Media breaks and forms in office processes

A media break is a point where information has to change its carrier: a paper invoice is typed into the ERP system, an email is copied into a spreadsheet, a phone call ends up as a note that someone keys in later. Each break costs time, invites typing errors and usually creates a queue. Counting them per case and recording which forms and documents travel with the work shows where digitalisation actually pays off.

What counts as a media break

German practice has a precise word for it, Medienbruch. English speakers say system break, manual re-keying or swivel-chair work; the meaning is the same: the data cannot flow on by itself, a person has to carry it across.

The app applies a fixed rule so that the number is comparable between processes. A transition from one task to the next is a media break if one of these holds:

• Both tasks work in an IT system, but in different ones, for example a document management system and the ERP system.
• Exactly one of the two tasks uses an IT system and the other is done by hand without a system, for example signing a printout after an ERP check.
• The handoff medium is paper, verbal, phone or meeting, and at least one of the two tasks works in a system. Whatever was written down has to be keyed in again.

Media breaks per case

Not every case passes every transition. The app therefore weights each break with the number of times the transition is used per case, in the same way as times and costs (see branches and loops).

In the worked example “Invoice check”, all tasks run in the ERP system except the approval by division management, which is done without a system. 30% of the invoices need that approval. The way to the approval is a break and the way back to posting is another, so the process has 0.3 + 0.3 = 0.6 media breaks per case. The rework loop to the supplier runs by email between two ERP steps of the same system and is therefore not a break.

Forms and documents on the task

Textbooks on current-state analysis ask for the forms, lists and records that a process uses, and practice often leaves them out because the diagram has no place for them. In the app every task can carry forms and documents (field “Forms and documents”). In the diagram they appear as BPMN data objects next to the task.

Each form or document has a name, a kind (form, document, list, decision template, email, record, other), a medium (paper, digital, system) and a direction: it is needed, it is created, or both. A link to the template or storage location can be added.

• A paper form that is filled in by hand and then keyed in is almost always the cause of a media break.
• A digital document such as a PDF is better, but someone still reads it and types its content.
• A record in a system (medium “system”) is the case without a break, as long as the next step uses the same system.

Example: incoming invoices

The template “Incoming invoice processing” shows the typical pattern. A paper invoice arrives in the mailroom and is opened and stamped by hand, then scanned into the DMS. Accounts payable enters it in the ERP system and checks it formally against the scan. The requesting department checks the content and assigns the account by email; above €5,000 division management approves, also by email. Accounts payable posts the invoice in the ERP system, creates a payment proposal and files the paper voucher.

Along this path the medium changes several times: paper to DMS, DMS to ERP, ERP to email and back, ERP to a paper file. Each change is a place where an invoice can wait or be misread. In total the template has 5.18 media breaks per case and 3.55 handoffs between lanes; 3.18 of the media breaks occur at handoffs, the other two within one lane: from stamping without a system to scanning into the DMS in the mailroom, and from posting in the ERP system to filing on paper in accounts payable. That is why there can be more media breaks than handoffs. The template also contains problems and measures, for example moving suppliers to electronic invoices, so that you can see how removing the paper step changes the count.

Double data entry and the forms check

A special case of the media break is entering the same data twice, for example customer data in the CRM system and again in the ERP system. In the model this shows as a transition between two different systems. Ask in the interview: “Where does this information come from, and where else is it typed in?”

The app also helps against a gap in the model itself. If the name of a task mentions a form, document, application or certificate, but the task has no form or document attached, the checks give a hint. The rule looks at words that begin or end with these terms, so “Fill in travel form” or “Check application” trigger it.

What to do with the result

A high number of media breaks per case is not a goal in itself to bring to zero. Some breaks are cheap and rare. Look at them together with frequency and time: a break that every case passes and that is followed by a long waiting time is a candidate for a measure; a break in 2% of the cases usually is not.

Breaks and the forms involved also make good input for a requirements document before an ERP project, because they describe exactly which data has to flow between which systems (see mapping before an ERP implementation). How to rank them against other weak spots is covered in finding process weaknesses.

Frequently asked questions

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