Qualitative Process Analysis Notes

Wk6 Lecture Qualitative Process Analysis

Semester 1, 2025
Course Codes: 11481 Workflow & Process Management, 11529 Workflow & Process Management G

Our Learning Map

  • Week 1: Introduction to the unit
  • Week 2: Introduction to Business Process Management (BPM)
  • Week 3: Learning Maps
  • Week 4: Advanced Process Modelling (BPMN), Process Discovery
  • Week 5: Community Links
  • Week 6: Qualitative Process Analysis

Legend

  • Black: Topic
  • Black Bold: Aboriginal Way of Learning
  • Red: Assessment item
  • Aboriginal Way of Learning Symbol

Recap Week 5

  • Handling exceptions through events include:
    • End terminate event: Process abortion
    • Error event: Internal exceptions
    • Message event: External exceptions
    • Time event: Timeout exceptions
    • Conditional events: Business rules
  • Process discovery techniques: Techniques for revealing current processes
  • Process quality assessment: Evaluating semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic quality

BPM Overview

  • Reference: BPM Lifecycle (Dumas et al., 2018, p. 23)
    1. Process identification
    2. Process discovery
    3. Process analysis
    4. Process redesign
    5. Process implementation
    6. Process monitoring

Process Analysis in BPM Lifecycle

  • Objective: Analyze the as-is model from the process discovery phase.
  • Tasks:
    • Identify and document issues, including:
    • Cycle time that is too long
    • Rework and waste
    • Quantify impact: Use performance measures to provide data
    • Output: Collection of issues to be prioritized

Process Analysis Overview

  • Elements involved:
    • Conformance and performance insights
    • Process monitoring
    • Executable process model
    • Process identification and Process architecture
  • Categorization of processes:
    • As-is process model
    • To-be process model

Qualitative Process Analysis: Overview

  • Core analyses include:
    • Value-Added Analysis
    • Waste Analysis
    • Stakeholder Analysis
    • Root-Cause Analysis

1) Value-Added Analysis

  • Definition: Decompose process activities into steps and analyze those steps based on their contribution to the process.
  • Components of the analysis include:
    • Steps performed before an activity
    • Steps within the activity itself
    • Steps performed after the activity in preparation for the next task

Classification of Steps

Elimination of Unnecessary Steps
  • Identify unnecessary steps in a process for elimination by classifying each step into one of three categories:
    1. Value-adding (VA)
    2. Business value-adding (BVA)
    3. Non-value-adding (NVA)
Value-Adding Activities (VA)
  • Criteria for classification:
    • Is the customer willing to pay for this step?
    • Is this step necessary to achieve their goals?
    • Would removal of the step devalue the service or product?
  • Examples of Value-adding Activities:
    • Order-to-cash process: Confirming delivery dates, delivering products
    • University admission process: Assessing application, notifying admission outcomes
Business Value-Adding Activities (BVA)
  • Criteria for classification:
    • Is the step required for revenue generation?
    • Would the business suffer in the long-term if this step was removed?
    • Is this step essential for compliance?
  • Examples of BVA Activities:
    • Order-to-cash process: Checking purchase orders, creditworthiness
    • University admission process: Verifying completeness of applications, checking degree validity
Non-Value-Adding Activities (NVA)
  • Definition: Activities that do not fall under VA or BVA
  • Includes:
    • Handovers, context switches, waiting times
    • Rework or defect correction
  • Examples of NVA Activities:
    • Order-to-cash: Forwarding orders, re-sending confirmations
    • University admission: Forwarding applications to committees, awaiting results

2) Waste Analysis

  • Definition: Identify and eliminate waste through unnecessary steps. Waste is defined as “anything that does not add value or help positively transform input into the desired output.”
  • Historical Context:
    • Developed by Taiichi Ohno in the context of the Toyota Production System (TPS).

7 Sources of Waste

  1. Transportation: Movement-related waste, delays, damage, costs
  2. Motion: Inefficient movements within the process
  3. Inventory: Excess work-in-progress (WIP)
  4. Waiting: Idle times leading to delays
  5. Defects: Additional work for correcting faults
  6. Overprocessing: Unnecessary work beyond what is needed
  7. Overproduction: Producing items that are not needed
Waste Examples
  • Transportation Waste: Delays or damage due to material movement
  • Motion Waste: Move resources unnecessarily (e.g., getting signatures)
  • Inventory Waste: Holding too much WIP, causing delays
  • Waiting Waste: Tasks or materials waiting to continue their process
  • Defect Waste: Rework required due to errors
  • Overprocessing Waste: Perfectionism not contributing to value
  • Overproduction Waste: Producing more than necessary, leading to excess

3) Stakeholder Analysis

  • Purpose: Used to gather information on process performance issues from diverse perspectives, producing an ‘issues register.’
  • Categories of Stakeholders:
    1. Customers
    2. Process participants
    3. External parties (suppliers, subcontractors)
    4. Process owners and operational managers
    5. Sponsors of process improvement projects

Typical Stakeholder Concerns

  • Customers: Focus on slow cycle times, defects, lack of transparency
  • Process Participants: Concerned about resource utilization, stress, and defects
  • External Parties: Want work reliability, scheduling, and compliance
  • Process Owner: Looks at compliance and performance issues
  • Process Sponsor: Interested in strategic alignment and responsiveness to market conditions

Issues Register

  • Elements to include:
    1. Name
    2. Description
    3. Priority
    4. Data and assumptions
    5. Impact (qualitative and quantitative)
    6. Possible improvement actions

4) Root Cause Analysis

  • Goal: Identify and understand the root cause of issues through various methodologies.
  • Techniques Used:
    • Cause-Effect Diagrams: Show relationships between effects and causes. Categorized into 6Ms:
    1. Machine
    2. Methods
    3. Material
    4. Man
    5. Measurement
    6. Milieu
    • Why-Why Diagrams: Recursive questioning to uncover causes.

Cause-Effect Diagrams

  • Visually depict connections using categories (6Ms).
  • Why-Why Example:
    • For example: Site engineers keep equipment longer due to fear of unavailability, leading to delays

Key Outcome of Qualitative Process Analysis

  • Determine the minimum amount of work necessary to perform the business process to meet customer satisfaction and fulfill BVA requirements.

Next Week

  • Topics: 1. Quantitative Process Analysis
  • Reading: Chapter 7