Handing off the Project to the Process Owner
After the control charts have been created and deployed, the control phase of the DMAIC methodology comes to a close as far as the project is concerned. The solution that the team had set out to reach has now been reached. It is therefore time to transition the process from being a project to being […]
Why Forecasting has Become Very Difficult for Individuals, Firms, and Nations
Why are we being blindsided by Black Swans ? Whether you are an individual or a decision maker in a big corporation, or a policymaker in charge of planning for nations, it is a fact that forecasting has become very difficult in the present times. Indeed, the fact that big businesses and nations alike are […]
Effect of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) on the Workforce
The previous articles have discussed the impact that the BPO phenomenon has had on the economies of the home and the target countries. This was essentially a macro level perspective about how the BPO sector has impacted these countries. In this article, we drill down and look at the effect that the BPO sector has […]
Economics of Mobile Phones in Africa
In the developed world, mobile phones are something that we take for granted. The biggest purpose of a cell phone is to entertain its owner. Cell phones are used by people to connect with their loved ones, play games and log on to the social media. This is the reason why people in developed countries […]
What Explains the Decline of the Left in India and its Resurgence in the United States?
Why the Left in India is facing an Existential Crisis? The recently concluded General Elections in India all but cemented the emergence of the Right and the Centre Right while eclipsing the Left that has now been pushed into irrelevance. Indeed, as the Modi 2.0 government settles into its Second Term, chances are that the […]
The first step in the measure phase of a six sigma project is to create a detailed process map of the processes and sub-process under question. Participants often get confused between a high level process map and a detailed process map. This article will help articulate the link as well as the differences and clear the confusion.
Processes generally have an enormous amount of detail. This amount of detail if put at one go on paper or a computer screen will intimidate the person looking at it. It is virtually impossible to make sense of such overwhelming amount of information. For this reason, a drill down approach is used to represent processes.
The first visible process map contains 6 to 7 elements. These elements may actually be sub-processes. This means that they have their very own process contained within them. For simplicity sake they are being represented as one element.
When process mapping is done which contains the details from these sub processes, it is called a detailed process map.
The detailed process map is contained within the high level process map. It is easier to understand with the analogy of a website. You can think of the high level process map as the home page of the website. It contains the links to other pages (other processes i.e. detailed process map).
During execution when the process reaches a given stage. First the internal processes are executed. Then the result is passed on to the next element in the process. A detailed process map contains the exact steps, the exact inputs, outputs, metrics and the exact people that are needed to execute the process.
Swim lanes is a technique used in process mapping to simplify the work procedure. The process is divided into several swim lanes. These are represented by the different people that will perform that job. Hence if a task falls in Person A’s swim lane, he is responsible to get it done.
Detailed process maps are often prepared in the swim lane format. This is because often there are multiple detailed process maps. Keeping track of who is supposed to do what may get confusing. Swim lanes help to simplify them.
A detailed process map contains information about the exact type, quality etc of the input required and of the output expected. It also contains precise information about how the process should behave. Creating a detailed process map helps us clarify the process inputs, outputs and variables. Once we have all of them listed we can then start prioritizing and identifying the important ones.
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