Bruce Greenfield, BEM Program Director
I’ve been consulting and teaching in the field of operations management since the early 80’s, working with clients to improve their business processes. One of the challenges has always been how to document business processes in a consistent manner, especially with a team of analysts working within a large organization.
The Perigon Method certainly meets this need. It’s been field-proven across a wide variety of businesses and industries. With limited instruction, just about anyone can pick up a Perigon Map and understand it. The standard set of templates and stencils facilitates consistency and ease-of-use for the business improvement team.
But what’s really impressive is how developing the process map draws people in and gets effective employee engagement. The basic question, “what is the next step?” can bring on a spirited discussion. And once we start talking about “red clouds,” the floodgates really open.
The methodology also helps organizations and people transition to process-based thinking. This is no small matter, given how most traditional organizations operate.
Some key points are worth additional emphasis:
- Work Flow. Mapping the process makes it straightforward to follow, with all major steps, decisions, inputs, and outputs identified. In our experience, 58% of organization opportunities are process control issues.
- Boundaries. The beginning and end of the process are precise, with no “loose ends” or poorly defined inputs and outputs. Relationships between adjacent processes are clarified and refined to eliminate ambiguity and barriers. We see about 14% of opportunities related to process boundary disconnects.
- Customer. Internal customers are recognized and their needs understood, particularly as barrier issues are addressed. It’s surprising how often internal customers are not clearly identified, and their needs understood.
In conclusion, the Perigon Map is key to the Perigon Method. But the real magic comes from gaining effective employee engagement through the process team in creating the maps, and in the subsequent analysis and improvement that they deliver.