Last week’s post introduced the Process Innovation Canvas and the various elements it contains. This week’s post will offer a little more detail on each of the building blocks. Next week we will begin to explore how to use the Canvas.
The Building Blocks:
Customer
Every process serves one or more Customers. Customers are defined as any people or organizations who consume, or use, the product or service the process outputs.
Customers may be internal (existing within the organization) or external (existing outside the organization). Customers provide feedback to suppliers about the process outputs. External customers may use their power of choice of not using the process to influence the supplier; internal customers may not have a choice, so feedback will exist in other ways.
Things to remember about Customers:
– Customers can be Internal or External.
– Customers provide feedback to suppliers about the output of the process.
Process Value
Process Value is the reason the process exists, the “why” behind the process. It is easy to confuse process outputs with Process Value. For example, a report may be an output, but the Process Value is really information to be used in decision making. We can also think of the Process Value as the desired result or outcome of the process. Defining the Process Value appropriately can open up new avenues for design of the process.
Inputs
Inputs are items or information the process starts with and transforms into outputs. Inputs come in two flavors:
– Items – information or supplies
Triggers
Triggers – Triggers “start” the process. For instance, inputs to an accounts receivable process may include purchase orders and invoices. It is the receipt of the invoice that “triggers” the process to start.
Suppliers
Supplies provide the Inputs (materials, supplies and information) for a process to work on and also provide the trigger that tells the process when to start.
Activities
Activities are generally easy to identify using traditional process mapping or flowchart techniques. Activities may include value-add work and non value-add work.
Actors
Actors are the people in a process that perform the Activities of the process. People use resources to perform the Activities.
Resources
Resources are used by Actors to perform Activities. Examples of resources may be machinery, computer systems or communications systems.
Outputs
Outputs are the end result of the process and will be delivered to the process customer.
Channels
Channels are the means by which the outputs are delivered to the customers.
Typical channels include:
– Physical delivery
– Electronic delivery
– In-Person
Costs
Costs are incurred by the actors in the process, the resources used, the Outputs created and the Channels used to deliver.
Feedback
Feedback provides the Customer with the ability to modify the process. Feedback comes from the Customer to the Supplier and contains information about how well the Outputs are meeting the defined Process Value.
Feed Forward
Feed Forward provides the Supplier with the ability to modify the behaviors of the Actors in a process. Feed Forward may include Customer Feedback, information about future events (volume changes, for example).
