Business Process Re-engineering05 – Process Mapping Tools and Techniques

Slide 2 of 9

Process Mapping Concept

1. Understand the process / systems

2. Differentiate the process functions

3. Structure the process map

4. Establish an informal process map

5. Process mapping takes place

Slide 3 of 9

Process Mapping Tools

• Flow diagramming tools– Most basic– Link text descriptions to symbols– Limited analysis capability– e.g. ABC Flowcharter; Easyflow

• Case tools– Modeling hierarchies and process definitions– Built on RDBMS– e.g. IDEF and Workflow Analyser

• Simulation tools– Dynamic and more sophisticated analysis capability– e.g. Service Model; Sim Process

Slide 4 of 9

Process workshops - approach

• Select a team of people who understand the process from beginning to end

• Determine key processes activities - don’t go down to the task level yet

• Capture and validate key process information

Slide 5 of 9

Information gathering

Some of the methods to information gathering include:

• Interviews (one to one)• Workshops• Workflow tracing• Feedback sessions• Questionnaires - for “customer” information• Activity analysis - observe and record actions

Slide 6 of 9

Approach to take

1. Interview first line managers/ supervisors

2. Focus and activities performed and the outcomes

3. Identify what ACTUALLY gets done

4. Find the most significant cost/time/quality problems

5. Identify process exceptions that confuse a clean process flow

6. Identify critical information that is currently used

7. Identify critical information that is needed (but not available)

8. Seek ideas for improvement

Slide 7 of 9

Key outcomes

The outcome or result of a process workshop is as follows:

• Process maps and relationship models• “As-Is” process metrics - cycle time, cost, quality• Process issues - findings• Understanding of scope for improvement• Rapid improvement opportunities

Slide 8 of 9

Modeling – from “As-is” to “To-be”

• Map existing processes:– capture detail across the whole process

diagrammatically– adjust level of detail to capture key issues and

opportunities

• Identify key performance factors:– cycle times, costs, resource levels– failures and root causes

Slide 9 of 9

Modeling – from “As-is” to “To-be”

• Model new processes:– remove redundancy, seek concurrency

• Animate new process:– validate cycle times– illustrate the new processes to those who will run

them