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Marten van der Zee
Analyst, Netherlands
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Types of Business Processes - Classifications
Henk Kleijn and Fred Rorink in their book 'Change Management' distinguish between 5 different kinds of business processes in any company (organization):
1. Primary processes: these are the main processes in a business, typically being Porter’s inbound logistics, operations (incl. production), outbound logistics, marketing and sales, services. According to some also R&D and purchasing could be viewed as primary activities / processes.
2. Secondary or supporting processes: these processes support the work of the primary processes. Examples: financial management & control, HR, administration and facility management.
3. Systems, or steering systems: these are the processes which help the primary processes (typical on a corporate level). Examples: planning & control, logistics.
4. Decision processes: these processes interact with and guide the primary processes.
5. Communication and information processes: these are also integrated in the other processes. The accuracy of the choices and decisions made by managers is strongly dependent on the maturity of these communication and information processes.
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Jim Burke, United States
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5 Kinds of Biz Processes Would be interesting to see these laid out as a systems map, with leverage points identified, for particular companies, since each is a bit unique.
Thanks for sharing this.
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K.V.MOHANAN
Turnaround Manager, India
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5 Categories of Business Processes Thanks for this enlightenment; though I'm interacting with each of these processes everyday, I never noticed the difference and interdependence.
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Doug Gilbert
Professor, United States
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Innovation and Logistic Processes I believe that Dr. Scheer at one time used a classification of only two types:
- Innovation processes, and
- Logistic processes.
Under each there were several sub types.
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Michael Wood
Business Consultant, United States
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The Anatomy and Physics of Processes Interesting. However, I find that it is the anatomy & physics of a process that eludes most.
Understanding object transformations, stimulus triggers, etc. are hardly ever discussed; well except in my books :) - the Helix Factor series.
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Leodegardo M. Pruna
Professor, Philippines
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Most Critical Business Processes Note that the last two (4. decision and 5. communication processes) are the most critical, because their failure to function and work well would cause all the other processes to work in an erratic and confused way.
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Marco Coronado
Manager, Mexico
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Understanding Business Processes Well I think this types of classification is important and helpful to understand some specific characteristics of each process.
But is very important never forget the main components of each process as SIPOCo.
And its relationship versus the 7M.
If we understand these elements very well we will be ables to define and improve any type of process.
Best regards.
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Fernando Valdez
Consultant, Panama
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Communication Processes are Key @Leodegardo M. Pruna : 100% agree with you. The communication processes are key for all others, specially in large organizations with vast amounts of human resources and physical dispersion.
Even if all of the other processes are in an "optimum shape", lack of or weakness in communications process (this includes feedback mechanisms) could bring down the overall performance considerably.
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Ben Schlussel
Career Consultant, United States
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Value Stream Business Processes Also when you are considering the specific business' value stream, there are those processes that move the product or service from the suppliers through the business to the customer (primary), and there are those processes that support these activities (secondary).
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nan zeng, China
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There is Complex Interaction Between the 5 Types The efforts in corporate process categorization are appreciated. However, the processes, systems and mechanisms in any corporates are complex and somehow 3 or even 4 dimensions may interact with one another in various ways.
We have to view processes, systems and their interactions in a systematic way (System Dynamics).
In many cases, a symptom may implicitly represent a problem far away from the process which explicitly is revealing the trouble.
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Mansingh Jaswal
Director, India
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Organisational Framework is Important for Communication Processes! @Fernando Valdez : (On the other hand) the communication processes are based on the framework set by the primary, secondary, system & decision processes based on organisation structure.
If the framework is right, the communication processes would act in a mature manner, but if the basic framework set out is faulty, the communication processes will not give the desired results.
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Abdullahi Mohammad Hari
HR Consultant, Nigeria
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Understanding Different Kinds of Business Processes I am impressed with this discussion because it helps me a lot to understand which kind of business processses exist, as well as the system structure of an organisation.
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eugenio bastianon
Professor, Italy
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Strategy Process is Missing... I find that is the strategic management that lacks most.
