The Cuban state company is immense in a great effort to transform itself and substantially improve the results through the modification of behaviors and capacities, which is materialized in a group of measures that have been taking, these measures culminate in the Process of Business improvement.
The improvement is a Cuban experience that assimilates the most modern procedures and techniques of business management in the world, adjusted to our conditions and characteristics, with emphasis on the search for greater and better economic results; Its main objective is to maximize the efficiency and competitiveness of the Cuban state company, on the basis of granting it the powers, and establishing the policies, principles and procedures that promote the development of initiative, creativity and responsibility. of all bosses and workers.
Companies in the process of improvement go through seven steps:
1- Preparation of all workers.
2- Initial business diagnosis
3- Analysis of the Diagnosis by the Government Group and authorization to begin the studies.
4- Development of the study and projection of improvement. Record of Improvement.
5- Approval by the Government Group of the Improvement File and authorization of the beginning of the implementation.
6- Implementation of Business Improvement.
7- Supervision and adjustment of the designed system.
Which can be grouped into four major stages:
1- Awareness
2- Diagnosis
3- Projection
4- Monitoring and evaluation
The Diagnosis constitutes the second step of the process, and constitutes an analytical examination of the past trajectory and the current situation of the company, as well as its potential prospects, regarding the fulfillment of its mission, its objectives, and activities; the state of its resources, the characterization of its culture and its technical and organizational functioning.
Taking into account the experience accumulated through the different consultations made to companies in the process of Business Improvement, it can be said that the initial business diagnosis is made with a predominantly functional approach, without the integration of all the subsystems and a weak customer orientation. which implies that there are elements that are not deeply diagnosed, that is, there is a risk of working with little diagnostic capacity. One way that can solve this weakness is through the use of an adequate combination of traditional (hierarchical and functional) and process approaches, for which a series of structurally oriented steps must be carried out to achieve this end.
Due to the aforementioned, the objective of this work is to present a work methodology that facilitates the process of identifying problems in the Diagnosis stage in companies in the process of business improvement, using a combination of functional, hierarchical and process approaches..
The proposed methodology was implemented and validated in a Self-financed Institution of Scientific Research, Technological Innovation, Productions and Specialized Services in Business Improvement, obtaining satisfactory results in terms of its easy implementation and acceptance by all workers and managers.
Development
One of the characteristics of the Business Improvement process is its functional approach, this characteristic is observed from the very Bases of the Improvement Process, that although its intention is to comprehensive analysis leaving, explicit and visible the What? clarity in the way to face the How ?, which takes multiple forms according to the level of development from which each organization starts and the goals to which it aspires, the ability of its leaders to mobilize the creative forces of the workforce and manage the process as a whole, of the organization's capacity for change, of its vision of the future. Emphasizing the very approach of the bases where it is cited, that when applying business improvement, each economic organization will be studied as an integral whole,encompassing all the subsystems that compose it.
To achieve this it is necessary, from our point of view, the combination of functional and process processes, which makes the process more difficult, given the need for the change that is required in the way of thinking of the company.
The Diagnosis stage covers the study and analysis of a set of subsystems, and constitutes a period of great importance for the projection of the perfected company, because from this diagnosis the current situation of the company will be known, as well as their potential prospects to achieve organizational improvement through greater and better economic results, so it is necessary to use hierarchical, functional and process approaches, each of which has its advantages and disadvantages trying to identify the possibilities for improvement.
Proposed methodology.
In the development of this document, we take as a reference the experience achieved in the consulting work in the diagnostic stage carried out, by the three authors, to a Self-financed entity of Scientific Research, Technological Innovation, Productions and Specialized Services in Business Improvement, in which the use of the proposed methodology was tested and validated. It has been graphically represented in Figure No.1
Figure No.1. Graphic representation
The vertical lines represent those problems that affect the organization from the functional scope, the horizontal lines represent the set of problems that affect the efficiency of the processes that are developed in the organization, and the diagonals are those of a general nature, arising mainly in the sections of work in the first stage, the coinciding points represent the set of problems that affect the organization with both functional, general and process incidence.
