FAQ Categories

FAQ4

How come there are only 4 processes in your system model but there are 12 in the AQPC Framework?

The American Quality and Productivity Centre (AQPC) revised their Process Classification framework in 2006 with 12 main processes to encourage organizations to see their activities from a cross-industry process viewpoint instead of from a narrow functional viewpoint. If we take the AQPC processes and ask the following question we can reduce the number of processes to 4 as illustrated in the table below.

What contribution do these activity groups make to the business?

AQPC #	Process Classification Framework (Main classifications)	Contribution	Business Process
1	Develop vision and strategy	These set the goals and enable us to achieve them	Mission Management
12	Manage knowledge, improvement and change
10	Manage environmental health and safety
11	Manage external relationships
2	Design and develop products and services	These create a demand	Demand Creation
3	Market and sell products and services	These create a demand	Demand Creation
4	Deliver products and services	These fulfil a demand	Demand Fulfilment
5	Manage customer service	These fulfil a demand	Demand Fulfilment
6	Develop and manage human capital	These provide capable resources	Resource Management
7	Manage information technology
8	Manage financial resources
9	Acquire, construct and manage property

This is the approach taken by Peter Drucker in the Practice of Management in which he wrote, "a business function is a collection of activities that make a common and unique contribution to the purpose and mission of the business." Drucker used the term function and not process but he was not referring to departments. As we derive business processes from the mission we can draw the conclusion that business function in Drucker's day = business process in today's parlance.

For more information see Quality Management Essentials