Process Mapping with Flowcharts
A flowchart is an outline or schematic drawing of the process your team is trying to measure or improve. It can also be a picture of an ideal process that you would like to use. Process mapping with flowcharts can help people:
• Agree on the steps of a process and the order in which they occur
• See some of the duplicated effort and other non-value-added steps that might be lurking in a process
• Clarify working relationships between people and organizations
• Target specific steps in the process for improvement.
Process mapping is especially useful in the measure and analyze phases of Lean Six Sigma methodology.
Top-down flowchart
There are several kinds of flowcharts. The simplest is the top-down flowchart.
What can it do for you?
• Tell what the major clusters of activity are—the ones that are essential to the total process.
• Show what the process would look like without the steps that have accumulated over time to shore up an inefficient or faulty process.
How do you make one?
1. List the most basic steps of the process. Limit these to no more than five or six major steps.
2. Write the major steps across the top of a board, flipchart or piece of paper in the order that they occur in the process.
3. Under each major step, list the sub-steps that make up that element of the process. List them in the order that they occur.
Again, limit yourself to no more than five or six sub-steps for each major step.
Now what?
The picture you have created will show only the useful work that goes into the process.
• Compare this to the way things are actually done. Ask: “What can be done to eliminate unnecessary work?”
• Talk to your customers. Ask: “How can we improve the process to better please the people who receive our work?”
• Look at the essential process. Ask: “How can we change the process to make fewer errors and increase our speed of delivery?”
The top-down flowchart can be used for planning new processes as well as examining existing ones. It helps keep people focused on the whole process instead of getting lost in details. Details can be worked out by the team members responsible for that part of the process.
Deployment flowchart
Another flowchart is the deployment chart. While the top-down flowchart tells what, the deployment chart shows both what and who.
What can it do for you?
• Show how the people involved fit together.
• Keep track of what each person or organization is supposed to do.
How do you make one?
1. List the major steps of the process in the order in which they occur. This might be the output of your work with a top-down flowchart or you might use some other technique to create this list.
2. Across the top of your board, flipchart or paper write the names of the people or organizations involved in the process.
3. Under the name of the person or organization responsible for the first step in the process, draw a box and write that step in the box. If more than one person or group is responsible for a step, extend the box so it is also under the name of that person or group.
4. If any of the other people or groups help or advise the ones with primary responsibility for that step, draw an oval under the names of those people or groups.
5. Connect the ovals to the box with the process step in it.
6. After the first step is complete, put the second step under the people responsible for it.
7. Connect the first step to the second step, then add ovals for any helpers or advisors in the second process step. Keep going this way with all the steps in the process.
Now what?
The completed chart tells not only how the process operates at each step, but who is involved and what responsibility they each have.
Ask:
• “Are the right people involved at the right time in the process?”
• “Are there too many people involved or too many hand-offs?”
• “Are there barriers between people who must work together to make the process work?”
The deployment chart can be as simple (just major steps) or as involved (sub-steps and sub-sub-steps) as you need to make it.
Detailed flowchart
Generally top-down and deployment charts are enough to examine a process, but sometimes teams need more detail to see where problems are occurring.
What can it do for you?
• Show what actually happens at each step in the process in detail
• Show what happens when non-standard events occur
• Graphically display processes so you can easily see redundancies and other wasted effort.
How do you do it?
To construct a detailed flowchart, various symbols can be used to represent process steps.
1. Draw the first symbol, and then write a description of the process step inside the symbol.
2. Draw the second symbol. Write the description. Connect the two symbols with an arrow showing the direction of flow.
3. Continue this way until you have completed the process or the part of the process you wanted to examine.
Each symbol should represent only one action or one yes-no decision. This is what gives the detailed flowchart its detail. It is also what makes the creation of detailed flowcharts so time consuming.
Now what?
Look at the completed flowchart.
Ask:
• Where are there redundancies that could be eliminated?
• Where are there steps that seem out of order?
• What steps are missing that could improve the process?
• Where is time lost waiting or sending things back and forth?
• What steps add no value to the customer?
A detailed flowchart can be a powerful tool for examining a process that has built up needless complexity, but be warned. Creating all this detail is time-consuming. Before you begin, ask:
• Is all this detail necessary?
• Can the detailed flowchart be limited to only a small part of the total process?
