These approaches have aimed to enhance business practices, advancing over the years, as more is understood about what works best. The changes to approach have been labelled and relabelled throughout but the fundamental inclination has always been to reinvent how managers and employees perceive business organization and to keep informed of the best and latest practices in business processes.
In order to understand the business process methodology used today, it is important to have a comprehensive knowledge of when and how it all started and how it has progressed along the way. This awareness also enables the business entrepreneur to create a clear perception of the best way forward for success in the competitive corporate world (Ting-Yi-Ho et al, 2009)1.
The very beginning of the concept of business processes
In the mid-1700s, Scottish economist, Adam Smith, realized just how interesting processes could be and, if effective, how they could increase productivity. His famed example of the manufacture of a pin was one of the first noted processes. He wrote: ”One man draws out the wire; another straights it; a third cuts it; a fourth points it; a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business; to whiten the pins is another … and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which, in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them.” (As cited in Checkify, 2022)2.
So began the action of distributing a production process into separate tasks where each is performed by specialised workers. It was thus realized that output could be increased by simple labour division. By trying out different approaches, knowledge of the skills needed for each part of the process became more apparent. During the initial trial of the division of labour, it was recorded that productivity had increased by 24,000%; to clarify, 240 times more pins were made than before labour division (Checkify, 2022)2.
This initial idea on how to improve the output of business processes focussed on breaking down a large job or project into small parts. Each part was taken on by workers who then became experts in that area of production. This increased the success of the process through working with more efficient labourers and avoiding having to move employees around; thus, saving time and money all round. The concept of the division of labour also set out to assign employees to tasks they were best suited to. Undoubtedly, the division of labour played a large part in economic growth, both of businesses and the country, according to Smith (Dhamee, Y. (1996)3.
It is apparent that this initial idea of how to increase the monetary value of a business through dividing a process has expanded and developed into the efficient business processes of today. Throughout the ages, more has been learnt and understood to allow for constant improvement. However, it should not be forgotten where, when and with whom it all started.
Progress in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century
The British library names Frederick Winslow Taylor as the father of scientific management. Relevant to the creation of business processes, he was said to be, “the first man in recorded history who deemed work deserving of systematic observation and study” (Drucker, 1973)4. The principles of Taylor’s Scientific Management which were established in the late 1800s remained useful and popular until the 1980s when they merged somewhat with the theory of Total Quality Management (TQM) (Lizano-Mora et al, 2021)5.
In 1911, quality control and process improvement in the business circle of the United States found its beginnings in Taylor’s publication: ‘Principles of Scientific Management’. In his book, Taylor explained his belief that there were crucial concepts that effective managers could use to improve their businesses. These key ideas comprised the following: Work should be simplified, required time should be studied and adhered to and new approaches should be methodically tested. These actions were to ensure that the best methods to complete a task were used and that control procedures were measured adequately. They also allowed for successful output to be rewarded appropriately.
Taylor’s publication reached its peak in popularity in the early 1900s when managers, globally, credited the book behind Henry Ford’s achievement. When Ford started the Ford Motor Company in 1903, he utilized similar approaches to those laid out in the book. Firstly, he organized a moving assembly line with workmen assembling specific parts of the car along the line. Thus, Ford developed the construction of the car as a single process. Further, each activity in the process was designed to run effortlessly and effectively. Consequently, Ford was able to significantly reduce time and cost of producing the car, making the vehicle affordable to many Americans and allowing his workers a higher pay.
The early twentieth century saw many engineers the world over endeavouring to apply Taylor’s ideas. This meant evaluating processes and measuring and employing careful checks whenever possible. Subsequently, Scientific Management and the practices it involved brought about the Work Simplification movement which later became known as the Quality Control movement or (TQM) (Harmon, P., 2010)6.