Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Vermeulen, Andre

Titel

An Analytical Instrument to Measure the Status of an Organisation Business Process Capability

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This research has its roots in Engineering Management, where the premise of improving and managing efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and quality is the most common and accepted source of organizational excellence and performance. This dissertation addresses a new paradigm for competitive advantage – business processes capability. The notion of capability is first and foremost the primary differentiator of organisational competitiveness ensuring sustained long-term prosperity.The title of this dissertation is essentially imperative of every organisation functioning within the competitive domain to obtain business process capability. Where organisational capability and performance were traditionally considered antonymous, the assimilation of these two notions is fundamental to the assurance of long-term organisational prosperity. Organisations are required, now more than ever, to grow and ensure that optimisation is achievable through well-defined systems and supporting business processes.Organisations need to understand operational and individual business processes as well as their strategic impact they have on the entire supply network. The key to successful process decisions requires taking the following into consideration (a) the best fit for the situation (b) optimisation of one process at the expense of another, (c) processes are building blocks that create a total business value chain which include the cumulative phases of business processes affecting output, customer satisfaction and competitive advantage, (d) there is no distinction between any processes in the value chain either performed by internal or by outside suppliers, and (e) that managers must pay attention to interfacing all processes ensuring cross-functional coordination.Business processes capability firstly describes how an organisation performs, or implement given capabilities and how capabilities connect and deliver at a desired outcome, whilst capability is the ability to perform actions. Business processes must therefore be achieved and maintained guiding organisations towards excellence. In working towards the fulfilment of this objective an instrument measuring the status of an organisation Business Process Capability (BPC) was developed from a comprehensive literature study. The intention was to develop an instrument which determines disparities which may exist between organisational priorities versus occurrences. Therefore assisting organisations to analyse and improve existing practices.The initial phase in developing this instrument was to determine and evaluate an organisation process capability by means of a preliminary research study conducted. This led to a rigorous refinement initiative that included further literature study in the development of a business processes capability measuring instrument.Phase A (second phase) was utilised to determine critical factors contributing towards business process capability. This phase assisted the researcher to identify critical factors influencing the design of a cause and effect relationship between factors and factor-items of a particular condition or phenomenon. The approach was to develop an instrument which integrates corporate strategies, and measure end-to-end business processes.During Phase B (third phase) of the study a comprehensive self-assessment measurement instrument was developed. The intended purpose of this measurement instrument is to correctly identify the business processes capability strengths and weaknesses of the represented organisations. The fundamental nature of the Business Process Capability Measurement Model is to measure the capability level or status of a business’ processes in order to determine their desired and existing performance level.