Related Articles
Elements of Measure (dmaic) & Prioritization Matrix
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 08/10/2007 | Leadership
One of the goals of the Lean Six Sigma Measure phase is to pin-point the location or source of a problem as precisely as possible by building a factual understanding of existing process conditions.
Kano Model & Critical-to-quality Tree
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 08/10/2007 | Strategic Planning
The Kano model is based on the concepts of customer quality and provides a simple ranking scheme which distinguishes between essential and differentiating attributes.
Process Simulation
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 08/10/2007 | Strategic Planning
Process Modeling creates a simple simulated model of the process. You will visually see which projects will affect the total output and which will sub-optimize the system.
How to Identify and Select a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 02/12/2007 | Human Resources
Lean Six Sigma Black Belts are most often referred to as Change Agents and there is no doubt that the Black Belt role is a leadership position within an organization. Black Belts are full-time Lean Six Sigma project team leaders responsible for implementing process improvement projects DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) or DFLSS (Design for Lean Six Sigma) within the business.
Quick Wins
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 04/12/2007 | Team Building
This article reviews the criteria of a Quick Win, Just-Do-It, or No Brainer process improvement. Using Lean Six Sigma tools and methods we can identify the areas of opportunity to accelerate results, build project momentum, and create project buy-in.
Scatter Diagrams
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 01/01/2008 | Project Management
To control variation in any process, it is absolutely essential that you understand which causes are generating which effects. By knowing which elements of your process are related and how they are related, you will know what to control or what to vary to affect a quality characteristic.
Benchmarking
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 02/01/2008 | Strategic Planning
Benchmarking is simple as a concept but much more involved as a process. The ultimate payoff is that you can become the best of what you do, and continuously improve upon that superiority.
What is Lean
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 04/01/2008 | Strategic Planning
Lean is a methodology that is used to accelerate the velocity and reduce the cost of any process (be it service or manufacturing) by removing waste. Lean is founded on a mathematical result known as Little's Law
Got a Question? Ask.
Ask the community a question about this article:
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a graduate of bachelor of nursing can took ...
By: amor | 10-10-2008
is a graduate of bachelor of nursing can took master of arts in education? i really want to teach in secondary school.How many units do i need to take for me to able to teach
SATA motherboard with IDE (using CD ROM cable) as master?
By: CathyBofNYC | 09-10-2008
my sata drive doesn't boot, can I replace with ide as master in cd ide slot and cd and slave?
In other words, can I unplug the Sata, take another computers ide master and plug it in as the master to the cd slave on the same cable?
Or can I just disable the cd rom to see if the ide works, which will help me determine if the sata is really the problem?
What kind of / how much course credit is necessary to teach Classics/Latin/Greek in college?
By: tb | 26-09-2008
What kind of / how much course credit is necessary to teach Classics/Latin/Greek in college? I have taken a few Greek and Latin classes at the undergraduate level and do not plan to pursue a higher degree in either one. However, I would like to accumulate enough course hours in one, the other, or both, at a high enough level to teach it/them at the college level. I also wonder whether the requirements vary from state to state.
Datagrid cell data insert
By: pawan | 25-09-2008
how can i insert the content of cells in datagrid after editing it in C#.Net windows application.plj give the code.
What is the difference between the HONORS program and Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology in Australia
By: jed | 19-09-2008
Hi there, Im interested in a fourth year psychology program next year and im a bit confused about the difference between a "postgraduate diploma in psychology" and a honors program. Thanks for your help
Do we have a hierarchy for these qualification ...
By: mli | 17-09-2008
Do we have a hierarchy for these qualification (diploma, degree, certificate, bachelor, master)? What comes first and ends last?
Q&A Powered by:
Latest Project Management Articles
Project Management – the Career for You?
By: projectmanuk | 17/11/2008
Project Management is an increasingly popular career choice for young graduates. According to statistics produced by the Middlesex University National Centre for Project Management, 1.5 – 2 million people earn their living as Project Managers in the UK alone.
Microsoft Project Training - Where Do I Start?
By: Steve Twine | 10/11/2008
Microsoft Project is the world's most popular project management software - but even regular users would often benefit from a better understanding of its full capabilities. Moreover new reporting and communications features in the 2007 release are well worth understanding.
