User:Aanonsona/Operational Manager

Operational Manager: Within Business process management or Business Process Improvement, there are four roles within a business management system: Business Leader, Process Owner, Operational Manager, and Process Operator. The responsibilities of the Operational Manager should not be confused with the responsibilities of the Business Leader, Process Owner, or the Process Operator. Some employees in an organization may perform as many as all four of these roles over the course of a day, week, month, or year.

The Operational Manager is responsible to bring the resources and processes together to achieve the objectives of the business plans that are created by the Business Leaders.

The responsibilities of the Operational Manager follow the Plan, Do, Check, Act PDCA Cycle.

Plan: The Operational Managers - in collaboration with each Process Operator, create Process Operator performance objectives for the employees they supervise. The Operational Manager needs to understand the performance requirements of the process. They match employees (Process Operators) with the competency and skill requirements of the process to be performed. They ensure that the Process Operators have the budget, facilities, and technology available to them that is necessary to achieve the performance objectives of the processes.

DO: The Operational Manager is responsible to teach Process Operators how to perform the processes (work). Process Operator instruction usually consists of classroom and on-the-job training (OJT). The Operational Manager oversees the work and ensures Process Operators receive ongoing informal feedback as to their performance. As the Process Operators perform the processes, the Operational Managers are responsible to build bridges and remove barriers that will allow the process and Process Operator performance objectives to be met. Process and Process Operator performance metric data is produced and collected as the process is performed. The Operational Manager ensures that Process Operators are using Kaizen to continually improve the process as they are performing the work.

Check: The Key performance indicators (KPI’s) are periodically analyzed during the production cycle by the Operational Manager to evaluate the work group’s ability to achieve the process and Process Operator performance objectives. This data used to visualize the process and Process Operator capability to meet business plan objectives over time (performance trends), compare actual performance against performance targets, and identify performance issues. They review this performance data and sort out Process Operator performance issues from process performance issues. Many organizations use a War Room concept to post performance data. Within the War Room, the Operational Manager conducts periodic review and analysis of this performance data. Act: The Operational Manager is responsible to create improvement actions to address the performance issues that are identified during their analysis of the process and Process Operator performance data. They address Process Operator performance with ongoing feedback to the Process Operator and/or by using an employee performance management review process. They communicate process performance issues to the Process Operator(s) and the Process Owner.