BYU Student Author: @Jimmy_Han
Reviewers: @Benjamin_Lau, @Dallin_Gardner
Estimated Time to Solve: 30 Minutes
We provide the solution to this challenge using:
- Celonis
Overview
As a fresh recruit specializing in process analysis at a firm that consults on internal audits, your initial task involves examining the workings of Cougar Hamburger Restaurant to enhance its efficiency. Cougar Hamburger is open to suggestions for refining any aspect of its operational process. You plan to scrutinize the differences between the restaurant’s established procedures and the actual practices in its day-to-day operations. Your aim is to identify significant discrepancies and delve into them to understand the underlying reasons. After analyzing these variations and understanding their impact, you’ll provide Cougar Hamburger with advice on smoothing out any operational hiccups or inefficiencies you discover.
Instructions
- Sign up for the Celonis website.
a. You need a Celonis Academic Alliance account to access Celonis Studio. Sign up for free here. Once you sign in, you will see the screen below. Click on “[Your Name]’s Academic Alliance” to access your Studio.
- Sign in to Celonis Academic Alliance and import the “Data File” included in this challenge.
a. You will land on the “Configure” screen first. Since the data is already tidy, just hit “Next”.
b. Next, you’ll get to the “Map your data” page. This step is to check that your data file’s columns match what we need for the analysis. Select the columns in the following order: CASE IDENTIFIER, ACTIVITY, AND TIMESTAMP. Click Next. - Upload Process Model to Celonis. (if you are not familiar with a Process Model, please refer to Hint 1)
a. Find the Studio in the left sidebar.
b. Click on “Create Package” at the top of the menu.
c. When it asks for a Package name, type “Hamburger” and create.
d. Look for the Choose data model option, pick [Quickstarts] CSV/XLSX (this is how the file you uploaded is labeled). Hit Next. Change the “Key” name to “Hamburger,” and save it.
e. Now, hit Create Analysis, enter “Hamburger analysis” for the name, and select the “Hamburger” data model variable. Click Create.
f. Now, you must have landed on the new sheet selection screen within the analysis page. Click on Conformance.
g. Under “Upload process model”, select BPMN file included in this challenge. - Add normal activities to the allowlist. (if you are not familiar with the concept of allowlist of Celonis, please refer to Hint 2)
a. On the left pane of your screen, switch “Edit process model” to “Overview”.
b. If you scroll down the page slightly to find a section titled Violations.
c. Look at the violation percentage for each listed violation. For all material violations (those with a percentage of 15% or higher), add the activities that are considered normal to the allowlist. - Answer the following questions.
a. How many material (with violation rate over 15%) undesired activities are left after you added normal activities to the allowlist?
b. Dig into an undesired activity “Call Customers”. Which month had the highest cases of violation to the process?
c. If you had an employee’s name associated with each event log, how would you improve the process? In other words, if you knew which employee was making a high volume of calls to customers, what steps would you take? This is an open-ended question.
Data Files
Suggestions and Hints
- A process model maps out a standardized business process step-by-step using specific symbols to make it clear and understandable. Uploading it to Celonis allows the tool to compare this ideal process map with real activity data from the business. This comparison helps Celonis identify deviations from the pre-designed business process, offering insights and solutions to improve efficiency by showing where the actual process deviates from the planned one.
- Expanding the allowlist means that we’re treating certain activities as normal, even if they weren’t originally part of the business process plan. For example, in the process model provided for this challenge, activities like ordering from a website or at the counter might not be explicitly included. However, based on our judgment, we understand that these actions aren’t necessarily undesirable because customers should have the flexibility to order food through any channel they prefer. So, if upon reviewing an activity, it seems like it doesn’t require further scrutiny, we should add it to the allowlist. This way, we ensure that only genuinely relevant issues grab our attention. To add an activity to the allowlist, simply click on the violation and then select ‘Add to allowlist.’ Just for your information, the activity ‘Start Preparing Hamburger executed as START activity’ needs to be added to the allowlist.
Solution
a. Calling the Customer and Making Hamburger Ready is Followed by Start Preparing Hamburger are the two activities we’d rather not have; everything else appears typical but isn’t included in our process model. Thus, the answer is two.
b.
c. If we can identify the employee who has the highest number of callbacks to customers, we can provide additional training or collaborate with them on strategies to enhance order accuracy.
Solution Video: Challenge 186|CELONIS – Cougar Hamburger Process Precision