Working procedure:
During the Diagnosis process, a set of actions framed in four Stages were developed, which allowed to exchange the different approaches, characterized below.
Stage No.I
I. General Interviews: The objective is to know the vision that is had on the problems of the center on the part of the managers and workers. In this stage, the hierarchical and functional approach was combined, where the major approaches were made in a general way, predominantly the affectations in the functional field. At this stage, the interrelationships of each of the business subsystems were not essential.
It is proposed to develop the following work sessions:
1- Interview with the Director: A general characterization of the center's problems is made, from his point of view
2- Interview with the collective work bodies: Each manager performs a characterization of their work area, indicating to their criteria which are the main problems that affected their performance. Here, the main general problems affecting the organization's functioning from each individual perspective are also addressed.
3- Interview with workers: group interviews are carried out by areas, where at least 80% of the workers must participate.
The proposals made mostly answered the question:
What are the main problems affecting the development of the center?
This is the moment of catharsis necessary so that those involved are more likely to be able to visualize the main barriers.
Stage No.2
II. Analysis of the Main Processes: Its objective is to identify the main problems that affect organizational performance from a process approach; For this, mixed groups were formed, that is, from each area, to analyze the different stages or sub-processes of the essential Process Flow of the center.
- The first step in this stage is to identify the Center's Essential Process Flow and describe each of its stages or sub-processes. The second step is to identify the internal and external customers and suppliers for each sub-process.
In this analysis, all the members of the organization involved in the proper functioning of each one of them converge, achieving an active participation.
In this stage, the following elements are evaluated in: critical, with some problem and with good performance, in each sub-process or stage, with the principle that each one plays the three roles in the production process, supplier, producer and client:
- Infrastructure.Information.Efficiency.Human resources.Materials and inputs.Customer service.Suppliers.Financial.
At this time, the organization is visualized as a process and allows to analyze how the functional areas influence that process.
Stage No.3
III. Interviews with specialists and documentary review: The main objective is to enrich the information and validate the criteria received in the previous stages, in addition to arguing about the specific elements proposed to diagnose in the bases.
Stage No.4
IV. Presentation and validation of all proposals: The objective is to ensure that all members of the organization know and approve each approach.
By implementing this methodology in the company under study, it was possible to include clients and external and internal suppliers in each analysis, being able to determine those key existing problems that prevent the organization from focusing on customer needs. fully analyzed the entire work flow, allowing to see how the work is carried out through processes that transcend functional barriers, it was possible to identify the practices that must be modified to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and effectiveness of the process, being able to identify the possible separations or fractionation in the processes and therefore improve the relationships between the functional areas, persuading them to achieve organizational goals.
Another of the results achieved in this experience is that the managers managed to perceive the organization as a system made up of its different elements, each of the subsystems being analyzed in an interrelated way, not limiting the analysis by specialists from a functional perspective.
The need for the integration of the departments was demonstrated, managing to conceive the organization as a unitary and intentional system, composed of numerous parts that interrelate in the effort to achieve the institutional objectives.
The importance of the combined use of the process, functional and general approaches was highlighted in the diagnosis stage as a way of approaching the fundamental problems and obtaining greater and better results in the projection of what the performance will be. organizational.
It was found that the work methodology under study facilitated the process of identifying problems in the Diagnosis stage in the Company, and it could be extended to any company regardless of its individual characteristics and its corporate purpose.
Conclusions:
Once the present work has been developed, we can reach the following conclusions:
- Facing the diagnosis with an integration of different approaches (general, functional and process) facilitates the identification of the key problems of the organization. The work methodology used facilitates the diagnosis stage with the use of an integration of different approaches. The work methodology used can be applied in any organization that is going through the Business Diagnosis stage.
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