How to Prepare a Process Map

Mapping a process can highlight inefficiencies

Process Maps are literally maps of a process you wish to improve. Preparing a Process Map is just one of the first steps to creating a Lean Six Sigma culture in your organization. A basic process map provide a visual way for you to see a process and make corrections, thereby streamlining it and making it more profitable or efficient. Here's a few tips to create a basic Process Map.

Things You'll Need

• paper or whiteboard
• post it notes
• people involved in the process - at least 1 from each section
• pens, markers, etc
• stopwatch if timing is an issue

Instructions

1. Decide on the process you wish to improve. This may be a decision from the upper echelon of the company, or a process that you have seen can be more efficient. Keep in mind that you want something you will actually be able to research and change, not something that addresses "world hunger."

2. Gather at least 1 person from each step in the process. They should be people that are completely familiar with their part in the process so they can provide the input you'll need to effectively create the process map. Schedule a meeting that is several hours long, and locate it near where the process in question actually happens. For example, if you are looking at a shipping process, you won't want to have your meeting in the cafeteria, but in the shipping department itself.

3. 

   Draw a line on a large piece of paper or whiteboard and designate the beginning and end of the process you wish to explore. To start, you will be creating an "as-is" process map, which is the process as it is happening currently.

4. 

   Use the post it notes, and have the team fill in the additional steps that occur in the process. Make sure you have enough detail to make your map useful, but don't get bogged down in the little steps that someone may do. For example - if dealing with a shipping process, include the labeling of the package, but not the licking of the stamp. Draw an arrow showing movement along the steps

5. 

   Add in the "question" steps. In the shipping example, is there a step that requires a question asked? For example, a package is leaving shipping - question is "does it have a label." If yes - it continues on; if no, it reverses to a previous step for label placement. Use arrows on the map to indicate the different directions of the question steps.

6. 

   Walk the process. Once your team feels it has a basic map of a process completed, take time (and your stopwatch) and actually walk the process. Make appropriate corrections to your map based on the actual data you receive from the walk-through. Add the length of time it takes to complete the steps if desired.

7. Continue with "wish or should-be" state map after concluding your "as is" state map. Return to step 3 and create the process the way the team feels it should be done. By eliminating steps or unproductive work, you can increase efficiency in the way the process is completed. For example, the change could be as simple as moving the labeling area closer to the shipping area so that the time spent walking back and forth is eliminated thereby creating a more efficient process.