Operational Process

What is an Operational Process?

An operational process (sometimes called a core process or primary process) is a business activity that directly creates value for customers and brings in revenue. These are the day-to-day workflows that take raw materials, information, or resources and turn them into finished products or services that reach your customers.

Think of operational processes as the heartbeat of any organization. They're different from supporting processes (like HR and IT) or management processes (like strategic planning and budgeting). Supporting processes keep things running behind the scenes, and management processes provide direction. But operational processes? Those are what customers actually pay for. Manufacturing products, fulfilling orders, delivering services, processing transactions. They're a key subset of broader business processes that define how organizations operate.

Getting these processes right matters more than you might expect. Companies with well-documented operational workflows tend to see around 40 percent fewer errors and make better decisions overall. On the flip side, inefficient operational processes can drain over $1.3 million from a company's bottom line each year. That's a pretty strong argument for taking process optimization seriously.

Key Characteristics of Operational Process

• Customer-Facing Value: These processes serve customer needs directly and generate revenue. Supporting processes handle internal functions, but operational processes are what actually impact your customers.
• Revenue Generation: Simply put, these processes create what customers buy. Without them, there's no product or service to sell.
• Repetitive and Standardizable: Your team runs these processes over and over, sometimes dozens of times a day. That repetition makes consistency and efficiency really important for the bottom line.
• Cross-Functional Integration: Most operational processes don't stay neatly within one department. They typically span multiple teams and systems, which means coordination between people, technology, and resources is essential. Clear workflow documentation helps teams understand handoffs.
• Measurable Performance: You can track operational processes with concrete metrics like cycle time, throughput, defect rates, and customer satisfaction. That makes ongoing monitoring and improvement possible.

Operational Process Examples

Example 1: Manufacturing Operations

In a manufacturing company, the operational process kicks off when raw materials arrive and wraps up when finished products land in customers' hands. Along the way, you've got material procurement, inventory management, production scheduling, quality control checks, assembly line work, packaging, warehousing, order fulfillment, shipping, and delivery confirmation. Each step needs to work together to maintain quality, reduce waste, and get products out on time.

Example 2: Healthcare Patient Care

A hospital's patient care process starts the moment someone schedules an appointment and doesn't end until the post-treatment follow-up is complete. That includes patient registration, reviewing medical history, running diagnostic tests, physician consultations, treatment planning, giving medications, performing procedures, monitoring recovery, planning discharge, and handling billing. Following this structured approach helps maintain consistent care quality while keeping resources in check and staying compliant with regulations.

Operational Process vs Business Process

These two terms are related, but they're not the same thing.

Here's how to think about it: operational processes are a subset of business processes. They're the core activities that directly produce what customers pay for. Business process is the broader umbrella term that covers operational processes, supporting processes (like accounting and recruitment), and management processes (oversight and governance). Operational processes are the "front-line" activities that define what a company actually does, while business processes describe how the whole organization works together.

How Glitter AI Helps with Operational Process

Glitter AI changes how teams document and improve their operational processes. It uses intelligent screen capture and automatic workflow generation, so instead of spending hours writing detailed process documentation by hand, team members can just do their tasks while Glitter records everything. The tool then creates visual guides with screenshots, annotations, and step-by-step instructions automatically.

This works especially well for operational processes since they tend to be complex, span multiple departments, and require precision. When something changes (a system update, new regulations, or just a better way of doing things), teams can re-record the updated workflow and share the new process documentation with everyone who needs it. The visual format makes operational procedures easier to follow, which cuts down on errors, speeds up training, and keeps things consistent across different shifts, locations, and team members.