Process Mapping

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Process Mapping

• Office of Quality Management
• Office of Research Services
• National Institutes of Health
• 24 April 2002

2
Acknowledgments

• Process Mapping training was jointly developed
  by
• Office of Quality Management (OQM)
• Antonio Rodriguez, Amy Culbertson, Carmen Kaplan,
  and Gay Presbury
• OQM Consultants
• Kate Fenton (Atlantic Rim Group), Phil Nathanson
  (McManis Associates), Janice Rouiller (SAIC)

3
Training Objectives

• Understand the importance of business processes
• Become familiar with a few types of process maps
• Describe how to create a deployment flowchart
• Discuss process measurement and process
  improvement

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Why is it important to understand processes?
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Internal Business Process Perspective
Common Objectives and Measures
Common objective Increase understanding of
processes. Common measure Complete process
maps.
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Why do we care about processes?

• Processes are the basis of organizational
  performance
• Processes are how we get work done
• Processes are the key to improving performance

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What is a process?

• A process is a series of steps that transforms
  inputs to outputs
• Inputs are often thought about in terms of
  materials, methods, people, equipment, the
  environment
• Outputs are often described in terms of products
  and services
• Everything you do in the workplace is part of a
  process

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Overview of a Process
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What are process maps?

• Visual picture of the flow or sequence of events
  that results in a product or service
• Can be applied to anything
• Ordering slides and posters
• Call for police assistance
• Space planning
• Research collaboration
• Process maps are also known as flowcharts

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What do process maps do?

• Allow a team to come to agreement on the steps
  needed to get work done
• Assist in examining which activities may impact
  process performance
• Show unexpected complexity, problem areas,
  redundancy, unnecessary loops
• Identify where data can be collected and analyzed
• Serve as a training aid to understand the
  complete process
• Help to examine the actual process compared to an
  ideal process

Adapted from Brassard Ritter, 1994.
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What do process maps do? (cont.)

• Promote understanding of the relationship of a
  process to a larger system
• Input of materials or services from suppliers
• Internal steps that make up the process
• Delivery of the output to customers
• Help to identify boundaries processes cross
• Processes usually cut across organizational units
• People rarely see/understand the entire process
• Help people to see the whole process

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Types of Process Maps
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Block Diagrams

• Depicts the process with the fewest details
• Provide a picture of overall flow of a process
• Shows key action steps but no decision diamonds

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ExampleBlock Diagram
Hiring a New Employee
Recruit
Hire
Orient
Train
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Basic Process Map Symbols

• Ovals mark the beginning and the end of the
  process
• Squares/rectangles represent a particular step or
  activity in the process
• Diamonds show yes-no decision points
• Circles specify subroutines or connecting points
• Arrows show the flow, or movement, of the process
  from one step to the next

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Linear Flowchart

• Are a simple form of a process map
• Create a foundation for other types of flowcharts
• Can be completed at different levels of detail
• Macro-level flowchart
• Provide a picture of overall flow of a process
• 30,000 ft view of the process
• More detailed flowchart
• Show more specifics of the process flow
• Can have many steps and decision points

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ExampleLinear Flowchart
Ordering an ORS Service
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ExampleLinear Flowchart
New Employee Processing
Yes
No
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Deployment Flowcharts

• Communicate the interrelationships and sequence
  of operations and decisions required to transform
  inputs into outputs
• Map what happens in a process and who is
  responsible for each step
• Useful to
• Indicate dependencies in the sequence of events
• Clarify roles and hand-offs
• Track accountability
• Provide the most information about processes

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ORS Example (HR)Deployment Flowchart--Staffing
Process
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Advantages of Deployment Flowcharts

• Processes usually extend beyond the borders of a
  single work unit
• Work groups usually only see the steps in their
  organizational unit
• People working on one part of the process often
  dont communicate with those in other parts
• Deployment flowcharts are the best way to remove
  the mystery

See The Memory Jogger II (Brassard Ritter,
1994) for more information about flowcharts.
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Creating Your Deployment Flowchart
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Tips for Flowcharts

• Assemble the right people
• Those who work in the process
• Those who supply inputs to you (suppliers)
• Those who you hand off work to (customers)
• Dont get bogged down in too much detail
• Start with the big picture (macro-level)
• Maintain a consistent level of detail throughout
• There may be no ONE right process map
• Processes may operate in different ways
• People have different perspectives on how it
  works
• Have a way to handle different views
• See The Team Memory Jogger (Brassard, 1995) for
  ideas on effective teams

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Tips for Flowcharts (cont.)

