Toward the Full Application of BPM: The Case of the Brazilian Coffee Cooperative Cooxupé

(a) Situation faced: The objective was to promote business process management (BPM) as a management approach for Cooxupé, the largest coffee cooperative in the world that exports the production of its cooperative members to over 50 countries. The main challenge was to shift the process management approach (PMA) from documentation to a comprehensive application of the BPM life cycle, particularly in the areas of process diagnosis and end-to-end business process performance measurement. (b) Action taken: On this journey, several methods were applied, including business process architecture and Pain/Gain matrix analysis for process prioritization. Process diagnostic techniques, such as BPMN 2.0, capability analysis, and many others were also utilized to address specific process challenges. Effective project management also played a critical role in enabling agile decision-making, overcoming constraints, and achieving predefined goals. (c) Results achieved: Cooxupé achieved significant improvements in business processes leading to a stronger relationship with stakeholders, an increase in cooperative members, and a higher volume of coffee production, a crucial factor for driving revenue. These improvements were reflected in other areas of business performance, such as increased process productivity and an improved flow rate in technology backlog development. (d) Lessons learned: Cooxupé has learned that promoting BPM can produce shifts in the process management approach (PMA) that greatly enhances business process performance and improves the experience for its cooperative members. This was achieved through a structured initiative that applied best practice in project management in order to overcome the challenges of promoting BPM and implementing a well-prioritized action flow.