In today’s dynamic business world, it is essential for companies to optimise their processes and design them efficiently in order to maintain or increase their competitiveness in the long term. An important method for achieving this is process modelling. In this blog article, we take a look at the basics of process modelling, its benefits and the most common methods.

What is process modelling?

Process modelling is the structured representation and analysis of business processes. The target here is to visualise the processes in order to understand and ultimately improve them. Process modelling enables companies to identify weak points within their business processes, eliminate redundant steps, optimise interfaces and increase efficiency.

The advantages of process modelling

Create transparency:

Visualising processes makes it easier to understand workflows. This promotes understanding and communication within the team and between individual departments.

Identification of potential for improvement:

Process modelling helps to identify bottlenecks and inefficient steps. Companies can use this knowledge to initiate targeted optimisation measures.

Standardisation of processes:

By documenting processes, companies can ensure that all employees follow the same steps. This leads to higher quality and consistency of work.

Training of new employees:

Process models serve as suitable training materials for new employees. They can be quickly introduced to the processes, which shortens the familiarisation period.

Digital transformation:

In times of digitalisation, it is important to analyse existing processes and adapt them if necessary. Process modelling is usually the first step in successfully implementing digital solutions.

Methods of process modelling

There are various methods of process modelling that can be used depending on the application and objective. Some of the most common methods are BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) respectively BPMN 2.0:

• A graphical notation that was specially developed for modelling business processes. It enables clear visualisation of processes and is widely used in industry.
• EPC (Event-driven Process Chain):

This method is frequently used in enterprise architecture and helps to visualise business processes through events and functions.

• UML (Unified Modelling Language):

Although UML is mainly used in software development, it can also be used to model business processes, especially through activity diagrams.

• SIPOC:

This is an acronym that stands for „Supplier“, „Input“, „Process“, „Output“ and „Customer“. This tool is often used in the context of process management and Six Sigma to obtain an overview of a specific process including suppliers and input as well as customers and output of the individual process steps included.

• Six Sigma:

This method focuses on improving processes by identifying and eliminating waste, errors and inefficiencies.

How does ADCONIA approach process modelling?

Each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses. As part of our projects, we have developed an extended SIPOC model as an effective tool that looks at individual processes end-to-end and supplements responsibilities as well as documents and IT systems within the individual process steps. At the same time, waste is identified in accordance with Lean Six Sigma as part of the process mapping with the customer and visualised within the process modelling in order to derive optimisations for the definition of future target processes.

An example from practice

We are currently analysing the current status of customer processes in order processing at one of our customers. As part of the project, it is becoming apparent that the same „request to service“ or „order to service“ process generally follows the same overarching logic in the individual executing departments. At the same time, however, we also learnt that there are many different variants within this process when looking in detail at the handling of individual service types – for example, in the use of master data, in the IT systems used, in responsibilities or in the provision of billing-relevant information for invoicing. The extended SIPOC model for visualising the process helps us to highlight and document these variants, including their deviations in the individual processes. It will form the basis for the target process modelling phase that follows the as-is assessment in order to be able to strive for efficient standardisation of the process across service types and departments.

Have we captured your interest? Do you need further information or support in modelling your business processes? We would be happy to advise you on this topic and add our project experience. Get in touch with us. Asking costs nothing.

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Consulting for procurement, supply and value chain with a focus on cost management, digitalisation, organisational development and sustainability.