Process Maps

Description:

A Process Map (aka Process Flow Chart) is a detailed flow diagram of the process using color
coded symbols that drill further into the high level map generated on the SIPOC.

The purpose is to visually represent the process as it is in reality. It's a map of the system.

Complete the current state map by walking (GEMBA walk) and experiencing the process. This is
a valuable learning experience, the team will quickly gain insight about the actual flow. Avoid
sitting in a room and think it through yourself or with the team. Patience, time, asking questions,
interviewing people, are all a part of the completing this map.

Create a current state and a future state. Your team may want a future state with a short term
target (such as 90 days) and a long term ideal state.

Objective:

To capture all the complexity and improvement opportunities by analyzing each step in detail.
Seek out the 7-Wastes and enhance current value-added activities.

Levels of a Process Map

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Look for:

 Automation Opportunities

 Material Handling

 Duplication

 Redundancy

 Decisions

 Delays

 Rework Loops

 Non-Value Added Steps vs. Value-Added Steps

These represent opportunity for waste elimination. Proceed with the goal to eliminate waste before settling for waste
reduction. Throughout the entire process map, look for the 7-Wastes. So, before process mapping, educate the team
on how to "see" waste.
Take caution when considering "automation" to take over manual processes. People are adaptable and much more
flexible. Automation is fixed, constant, and often difficult to fix and maintain. In a JIT environment the decision to
automate is advised with caution.

Types of Process Maps

There are a few different types of process maps.

1) Flow Chart or Block Diagram (such as the example above).

These begin a the "high-level" and grow as more detailed is learned by the team and become a "detailed flow chart
process map"

2) Cross Functional Map or Swim Lane 

Rearranges flow chart process steps into lanes of functions. Hand-offs are indicated and the process steps move left
to right (on the map) as time progresses. Or the swim lanes could be vertical and the process steps move from the
top to bottom as time progresses. 

"Functions" could be Departments (such as Sales, HR, Legal, Operations, Finance, etc) or they could be process
steps such as Prepare, Mix, Heat, Test, Sort, Pack, and Ship. 

3) Cross Resource Map

Further drill down into functions showing actual resource to resource hand offs. 

There other more variations along with other names but what's most important is to get the process steps
documented as they actually exist. A SIPOC is also a basic form of a process map. A Value Stream Map is a more
detailed quantitative form of a process map. 

Elements of a Process Map

The following list of are key elements of a process map. The current state map may lack some of these elements.
More importantly, is to consider these elements in the creation of the future state map. It is meant to be reviewed and
updated on a continuous basis. The more detail it contains, the better understanding you and the team will have of
the true process and opportunities. 

1. It's considered a living document. 

2. There are clear START and FINISH steps. Clear bookends.
3. A Process Map should have an overall Owner.
4. Metrics defined to show the future state improvement.
5. Ability to stand the test of time (new hires, people changing roles, etc).
6. Ability to be achievable and realistic.
7. Clear connection points and hand-offs.
8. Accommodate some of the what-if, or unique scenarios. Not all processes will follow a particular path all the
time. Try to map the most common alternative paths and improve those too. 

Peanut Butter & Jelly Process Map Example

A good process map gets the process from the 50,000 foot level to the ground level of the actual process.

The development of the map is a team effort and it will educate everyone on the reality of the process and most often
how little of the total process is value added. Typically, there are obvious improvements that will be become evident
while the mapping is being done.

It will not be perfect the first time through, add more detail as it evolves. It is important to remain with the Start and
Finish boundaries set forth by the SIPOC in the DEFINE phase.

The team needs to begin identifying the value added steps versus the non-value added steps and time. This
realization is clearer during Value Stream Mapping (VSM) that adds more quantification to the steps.

Creating a future state or ideal state (while being realistic yet not too limited) will make it clear to the team that
everything getting in the way is opportunity to improve. Laws, regulations, customer standards, past paradigms all
need to be challenged because they change over time.

Creating a process map on a computer is common and many software programs exist that have symbols created.
However, the first drafts are often very complex and frequently revised.

Create the real flow on paper and post it publicly for others to offer input and critique. It is very important to catch the
rework loops, communication issues, decision delays, stops, starts, pick-ups, drop-offs, and other waste so the team
fully understands the opportunities.

These hidden factory "what-if" and "sometimes" paths are important for everyone to document and understand. This
knowledge will create better subjective decisions when assigning weights to the inputs using the subjective root
cause analysis tools in the Measure phase.

Rework Loops
Rework loops are where defects and wasted time are occurring. The team should focus on preventing them, reducing
their severity, and detecting them if they can not be eliminated. These can be drawn on any type of more detailed
process step. It's critical to find these and eliminate or reduce them from occurring. 

Each time a product goes through a loop, an adjustment or correction is done. It is feedback that is considered the
element that indicates the need for this adjustment so the product gets out of the rework loop within conformance.

Some product or process may actually go through the rework path multiple times and the map does not illustrate this
unless specially noted and discussed. 
The picture below shows two Rework Loops. Rework loops have varying severity. The process map does not show
the amount or cost of pieces scrapped or the amount or cost of pieces reworked. Use the yield calculations to get this
data.

Often a Rolled Throughput Yield (RTY) is calculated to help quantify the scrap and rework through these loops and
this does not always mean the lowest RTY is the worst financially or to the customer.

If one type of rework is more expensive or higher risk to the customer (such as a delayed delivery), then it may be a
higher priority to improve. This is all going to shake out in the subjective root cause analysis tools and the inputs get
funneled out to the most important, key process input variables (KPIV's).

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Insurance companies will often use flowcharts to identify hazards or perils that could result in exposure. Flowcharts
should also be used by the team to evaluate ideas to reduce these exposures, similar to reducing the severity,
occurrence, and detection of an input within a FMEA.

Risk managers often use them along with questionnaires for employees, inspections, and statistical analysis of
previous losses to establish premiums for the company. Have an internal Risk Manager sit on your team from your
company may be another way to capture financial savings.

Through a careful and detailed inspection process the best overall risk assessment can be done. Process Maps can
provide a lot of information in an easy to read format. They will be looking for potential problems that are a
combination of hazards, perils, and exposures.

For example:

A Six Sigma team may be working to reduce the number of Recordable Injuries and Lost Time Injuries. Some
improvements that may be implemented are alarm systems, sprinklers in new areas, facility-wide intercoms, and
others that may also qualify your company for reduced property insurance premiums.

Create a Process Map in Excel

Value-Added vs. Non-Value Added
Theoretically, the perfect state of a value stream or flowchart is to have 100% of the steps adding value.

What does this mean?

Value-Added:

 Physical change in the product

 Customer is willing to pay for the step or service

 First time yield is 100% - done right the first time

There is some debate about compliance steps. Certain steps are done to meet compliance criteria such testing and
documentation. There is usually opportunity to streamline this "regulatory" or "business-mandated" processes.

The team should review these and not simply accept that they are requirements. Challenge the process and rule,
ensure that the rules have not changed and get evidence of the rule to validate. Perhaps, the current method has
waste or even the requirement is not being met.

Non-Value-Added:

 Set-ups

 Preparation

 Meetings

 Any of the 7-Wastes

 Inspections (that are not business or regulatory requirements)

 Not necessary to add value to the product or service

 Customer is not willing to pay for the step

Process Mapping - Download

This module provides lessons on how to use

different types of process mapping tools to
breakdown and understand your business
processes. It also gives an insight of how the
outputs from this tool can become critical inputs for
the more advanced tools you may use through your
DMAIC journey.

Click here to purchase the Process Mapping

module and others that are available.

Flowchart Symbols
Different sources will use suggest different colors denotations for symbols. The color will help to
identify specific steps when looking at very detailed maps. The color choice isn't critical, just use
a consistent color scheme. There are nuermous symbols, some of the most common are shown
below.
Variations
Several other visual tools are forms of Process Maps and each has a specific use, is a part of another tool, or is a
type of process map.

For example, the SIPOC is more than a very high level process map, it defines the Suppliers, Inputs, Outputs, and
Customers and its "Process Map" portion is very generic.

Some of these tools are:

-IDEF Modeling
-SIPOC (very high level)
-Deployment Flow Chart - (focuses on hand-off points)
-Value Stream Map (more quantitative but also has limitations)
-Activity Diagram (more detailed than the SIPOC)
-Detailed Process Map (most detailed "ground" level)
-Swim Lane Process Map

Cross-Functional Flowchart

Beginning
The information inputted on the cross-functional flowchart is essentially the same as a basic
flowchart, but now it’s divided by which department does the activity.

Begin by creating a new Cross-Functional Flowchart document.

Figure 61: Create New Cross-Functional Flowchart
Next, choose to start with a template or a blank page. In this example, we will begin with a blank
page. The following figure shows the prompt to choose either a horizontal or vertical swim lane
orientation.

Figure 62: Swim Lane Orientation

Swim lane orientation is a preference. In this example, we use a horizontal orientation.
Swim lanes
When you’re starting to create a cross-functional flowchart, it is best to first write down the different
categories that will be used. They could be departments, people, or companies, depending on the
scope and level of the flowchart.

Once you determine the categories, you’ll know the number of swim lanes. Next, set up the swim
lanes on the flowchart.

The following figure shows that the swim lanes are added by clicking on the desired swim lane from
the bar on the left, and then dragging it into position on the page where you want to add it.

Figure 63: Add Swim Lanes to Cross-Functional Flow Chart

Figure 64: Adding Titles to Swim Lanes
Figure 65: Cross-functional Swim Lanes
Don’t worry if you realize later that either additional swim lanes need to be added, or too many were
included in the beginning. It is easy to add and delete them, and most software will adjust the
process shapes into the remaining swim lanes in the same manner they were originally created.
Figure 66: Inserting a Swim Lane by Dragging
Figure 66 shows that a swim lane can be added by dragging the picture of the swim lane from the
shapes menu. Figure 67 shows that a swim lane can be added by selecting a swim lane and then
right-clicking to insert another lane.

Figure 67: Inserting a Swim Lane by Clicking

Similar to a basic flowchart, the cross-functional flowchart should begin with an ellipse. Process
shapes are dragged onto the diagram in the same manner. The only difference is that you drag the
shapes into the swim lane that owns the process step.

You can add connections and descriptive text in the same manner as with the basic flowchart. You
can also change the shapes in the same way.

The example in Figure 68 clearly shows that the customer places the order on the website, and
when the data is transferred, it goes to the finance department.

Figure 68: Cross-functional Flowchart

Split paths
When creating a split path in a cross-functional flowchart, be sure to add the process steps into the
swim lane that shows which departments receive the outputs of the split path.
Figure 69: Cross-functional Flowchart with Split Path
For example, Figure 69 shows that when the customer enters the order into the website, order data
is transferred to the finance department, and then the customer receives an order confirmation
email. The path is split between two swim lanes because two different areas have ownership over
those steps.

The customer has no further action to take with the order confirmation email, so the last shape in the
swim lane is an ellipse to indicate that there are no further steps connecting off that one.

Note: Remember that the ellipse can be either a start or an end point.

Decision points
A decision point in a cross-functional flowchart follows the same guidelines as a basic flowchart, but
it may be confusing since there are multiple swim lanes to consider in a cross-functional flowchart.

It is possible that the steps following the decision could be within the same swim lane or in different
swim lanes. In some situations, a decision point could determine if the process remains within the
same department or is escalated to a different department.

Figure 70: Cross-functional Flowchart with Decision Point

Figure 70 shows that if the customer exists in the database, then the finance department transfers
the order data to the operations department. If the customer does not exist in the database, then the
finance department escalates the order to management.

Two decisions going to different swim lanes is a common occurrence.

Inter-departmental business process handoffs

When process steps frequently transfer among departments, there is a larger opportunity for errors
or missing information, especially if different departments run different systems to support their work.

Here are some common ways to ensure data isn’t inputted improperly when transferred between
departments and systems:

 Integrate specific system fields to reduce manual entry. In

other words, if there is an opportunity to transfer the
output data of one department directly into a system field
that serves as an input for another department, then
linking those fields would reduce manual entry.
 Establish a confirmation process to notify the previous
team that the information was received.

 Create a queue that is reviewed at regular intervals by an

assigned employee.