IFSM 300 Maryland University Process Improvement Discussion

Discussion for Week 3 

Process Improvement

In the Week 3 Content, we cover Business Processes, including Process Improvement through streamlining and re-engineering, and process modeling of both the As-Is and the To-Be processes.     Read that content before responding to this discussion.                                                     

Group 3:   Drawing from your own experience, select a process (a set of specified steps to accomplish a task) used at your place of work or in your interaction with a business that you would like to see improved and briefly describe the process.  Be sure you have identified a specific process rather than a general business problem or area. 

1)  Explain why you picked that process. 

2)  Explain the steps you might take to analyze how to improve the process.

3)  Who should be involved with you? 

4)  What are some of the questions you should ask about the current process? 

5)  How will you know if the process was actually improved?

First, we need to be sure you can identify a process; many students have difficulty with that, so refer to your class readings.  Be sure to pick a fairly narrow scope for your process – for example, processing an invoice for payment vs. Accounts Payable. I am also interested in the method to be used to improve the process, not a solution.  (For example, I am not looking for something like:  “The Café where I work is not selling enough coffee. We should use social media to advertise more.”  The discussion here is about identifying a specific process and how a business would go about deciding how to improve that process, who should be involved, what should be considered, and what steps should be taken to be able to analyze the current process and plan for improvement.)  You should employ the techniques discussed in class or those that you find in your research.  Keep in mind that outside resources strengthen your responses.