• Keep your arrows straight
• Usually a process map is easier to read if curved
  arrows are avoided
• Strive to have symbols with one arrow going in
  and one arrow coming out
• Rule doesnt apply to decision diamonds
• Two arrows going out
• One for yes
• One for no

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Step 1 Label the Process Map

• Process mapping can be valuable at any level
• Service Group level
• Discrete Service level
• Work units activities
• Individual worker tasks
• Agree on what you will be mapping
• Determine what level of detail you wish to
  capture
• Will help if you begin at the macro-level
• Proceed to more detailed charts as needed
• Label the process map with
• Title of the process
• Date
• Names of people who contributed to map

Steps adapted from Brassard Ritter, 1994.
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Step 2 Determine the Frame or Boundaries of the
Process

• The purpose of this step is to identify how broad
  or narrow the process analysis effort will be
• Where the group decides the process begins and
  ends determines the focus for studying and
  measuring the process
• Define where the process starts
• How did this process begin?
• What happens to initiate or kick off the
  activities in this process?
• Define where the process ends
• How does this process end?
• What is the final step or activity required to
  deliver the product or service?

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Step 3 Determine the Steps in the Process

• Describe the activities that transform the inputs
  into outputs
• Map the ACTUAL process the way it occurs
• Not the ideal process (the way is should occur)
• Not the formally documented process (the way the
  SOP says it happens)
• Consider the following
• What steps are used to transform inputs to
  outputs?
• What major activities occur in this process
• What decision points occur in the process?
• What causes extra work or rework in this process?
• Are there places where more than one method is
  occurring?
• What factors inhibit process members from
  performing well?
• List each on its own Post-It and place
  vertically

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Step 4 Identify Players in the Process

• Identify all key players in the process
• Use Division/Office/Branch designations and/or
  position titles if possible rather than peoples
  names
• People who handle steps prior to you - these are
  your internal suppliers
• People who handle steps after you - these are
  your internal customers
• List each player on its own Post-It and place
  horizontally across the top of the flowchart

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Step 5 Sequence the Steps and Players

• Arrange the steps in the order they occur
• Place each step under the name of the office or
  position with primary responsibility for
  accomplishing it
• Where more than one player is required to
  participate in a step, indicate this with a blank
  circle placed in the appropriate column
• Rearrange steps and players until they accurately
  show how to the process flows

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Step 6 Draw the Flowchart

• Assign flowchart symbols to each step
• Add steps if necessary
• Reorder steps as needed
• Show relationships among steps with arrows
• Show multiple players with circles and lines

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Step 6 Draw the Flowchart (cont.) Process
Start-End

• Ovals (or round corner rectangles) show the
  process start
• Ovals (or round corner rectangles) show the
  process end

Process Start
Process End
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Step 6 Draw the Flowchart (cont.) Process Steps

• Rectangles or squares show a set, activity, or
  task in the process
• While multiple arrows can come into a box,
  usually only one output or arrow leaves a box
• If you have more than one arrow, you may need a
  decision diamond

Process Step
Process Step
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Step 6 Draw the Flowchart (cont.) Process
Decision

• All decisions are indicated by a diamond
• All decision diamonds are followed by Yes-No
  arrows
• You may need a series of activities and decisions
  to show complex decisions as Yes-No choices
• Try to show all yes arrows going downward from
  each decision point
• Try to show all no arrows going either out from
  the left or out from the right of each decision
  point

Decision
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Step 6 Draw the Flowchart (cont.) Multiple
Players

• Use blank circle to show steps where
  coordination, cooperation, or communication is
  required among several players
• Connect blank circles to their steps with
  straight lines (no arrow head)

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Step 6 Draw the Flowchart (cont.) Process
Continuations

• Use letters or numbers in a circle to indicate a
  break in the flowchart
• Provide the more detailed information on another
  page or where appropriate
• Label the continuation page with the same symbol
  used on the original flowchart

A
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Step 7 Check Your Process Map

• Are symbols used correctly?
• Are process steps clearly identified?
• Does every path take you either back to or ahead
  to another step?
• Does the chart accurately depict what really
  happens?
• Have you labeled your flowchart?

