Business Process Overview

• P1 Store POS Transactions. This sub-process contains all the necessary steps to carry out POS transaction for shoe and related merchandise purchases and returns at the store. This sub-process is described in more detail below.
• P2 Manage Memberships. ECSS memberships will be a key aspect of the store operations to be able to track all shopping, browsing and store traffic. Discounts and special promotions will be available to ECSS members based on loyalty, frequent shopping, and purchase volumes and variety, among others.
• P3 Order & Receive Merchandise. This sub-process involves all the necessary steps to order inventory when it receives information from P4 about items with low inventory. When the ordered merchandise arrives, it processes the necessary invoicing and paperwork, and passes information to P4 to adjust the inventory levels for the products received.
• P4 Manage Inventory. Inventory levels are adjusted in P1 each time a product is purchased or returned. This sub-process P4 allows store managers to monitor inventory and pass information to P4 to re-stock when inventories are low. It also receives information from P3 when the ordered merchandise arrives and make the necessary inventory adjustments. This sub-process also allows managers to add new products and remove others no longer carried at the store.
• P5 Business Analytics. This sub-process involves all the steps necessary to render business analytics and business intelligence report. This sub-process does not gather or generate analytic data. Ideally, all the necessary analytic data should be generated by P1 to P4. This sub-process is only responsible for enabling analytic calculations and reporting from the existing data already collected.

Business Process Details for P1

A baseline business process for P1 Store POS Transactions. He is looking for talented business analysts that can draw the detailed baseline BPM for P1 and provide recommendations for improvement, and has contracted your services to do that to evaluate your talents and decide whether to hire you to develop the rest of the BPM for this concept. He has provided the following description for P1:

• There are 3 functional bands: Customer, Sales Person and Store Manager
• There are 2 main phases, Pre-Sales and Sales
• The POS sub process P1 begins right after the Start, in the Pre-Sales phase. The Customer enters the store and goes either to buy shoes or return merchandise.
• In the Buy flow, the Customer first select shoes to try, then tries them on. If the shoes fit, the Customer then decides whether to try more shoes. If yes, the Customer goes back to try shoes. If not, the process enters the Sales phase and the Customer brings the shoes to the POS. If the shoes did not fit, then the Customer, still in the Pre-Sales phase, requests a different size. If the Sales Person finds a different size, the process goes back to the Customer to try the shoes. If the Sales Person does not find another size, the process goes back to the decision to try more shoes or not.
• As described above, the process enters the Sales phase when the Customer brings the shoes to the POS. After this, the Sales person then scans the Customers ECSS Membership card, if any. After that, the Sales Person initiates the sales transaction and then proceeds to scan the shoes. After each scan, the Sales Person retrieves and records the shoes price. If there are more shoe items to scan, the Sales Person scans the items. If there are no more items to scan, the Sales Person applies the appropriate membership discounts.
• After that, the Sales Person computes the sale total plus taxes.
• The Customer then decides whether to pay with a credit card, cash or check. For simplicity, treat cash or check as the same option. If the Customer decides to pay with cash or check, the Sales Person processes the cash/check transaction. If there is change to be provided, the Sales Person computes and tenders the change and then proceeds to complete the sale and print the receipt. If there is no change to be provided, then the process goes straight to complete the sale and print the receipt. After completing the sale and printing the receipt, the Customer exits the store and the process ends.
• If the Customer decides to pay by credit card, the Sales Person processes the credit card transaction. If approved, the POS transaction continues to complete the sales and print the receipt. If not, the Sales Person asks whether to cancel or continue with a different form of payment. If the Customer does not want to cancel the sale, the process loops back to the payment method decision. If the Customer wishes to cancel the sale, the process continues and the Customer exits the store and the process ends.
• In the Return flow, the process goes directly into the Sales phase. Store Manager asks the Customer if he/she paid by credit card, cash or check. If paid by cash or check, the Store Manager refunds the respective amount. If paid by credit card, the Store Manager reverses the charge. After the refund or charge reversal, the Store Manager adjusts the inventory to reflect the items returned.
• The Customer then exits the store and the process ends.

Questions

1. Prepare a business process model (BPM) that shows the baseline process (as-is) for P1 Store POS Transactions. Your model needs to contain all the details described in the application concept above. Please observe the following: (a) avoid line crossings if you cant uncross lines, use on-page reference symbols; (b) fit the diagram in one page it must be readable when printed and select the page orientation to match the layout of the diagram; (c) include all the necessary functional bands (i.e., swim lanes) and phases; (d) number all your process steps (e.g., P1.1, P1.2, etc.) and decision steps (e.g., D1.1, D1.2, etc) notice that we are using the number 1 as a prefix for all steps because this is the detail for sub-process P1; (e) use very short names for your decision and process steps so that your diagram is concise.

2. Provide a business process improvement recommendation, specifically associated with P1 above. First, state clearly your process improvement goal(s) (e.g., efficiency, customer satisfaction, service quality, improved personnel utilization, etc.). Then articulate your recommendation in one line. Note that this improvement will be evaluated based on whether you are addressing your stated goal. Then provide a short (6-8 lines) justification for your recommendation. Finally, provide a process diagram illustrating your target recommendation. Do NOT re-draw the entire diagram, but only the parts that your recommendation changes. Your recommendation MUST be a for a process improvement and NOT other general improvement recommendations. Do NOT recommend technology, surveys or process extensions. Your recommendation must be a pure process improvement.

1. Process improvement goal:

2. Recommendation:

3. Justification:

4. Target Diagram:

3. Provide a recommendation to improve the collection of process analytics data, specifically associated with your process improvement for P1 above. Do not diagram, but simply articulate your recommendation clearly and concisely, and then provide a brief rationale (6-8 lines). Your recommendation does not have to be comprehensive. On the contrary, it should be focused on a very specific aspect of the process. Your recommendation must be one that can be used to evaluate if your recommended process improvement is fulfilling the stated process goal. Caution:analytics recommendations often involve time stamps or use of classifiers. A solution recommending time stamps typically collected as part of the sale transaction is not a good solution. For example, time stamping the time and date of the sale is not a good recommendation because all sales have a time and date recorded.

1. Recommendation:

2. Rationale:

4. Provide a short recommendation for a process extension. While the idea is to improve P1 in general, any extension outside of P1 can be conceptualized to make P1 more efficient. So, you can make your recommendation in relation to any of the processes (P1 to P5) in the main diagram. This extension must relate to something that the current process does not handle, but that would be a great idea for improvement. DO NOT recommend simplistic technology or surveys, unless you explain how these will affect the process. Focus on extensions to the process per se. If you recommend an extension to processes other than P1, you will have fewer details to work with, but this will also give you plenty of room for creative solutions. The best recommendations will be ones that dont happen in P1, but actually support P1 in some way. Simply, provide your recommendation and a brief (6-8 lines) rationale for your recommendation. Please comment on how your improvement supports P1. To earn credit in this question, your recommendation cannot be a general improvement recommendation, but an actual process extension. Do not diagram your recommendation, but clearly specify the process and decision steps involved.

1. Recommendation:

2. Rationale: