Total Quality Management describes a series of principles on which it bases its management philosophy, the following article refers to the 4 principle of Quality Management Systems: Focus on the process. The fundamental concepts of the process approach, the most used tools, as well as their differences with traditional or departmental structures are described.
From Traditional Management to Process Management
Currently, organizations, regardless of their size and sector, have to face competitive markets in which they have to reconcile the satisfaction of their customers with the economic efficiency of their activities.
Traditionally, organizations have been structured around functional departments that make customer orientation difficult. Process Management perceives the organization as an interrelated system of processes that jointly contribute to increasing customer satisfaction. It supposes an alternative vision to the traditional one characterized by organizational structures of a hierarchical - functional nature, which has survived since the middle of the 19th century, and which to a great extent hinders the orientation of companies towards the client.
Table 1. Differences between Traditional Management and Management by Processes (Source: Cáravez, 2001 and Own Elaboration).
| Departmental Management | Process management |
| Functional approach with vertical organization | Focus on processes with horizontal organization |
| Added value to functional structures | Added value to customers, to society |
| Does not contemplate management processes | It contemplates management processes: support and logistics |
| Responsibility is shared | The responsibility is unique: owner of the process |
| Principle of hierarchy and control | Principle of autonomy and self-control |
| Orientation of activities towards the Departments | Orientation towards the external and internal client |
| Bureaucracy and formalism. Centralized in making decisions. | Efficiency, flexibility and decentralization in decision making. |
| Command by control based on surveillance | Command by exception based on support or supervision |
| Improvements with limited scope, the department | Improvements with a transfunctional and generalized scope, the process. Continuous improvement |
| Efficiency based on productivity | Efficiency based on competitiveness |
Focus on processes
According to the focus on processes it means:
Process Management is the way to manage the entire organization based on the Processes. Understanding these as a sequence of activities aimed at generating added value on an input to achieve a result, and an output that in turn satisfies the Client's requirements.
Process management is a form of organization in which the client's vision prevails over the activities of the organization, where the processes thus defined are managed in a structured way and that of the organization itself is based on their improvement.
Process management provides a vision and tools with which the workflow can be improved and redesigned to make it more efficient and adapt it to customer needs.
The terms related to Management by Processes, and that are necessary to take into account to facilitate their identification, selection and subsequent definition are the following according to and:
Process: set of interrelated resources and activities that transform input elements into output elements. Resources may include personnel, finances, facilities, equipment, techniques, and methods.
Key process: are those processes that have a significant impact on the strategic objectives and are critical to the success of the business.
Threads: are well-defined parts of a process. Their identification can be useful to isolate the problems that may arise and allow different treatments within the same process.
System: organizational structure, procedures, processes and resources necessary to implement a specific management, such as quality management, environmental management or occupational risk prevention management. They are normally based on an internationally recognized standard that is intended to serve as a management tool in the assurance of processes.
Procedure: specific way to carry out an activity. In many cases the procedures are expressed in documents that contain the object and scope of an activity; what should be done and who should do it; when, where and how it should be carried out; what materials, equipment and documents should be used; and how it should be controlled and registered.
Activity: is the sum of tasks, normally they are grouped in a procedure to facilitate their management. The ordered sequence of activities results in a thread or process. It normally takes place in a department or function.
Project: it is usually a series of activities aimed at achieving an objective, with a clearly defined beginning and end. The fundamental difference with the processes and procedures lies in the non-repetitiveness of the projects.
Indicator: it is a data or set of data that helps to objectively measure the evolution of a process or activity.
A process is an activity that uses resources, and that is managed in order to allow the input elements to be transformed into results (See Figure 1).
Therefore a process consists of:
| Tickets | Responsible |
| Departures | Rules |
| Activities | Instructions |
| Control requirements (Dashboard) | Work contents |
| Measurement of effectiveness | Job positions |
For an organization to function effectively, it has to identify and manage a large number of interrelated activities.
Usually, the processes are classified between:
The key processes: are those that directly affect the provision of the service and therefore customer satisfaction.
The strategic processes: are those that allow to develop and implement the strategies of the organization in question.
Support processes: are all those that allow the operation of the organization and that however are not considered key by it, but rather provide support to these processes. They are related to HR, information systems, financial, cleaning, maintenance.
Most used tools in Process Management
Among the most used tools in process management we find the block diagram which shows the most important steps within a process from the customer's point of view. It is not done in detail and concentrates on key operations. The elaboration of the block diagram helps to conceptualize the process and is easy to interpret (See Figure 2).
Another tool used is the process flow diagram, a graphic representation of the sequence in which the activities necessary to develop a process are carried out (See Figure 3).
To facilitate the understanding of the operation of the process and its relationships with other processes, a Process Map is built using the SIPOC method (Supliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Costumers).
This technique allows identifying which are the suppliers of the process in question, the inputs of each supplier to the process, the process itself, that is, the stages or phases of the process (these are represented in a block diagram), the outputs that it emits. and the external and internal customers who receive the outputs. (Look at annex 1).
The focus on processes is one of the most widely used philosophies in our companies today, the horizontality of the processes allows concentrating efforts on satisfying customer needs, increasing not only the efficiency of the system, but also greater effectiveness. of organizations.
Conclusions
The Process-based Management Model allows eliminating the functional barriers that the departments of organizations build by integrating the system processes.
The focus on processes allows greater identification of the organization with the key processes and therefore the emphasis of the administration in these contributes to business success, allowing control of the key points of the organization.
The processes are the anticipation of the client's needs and therefore the latter its reason for being, a process management model allows raising the level of service to the society that benefits from the system.
Bibliographic references
Cáravez SY (2001) Procedure for the improvement of tourist processes. University of Cienfuegos. Hundred fires. Optional thesis to the scientific degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences.
Process Management (2005). In
ISO 9000 (2000). Draft international standard. Quality management system. Fundamental principles and vocabulary.
Annex 1. SIPOC map to show in detail the structure of a process (Source: Cáravez, 2001).
