik Yönetimi yüksek lisans programı bitirme tezinin içeriği aşağıdaki gibi özetlenebilir: Bir organizasyon içindeki faaliyetlerin birbirleri ile olan ilinti ve iletişimlerinin gözetilerek daha verimli ve etkin hale getirilmelerini hedefleyen süreç yönetimi ve süreç odaklı bakış kavramları konusunda bilgi verilmesi, süreç yönetimi kavramının zaman içinde gelişiminin ve süreç iyileştirme ve geliştirme ihtiyacının irdelenmesi, süreç analiz ve geliştirme çalışmalarında izlenebilecek bir metodolojinin detaylı olarak anlatılması ve sektöründe lider bir kuruluşun stratejilerinden yola çıkarak seçilen bir süreç üzerinde metodolojinin uygulanmasıdır. Bu çerçevede birinci bölümde; süreç yönetimi ihtiyacının zaman içinde nasıl geliştiğinden, süreç yönetiminin temel kavramlarından, süreç yönetiminin toplam kalite çalışmaları içerisindeki yerinden bahsedilmiş ve metodolojiye geçmek için kısa bir giriş yapılmıştır. İkinici ve yedinci bölümler arasında (yedinci bölüm dahil), sürekli iyileştirme felsefesini içeren süreç analiz ve geliştirme metodolojisi tüm kavramsal ve pratik yönleri ile detaylı olarak anlatılmıştır. "Öncelikli süreçler nasıl belirlenir, kritik basan faktörleri ve şirket stratejileri ile süreçler nasıl bütünleştirilir, proje çalışması için nasıl organize olunur, süreç geliştirme fırsatları nasıl belirlenir, süreç hakkında bilgi nasıl toplanır, sürecin analizi nasıl yapılır, alternatif süreçler nasıl tasarlanır, pilot uygulama nasıl planlanır, elde edilen gelişim ve deneyim uygulamanın hayata geçirilmesinde nasıl irdelenir, uygulama nasıl yerleştirilir?" temel sorularına ilgili bölümlerde yanıtlar verilmektedir. Son bölüm olan sekizinci bölümde ise, şirketin "İnsan Kaynaklan Yönetiminin İyileştirilmesi" stratejisinin metodoloji gereğince ele alınması; bu doğrultuda başlatılan "İşe Alma ve Yerleştirme Süreci" analiz ve geliştirme projesinin nasıl planlandığı, yürütüldüğü ve hayata geçirildiği anlatılmakta ve sonuçlar irdelenmektedir.

The improvements in the world and also in Turkey show us that the only constant is change. To be competitive the only way is to adopt to change and to manage the change. In such an environment, what is needed is an organization that is customer-focused and market-driven in its external relations, and process-focused and team-oriented in its internal operations. Only such an organization can look at the way work is performed across functions and seeks to make those cross-functional operations more effective and efficient. Such an effort is at the heart of Process Management. Process management has emerged because it overcomes limitations inherent in other management concepts and approaches: Downsizing deals with organizational structure, levels and cost compression through the simple act of removing people. The work remains, as do the old methods, old systems and old processes for getting the work done. Productivity can never increase to compensate for the people who have been removed from the processes. Technology, particularly information technology, was promoted as a key to competitiveness. But a study by researchers at MIT concluded that more MIS does not mean more productivity or competitive distinction. Information technology is an enabler, it is not a driver. Even when one can't envision radical change without quantum leaps in information technology, the change must be driven by a focus on changing core business processes, not on changing information technology for the sake of changing the technology. Total quality management has not delivered for many companies because, in too many instances, it has been narrow in focus and limited to improving the existing way of doing business. Companies have taken the easy road and implemented quality programs that are not strategically based and are limited by being functionally oriented rather than cross functionally process oriented. In the light of the above explanation, the subject of this master thesis of Industrial Engineering - Engineering Management program, is chosen as Process Management and An Application of Process Development. The thesis is mainly about what process management is, the development of process management term in time, the need for process development, the detailed XI methodology that can be used in process analysis and development studies and an application of the explained methodology on a process which is selected in relation with the strategies of a sector leader company. In the first chapter of the thesis, it is mentioned what process management is, why organizations need to be process focused, how this need developed in time, how an organization can be process-focused instead of function-focused, what the main characteristics and key words of process management are, how process management is related with total quality management and what the way to analyze and develop processes is. Here, there is a need for a process definition: A process is a set of linked activities that take an input, transform it and create an output. Ideally, the transformation that occurs in a process should add value to the input and create an output that is more useful to and effective for the recipient. Each product or service is an output of a process. The actions that are realized in an organization are always a part of a process. Employees are taking place in many processes, they are affecting the processes and they are affected from the processes in their daily company lives. Between second and seventh chapters (including seven), the methodology of process analysis and development is explained in detail with theoretical and practicle cases. In the second chapter, it is explained what critical processes are, how company critical success factors are determined, how strategic objectives are set, what a process development plan is and how it is developed, how process and analysis project teams are formed and how the duties of the members are determined. At the end of this chapter, by answering all these questions and taking necessary actions, the processes that have priority are determined. Critical success factors are the subjects or elements that strengthen a company's performance and situation in the competition, if these factors' results are satisfactory. In order to determine critical success factors some analysis should be made including self assessment of the company, market analysis, economic and environmental studies. After determination of the critical success factors and company strategic objectives, relations should be set between them and the main processes. By this way, process development priorities can be defined. It should be mentioned here that the determination of the processes to be developed and the integration of them with the company action plans are the duties of the top management. In the third chapter, The aim is to determine the process analysis and development project's objectives. First, process development challenges are determined. Then, functional relations chart is set in order to define critical functional problems of the process. After that, project's objectives are determined. It is analyzed how these objectives will affect the critical success factors and company strategies. After xu project timing is done and necessary resources are allocated, project working plan is determined. In the third step, the key is to