BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS APPARATUS

Abstract

A business process analysis apparatus that can predict an activity improvement effect with a certain accuracy and can preferentially apply improvements to activities having higher predicted improvement effect values among the individual activities forming the entire business process. The business process analysis apparatus has an activity database in which at least an activity quantity, an output type, and an output quantity are stored by being associated with one another for each of the activities forming the business process, and performs a process including: selecting an activity belonging to the business process under analysis as an analysis target activity; acquiring the activity quantity, output type, and output quantity of the analysis target activity; retrieving any activity having the same output type as the output type of the analysis target activity; obtaining activity efficiency based on the activity quantity and output quantity of the retrieved activity; determining reference efficiency based on at least one activity efficiency thus obtained; and computing activity improvement effect by calculating a difference between the activity quantity of the analysis target activity and the activity quantity that would be required if the analysis target activity were performed with the reference efficiency. The above process is performed on every analysis target activity.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one example of an activity flow;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing another example of the activity flow;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of one embodiment of a business process analysis apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for an activity improvement prediction routine;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an activity database;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display presenting the results of activity improvement prediction;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for a business process improvement prediction routine;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of an activity database;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an activity flow in a business process;

FIG. 10A is a diagram showing the initial results of activity improvement prediction, and FIG. 10B is a diagram showing the times initially required along activity paths;

FIG. 11A is a diagram showing the results of activity improvement prediction after a first activity improvement, and FIG. 11B is a diagram showing the times required along the respective activity paths after the first activity improvement;

FIG. 12A is a diagram showing the results of activity improvement prediction after a second activity improvement, and FIG. 12B is a diagram showing the times required along the respective activity paths after the second activity improvement;

FIG. 13A is a diagram showing the results of activity improvement prediction after a third activity improvement, and FIG. 13B is a diagram showing the times required along the respective activity paths after the third activity improvement;

FIG. 14A is a diagram showing the results of activity improvement prediction after a fourth activity improvement, and FIG. 14B is a diagram showing the times required along the respective activity paths after the fourth activity improvement; and

FIGS. 15A and 15B are diagrams showing an example of a display presenting the results of business process improvement prediction.

Claims

1. A business process analysis apparatus comprising: an activity database in which at least activity quantity, output type, and output quantity are stored by being associated with one another for each of a plurality of activities forming a business process;a target activity selecting unit for selecting an activity belonging to the business process under analysis as an analysis target activity from within the activity database;a target activity information acquiring unit for acquiring the activity quantity, output type, and output quantity of the analysis target activity;a reference efficiency determining unit for retrieving from the activity database any activity having the same output type as the output type of the analysis target activity, obtaining activity efficiency based on the activity quantity and output quantity of the retrieved activity, and determining reference efficiency based on at least one activity efficiency thus obtained;an activity improvement effect computing unit for computing activity improvement effect by calculating a difference between the activity quantity of the analysis target activity and the activity quantity that would be required if the analysis target activity were performed with the reference efficiency; anda unit for causing the target activity information acquiring unit, the reference efficiency determining unit, and the activity improvement effect computing unit to perform processing on every analysis target activity selected by the target activity selecting unit.

2. A business process analysis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reference efficiency determining unit determines a maximum value of the at least one activity efficiency as the reference efficiency.

3. A business process analysis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reference efficiency determining unit determines an average value of the at least one activity efficiency as the reference efficiency.

4. A business process analysis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the activity database stores the plurality of activities forming the business process by associating each activity with one another, and the system further comprises: a critical path detecting unit for detecting a critical path in the business process under analysis;an activity improving unit for reflecting the activity improvement effect in the activity quantity of the activity that yields the greatest activity improvement effect of all the activities belonging to the critical path; anda business process improvement effect computing unit for computing business process improvement effect by causing the critical path detecting unit and the activity improving unit to perform processing until the activity improvement effect becomes zero for all the activities belonging to the critical path.

5. A business process analysis method comprising: constructing an activity database in which at least activity quantity, output type, and output quantity are stored by being associated with one another for each of a plurality of activities forming a business process;selecting an activity belonging to the business process under analysis as an analysis target activity from within the activity database;acquiring, as target activity information, the activity quantity, output type, and output quantity of the analysis target activity;determining a reference efficiency by retrieving from the activity database any activity having the same output type as the output type of the analysis target activity, obtaining activity efficiency based on the activity quantity and output quantity of the retrieved activity, and determining the reference efficiency based on at least one activity efficiency thus obtained;computing activity improvement effect by calculating a difference between the activity quantity of the analysis target activity and the activity quantity that would be required if the analysis target activity were performed with the reference efficiency; andcausing the target activity information acquiring process, the reference efficiency determining process, and the activity improvement effect computing process to be carried out on every analysis target activity selected in the target activity selecting process.

6. A business process analysis method according to claim 5, wherein the reference efficiency determining process determines a maximum value of the at least one activity efficiency as the reference efficiency.

7. A business process analysis method according to claim 5, wherein the reference efficiency determining process determines an average value of the at least one activity efficiency as the reference efficiency.

8. A business process analysis method according to claim 5, wherein the activity database constructing process constructs the activity database so that the plurality of activities forming the business process are stored by being associated with one another, and the method further comprises: detecting a critical path in the business process under analysis;improving an activity by reflecting the activity improvement effect in the activity quantity of the activity that yields the greatest activity improvement effect of all the activities belonging to the critical path; andcomputing a business process improvement effect by causing the critical path detecting process and the activity improving process to be carried out repeatedly until the activity improvement effect becomes zero for all the activities belonging to the critical path.

9. For use with a business process analysis system which analyzes a business process based on an activity database in which at least activity quantity, output type, and output quantity are stored by being associated with one another for each of a plurality of activities forming the business process, a storage medium storing a business process analysis program for causing the business process analysis system to implement the functions of; a target activity selecting unit for selecting an activity belonging to the business process under analysis as an analysis target activity from within the activity database;a target activity information acquiring unit for acquiring the activity quantity, output type, and output quantity of the analysis target activity;a reference efficiency determining unit for retrieving from the activity database any activity having the same output type as the output type of the analysis target activity, obtaining activity efficiency based on the activity quantity and output quantity of the retrieved activity, and determining reference efficiency based on at least one activity efficiency thus obtained;an activity improvement effect computing unit for computing activity improvement effect by calculating a difference between the activity quantity of the analysis target activity and the activity quantity that would be required if the analysis target activity were performed with the reference efficiency; anda unit for causing the target activity information acquiring unit, the reference efficiency determining unit, and the activity improvement effect computing unit to perform processing on every analysis target activity selected by the target activity selecting unit.

10. A storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the reference efficiency determining unit determines a maximum value of the at least one activity efficiency as the reference efficiency.

11. A storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the reference efficiency determining unit determines an average value of the at least one activity efficiency as the reference efficiency.

12. A storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the activity database stores the plurality of activities forming the business process by associating each activity with one another, and the business process analysis program causes the business process analysis system to further implement the functions of: a critical path detecting unit for detecting a critical path in the business process under analysis;an activity improving unit for reflecting the activity improvement effect in the activity quantity of the activity that yields the greatest activity improvement effect of all the activities belonging to the critical path; anda business process improvement effect computing unit for computing business process improvement effect by causing the critical path detecting unit and the activity improving unit to perform processing until the activity improvement effect becomes zero for all the activities belonging to the critical path.