Question

Business Process Costing

For this assignment, you will explain managerial concepts as they pertain to business process costing. You will select a business process, describe the inputs and outputs, and define the job roles. In your paper, you will evaluate the current process effectiveness, estimate the cost of the process, and propose any improvements for management’s consideration. Be sure you have reviewed the assigned chapters and required unit resources on business process management.

Instructions:

Consider a business process using a firm with which you are familiar. Business processes include the following tasks:

• developing and managing products and services,
• marketing and selling products and services,
• managing customer service,
• developing and managing human capital, and
• managing information technology.

Once you have identified the firm and business process, select, describe, and discuss the business process by elaborating on the following information:

• what starts and what ends the process (inputs and outputs),
• what roles (jobs) participate in the process (map them),
• the effectiveness of the current process,
• the cost of the process (document any assumptions), and
• any improvements for management consideration.

Answer 1

Keys points:

* Identify what tasks are important to your larger

business goals

* Improve efficiency

* Streamline communication between people/functions/departments

* Set approvals to ensure accountability and an optimum use of resources

* Prevent chaos from creeping into your day-to-day operations

* Standardize a set of procedures to complete tasks that really matter to your business

Business process lifecycle

Step 1: Define your goals

What is the purpose of the process? Why was it created? How will you know if it is successful?

Step 2: Plan and map your process

What are the strategies needed to achieve the goals? This is the broad roadmap for the process.

Step 3: Set actions and assign stakeholders

Identify the individual tasks your teams and machines need to do in order to execute the plan.

Step 4: Test the process

Run the process on a small scale to see how it performs. Observe any gaps and make adjustments.

Step 5: Implement the process

Start running the process in a live environment. Properly communicate and train all stakeholders.

Step 6: Monitor the results

Review the process and analyze its patterns. Document the process history.

Step 7: Repeat

If the process is able to achieve the goals set for it, replicate it for future processes.

As an example, let’s consider the hiring process of an HR department. Right from posting the job opening to onboarding the employee, there are multiple steps involved in the process. Although this can vary from organization to organization, a simple workflow might look like this:

The HR executive posts the job update

Multiple candidates apply in a portal

The HR executive screens the candidates and filters the best-fits

The selected candidates are called for the next stages of the recruitment

The right candidate is chosen at the last stage of the recruitment

Salary and policy negotiations take place

The offer letter is sent and the candidate accepts

This is then followed by a long employee onboarding process.