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Lawrence Chinkhunda
Student (MBA), Malawi
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The Link between Business Processes and Management Functions The 5 processes are quite alright. Managers should however bear in mind that these processes are interdependent and their classification and categorization is merely for the sake of ensuring that attainment of the entity's specific business strategic mission which can be linked to the first process.
It is at this critical point that the management functions are required to be seen to be effective so that coordination, control, planning, budgeting, monitoring, communication and all that form the integral tools in unison to achieve the primary mission.
When there is no effective integration between processes and functions, a proper value chain cannot be achieved.
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Miguel Sacramento
Business Consultant, Brazil
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Isn't the Decision Process Most Important? @Leodegardo M. Pruna: in order to keep a company alive in a constantly mutant environment as the current one, the necessity of quick and efficient responses to changes on the environment has become mo...
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Dayson Castilhos, Brazil
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All Business Processes are Important! Interesting discussion; we see that every comment enlightens the subject: Coronado and the SIPOC; Priolo and the weak points; Nan Zeng and the system dynamics; interactions, interdependency and so on....
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Jackeline Molina
Consultant, Dominican Republic
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3 + 4 + 5 = Management Processes @Lawrence Chinkhunda:
I haven't read the book, but to classify communications, taking decisions and steering systems as processes is probably in order to reinforce how important they are for the orga...
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ashraf serry
Financial Consultant, Egypt
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Creating Process Interactions Should we want to consider the levels of process in a business environment, then we have to track the "interactions" between the said levels.
Typically, no single level is processed alone and it is a...
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Jerry Talley
Business Consultant, United States
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An Alternative Category Scheme I'd suggest a different schema; I distinguish processes that..
1. Operate on things (make, ship, etc.)
2. Operate on information (combine, analyze, interpret)
3. Involve an unavoidable judgment (ex...
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Miguel Sacramento
Business Consultant, Brazil
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6th Business Process Type I would suggest an additional category of business Processes:
6. Monitoring the environment. This has become so important that it must be implemented, exercised and constantly improved at any organiz...
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Leodegardo M. Pruna
Professor, Philippines
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Communication and Decision-making @Miguel Sacramento: I believe that a decision maker would best be in the position to decide when the parameters communicated to him are well described and explained. Decision making is a choice and on...
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Andy Lake
Management Consultant, United Kingdom
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Does This Categorisation Work for All Organisations? Interesting. But I wonder if it works for all organisations?
Say you are a public sector organisation delivering social work outcomes, the service you deliver may really be 99% around communication a...
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Alice Quevedo O.
Consultant, Mexico
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New Classification of Business Processes is Very Interesting Thanks Marten for sharing this new classification.
In my personal opinion, the implementation of this classification depends of the kind of organization and its needs. For example, a communication or...
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Suman Rao
Turnaround Manager, India
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Are the Classifications Mutually Exclusive? Hello Marten - thanks for bringing this to our attention.
However I think one of the fundamental requirements for any classification/taxonomy is that it is mutually exclusive. In this case I find tha...
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Sohail Ejaz
Consultant, Pakistan
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Is R&D a Primary or Secondary Process? I have one question, R&D is listed as a primary process. Why it is not under category 2 as R&D is generally done as support to any decision making.
Similarly we can have a process in which certain de...
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LESAFFRE Serge
Consultant, France
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Add 6. Environment Monitoring Including Competitive Intelligence @Miguel Sacramento : I agree to add environmental monitoring process which includes the competitive intelligence process as an important section....
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Akin Akinreti
Management Consultant, Canada
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Process Integration @Jackeline Molina and @Lawrence Chinkhunda intelligent contributions: the business process model of items 1 to 5 may be helpful for certain needs and adaptability but not necessarily a silver bullet (...
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Le My
Student (University), Viet Nam
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Internal and External Business Process Types Business processes can also be divided in 2 types: internal and external:
- External processes include the "primary processes", related to customers or outside market.
