Minimizing overprocessing waste in business processes via predictive activity ordering

Abstract

Overprocessing waste occurs in a business process when effort is spent in a way that does not add value to the customer nor to the business. Previous studies have identified a recurrent overprocessing pattern in business processes with so-called “knockout checks”, meaning activities that classify a case into “accepted” or “rejected”, such that if the case is accepted it proceeds forward, while if rejected, it is cancelled and all work performed in the case is considered unnecessary. Thus, when a knockout check rejects a case, the effort spent in other (previous) checks becomes overprocessing waste. Traditional process redesign methods propose to order knockout checks according to their mean ..