The methodology in these approaches has been around for years (1986 and 1991, respectively), and is based on grounded, timeless principles that still work very effectively today.<\/p>\n
However, in the last 30 years, technology has upgraded, to say the least. We have an opportunity to automate processes much more easily, using Robotics Process Automation<\/a> (RPA) and Business Process Management<\/a> Software (BPMS) tools, to name two.<\/p>\n Considering end-to-end automation while taking a \u201cprocess first\u201d approach might sound counterintuitive, but think of it like building wooden chairs:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The materials and method you have to work with will drive the future state process design. When building a chair, your source lumber might be dimensional, surfaced or rough-cut, which requires different levels of processing.<\/strong> Likewise, your source data might be from a database, website, PDF or other unstructured source.<\/p>\n For tools, you may have a bandsaw to easily and quickly make curved cuts, a jigsaw, less stable than a bandsaw but easier to use, or a handsaw, which takes lots of manual power and time. Similarly, your business might have BPMS, which organizes and automates processes in a highly structured manner, RPA, less stable than BPMS but easier to implement, or manual processing, which takes a lot of power and time.<\/p>\n There are so many ways to cheaply automate, and you need to consider that automation for every step in your processes. Reserve manual tasks for uniquely human processing: complex decisions, approvals, deep analysis, team collaboration and so on.<\/strong> Automate everything else. Otherwise, you\u2019re wasting your valuable employees.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s explore six aspects of process automation that complement and accelerate operational excellence:<\/p>\n\n With automation in mind, process design needs to take a different lens, thinking about automation opportunities from the start with these questions:<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t design with automation in mind<\/a>, you may keep a manual data clean-up process that requires the process to output data to clean-up and then input to the next step when those three (or more) steps could be built in early in the flow. Automating this clean-up task later is possible, but you\u2019ll reduce your options for automation.<\/strong><\/p>\n Traditional automation includes custom code built within an ERP<\/a> to match business requirements. The need to stay current with the most recent ERP update makes custom code difficult to manage and therefore obsolete over a few patches and upgrades. Customization needs to be outside these types of systems. Business requirements change often, so creating automation solutions must be easier and more flexible to future adaptation.<\/strong> BPMS is a low-code platform that is both easy and flexible.<\/p>\n Google \u201clong term labor shortage<\/a>\u201d and you\u2019ll find several recent studies and articles citing the macro-economic statistics telling the story that labor shortage is something we\u2019re not going to solve soon. You need your people to do the most valuable work \u2013 redesigning your processes to include automation isn\u2019t a luxury anymore. It\u2019s a necessity. Instead of hiring two people to process your new vendor contracts, for example, you could build a bot to handle that. The concept of Enterprise Automation \u2013 automating all the gaps in between core applications \u2013 should be on every leader\u2019s top priority list.<\/strong><\/p>\n Custom automation within IT is a heavily controlled, cumbersome process where your business\u2019s small automation needs are often prioritized behind major company initiatives. IT will likely never automate your manual, rules-based, structured-data business process that takes eight hours every week will likely never be automated if it\u2019s a queued ticket.<\/p>\n The good news is that you can automate it by the RPA Center of Excellence<\/a> (COE) or with a citizen developer on your team. An RPA COE should have an intake form where you can input the details of your process so they can automate it. Now your team has eight more hours every week to spend on qualitative analysis and other high-value tasks.<\/p>\n![\"Process](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/OE_FutureOfOEProcessAutomation_BlogGraphic01_1.21.22-1-1024x494.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\n <\/div>\n 1. Designing with automation in mindsets up more long-lived, sustainable processes.<\/h2>\n
\n
2. Enterprise Resource Plans (ERPs) are becoming less customized.<\/h2>\n
3. Enterprise Automation is an imperative with a continued labor shortage.<\/h2>\n
4. Automation is within reach of the business, which no longer needs to be reliant on IT.<\/h2>\n
![\"Process](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/OE_FutureOfOEProcessAutomation_BlogGraphic02_1.21.22-1024x404.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n