Automation Infatuation-mobile Work Place Automation Makes Chemical Plant Operations More Reliable and Efficient
By: Brady Moritz | 06/11/2008
Throughout the chemical process industry, it’s difficult to think about plant monitoring without visualizing personnel on daily rounds laboriously filling out paper log sheets. Besides being a manual-intensive routine, this traditional monitoring approach primarily focuses only on documentation.
Energy Independence for 800 Year Old Mill on Remote Italian Island
By: Beth Shady | 30/10/2008
Pacific Solar Radiant, Inc. a Santa Cruz based design/build mechanical engineering, plumbing and heating company traveled to a remote Italian island to make an 800 year old mill completely sustainable and off-grid.
How to Build a Library
By: Samuel Bryant | 29/10/2008
When identifying a need for a library a person must identify the needs to the organization or community.
Dust Collectors
By: Oleg Chetchel | 28/10/2008
The use of centrifugal force to throw a dust particle to the periphery of an air stream has been used in the cyclone collector for many years. Dry centrifugal dust collectors can be divided into two basic groups cataloged by their effectiveness in removal of smaller dust particles.
Pacific Timesheet Announces New Iphone Support
By: Jason Trend | 25/10/2008
Pacific Timesheet announces its leading project timesheet software is the first to support the Apple iPhone.
How You Can Make Huge Amount of Money Over the Internet
By: Eddiee | 21/10/2008
It would also help if you can identify their buying power (to see if they can afford your products), their online behavior (to easily make your marketing strategies more focused), and their preferences.
Check on your competitors. You can stay on top of the game if you know the strengths and weaknesses of those people that you are up against. Identify the elements that they are using in creating and selling their products online and top them by exerting more efforts and energy on your product cr
More from Steven Bonacorsi
Mistake Proofing
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 02/10/2008 | Management
Mistake proofing is a technique for eliminating errors. It is based upon the premise that it is good to do something right the first time; it is even better to make it impossible to do it wrong the first time. The idea is to make it impossible to make a mistake. You may also hear the term, Poka-Yoke or Error Proofing applied to mistake proofing.
Cause and Effect Diagrams (fishbone Diagrams)
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 25/04/2008 | Management
The first such cause-and-effect diagram was used by Kaoru Ishikawa in 1943 to explain to a group of engineers at the Kawasaki Steel Works how various work factors could be sorted and related. In recognition of this, these diagrams sometimes are called Ishikawa diagrams. They are also called fishbone diagrams, because they look something like fish skeletons.
Critical Path Mapping
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 24/04/2008 | Project Management
The activity network diagram has had a relatively long history, dating back to the 1930s. In the 1950s, the technique emerged as the Program Evaluation Research Technique (PERT) and as the Critical Path Method (CPM). There are several ways to represent the output of the PERT/CPM process.
Box Plots
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 21/04/2008 | Management
Box-and-whisker diagrams, or Box Plots, use the concept of breaking a data set into fourths, or quartiles, to create a display. The box part of the diagram is based on the middle (the second and third quartiles) of the data set. The whiskers are lines that extend from either side of the box. The maximum length of the whiskers is calculated based on the length of the box. The actual length of each whisker is determined after considering the data points in the first and the fourth quartiles.
Dot Plots
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 20/03/2008 | Management
A dot plot graphically records variable data in such a way that it forms a picture of the combined effect of the random variation inherent in a process and the influence of any special causes acting on it. To understand the power of dot plots as a basic tool, it first helps to visualize how variation occurs.
Run Charts
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 13/03/2008 | Project Management
Run charts can be very valuable in helping your search for sources of variation. They are easy to plot and easy to interpret. The sampling is uncomplicated, and there are no statistical computations to make. They can also be applied to almost any process or any data.
Scatter Diagrams
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 10/03/2008 | Training
A scatter diagram shows the correlation between two variables in a process. These variables could be a Critical-To-Quality (CTQ) characteristic and a factor affecting it, two factors affecting a CTQ or two related quality characteristics. Dots representing data points are scattered on the diagram. The extent to which the dots cluster together in a line across the diagram shows the strength with which the two factors are related.
Histograms
By: Steven Bonacorsi | 09/03/2008 | Management
A histogram is a tool that allows you to understand at a glance the variation that exists in a process.
Business 
About the Author:
