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Understanding and managing processes

This is a conceptual video. It explains and illustrates the systems view of processes, value creation, process control, and the all-important learning loops using a few simple examples. Consider driving a car as a system. The driver gets feedback from the internal and external components. He processes this information and decides to make adjustments such as breaking, accelerating, deactivating the cruise control, turning up the air conditioner, and switching gears. The feedback he gets may lag the actual event that he is now noticing (the following car is really close) and it may take a while for the corrective action to take place (such as a decision time – i.e. change lane – and the time required to make it happen). He may also getting leading information of a traffic jam 5 kilometers down the highway and take appropriate steps to adjust for it by anticipation. These notions, as well as the voice of the customer and learning loops are also presented using climate control in a house (see Section 6.2 and Figure 6.5). The video then shows how these notions can be transferred to a business context using the example of a pharmacy, previously presented in Figure 3.9 and Box 6.2. This last example allows for some further discussion of the linkages, presented in Chapter 5, between strategy and processes.