Business Process Management: A Conceptual and Operational Optimisation Approach

To optimise business processes is a very complex task. The goal is double: to improve productivity and quality. The method, developed in this paper, is composed of 4 steps : the first one is the modelisation step (to describe the business process in a very rigorous way), then a conceptual optimisation (supported by evaluation and simulation tools) to improve the business process structure (to make it more consistent, to normalise it), then an operational optimisation to improve the business process performing (to make it more efficient) by providing to each operation the necessary resources and at last a global optimisation (to take into account all the business processes of the company under study). The conceptual optimisation is, in fact, a static optimisation (achieved independently of resources) while the operational optimisation is dynamic. The main difference between these 2 steps is the fact that the first one is totally hand made (we want to build, from the set of indicators provided by evaluation and simulation, the best business process as possible), in opposition with the second which is totally automatic (since it requires linear and non linear programming tools). This method is the result of three years research achieved for the French organism ŞCaisses dŠAllocations Familiales: CAFŤ. It was validated on the business processes of the CAF, which deal with information (files and documents), but it can also be applied on industrial business processes (dealing with products and materials).