IT Interface to process improvement-ABB: Bangalore.

Abstract

Improving business processes to reduce cost, improve quality and enhance customer support is assuming increasing relevance in the Indian context where the business environment with the opening up of the economy, has been exposed to global competition. Improving business processes and putting them to work is often not rewarding without an enabling technology. Information Technology is an essential enabler for the process improvement initiative. Today in most Indian business organisations, business processes are a legacy of the past and IT does not form a part of the core processes. Any business process is affected by internal and external factors like customers, products/services, systems, technology etc. To understand the interdependence between these factors which greatly influence the performance of the organisations, we can divide the performance related issues into three levels. They are: • Organisational level: In this level, the emphasis is on the inter-relationship of the organisation with the markets at a macro level. • Process level : In this level the focus is on understanding of various processes which affect the organisational goals. • Job Performer level : In this level the emphasis is on the individuals who manage the processes. Some the factors which affect this level are recruitment, promotion, job description, training etc. To facilitate better understanding of these levels, we have to look at goals, design and management of organisation, processes and job performer. The project has analysed the 'process goals, process design and process management aspects. As emphasised above, processes need to be improved or created in order to affect the performance of the organisation. The improvement efforts need to be structured as follows: • Identification of Critical Business Issues • Identification of Critical Processes • Selection of Process Team leader & members • Development of 'Is Map1 • Identification/Analysis of Disconnects • Development of 'Should Map1 • Establish measures for measuring performance It is important to understand the role of information in the process improvement exercise. Today computers are able to integrate activities across and within processes, customise processes for specific customers with a view to be more I IT Interface to Process Improvement/itpidoc ?age:2 of 35 Skripad Bhagwan focussed on the customer, facilitate decision making with accurate information and reduce the throughput time. To leverage vast IT investments, there is a strong desire among many companies to transform these benefits into productivity raises. Process Improvement is a key issue which needs to be integrated with IT to get value of the IT expenditure. The objective of this project is to design a process integrating Information Technology requirements so as to leverage the power of IT in simplifying the process. Concepts like JIT have been introduced in the Order Receipt to Collection process with IT playing a supportive role. The methodology followed was : This project has analysed the Order Receipt to Collection process for one of the Business Areas of ABB - BPR which is involved in the manufacture of converters which would form an integral part of a locomotive. Since the process mapping was only in a draft stage, a cross functional team was formed to finalise the process. Since this is not an existing process, we could design a process with IT requirements in mind. The IT requirements were discussed in detail and a process map which was finalised has been enclosed with this report. The detailed IT requirements have been analysed and suitable recommendations on the IT solutions have been made as part of this report. An attempt is made to take into consideration the requirements when the system is implemented at the plant at a later date. Some of the main findings were : The integration of IT with the design of the Order Receipt to Collection process has resulted in : • Use of IT as a tool to simplify processes. • Enable parallelism in the process. • Use of common databases and data communication facilities would help in reducing the throughput time for the process by ensuring availability of accurate information throughout the process. • Integration of modern manufacturing concepts like JIT, Source Inspection with support from IT. As the system is focussed on the supplier, the proposed system would generate tentative and firm schedules well in advance to help the supplier to plan his production strategy accordingly. IT Interface to Process Improvemeni/iipidoc ?age;3 of 35 Shripad Bhagwan I have recommended the customisation of the existing PPC software in Peenya to suit some of the requirements like generation of tentative and firm schedules, simplified process of bill passing etc. As the Business Area BPR is planning to set up its factory during the first quarter of 1996, the proposed systems would be implemented only after the plant has been commissioned. The actual benefits would be evident only at a later stage. This project is one of the first attempts within ABB to integrate IT with process improvement. Since there may not be major changes in the core processes, this exercise can be tried out with another Business Area which is live so as to ascertain actual benefits.