Most businesses, government, or even nonprofit organizations have business processes. Generally, processes are documented. Most organizations also have performance measurements. But step back for a moment and ask two fundamental but strategic questions: “What business processes do we need in the first place?” and “What should we measure?” This article is about finding the answers to these questions with the help of what I call “strategic COPIS.” The information is based on my experience of applying strategic COPIS (customer, output, process, input, supplier) in a large group of businesses. The concept has been implemented at eight large businesses—each very different from each other—throughout a five-year period.

SIPOC and COPIS

SIPOC (supplier, input, process, output, customer) is fairly common among business process experts as a logical way of looking at a process as a series of steps that convert an input (e.g., steel) into an output (e.g., a car). Inputs come from suppliers, and the outputs go to customers.

The opposite idea of COPIS has also been around for some time.

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