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Process Mapping Exercise
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Process Mapping Exercise Directions

• Have 30 minutes
• Do activity as a team if possible -- otherwise do
  your own Discrete Service
• Write Service Group or Discrete Service on
  Post-Its and place on wall
• List process start, end, and steps
• Record on Post-Its
• List players
• Record on Post-Its
• Arrange steps and players
• Draw arrows
• Check process map to ensure you have not missed
  any steps
• The process map should show the process as it
  occurs now

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Process Mapping Exercise (cont.) Feedback

• How did it go?
• What were your biggest challenges?
• What did you learn?
• Do you have any questions?

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Step 8 Prepare your Process Map in Visio

• ORS has site license
• Check with your AO to confirm license
  availability in your Branch
• Contact ITB for installation on your desktop
• Prepare your flowchart in Visio
• Limit map to one page if possible
• Ensure not too detailed
• Easier to print, review, discuss with others
• Can have more detailed flowchart as back-up if
  desired
• Working to get Visio training sessions for those
  interested

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Step 9 Review and Revise Process Map

• Provide team with printout of process map and
  discuss
• Is this process being run the way it should be?
• Does everyone really do the process as shown
  here?
• Are there obvious places where the process could
  be simplified?
• How different is the current process from the
  ideal process?
• What would have to happen to improve the process?
• Show the process map to others and get their
  feedback
• Internal suppliers
• Internal customers
• Management staff

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Process Measurement and Improvement
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Internal Business Process Perspective
Common Objectives and Measures
Common objective Identify methods to measure
processes. Common measure Identify and
report on process measures for Discrete Services.
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Identify Methods to Measure Processes

• Process mapping is one basic method
• Depicts how process currently works
• Helps to figure out where to set up measures
• Tool to begin studying the process
• Other methods to study and measure processes
  include
• Cause and effect diagrams
• Pareto charts
• Process modeling and simulation
• Process behavior charts

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What are process measures?

• Upstream measures that give insight into how
  effectively the process is working
• Indicate elements of the process which, if done
  consistently and effectively, should ensure good
  results
• May be difficult to identify at beginning
• Once the process is mapped, it will be clear
  where process measures are needed

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Why do we need process measures?

• Serve as the basis to understand the performance
  of the current process
• Identify where the causes of problems occur
• Assist in diagnosing process inefficiencies
• Help in identifying how to make process
  improvements
• Help to determine why problems occur
• Allow for the study of the interrelationships
  between events in the process
• Gauge the results of changes made to the process

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Process Measures and Process Improvement

• Process measures are a key component of the
  process improvement cycle
• Created by a statistician from Western Electric
  (now Bell Labs), Dr. Walter Shewhart
• Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle
• Referred to as Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle
• Application of the scientific method to
  management
• Basis for engaging in continuous improvement
• Customer needs and expectations always change
• Need systematic way to measure and make
  improvements
• PDSA cycle guides this process

See The Team Handbook (Sholtes, 1988) and
Building Continuous Improvement (Wheeler
Poling, 1998) for more information about process
improvement.
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The PDSA Cycle

• Plan
• Describe the improvement you seek, how you will
  make the changes in your processes to bring about
  the improvement, and how you will measure the
  improvement
• Do
• Implement your improvement plan, preferably
  testing it on a trial basis first

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The PDSA Cycle

• Study
• Collect data on your improvement effort and study
  the results of your improvement actions. What
  occurred? Why?
• Act
• Take action on what you learned in the previous
  stage
• Adopt the improvement for broader implementation
• Adjust your improvement plan and try again
• Abandon the effort because the benefits do not
  outweigh the cost of improvement

