Business Systems - Inputs, Process and Outputs
Inputs
Business system inputs involve ideas, time, funding materials, equipment, rules,
data and information, concepts, beliefs and values
(physical, human and conceptual). These contribute to the structuring of the business and
are involved in movements across the business's
boundary. Arrangements (people, structures and processes)
must be created to receive and deal with such inputs, determining which are important
and how they should be handled. Thus we can consider
how "the receivers" regard such inputs, their urgency and significance.
The inputs can be represented by:
- entrepreneurial ideas and decisions
- finance
- market and customer information
- available technology (tools, machines, methods, forms of automation) to use
- social and cultural values and attitudes
- staff abilities and expectations
- events from another system which the business must receive and respond to
e.g. a budget statement, government pressure, a coup in a client country
Processes
Processes are system arrangements and mechanisms - human and technical - which
are designed and implemented to organise and realise the business's purposes
These may be
- functional
- transformational
- information-based,
- social and political
- regulative and control-oriented.
Inputs - materials, specifications, energy and investments are processed (transformed) to
produce outputs - goods (semi-finished and finished), services - results which others within the system or
external to the system want and value. Ideas are transformed. Information is transformed. Thus we may seek to study the decision-making and creative processes of an organisation or how even an item of data is up-dated or data aggregated into a report or graph that provides useful information.
Outputs
System outputs result from the internal operational and transformational
processes of the organisation. Something is done by tthe system to the inputs.
The basics of a kitchen, bread, butter, cheese, a chopping board, knife, a modicum of skill
and wrapping materials and a fancy brand name
become a premium sandwich. This sells at £1.60 and cost 55p to produce.
The outputs may be
- physical (goods and services) or
- conceptual (ideas, influences, information-based outputs)
Imagine that outputs flow from the business into the external
environment where they are received by "stakeholders". In
addition when we consider the sub-systems of the business's
internal environment, the outputs from one sub-system e.g.
production become the inputs to another e.g. sales.
In a public sector organisation - the outputs are socially
and politically and socially defined. Yet value for money, cost efficiency
and service delivery ratios are also used for performance measurement, evaluation and resource allocation.
We can look at responsiveness to problems and the success of policies and
practices which "the public" (if identifable) find acceptable and
worth paying for. Such outputs relate to social and community
benefits and may be at odds with economic criteria.
- Community services may be sufficient
but at what cost?
- Is cost an appropriate criteria?
- What are the dominant prevailing political values?
- Who makes the decision?
- Qui bono?
© 2002. BOLA is developed and maintained by C. Jarvis