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New technologies have tremendously reshaped the service sector in recent years (Beatson et al., 2007; Noh et al., 2016). Thereby, in times of “Industry 4.0”, even more and more manufacturing companies complement their product portfolio by “smart services” (e.g., predictive maintenance) to achieve competitive advantage (Acatech, 2016; Herterich et al., 2015; Pöppelbuß, 2018). Against this background, Business Process Improvement (BPI) (cf. Harrington, 1991) ranks high on the agenda of CIOs (cf. Acatech, 2016; Charles, 2017; Harmon & Garcia, 2020) as companies are engaged in the integration of digital technologies with their business processes to assure sustainable customer satisfaction (Gimpel et al., 2018; Gimpel & Röglinger, 2015).
According to a study by Harmon & Garcia (2020), which included 129 process experts, the need to improve customer satisfaction to remain competitive is judged to be one of the major drivers for BPI projects. Accordingly, major process redesign projects are in the center of attention in the years to come (cf. Harmon & Garcia, 2020) to foster the integration of new technologies (e.g., 3D-printing, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things etc.) (e.g., Belkeziz & Jarir, 2020; Kinnunen et al., 2018) with current practices to increase process quality (cf. Hänisch, 2017) and ensure an organization’s success (cf. Galli, 2020). For that purpose, a variety of frameworks, methodologies, techniques, and tools were developed for conducting BPI projects (e.g., PROMET – Process Method, IBM Business Transformation Methodology, (Lean) Six Sigma, etc.) (cf. Dalmaris et al., 2007; Österle, 1995; Pande et al., 2014; Shin & Jemella, 2002; Sudha & Kavita, 2019; Zellner, 2011).
In this respect, the most value-adding phase in a BPI project is the “act of improvement” (e.g., Forster, 2006; Griesberger et al., 2011; Reijers & Limam Mansar, 2005; Sharp & McDermott, 2008; Valiris & Glykas, 1999; Vergidis et al., 2006). The term “act of improvement” describes an active operation, which is executed on an element of a business process (e.g., activity, control flow or resource) and helps to transform the business process from an “as-is” to a “to-be state” (Griesberger et al., 2011; Zellner, 2011).
In existing BPI approaches (e.g., Antony, 2006; Zellner, 2011), this “act of improvement” is usually embedded in singular “activities” or “phases” of the procedure model, e.g., the phase “Improve” of the Six Sigma cycle (Pande et al., 2014; Snee & Hoerl, 2003) or the activity “redesign process” in the seven-step-methodology of Adesola & Baines (2005). Despite the availability of holistic procedure models (e.g., Six Sigma cycle) that incorporate activities/phases for process improvement and supportive BPI techniques (e.g., Best-Value Future-State Solution) (cf. Andersen, 1999; Griesberger et al., 2011; Harrington & Lomax, 2000; Meran et al., 2013) the “act of improvement” itself is often perceived as a “black box” in practice (Ramaswamy et al., 2018). Hence, there is no theoretical guidance on how to perform or structure the task (Forster, 2006; Reijers & Limam Mansar, 2005; Valiris & Glykas, 1999; Zellner, 2013). As a result, the transformation of a process from the “as-is” to the “to-be state” – by the modification of particular business process elements – is insufficiently specified (Falk et al., 2013; Lang et al., 2015) and often done in an “ad-hoc” fashion shaped by employees’ subjective perceptions (e.g., Nwabueze, 2012).