A model is a logical representation of a system (or process in the present context) and represents the flow of products and information as the case may be. In general business process models refer to software implementation of a mathematical or logical model of real time process or system. Usually a process model is represented in graphical form, but focus is not limited to mere process diagrams. A business process model not only defines business process flow but also describes how activities interact with and relate to various resources such as data, information, materials etc. There are many applications of process models, such as understanding and communication to all concerned, support tool for process improvements and business process reengineering (BPR), and means of fact based decisions on automating various parts of the business process.
Business process models are an important component of repertoire of BPM toolsavailable commercially.
Process modelling entails sound knowledge of the environment in which the process gets conducted i.e. the process environment – customers, more importantly their requirements, suppliers, resources required to achieve the desired levels of performance, and most critical of all, the understanding of the business rules that govern the decisions at various points along the process flow.
Process models help understand the bottlenecks in the processes and dependence on critical resources required for deriving optimum performance and improve complex cross functional business processes. This brings us to discussion on business process simulation. Business process simulation can be described as a logical model for a business process that can be used to evaluate the business process response for a given set of resources. In a typical business process reengineering effort process simulation provides the capability for the designer to understand the consequences of new design before the actual implementation of the process, thus minimising the risks associated with implementation of less than optimum designs. In other types of process improvement projects, simulation enables prediction of process response to proposed change in process parameters. For example process simulation helps in predicting the impact of different resource levels (qualitative and quantitative) on the process measures such as cycle times, cost, quality and throughput.
Business process modelling combined with simulation helps managers in understanding the behaviour of complex and cross functional business processes by revealing bottlenecks, cost and quality drivers and activity based costs. The modelling and simulation is lot of hard work in fine tuning the model to win the confidence of the process users in any organization. Process modelling and simulation is a resource intensive exercise as it involves time and commitment from the process experts in the industry. Though the advantages outweigh the difficulties involved in designing a precise business process model. For example, the analysis triggered by simulation is based on quantitative process information and facts. Decisions can be made based on facts and analysis rather than on intuition and empirical data. Also troubleshooting the process based on rigorous process models and validations through simulation tools to locate bottlenecks and handoffs increases ones understanding of actual business process.
A note of caution for the perfectionists, no business process model or simulation is 100 percent perfect; they are bound to have some error. Experience points to the application of 80/20 rule, where additional efforts and resources spent in further fine tuning result only in very insignificant improvements. One must bank on the experience of the process experts and level of confidence of process users. Gaining the confidence of process participants or users is the key to success of process models and simulation tools. Typically process participants understand the process and its problems but not the solution. Process modelling consultants typically understand the solution but lack the knowledge of process problems and biggest bottleneck is information flow between the two, which affects the quality of process models. But once the confidence of process participants is gained, it is like institutionalizing innovation in the organization. Users with their understanding of business process can use the process model and check for scope for improvements by trying simulations with different combinations of dependencies and resources – this is what people call user based process innovation. Process models help users design innovative processes using their internal knowledge of the organization and processes.
In spite of the fact that business process models provide such overwhelming advantage in terms of fact based analysis and ultimately optimizing the business process performance, the biggest roadblock often are managers who are going to be the actual beneficiaries, as it challenges the way they have learnt to work, think and judge – through intuition. They are initially bothered by the fact that simulation may uncover shortcomings of their assumptions on which they have made many a business decisions. For business process models to deliver on their promise of enabling innovation in the organization, their development and introduction in the organization must be viewed as a collective learning exercise.
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