- Internal processes are the o...
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Jerry Talley
Business Consultant, United States
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Type versus Location of Processes I urge a distinction between where a process occurs and the essential nature of a process. To call a process primary just tells me where it sits in the organization. But I would still find processes o...
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shahmohammadi
Business Consultant, Iran
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Process Classification Framework (PCF) I think the PCF (Process Classification Framework) is a more comprehensive and better classification. It also features processes for industry-specific versions....
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Mick Breare, United Kingdom
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Business Process Relevance Depends per Organization Very interesting but in my experience, things do not generally work like that in reality. What might form key processes (you call them primary) in one organisation may not be as important in others.
...
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Alex
Accountant, China
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Alternative Business Processes Classification We can also classify business processes by their role and duties:
1. Operation process
2. Analytical process
3. Decision process....
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Suman Rao
Turnaround Manager, India
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Agree on PCF @Shahmohammadi:
Yes indeed agree that PCF (the important one I am atleast aware of is APQC's PCF) is comprehensive-even though inevitably there are process overlaps... Do you or anybody on this forum...
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Fernando Valdez
Consultant, Panama
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3 Categories of Business Processes I tend to disagree with large lists of categories. I only see primary processes (in the value chain) and support processes which focus on the delivery of internal services and the administration of re...
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Osman Abdel-Rahman
CEO, Ghana
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Position of Financial Processes @Mick Breare : I very much like the 5 business process types, and I think it will work for most organisations. If the organisation's core business is financial management for instance, this will be th...
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Ajanaku Adewunmi, Nigeria
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Internal and Expernal Business Processes @Le My : The internal business processes could encompass: decision processes, systems or steering systems and the supporting processes. While external business processes could consist of the primary p...
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Alba Lucia Duque Salazar, Colombia
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eTOM What about eTOM (enhanced Telecom Operations Map)?
This framework has been developed for telcos industries and it has been implemented for some financial enterprises as well.
eTOM defines 3 groups:
...
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Leodegardo M. Pruna
Professor, Philippines
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Business Processes Differ per Industry @Alba Lucia Duque Aalazar: every industry has its own business processes to follow. Besides, sequential processes are usually lumped together and considered as one. In this manner we could observe tha...
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Kurt Ludikovsky
Consultant, Austria
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Summary This is somewhat an interesting thread, and the comments are valuable. Nevertheless is seems to me a little like "losing the sight of the forest for the trees". So stepping back a little:
1) A busine...
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venkataramanan
Professor, India
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Business Process Classification I agree with the first classification.
1) primary processes and 2) secondary processes.
All others can also be grouped under these two categories. The sub-processes may be integrated with POSDCORB....
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Tin Win
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Keep Business Process Categorization Simple Making a categorization simple is better than making complicated ones.
The first two is more prevailing, and the others are better taken consideration in the first two....
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Matthias Bittrich
Business Consultant, Germany
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Think End-to-end And.. Think end-to-end: what about redundant processes? If your goods or services are perfect, for example Six Sigma level, why would you need an expensive, huge customer or complaints service? Most of your...
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Kurt Ludikovsky
Consultant, Austria
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... But also Left and Right @Matthias Bittrich: _disagreement! Think at Nokia: they had excellent products, now they lack customers and are in a crisis. They simply did not listen to their customers.
CRM is essential to have yo...
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Matthias Bittrich
Business Consultant, Germany
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Voice of Customer is Fundamental @Kurt Ludikovsky: Very true. Same as Microsoft, or is anyone here who likes the new menu structure of MS Office or can at least handle it?
Complete failure and massive market losses to Apple and Linu...
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Kurt Ludikovsky
Consultant, Austria
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Processes are Essential, But Uniformity is a Risk @Matthias Bittrich: fully agreed. So for me the point is: each organisation is different. And this is good so, because how else could one company differentiate itself from another...
And the processe...
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Great comments on business processes! It is very important to acknowledge the value and key part that each play in the success of the organization.
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