What Is A Process Model?
April 10, 2009
Part 1 of a 3 part series
- Part 1 Defines a Business Process Model
- Part 2 Provide Process Definitions
- Part 3 Walk through of a Complete Process with Down Loadable Examples
An enterprise, or business-level, process model is a tool that clearly identifies the processes that the entity engages in during the value creation process. It helps communicate to individuals what their role is with respect to the overall organization. It clearly defines, at an individual level, the tasks to be accomplished.
But what is a business process?
An enterprise, or business-level, process model is a tool that clearly identifies the processes that the entity engages in during the value creation process. It helps communicate to individuals what their role is with respect to the overall organization. It clearly defines, at an individual level, the tasks to be accomplished. Thomas Davenport Process Innovation. 1993
A process, then, is a specific ordering of work activities across time and place, with a beginning, an end and clearly identified inputs and outputs. These processes almost always cut across the functional boundaries that exist within a company.
Process Model Entities
- Core Process
- Sub Process
- Activities
- Tasks
Process Model Entities
The next step in defining a process model is to then define the Model Hierarchy. The hierarchy is different from company to company.
Business process can be specified in terms of level of detail. Each level is typically made-up of 3 to 12 definable work groupings. As defined earlier with the process levels, a generic process model hierarchy along with process levels is shown below.
Process Model Hierarchy
Visit back here next week to discover straight forward process definitions followed up with business process examples.
How to squeeze your Working Capital (GMROWC)
March 22, 2009
Gross Margin Return On Working capital is a great measurement used by companies to explore their inventory investment and the return on that investment in relationship to their Cash Conversion Cycle. Using GMROWC you will be able to determine the contribution each product, product mix, or division adds to the bottom line of your company; this analysis will depend on the granularity of your available data. You can also use GMROWC to help you obtain better terms with your suppliers so they understand the contribution they bring to the overall value stream. You will need the following measurements for this calculation:
Required Information
- Product Sales for Month Annualized
- Recorded Cost of Product for Month Annualized
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Inventory Value
See figure 1 for a visual depiction of the GMROWC. Click Here For Calculator
The calculations for determine your GMROWC on the surface may appear simple, but if you start exploring your GMROWC from a top down analysis it can start to get complicated. For instance, if you initially want to know the total GMROWC for your entire inventory portfolio, this is straight forward, but if you start exploring the GMROWC by product group, by product, or by vendor you need to make sure you data is granular enough for these calculations.
Example
GMROWC Calculator "Click Here"
To gain an understanding of the power of this simple measurement I have created a snapshot of a distribution company which appears to be in distress. Let’s explore the GMROWC for a distribution company with the following characteristics:
- Current Accounts Receivable=$17M
- Yearly Sales=$80M
- Current Inventory Value=$26M
- Yearly Cost of Goods Sold COGS=$58M
- Inventory Accounts Payable=$5.5M
Product GM%; ( Sales-Cost)/Sales, ($80M-$58M)/$80M)=28%
DSO=AR/(Year Sales/365), $17M/($80M/365)=78 Days
DIO=Inventory/(Year COGS/365), $26M/($58M/365)= 164 Days
DPO=Inventory AP/(Year COGS/365), $5.5M/($58M/365)=35 Days
Calculate Cash Conversion Cycle DSO+DIO-DPO=207 Days
Calculate Working Capital Turnover 365/207=1.77 Turnover
Calculate GMROWC=1.77 X GM%=49
A sampling of the observations you can make from these calculations are as follows:
- This Distribution company is only making a 28% product Gross Margin, the marketplace must be competitive or the purchasing department is not cohesively tied together to take advantage of it’s buying power and not negotiated rates properly. A lot of action items can come out of this observation.
- The days in inventory is too high at 164, their could be a lot of dead inventory, or the company could be holding too much inventory. This area is rich for analysis.
- The DPO=35, the company may be paying it’s vendors too quickly or a couple vendors may be pulling this figure down. Look into obtaining better terms from the vendor.
- With your receivables figure high at 78, collections may need a new strategy to allow for quicker turnaround on payments from customers.
- Overall the cash conversion cycle is 207; working capital turnover is therefore 1.77. This figure needs reduced and by exploring the DPO, DSO, and DIO in more detail a plan will materialize to lower this figure.
- The GMROWC is only 49, by pulling the different levers available to this distribution company from just a sampling of the available resolutions mentioned above the GMROWC metric can be tracked and improved upon.
This hypothetical company profile shows the power behind tracking a reliable metric and then making plans to attack areas that can be improved upon. The GMROWC should be explored from many angles, a few of which are:
- By Division
- By Warehouse
- By Product
- By Product Group
- By Vendor
- By Purchasing Manager