understand the customers' needs and expectations. Because the objectives of the process development project will be determined according to customer needs and expectations. Customer expectations and the performance indicators of the current process should be defined in operational terms in order to determine the process development challenges. The project's objectives should be set considering the gap between the customer expectations and the current situation, the functional problems in the current process, benchmarking results and the restrictions. Objectives should have the following properties:. customer-oriented. actual and achievable. measurable. understandable. meaningful. time related In the fourth chapter, current situation of the process is analyzed. Necessary data is collected, interviews are made with the internal and external customers of the process. When the project team is sure that they understand the process, the process map of the current situation is drawn. On this map, the project team studies the problems of the process and mark the problems on the map giving each of them a number. There are many methods to collect data from the customers:. Customer satisfaction questionnaires, customer researches. Customer focus groups. Customer interviews. Market researches. Quality function deployment In order to define the problems on a process map the following main questions should be considered:. Are there any process element that is lacking or insufficient?. Are there any process element that is unnecessary or performed in a wrong way?. Are there any process element that is unsuccessful or faulty? The aim of the fifth chapter is to design alternative processes. First, the objectives of the project are revised because current situation of the process is better understood after being analyzed. Then, a plan to design alternative processes is made. To make this plan, the dimension of the necessary change should be determined, the method for alternative process designing should be selected and the success criteria for the alternatives should be set. After taking these actions, it is time to create alternative processes. There are two methods for creating new alternatives: Developing the Xlll current process and designing the whole process from the beginning (radical change). After the creation of the alternatives, they are evaluated. There are many evaluation methods mentioned in the context to choose the best alternative. In the last part of this chapter, it is mentioned that the changes coming with the new process design should be explained, human resources and organizational matters that may come with the new design should be held very carefully, the causes of resistance to change should be very well understood and be dealt with great attention. Support systems and processes should also be analyzed if any change related with them is required. After the design studies are finished, pilot application is used to test the solutions' effectiveness. The benefits from a pilot application can be listed as the following:. If there are more than one solution, it helps to identify the best one. It shows how effective is the designed changes. It increases the employees' trust towards the new system and the project team.. It decreases the risks of the designed changes In the sixth chapter, the methodology for the pilot application is explained. The success factors to evaluate the pilot application should be set first. Related with success factors, pilot application objectives and application design should be determined. The application design includes the environment, place or region, human factor and organizational subjects, timing, data collection plan and the potential problem analysis. After that, the employees and the managers that will be included in the pilot application should be trained in detail about the new process: The objectives, the application method, the duties of each individual and the potential problems should be explained clearly. When the pilot application begins, the development on the process should be continuously monitored. In the seventh chapter, the methodology to put the application in real life conditions is explained. First, the experience that is got from the pilot application phase is examined. Then, an application plan is made. The project team needs a monitoring system to evaluate the process' real performance. This monitoring system should be developed. Human factor should again be held. The last action before putting the application in real life conditions is to make potential problem analysis, considering the pilot application and the problems of the old process. In the eighth chapter, a practicable and real application of process analysis and development methodology is explained. First of all, a company that insists on process management is selected. The company and the market, the company is in, are analyzed. One of the strategies of the company is "Development of Human Resources Management". The methodology is applied on this strategy. In relation with this strategy, a process that has priority is chosen: "Selection and Recruitment". The case study continues with applying the methodology to this chosen process. A project team is formed. The team first made a project plan and a timing plan. Then, the team defined the objectives of the project, analyzed the current situation of the process, designed an alternative process, interviewed the internal customers when necessary, made little questionnaires with them, wrote a procedure about selection and recruitment, prepared a training for the managers, planned the pilot application, XIV evaluated the results and finally made the standardization plan of the application in real life conditions. All of these steps take place in detail in the eighth chapter. There are many studies about process management, about being process-focused, about theoretical cases and practical examples. This thesis has a different approach in three ways: This thesis tells about theoretical cases, but it also includes practical cases. The process analysis and development methodology explained in this thesis is really in detail because it is a practicable and ap plicable method. There are examples, tables and forms so that other people interested in process management can also apply this methodology to their specific processes. The methodology is clear and well understandable. The methodology does not only tell about hard issues (for example, using information technology in process development), it also tells about soft issues (e.g. dealing with human dimension of the processes, dealing with resistance to change). The thesis includes a specific and real application of the methodology: Using process analysis and development methodology in one of the human resources processes. This case study begins from the first step of the methodology and ends with the last step. This proves that the methodology is really a practicable one. This also proves that process management is not only one of the popular management concepts to talk or write about; it is also a beneficial management style that can be applied in organizations in daily life, with the focus on continuous improvement. The results of the case study show that people can benefit a lot by using process analysis and development studies.