A business improvement process needs the collaboration of many kinds of roles to find success. What’s more, each role has its own set of necessary skills and duties to be performed at various stages of the project. Out of all of these, one of the most important is that of the process owner. In fact, without a proper process owner, business processes fail to come to fruition and can waste great business potential.
But who exactly is a process owner? At what stage of a project do you need them? In what ways are they involved in a business improvement endeavor? And which kind of person is qualified to handle the job? These questions need to be answered before launching any business initiative, whether it’s a Six Sigma process optimization or a business process management project.
Who is a Process Owner?
Before digging into the specifics of a process owner’s role, it’s important to define the role itself. A process owner is responsible for the overall process of a business improvement project. They ensure the process is properly managed and operated and that it interacts well with touchpoints in other processes. In addition, process owners craft key performance indicators (KPIs) that help them measure the success of the project as it evolves. As a result, they are given an authoritative position and expected to be highly knowledgeable about the departments in their company.
What Are a Process Owner’s Responsibilities?
You’ve got a big picture idea of a process owner — now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. The responsibilities of a process owner are wide and can change by project. However, there are a few key duties that every process owner must accomplish:
- Define: Must be able to define the project’s goals, purpose, and KPIs.
- Communicate: Must communicate with all key players, including project leaders and process users.
- Lead: Maintain managerial standing and make decisions to ensure continued success.
- Analyze: Analyze the process, identify risks or problems, and provide solutions.
- Describe: Explain interactions with other processes and their effects.
- Train: Facilitate training and provide feedback when needed.
- Oversee: Make sure operations run smoothly and achieve all objectives.
What Characteristics Does a Process Owner Need?
As process owners have many responsibilities, there are certain characteristics that are essential to success. Common characteristics include being:
- Perceptive: A process owner should be able to see the big picture while keeping an eye on the little details of the operation. They often notice what others may miss and are sensitive to any subtle changes that could affect the process.
- Leadership-oriented: Process owners are leaders from the get-go. They motivate all members of the team to achieve their goals throughout the entire process.
- Knowledgeable: Business improvement projects can involve a lot of moving parts and levels of complex information. Process owners must be experts in the process they’re involved with and have the proper knowledge of team member, customer and supplier needs, resources and requirements.
- Adaptable: Processes are prone to change. Process owners live for this change, able to adapt at any moment and make decisions that benefit the process. If negative changes pop up, process owners factor in potential losses and address them to relevant stakeholders.
- Driven: Above all, process owners are driven to succeed, no matter what challenges they may face along the way.
When Should You Include a Process Owner?
When does project failure often occur? When process owners are not involved with the project from the very beginning. Launching a complex improvement initiative without a designated process owner in place tends to lead to many roadblocks to success. After all, there’s not someone there to oversee operations and ensure they go without a hitch. When problems inevitably pop up, other team members will likely be too busy to deal with them, leading to a stall in processes. The entire process could end up being delayed or even dropped completely.
As such, it’s best to get someone assigned to the process owner as one of the very first steps in the process.
What Is the Role of a Process Owner in Six Sigma?
Defects in a Six Sigma project revolve around products and services provided for consumers. The aim of Six Sigma is to reduce defects to 3.4 per million opportunities. Doing so takes a large amount of data collection and analysis, as well as designing tools and methodologies to provide predictable, successful results down the road.
Process owners often use a specific model to accomplish their tasks in a Six Sigma project. It’s referred to as the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model. It looks like this:
- Plan: Identify the issue or defect and plan how to fix it or bring a change. This is also when KPIs are determined.
- Do: Implement the initiatives set out from the planning stage. Often, small-scale changes are first made to avoid the possibility of production disruption to the company. Also, communication should be constant with all key project members.
- Check: Analyze the results from the initial changes. If things go well, they continue the changes. If not, it’s time for them to make guided decisions based on the information and data gathered so far to find better solutions. Leadership will be vital here.
- Act: At this stage, bigger action is taken, with changes made to bigger-scale production or projects. Things don’t end here, though. The PDCA is ever evolving as things shift and change over time.
Not all process owners use this exact model, though they may use some similar variation.
The Importance of the Process Owner
Business improvement initiatives can struggle to find full success without a designated process owner. There are so many considerations to make, particularly with Six Sigma methodology, that you need someone who can constantly monitor operations. An authoritative process owner can use their expertise to make the right calls at the right time and lead to better business success overall.
