Improve Quality Using a Business Process Maturity Model: Part 2

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: Hello everyone and welcome to Cherry Bekaert's Digital Journeys podcast. My name's Jim Hullman and I'm pleased to host today's episode, the second of a three-part series about continuous improvement.

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: In this session we'll talk about the use of a model to baseline your organization's improvement maturity and help clarify attributes to advance your continuous improvement practice.

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: In this session I'm joined by my colleague Steve Holiday. We're both part of Cherry Bekaert's Digital Advisory practice, in which we guide our clients forward in their transformation journeys.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: It's a privilege to be here.

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: Steve, you and I talked about business process maturity in a podcast last fall. Can you remind our listeners about the Process Maturity Model (PMM) and its importance?

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: Sure thing, Jim. If we think about business process maturity, we should think about a continuum of practices ranging from beginner to advanced.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: The Process Maturity Model breaks this continuum into five different levels. Each level has a description; common labels are Initial, Repeatable, Defined, Managed, and Optimized.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: At Level One, the Initial stage, the organization has begun to identify its processes and the steps involved in each process. Efforts tend to be ad hoc and individualized, processes are inconsistent, and results can be difficult to predict.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: At Level Two, Repeatable, the organization has identified its processes but the steps are not yet standardized. Work is stabilized and repeatable within local work units.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: At Level Three, Defined, the organization has standardized the steps and has begun to manage processes across functional boundaries. Processes are documented.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: At Level Four, Managed, the organization has standardized processes across the organization. They are measured and controlled, though management of these processes may still be developing. Organizations at this level often lack focus on improvement or sufficient training and facilitation leadership.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: At Level Five, Optimized, the organization has strong management skills and effective tools to manage processes. This allows them to achieve goals faster while reducing operating costs.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: The importance of the Process Maturity Model is found in the baseline it helps establish. It helps the organization understand where it is along the continuum and provides insight into where it can move and the advancement it can achieve.

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: This is interesting and a bit academic; can you break it down for us?

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: For organizations less familiar with continuous improvement and the underlying processes, this framework needs more detail. Cherry Bekaert has created a maturity model intended to provide additional detail to help organizations with self-assessments.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: We will discuss this model further and provide details on where to find the assessment tool later in the podcast. This general model provides Level One through Five attributes for critical administrative practices in areas such as people, process, technology, data, analytics, and risk.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: We have also developed more targeted models for areas such as supply chain and manufacturing operations. These models are available on request for organizations looking to baseline these functions.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: All these models were developed using our experience helping companies improve.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: For people, we're looking at training and tracking the advancement of training practices. If people don't know how to use the systems and tools for improvement or to operate the business, that will create issues in achieving repeatable processes.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: For processes, we look at formal definition, development, and improvement of those processes to help the business achieve better results and outcomes.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: For technology, we look at the evolution of the platforms supporting the business. A business may start out operating on spreadsheets. As it grows, it needs to add systems for more advanced functions, and sometimes systems and processes operate offline on spreadsheets. As requirements become more acute, the organization may need more fully integrated platforms.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: For data, we look at the disciplines needed to manage data quality and consistency. Data is needed for accurate execution of process and for good reporting and analysis. In immature stages, data is inconsistent and requires manual cleanup to make it useful for analytics.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: For analytics, we look at the advancement of capabilities from offline or manual reports to online capabilities. Reporting becomes timely and meets business needs, and tools are made available for citizen analysis with ad hoc capabilities.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: For risk, we look at the evolution of risk management practices that support a growing and more sophisticated organization as the need for sophistication increases.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: We developed this because the areas I mentioned don't provide prescriptive detail about what is evident at each level. We've broken down those levels into more detail for each area. Like the supply chain and manufacturing operations models we're not presenting on this podcast, we've expanded the detail to help organizations understand where they are, where they fit, and what major areas present opportunities for improvement.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: To differentiate a little, we are trying to provide a rough assessment. We'll talk more in the next podcast about a more detailed approach. We encourage listeners to take this assessment. If you're looking for assistance, we're happy to provide that at no cost.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: Planning for improvement is critical because it begins with an understanding of the starting point. Please reach out to us today to get started; there is no commitment.

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: With continuous improvement and process improvement models, understanding where you are and what's the next step is key. Organizations often get trapped looking at Level Five; they start chasing perfect and get frustrated.

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: Working with you and your team to understand where they are and focusing on incremental, iterative improvements can bring results.

GUEST: STEVE HOLIDAY: There's no question that jumping from Level Three to Five or Two to Five is a very difficult leap. You need to bite this off into chunks and work stepwise to move forward.

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: Steve, thank you again today for the discussion on business process maturity and the Process Maturity Model. Stay tuned for part three of the series. Please reach out to any one of us through the contact information listed wherever you're listening to this podcast or go to cb.com/digital.

HOST: JIM HOLMAN: Thanks again for tuning in to Cherry Bekaert's Digital Journeys podcast. Please be sure to subscribe and follow along so you don't miss the next episode of this series on how to optimize operations for your organization.