How To Describe Your Current Business Process

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By GOAL/QPC

Once you have identified the most important problems within your organization to improve, it's time to describe the current process surrounding the improvement opportunity. This helps a team understand work as a process and to identify where in the process the problem occurs.

The following article is based on a seven-step process described in The Problem Solving Memory Jogger, published by GOAL/QPC. This is step two in that process.

What Concepts Must You Understand To Do This Step?

Customer and Supplier Relationships

Each step in a process creates relationships in which people depend on each other to get work done. Each process step depends on one or more suppliers to provide products, materials, services, and/or information that are:

• Reliable
• Defect or error free
• On time
• Complete

In exchange, at each process step the customer provides suppliers with:

• Requirements that are clearly stated
• Timely feedback when needs are not being met

Process Documentation May Be Outdated

Teams need to understand the process they are trying to improve. Oftentimes, a current and detailed flowchart doesn't exist. If the process has never been documented or the existing flowchart is outdated, the team will either need to create a flowchart or update the old one.

Every Process Is a System

It's important for everyone in the process to look at and treat it as a system of connected pieces. If you change even one part of the system, it will always affect how the whole system works (or doesn't work).

What Actions Must Be Taken in This Step?

• Construct, update, and/or interpret a flowchart to describe and study work as a process.
• Identify the value, time, and cost added for each step in the process.

How Do You Describe the Current Process?

1. Create a flowchart of the current process.

• Use a flowchart to show all of the tasks and decisions involved in implementing the current process.
• Use symbols to show the flow of actions and decisions in a process from start to end.
• List all of the steps of the process as they are currently done. Keep the level of detail as simple as possible. If necessary, you can always add more detailed steps later.

Flowchart Symbols
Oval	Shows the materials, information, or action (inputs) that start the process, and the results (output) at the end of the process.
Box	Shows an activity performed in the process. Although multiple arrows may come into each box, usually only one arrow leaves each box.
Diamond	Shows those points in the process where a yes/no question is being asked or a decision is required.
Circle with Letter or Number	Identifies a break in the flowchart and is continued elsewhere on the same page or another page.
Arrow	Shows the flow of the process.

Tip: Unless you're using flowcharting software, write each step on a sticky note. The steps can then be easily sequenced and rearranged.

Example: ABC Team Flowcharts the Process Lani, the main writer, and Felicia, the lead editor, said that the current process wasn't clear to them. Stephano said it seemed like projects were getting more complex, and paperwork and files were getting lost as they were shuttled between steps and people in the process. The team created a flowchart of the entire process to make sense of what was really happening.

2. Validate the flowchart and the performance measures with the owners, users, and customers of the current process.

Before teams can improve a process, they need to understand it. The people who have this under standing are those who work on some part of the process or who use the information, products, or services that are produced by it.

Confirm the accuracy of the process as it is drawn in the flowchart and the time estimates for each step by letting the process run untouched.

Identify the value, time, and cost added for each step in the process.

A step adds time and/or cost when:

• A product or service needs to be inspected.
• A product can't move further in the process because a decision hasn't been made, information hasn't been provided, or related process steps haven't been finished.
• Anything is reworked.
• A product moves anywhere other than the next step in the process.

A step adds value when:

• It makes a product more useful to the customer.
• A customer would be willing to pay for the activity in that step.
• It is required to make the product function properly when used by the customer.

Check for By Asking
Completeness	Does the flowchart show all of the critical tasks and decision points?
Accuracy	Do the words in the flowchart clearly describe what's happening at each step and decision point? Are all of the connections drawn as they actually happen, especially flowing from decision points?
Time spent*	What's the range of time that it takes to complete each task or to make each decision?
Overall process measures*	How does the person responsible for the overall process measure its success? How does the customer of the process measure its success? Are the measures objective (based on facts) or subjective (based on opinions)?
Sub-step measures*	How does the person responsible for each sub-step measure its success? How does the customer of each sub-step measure its success? Are the measures objective (based on facts) or subjective (based on opinions)?
Bottlenecks and delays*	Are there delays because the criteria for making decisions are unclear? Are there inspection points where a lot of products and services are rejected or diverted?
Responsibilities	Who measures, improves, and provides information about each step? Is there one person ultimately responsible for each step or is it a shared responsibility?
Quality problems*	Are there any recorded customer complaints about a particular step in the process? Are there any steps that are reworking products, services, or information because they don't meet customer needs?
*Any of these categories can be used to identify areas to work on in your organization's continuous improvement efforts.

Example: ABC Team Validates Flowchart and Performance Measures of Current Process Team members validated the flowchart by reviewing it with coworkers, customers, and suppliers. (They used the same criteria as those listed in the table on pages 40 and 41.) They all agreed that the flowchart was on target.

How Can You Turbo-charge This Step?

Top-down Flowchart

If team members need a deeper look at one or more steps within the process, they can use a top-down flowchart. This enables teams to examine in greater detail what activities and decisions take place while performing a step. Follow these instructions to create a top-down flowchart:

1. Construct a macro flowchart of the major steps and decisions in your process. (Use the symbols shown earlier in this article.)
2. Assign a number to each step.
3. For each major step, list the sub-steps and their supporting sub-steps. Use a numbered outline system to show the order and hierarchy of the sub-steps.
4. Review the list of sub-steps to identify ways to simplify the process and eliminate bottlenecks and delays.

Research Subject Area

Deployment Flowchart

Use a deployment flowchart to clarify roles and responsibilities, track accountability, and determine if the most appropriate staff resources are being used to perform the steps. Follow these instructions to create a deployment flowchart:

1. List the names of the individuals or departments that perform different tasks in the process across the top of a sheet of paper or flipchart paper.

2. Using a Macro flowchart of the major steps and decisions in your process, place each action step (box) and decision point (diamond) elow the name of the individual or department that performs the task or makes the decision.

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