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Module 3 Milestone Assignment
Module 3 Milestone Assignment
TITLE: OPM 6090 TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: Approval Date: Manager Approval: Emmanuel Dotong
MODULE 3: BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS
BACKGROUND
Ark Pharma Group is a pharmaceutical company that provides medical
products to the end-users through middlemen called Distributors.
Distributors are expected to raise an LPO which is sent by the company’s
medical representative (Med. Rep) to the company’s Sales administrator
for invoicing. From when the order is generated to when it is invoiced and
sent to Supply chain, it takes an average of 2 – 8 hours to treat an invoice,
thanks to the processes and paper trail.
ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS (5 WHYS) 3 Possible network Nothing can be done as regards
downtime: The event this
when there's a general
Why? The LPO-invoice process is inefficient and costing the company network downtime with
more network providers
responsible.
Why? Raising an invoice takes an average of 2-8 hours
Why? Sales admin can't raise the order without necessary sign offs
Why? LPOs must first be printed and signed
Why? Stated process to send an LPO and raise the corresponding order are
more manual than digital (Root cause).
TITLE: OPM 6090 TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT:
MODULE 3: BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS
The process of sending an order and raising an invoice in the company requires a chain of
processes that is time-consuming, cumbersome with a lot of paper trail, The company, Ark
Pharma Group, have employees called Medical Representatives (Med. Reps) who are
stationed in various states called Stations. The primary assignment of these Med. Reps
Sending an LPO is the first step in having an invoice raised for a customer. LPO is an official
document from a customer requesting that the customer delivers to them products in
quantities stated in the document. The Med. Reps are first required to go to the customer who
writes the LPO on a letter-headed document and signs it. The Med. Reps then snaps the
document and sends it via email to the sales administrator. The sales administrator prints the
document and takes it to the General manager who vets the LPO before clearing it for
invoicing with a signature. This document is then taken to the Commercial director for
vetting who also has to sign off before it is invoiced. In the event if any of these two required
signatories are not available, the LPO will be suspended till they are available to sign off. The
sales administrator can now raise the LPO. The invoice is printed and sent to Finance
department for vetting and sign off before it is sent to the Supply chain department.
Treating individual invoices like this takes an average of 2-8 hours before an invoice is sent
to Supply chain. In the absence of top management including general manager and
commercial director (due to a possible emergency), invoices might not be raised and there
will be increased downtime. Another concern is the paper trail. An average order-invoice
uses at least three papers, with 66% coming from the company. This might seem negligible,
but when you multiply this by an average of four orders from at least a thousand customers
every month, then it might not be a good look, including papers used for essentials, for a
The app will totally affect the whole process but majorly, how the LPO is sent by the
customer, how the required signatories are gotten, how invoices move to the last end and how
The customer will fill the order on the app, and click 'Send'. The order will be received by the
Sales administrator who will patch it through to the General manager (G.M) and the
Commercial director (C.D). The General manager and the Commercial director will digitally
sign off, The order will be raised by the sales admin via the app and invoice automatically
sent to Supply chain while Finance department will download necessary information from the
backend.
This will lead to an LPO-invoice process that involves zero paper trail and reduces the overall
With the app, timeframe to treat individual invoices drops by 50-92% (approximately 1-
2hours) as the whole process is online and signing can be done simultaneously. Factor in the
time it takes to print and walk to the offices where the documents will be signed, then the app
saves the employee more time, taking downtime to the barest minimum and boosts
cost/manpower-efficiency.
A reduction in timeframe for treating orders will mean that supplies will be sped up and
customers will find that more satisfying which is a good impression for the company's
business.