rogerpenna
Quite Involved in Discussions
So I am trying to map our company processes.
It seems the usual pattern is to follow Porter’s Value Chain of Core Processes, Support Processes, Admnistrative ones, etc. (I do not know much about Porter’s Value Chain, but I guess there is much more to it than simply showing the processes sequence).
I did not find any examples from other companies in the same branch of business as we are. But basically, 99% of our clients are government (usually municipal or state level).
That is, we are regulated by public bidding laws. Marketing, going in search of clients, everything most companies do to keep their clients... that doesn´t really apply to us.
We may do the best asphalt, provide the best post contract support. In the next public bidding, lowest price bidder will win the client.
Another thing I find hard to correlate with most examples I find, is that we work with services and most Value Chain examples I find are of companies that manufacture products.
Even in the Core processes, the sequence is not THAT logical, meaning that many processes are not exactly sequential, but parallel, while most Value Chain examples seem to have very sequential Core Processes while support processes are parallel to most of the Core Processes sequence.
That said, my understanding of Core Processes that add value to the cliente are:
Bidding – search for public bids open which requirements match our capacity, in our geographical area of operations; review of all public bid documentation in detail; confection of all paperwork showing we qualify for the bidding;
Budget : creation of a budget (sometimes thousands of items) based on materials and sub-contrator prices, plus our own prices based on past data
Contract Planning: planning of resources allocation, machines that will be used, physical-financial spreadsheets. Constant monitoring of contracts works, construction timelines. Re-planning if necessary (sometimes conditions not planned by the client in the project emerge, changing the project itself or adding (or even subtracting) major costs and timelines.
Contract Control: this is a process that runs parallel to everything else from the moment we start construction Works to the end of the contract. But I wouldn´t classify as “support”, because it deals directly with clients and it adds value to the client.
Materials Acquisition: budgeting, negotiation, acquisition of materials necessary to perform the civil infrastructure works (sand, diesel, concrete, rock/peebles, pre-molded concrete pieces, wood, asphalt, etc)
Construction/Production : it’s the actual creation of earthworks, sewer systems, roads, streets, etc.
Production Control: it involves mostly the verification of services done (both quality and completion and conformity to project), the keeping of work diaries, etc.
And finally maybe I could add
Contract Maintenance: which is a minor process actually (you see, our public clients do have their own fiscals who fiscalize every step in the project construction, so after contract is finished, it’s quite uncommon for problems to arise that need some maintenance due to contract obligations.
Of course, that’s quite a coarse granularity. Each of these Processes could have a finer granularity, specially if we decide to put it into a BPMS automating the processes.
Ps: I did not consider Acquisition of Sub-Contractor Services or Acquisition of Heavy Machinery Renting as Core Processes, as I considered those as supporting the Production/Construction. They are not essential I guess. We add sub-contractors to perform better/expanded capabilities, but we also have the capability of executing many contracts on our own.
Err... although, if I say those processes allow us to perform better and expand capabilities, maybe they add value to the client? Maybe I should have only Acquisition (which in a finer granularity would be composed of Materials Acquisition, Machinery Renting, Subcontractor Acquisition?)
Thanks for any inputs and criticism.
It seems the usual pattern is to follow Porter’s Value Chain of Core Processes, Support Processes, Admnistrative ones, etc. (I do not know much about Porter’s Value Chain, but I guess there is much more to it than simply showing the processes sequence).
I did not find any examples from other companies in the same branch of business as we are. But basically, 99% of our clients are government (usually municipal or state level).
That is, we are regulated by public bidding laws. Marketing, going in search of clients, everything most companies do to keep their clients... that doesn´t really apply to us.
We may do the best asphalt, provide the best post contract support. In the next public bidding, lowest price bidder will win the client.
Another thing I find hard to correlate with most examples I find, is that we work with services and most Value Chain examples I find are of companies that manufacture products.
Even in the Core processes, the sequence is not THAT logical, meaning that many processes are not exactly sequential, but parallel, while most Value Chain examples seem to have very sequential Core Processes while support processes are parallel to most of the Core Processes sequence.
That said, my understanding of Core Processes that add value to the cliente are:
Bidding – search for public bids open which requirements match our capacity, in our geographical area of operations; review of all public bid documentation in detail; confection of all paperwork showing we qualify for the bidding;
Budget : creation of a budget (sometimes thousands of items) based on materials and sub-contrator prices, plus our own prices based on past data
Contract Planning: planning of resources allocation, machines that will be used, physical-financial spreadsheets. Constant monitoring of contracts works, construction timelines. Re-planning if necessary (sometimes conditions not planned by the client in the project emerge, changing the project itself or adding (or even subtracting) major costs and timelines.
Contract Control: this is a process that runs parallel to everything else from the moment we start construction Works to the end of the contract. But I wouldn´t classify as “support”, because it deals directly with clients and it adds value to the client.
Materials Acquisition: budgeting, negotiation, acquisition of materials necessary to perform the civil infrastructure works (sand, diesel, concrete, rock/peebles, pre-molded concrete pieces, wood, asphalt, etc)
Construction/Production : it’s the actual creation of earthworks, sewer systems, roads, streets, etc.
Production Control: it involves mostly the verification of services done (both quality and completion and conformity to project), the keeping of work diaries, etc.
And finally maybe I could add
Contract Maintenance: which is a minor process actually (you see, our public clients do have their own fiscals who fiscalize every step in the project construction, so after contract is finished, it’s quite uncommon for problems to arise that need some maintenance due to contract obligations.
Of course, that’s quite a coarse granularity. Each of these Processes could have a finer granularity, specially if we decide to put it into a BPMS automating the processes.
Ps: I did not consider Acquisition of Sub-Contractor Services or Acquisition of Heavy Machinery Renting as Core Processes, as I considered those as supporting the Production/Construction. They are not essential I guess. We add sub-contractors to perform better/expanded capabilities, but we also have the capability of executing many contracts on our own.
Err... although, if I say those processes allow us to perform better and expand capabilities, maybe they add value to the client? Maybe I should have only Acquisition (which in a finer granularity would be composed of Materials Acquisition, Machinery Renting, Subcontractor Acquisition?)
Thanks for any inputs and criticism.