Business Process Management and Global Competitiveness

The Global Automotive Components Company (GACC) and its Challenges

The Global Automotive Components Company (GACC) offers aftermarket items to both retail customers and original equipment manufacturers. However, it encounters difficulties including lowered poor performance, disjointed procedures, and several systems with distinct codes, which hampered its ability to compete in the global market. Therefore, the choice to implement a thorough ERP system along with BPM was anticipated to assist them in streamlining their operations and better allocating their resources in order to achieve leverage through cost leadership, high-quality product strategies, and increased global market share tactics. However, the failure of the proponents to align the program to the strategy of the organization, as well as take into consideration the corporate and organization culture is responsible for the failure to achieve the objectives for optimal performance through end-to-end process improvement.

The Implementation of BPM at GACC

The implementation of BPM initially aimed at restructuring the process metrics and models, as well as process governance and ownership as a strategy to align the end-to end process of both the communication and quality control of the product. GACC committed to use a process-centric approach and implement a process enabling IT system to drive its business process management efforts (Rosemann & vom Brocke, 2014). The vice president of BPM planned to come up with a small team of BPM experts, comprised of staff positions aligned with the ERP scope and aim to end to end processes such as an order to cash, procure to pay, and record to report (Rosemann & vom Brocke, 2014). In addition to that, a small consulting company develops swim lane version maps of selected vital processes such as an order to cash (OTC), procure to pay (PTP) and record to report (RTR) which could increase the optimal performance globally.

Expected Benefits and Ensuring Successful Implementation

The expected benefits include improvement in quality, close monitoring of business process through an easy to use the system, lower costs of production through the combination of the multiple systems into one, improved market share, and high profits. However, for the plan to be implemented successfully, there is a need to ensure that one understands the culture of the organization before coming up with a system tailored to the needs of the GACC. As an inevitable change, the vice president of BPM has to make the company understand reasons and significance of BPM to GACC, collect data on attitudes and organizational operations, and in consultation with the management design a process for approval, before implementation (Cummings & Worley, 2013). In this regard, the company could realize the benefits as continuous improvements exercise, which is evident in the small-scale program for the subsidiary companies in various regions that is massively successful according to the GACC case study.

Risks and Recommendations for Successful Process Improvement

In the process improvement, there are two risks involved which include the lack of proper planning of the project and the insufficient resource allocation. Firstly, the vice president in collaboration with the top leadership at the global level of GACC has to be in consultation with prior plans of process improvement as well as make the decision to avoid delineation from the project team activities. On the other hand, making correct definitions in regards to the resources necessary for optimal performance at the planning stage contributes to the adequate allocation of resources to compete for project efficiently especially if the goals of the organization are realized (Rosemann & vom Brocke, 2014).

In this regard, the first recommendation to avoid the risk is to pay attention, not to the process requirements but the organization needs. Drastic changes in most companies have significant adverse effects on its growth and employees if they do not understand the purpose and importance of the exercise (Cummings & Worley, 2013). Another recommendation is that the corporate and organizational culture is an essential aspect of any firm. Therefore, the project team of BPM and the GACC should prioritize changing the perception first and align the objectives of the process improvement to the organization’s strategy and values to achieve success.

References

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2013). Organization Development and Change. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Rosemann, M., & vom Brocke, J. (2014). The Six Core Elements of Business Process Management. Handbook On Business Process Management 1, 105-122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45100-3_5