Determine your process costs and times

Compared to actual processes (as-is), target processes (to-be) are usually expected to bring about improvements in terms of cost and time. For example, an improved process should cost less and its execution should be faster.

Improvement potential can be identified using the "Analyze times/costs" standard report included in ARIS. This report enables you to compare planned improvements with the given times and costs of the current business reality. For this purpose, specific information has to be specified in the process model, such as the duration of a process step, for example. The analysis can be performed for a single process or for multiple processes. This way you can easily determine which of the relevant process steps generate high costs or require long processing times (also including wait times).

Time attributes

• Min. processing time, Avg. processing time, Max. processing time
  
  These attributes specify the duration of time that may elapse between start time and end time of a task.
• Min. orientation time, Avg. orientation time, Max. orientation time
  
  These attributes specify the orientation times required for a function or resource based on the last simulation run.
• Min. wait time, Avg. wait time, Max. wait time
  
  These attributes specify the wait time accrued for process folders at a rule.
• Frequency, daily / Frequency, weekly / Frequency, monthly / Frequency, annually
  
  These attributes determine the equally distributed frequency/quantity with which an object is activated or occurs within a specific period of time (day, week, month, year) in the process in question. This event attribute is evaluated by the simulation.

The total time for carrying out a function one time should sum up the processing time and the orientation time, excluding the wait time. The time per day is calculated based on the time, frequency, and weighting factor of the organizational unit.

Cost attributes

• Min. total costs, Avg. total costs, Max. total costs
  
  Attribute types for recording costs incurred by the object under consideration.
• Min. material costs, Avg. material costs, Max. material costs
  
  Attribute types for recording costs that are directly associated with the processing and use of materials within the company.
• Min. personnel costs, Avg. personnel costs, Max. personnel costs
  
  Attribute types for recording costs incurred by human resource management.
• Min. energy costs, Avg. energy costs, Max. energy costs                     
  
  Attribute types for recording costs that are directly associated with energy usage.
• Min. operating supplies costs, Avg. operating supplies costs, Max. operating supplies costs
  
  Attribute types for recording costs that are directly associated with operating supplies.
• Min. various overhead costs, Avg. various overhead costs, Max. various overhead costs
  
  Attribute types for recording costs that cannot be clearly allocated to a cost area.
• Min. costs for depreciation/repair/maintenance, Avg. costs for depreciation/repair/maintenance, Max. costs for depreciation/repair/maintenance
  
  Attribute types for recording costs that are directly associated with depreciation and maintenance.
• Min. imputed interest, Avg. imputed interest, Max. imputed interest
  
  Attribute types for recording costs that are estimated to be the internal interest for an object.
• Min. other costs, Avg. other costs, Max. other costs
  
  Attribute types for recording costs that cannot clearly be allocated to a cost area in the Costs attribute type group.

The total costs for carrying out a function one time should sum up all costs. The costs per day are calculated based on costs and frequency.

How to start the report

The "Analyze times/costs" report provided by ARIS can be run for the following model types:

• EPC
• Industrial process
• Office process
• UML Activity diagram
• PCD
• VACD

Report dialog

After the report was started, a dialog opens providing various evaluation options. You can choose to analyze either times or costs, and you can define the output of the values (minimum, average, or maximum value).

Example of cost evaluation

Lists all functions of a process and outputs the attribute values for the costs.

The output shows the costs for functions that are carried out once and the costs for individual functions per day.

The function costs per day are calculated based on the frequency you specify (e.g. number of function executions per day).

Example of time evaluation

Lists all functions of a process and outputs the attribute values for the times.

You can select different time units for the calculation:

The Excel sheet will provide the following output:

The output shows the times for functions that are carried out once and the times required by the relevant functions per day.

The times required per day are calculated based on the frequency you specify (e.g. number of function executions per day).

Due to the "Analyze times/costs" report you will gain an overview of process steps that involve high costs and take a great amount of time.

Optimization potential can be determined in greater detail using ARIS Business Optimizer. You can also use this product for the measurement of improvement results during and after the implementation process. I will provide further information on ARIS Business Optimizer in a future article.