5 Reasons to Love Process Maps
August 27, 2012 4 Comments
My sense is that to most people, process maps are boring and uninteresting. I mean who wants to sit down and write out how a product flows from one process to another? Well, I do and I actually love process maps, seriously, I do.
Why do I love process maps? I find them intriguing, for me a process map is a moving picture, with both sound and action. I become curious about how each process integrates with the whole map. It’s like an adventure, where I imagine what’s possible.
This all seems like a lot of fun and games, and it is, but what I like best about process maps are the benefits they provide my clients and our organization. I’ve listed my top five.
- Planning
- Training
- Execution and Performance Management
- Throughput Maximization
- Process Improvement
How do each of these translate into realized benefits? Here’s how it works for me:
- Planning – when I understand all the processes and sub processes a product travels, I can plan for its arrival at its next destination/process. I understand how many people, what material and equipment I will need at a given time. I look to the map to navigate and plan resources accordingly.
- Training – With a map, I can share the journey of the product with my colleagues. With a shared understanding of the beginning and ending point, people begin working toward a common goal and seek to learn how to best get from one process to another process.
- Execution and Performance Management – With an action plan and a map, implementation becomes a shared responsibility because my team has helped to create the plan and they understand their role. Performance is measurable to the plan and compared to the plan and if unexpected results occur, we go back to the plan and make adjustments.
- Throughput Maximization – Having documented processes allows me to analyze each process, define process times and uncover bottlenecks. Once I understand where the constraints are, I am empowered to engage in, and encourage a problem-solving approach to the situation.
- Process Improvement– I think I like this benefit best. With a plan, and performance feed back for each process, I can make improvements to one process, and understand how the improvements affect the whole system. This eliminates bottlenecks, and reduces work in process so the whole systems flow evenly and smoothly.
Finally, let’s not forget that all these benefits add up to better quality, increased profitability and better client satisfaction! With all these benefits, it becomes easy to see why process maps are a really important business tool and why I love them!
What do you like best about process maps?
Really? 45 seconds. I can’t even brush my teeth in 45 seconds, boil an egg or sing the ABC’s. But I can save $25,000 – how?
Performance evaluation can be a messy topic. Often it is difficult to understand why performance output does not match expectations. Part of the complexity is separating out personality conflicts and learning to focus on the situation. However, focusing on the situation requires us to unravel or peel back the layers to uncover the inputs to performance. Three important inputs include:
Whether launching a new product or expanding capabilities to accommodate our clients growing needs, meeting the target price is a significant barrier to earning new revenue streams and potential profits. Sometimes we take on new business opportunities as a way to gain market share, deepen relationships or to gain an advantage over the competition. While these strategies for new business serve their purposes well, it remains essential not only to meet the target price, but also to be profitable at the target price.
This iterative process continues to deepen, creating an improvement perspective and can continue until all potential waste is removed, or can be finished when a desired target price and profit is met. The data gathered from the process can then be integrated into our decision-making models.
Assembly and packaging processes, sometimes referred to as secondary processes, can be difficult to define, measure, analyze and control. Labor-intensive, secondary processes performed by us humans seem to present the most challenges. The unpredictable nature of human performance can be overwhelming, making it seem impossible to feel confident about the accuracy and consistency of our processing methods.
Meeting sales goals is one of our highest priorities, and productivity is a determining factor in whether or not we meet those goals. The degree to which our manufacturing processes are productive affects our capacity to generate revenue. Since our organizations exist to serve the demands of our customers, measuring productivity and understanding the degree to which productivity affects sales performance is worth exploring.
Damaged product is simply not acceptable. Whether our products are OEM or retail, customer interaction with product packaging and the product is critical. Retail customers, like you and me, do not buy products that have dents, broken shrink-wrap, or torn labels. Likewise, OEM customers do not want to deal with fallen over pallets, banged-up outer cartons or ripped open bags. This kind of damage greatly reduces an OEM’s ability to be efficient and creates questions about the quality of the goods received.