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The PDSA Cycle

• Act
• Adopt on a large scale
• Adapt
• Abandon

• Plan
• Set hypothesis
• Validate causes
• Plan a test

• Study
• Collect data to verify improvement

• Do
• Test on small scale

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Step 10 Identify Process Measures

• Review process map and look for
• Bottlenecks (backlogs) in the process
• Endless do-loops where rework is common
• Points where the activity flows repeatedly back
  and forth between players
• Redundant activities
• Unnecessary process steps
• Segment the process map into logical
  sub-groupings of steps and select an appropriate
  measure for each segment
• Look at decision diamonds and measure the reasons
  that take the process through the no arrow
• Complete a causal analysis on the inputs to your
  process
• Determine whether one input or another is
  generating problems

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ExampleIdentifying Process Measures
Elapsed Time
Proportion Rejected
Cost of Activity
Duration of Activity
Yes
Prepare Final Report
Prepare Report
Compile Information
Distribute Report
Acceptable?
No
Reasons of Rejection
Quality of Output Activity
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ORS ExampleProcess Measures from 2001 ASAs

• Cycle time from customer request to providing
  service
• (e.g., Locksmith)
• Time between customer order and delivery of
  product
• (e.g., MAPB)
• Number of unscheduled repairs (PWB)
• Number of billing transactions processed with
  errors (VRP)
• Percent of notification memos sent out within 1
  week (OFP)
• Problem resolution time of help desk requests
  (ITB)
• Number of facility deficiencies (VRP)
• Percent errors found in radioactive materials
  inventory (DS)

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Evaluating Process Measures

• What data could be used as a process measure and
  would it be difficult to collect?
• What would the data gathered with this process
  measure tell us?
• How strong is the correlation of the process
  measure with the results we are trying to
  achieve?
• How could the process measure be influenced?

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What do we do with process measure data?

• Many ways to analyze process measures
• Will cover details in
• Process Behavior Chart (control chart) training
• Data Analysis and Graphing training
• Often graphically analyzed using
• Pareto charts
• Process behavior charts (control charts)
• Histograms
• Bar charts
• Pie charts

See The Memory Jogger II (Brassard Ritter,
1994) and Building Continuous Improvement
(Wheeler Poling, 1998) for more information
about analyzing process measures.
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Next Steps

• Identify appropriate people to attend your
  process mapping working session
• Make sure all key players are represented
• Include those who are closest to the actual work
  if possible
• Invite others (manager, supervisor, customer) who
  may wish to learn about the process flow
• Complete process maps of
• Your Service Group
• Each Discrete Service
• Prepare maps in Visio
• Analyze maps and identify
• Process measures
• Low hanging fruit (i.e., quick fixes)
• Complete Implementation Plan
• Gather process measures data
• Analyze process and other performance data
• Attend Data Analysis and Graphing Training
• Attend Process Behavior Charts Training

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Conclusions

• Process mapping is a basic but powerful tool
• Provides the basis for further improvement
• Helps identify process measures
• Shows relationship between customers and
  suppliers
• Encourages teamwork
• You need others to help depict the process
• Helps identify hand-offs between people or
  organizations
• Clarifies roles and responsibilities
• Builds a sense of working together towards a
  common goal
• Foundation for product and service improvement

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Resources

• Brassard. M. (1995). The team memory jogger.
  Methuen, MA GOAL/QPC.
• Brassard, M., Ritter, D. (1994). The memory
  jogger II. Methuen, MA GOAL/QPC.
• Scholtes, P. (1988). The team handbook.
  Madison, WI Joiner Associates Inc.
• Rodriguez, A., R., Landau, S. B., Konoske, P.
  J. (1993). Systems approach to process
  improvement. San Diego, CA Navy Personnel
  Research and Development Center.
• Wheeler, D. J., Poling, S. R. (1998).
  Building continual improvement. Knoxville, TN
  SPC Press, Inc.