What Is Business Process Mapping?
Business Process Mapping is a tool that allows a business to schedule and track its activities or processes. It defines all the steps taken from the beginning to the completion of the projects. It is a powerful technique in business process management. It is a visual presentation for all the stakeholders to understand the flow of the project. It uses visual aids like flowcharts, diagrams, charts, and symbols to organise the data. These aids provide information about when, how, and why companies start a project. These maps show the tasks of the project and the results that may arise from them. The primary purpose of mapping is to describe the steps involved in a business process.
What is the purpose of Business Process Mapping?
The main purpose of Business Process Mapping is to show the steps from the start to the end of a project. It fulfills these purposes:
- It describes the tasks that are necessary to complete the course of a business process.
- It determines who is responsible for each task.
- It establishes the deadline for finishing each task presented in the map.
- It decides each step that the business process needs to take to complete a task.
- It determines the parties, teams, or employees responsible for completing each step.
- It establishes the condition that needs to be met to perform the task.
Why is Business Process Mapping important?
Business Process Mapping is extremely helpful in determining the course of a process. Here are various reasons that make it so important for the businesses:
Develops a transparent culture
This map displays all the details of the project to the stakeholders. It shows a breakup of how the company is using the resources and the money. Stakeholders can ask questions about the machinery and operations. They can also give suggestions or feedback to improve the map. This helps to develop a transparent working culture, leading to a strong relationship between both parties.
Enhanced problem-solving capability
Various problems may arise during business operations. Identifying these problems and fixing them with a trial and error method is a cumbersome process. A business process map that has the breakup of a process step-by-step makes it easier to pinpoint the problem. It helps to identify the issues quickly and saves the time and effort of the teams.
Clarity about roles and responsibilities
Employees should have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities to perform efficiently. Business process mapping makes it easier for employees to understand what they need to do and how they need to do it. It helps them to know the nuances of a process. As a result, employees feel focused and accomplish their goals easily.
Improved standardisation
Business Process Mapping helps companies to create standard processes. These processes ensure the smooth functioning of the company in the same way every time. It aids in creating best practices and improving the existing processes. Standardised processes help in decreasing errors and increase productivity.
Lowers cost
Mapping can help to create processes to lower operating and support costs. Fewer expenses mean more positive economic outcomes for the company. This will attract the stakeholders who will see a benefit from its investment returns.
Onboarding and training assistance
Business Process Mapping helps to create a structure step-by-step, ensuring the smooth onboarding and training of the new employees. This map allows the team members to understand the processes and minimises confusion. A set of defined processes can minimise the time spent during transition and training.
Improved auditing and communication
Business Process Mapping is a great way to enhance communication inside and outside the company. Due to the elaborate presentation of all the processes and steps, people inside and outside can better understand the tasks. These maps also help with internal audits, as they ensure that work is being done according to certain standards. Mapping also helps to identify the areas that need improvement. With effective Business Process Mapping, different teams possess the same flowchart, so they can easily discuss processes together and ask one another questions.
Effective risk management
Business Process Mapping helps to identify potential risks and concerns. As a result, the team is aware of the issues beforehand and takes measures to mitigate them. It proves effective in risk management.
Types Of Business Process Mapping
There are various types of mapping based on the types of businesses or types of processes required to accomplish a goal. Here is a list of different types of mapping:
Basic process flowchart
This flowchart is easy to use and understand. It shows all the processes in a step-wise manner from top to bottom. It displays the company processes in clusters so that all the tasks can be seen at the same time. Flowcharts are very easy to create and do not require any special tool or software. They can be drawn by hand or digitally. For example, flowcharts can be used to survey customers about their interests. Questions can be added to the flowcharts with diamonds, arrows, and yes or no.
Swimlane diagram
This diagram is drawn to determine who performs specific tasks within processes. It has several rows and columns that help represent different topics when working on cross-functional processes. These diagrams connect tasks with topics and show how steps connect within a system. For example, getting requests from the customer for purchasing the products. These requests are then segmented in too many rows representing the various aspects of the request process.
State diagram
This type of diagram shows how an object or a product is converted from one stage to another within the process and phases over some time. For example, during the beginning stages of a product production, this diagram can be used to evaluate the production process. It helps to track the developments when the product makes the transition from one to another phase.
Value stream map
This map helps to identify the existing state of products, ensuring employees get a chance to study and enhance the products. Value stream maps are extremely detailed and highlight every component or process. It helps to remove any unnecessary steps in product development and delivery. It uses more symbols to display each factor.
Data flow diagram
This diagram focuses on the flow of data and information needed to complete a task. It helps in understanding the tasks and decoding the errors that occur because of inconsistencies in data. Some of the data that companies can track includes transaction, product, billing, shipping, product and customer information.
SIPOC diagrams
SIPOC stands for suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers. This diagram displays important information for company tasks. Each factor has a separate row in the diagram. For example, the company can place the names of all the vendors in a row, helping everyone identify the vendors used for completing the tasks.
How to do Business Process Mapping?
The most important part is knowing how to do Business Process Mapping. There are several steps involved in this process. Here are some of the steps involved:
- Gather all the stakeholders who are responsible for the process and who are actively involved in daily activities.
- Prepare a list of all the things that humans will be doing as a part of this process. It is easily done with the help of sticky notes.
- Prepare a list of all the things that can be done by automation like data transfers, sending emails or folder creation.
- Review your list of tasks again to determine if any can be removed, changed to a notice, or made into a system task.
- Determine who is responsible for each task. This will hold them accountable for the timely completion of the tasks.
- Establish the sequence of the tasks, determining which tasks need to happen first and which can be done later. All identify the tasks that can be done simultaneously.
- Identify the repeated actions, inefficiencies, and barriers. Make the necessary changes and updates to mitigate the issues.
Business Process Mapping is a visual flow diagram that uses symbols to show the different parts of business processes. It aids the employees to understand their roles and responsibilities and perform better. Along with helping to find potential areas for quicker process improvement, time savings, and most importantly, cost savings, it also raises customer happiness.
