What is the Concept of Process owners in TQM? - Mechstudytips

 Concept of Process owners

 (1) Structure of organizations:

 The organization with its resources works for achieving its mission which is either explicitly stated or implicitly understood by all concerned.  The organization carries out its Mission by organizing itself into various departments, each one is responsible for a specific function (s).  Many a time, a department can be responsible for more than one function.  For example, the Human Resource Development department may be responsible for functions such as recruitment, performance appraisal, competency enhancement, etc.  The function can be defined as the specific deliverables expected from the process owned by the functional head.  The process is a set of pre-defined activities carried through a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).  Thus, we see each of the above four entities which are required for the functioning of an organization, flow sequentially as shown below: organization__ departments__ functions__ processes.  Those persons who take responsibility for the processes are known as process owners or functional heads.  Many functional heads can report to a Departmental Head (HOD). 

 (2) Process ownership:

 The Head of the Department (HOD) is the owner of a business process.  Each business process has its own functional sub-processes, the culmination of which (like tributaries flowing into the main river) make the owner of the business process realize his / her stated mission.  Functional heads are the process owners of the functional sub-processes.  Operating members such as operators in the shop floor office staff in the office area and salespersons working the marketplace own their processes which consist of carrying out a certain set of activities according to Standard Operating Procedure.  Hence, all are process owners and are striving to improve their processes continuously. 

 (3) Typical Business Processes:

 The business processes are those that exist with the objective of supplying products and providing services to customers for earning revenue for the organization.  Generally, the following business processes are in vogue in most of industries.  They are 

Order obtainment: The process of getting orders from customers - both new and existing - to improve sales New product development: The process adopted for designing new products to meet customer expectations and designing the processes to manufacture the new products.

Order fulfillment: The process of organizing and accomplishing the manufacturing of products to meet the customer demands, on-time 

Supply chain management: The process of coordinating with suppliers and logistic - providers to supply parts for manufacturing and to customers, on - time

 All  These activities have underlying processes which are basically repetitive in nature.  Even though the outcomes are unique, such as new customers, new products, new processes, or new employees, the underlying processes for each of them remain repetitive.  Hence, these are Daily Management activities only.

  (4) Accountability and Responsibility: 

Every process is designed with certain objectives in mind.  The process, when executed, is expected to give desired results or outputs. 

 The term accountability defines the output expected from the process.  The process owner is always accountable for the results/output of the process By defining the accountability of the process owner, the functional objectives of the person get established. 

 To achieve the desired objectives, the process owner has to act.  He/she takes responsibility for the actions which are required for achieving the result.  The action can be called a functional strategy.  Thus, the process owner is accountable for the functional objectives of the process and is responsible for the functional strategies.  

(5) Performance Indicators:

 The HOD, who is the owner of a business process, clarifies the result/output expected from his / her process (these can be categorized in terms of PQCDMS).  These are the functional objectives of the HOD.  These are otherwise known as Managing Points (MP).  It is directly related to what the process owner is accountable for 

The departmental head, in order to improve his own objectives, monitors the performance of the functional Heads reporting to him/her by looking at certain key performance indicators of the business process at a periodical frequency.  These indicators may not be actionable but are indicating the health of the functional sub-processes.  These are known as Checking Points (CP).  

In a similar way, the functional - heads, who inherit the Checking Points of departmental heads as their own Individual objectives, monitor their subprocesses by looking at certain other key indicators which are generally actionable.  Hence these indicators are called Individual action points.

The operating members constantly check the performance of their processes while executing their daily work according to Standard Operating Procedures by monitoring what is called Control Points in SOP

 (6) Comparison with trans-boundary river 

The business process can be compared to a transboundary river  like the Ganges (Ganga) The sub-processes are like the tributaries which flow into this main river.  The functional heads take ownership of the tributaries (sub-processes).  

 (7) Differing perspectives:

 The performance indicators for monitoring purposes vary depending on the position occupied by a person in the hierarchy.  This can be explained through an analogy of 'Forest-Bush-Tree.

 The departmental head, representing the top management team, is looking at the business process as that of a forest with birds eye-view.

  The functional head, representing the middle management, is looking at his process as that of a bush with insect eye- view. 

 The operating members who own the SOP look at the process as that of the tree with earth-worm view.  

The HOD generally works on the system, the functional heads work for the system and the operatives work in the system.  Accordingly, the indicators differ.  But all have only one aim and it is to improve continuously.

(8) Conclusion: 

1) Concept of Managing Points and Checking Points *: 

The HOD is the owner of the business process. The functional objectives to meet the business process requirements are known as the Managing The HOD is the owner of the business process.  The functional objectives Points.  The key performance indicators of the process become the Checking Points.  The functional heads who are reporting to HOD have their own sub-processes.  The Checking Points of the HOD plus the functional objectives of their own processes become the Individual objectives of the functional heads.  The key indicators of the process become the Individual action points.  The owners of the sub-processes achieve their Individual objectives by being attentive to their performance indicators in the processes on an hourly/daily/weekly basis.  Hence this process is known as Daily Management. 

 2) The next step: 

To improve the processes, process owners need a robust Performance Measurement System to set objectives that would meet the customer's expectations and also identify strategies for achieving the objectives.  This aspect is dealt with as the next topic