Diagram a process’s detailed flow (flowchart or swimlane)
Draw each step, decision and handoff between areas of a process, to see where the work waits, repeats or gets lost.
The task in figures
- Gives you back
- It does not recur every month
- Elmira today
- Not covered
- Frequency
- Per project
- Who does it today
- Analyst, Engineer
- Version
- Elmira Junior
What hurts today.
The procedure says one thing, and the work is done another way.
Drawing it takes days, and it is out of date with the first change.
The handoffs between areas belong to nobody.
A flowchart shows a process as it is done, not as the procedure says: each step, each decision and each handoff from one area to another, in lanes by area. It is built by following the work on the floor and asking whoever does it, and then drawn in Visio or Miro. Waits, rework and extra handoffs jump out. It takes days, and the diagram goes stale with the first change.
Done today with
- Expert
- In-person meeting
- On the floor
- Paper and whiteboard
- Diagramming tool
Each step, today and with Elmira.
She does not: diagramming processes comes with a later module of Obeyaka, after the launch.
| Step | Today | With Elmira |
|---|---|---|
| Follow the work on the floor, end to end | On the floor | Your call |
| Write down each step, decision and handoff between areas | Paper and whiteboard, On the floor30 min – 1.5 h | Still by hand |
| Draw the flow in lanes by area | Diagramming tool1 h – 3 h | Still by hand |
| Review it with the people who do the work | In-person meeting30 min – 1 h | Still by hand |
| Mark the waits, the rework and the extra handoffs | Diagramming tool, Expert15 min – 45 min | Still by hand |
The conversation
No example conversation: the Obeyaka web app does it, or it comes later.
Does this happen to your team?
Book a demo and we will show you Elmira doing this task.
More cases of processes and standards
- Audit compliance with the standard (layered audits)The results stay on paper nobody adds up.
- Run the 5S audits and follow up their findingsThe order lasts until the next audit.
- Map a process end to end (SIPOC)“The process” means something different to each person.