Macro processes interface 

The purpose is to identify the business flow of the major processes in order to see how they affect the customer's, organization's and market's requirement. It also helps in identifying those processes that are key to success and what their contribution to customer satisfaction is.

• In today's businesses most processes have grown. 

  • Most business processes were never designed, they simply grew as the needs emerged.

  • They were developed over time without specific guidelines or direction.

  • Many have become complex, vulnerable to errors, expensive to operate and not responsive to the needs of their customers.

  • They have also become the domain of those who feel protected by them.
       

• Often, there are efforts made by "process experts"

  • to make the processes more efficient, by looking at ways to reduce expenses and increase the throughput.

  • These efforts are typical industrial engineering studies, time motion analysis, value added, etc.

  • Very seldom was the focus on what the customer of the process needed.

    Often, the process structure is different from the organization's (hierarchical) structure. It is very important to understand the differences since they can have a significant effect.

• Organizations operate like "silos"
  • the work is done vertically
  • policy and direction come down from the top of each "silo"
  • pay, incentives, bonuses, etc. come from the top as well
  • workers look at satisfying the goals and objectives of the "silo"
  • these goals many times conflict with the ones from the other "silos"
• But the product is produced horizontally
  • the product crosses across many of the silos
  • the customer sees the process as transparent and does not care about the silos
• Who manages the white space between the silos?
  • for their most part they are unmanaged
  • at best it requires the tremendous effort of the head of the organization
• The result is successful processes but poor product