How And Where To Start Process Mapping

Here are the steps for building a process map. Before you begin the actual work to build your process maps consider the following steps:

1. Identify all the processes you suspect need attention. This is best done with your management team and any expert advice from the employee pool.

2. Next establish which processes need to be addressed first. Your team will know where the greatest problems are because they deal with these things every day. Pick four or five to run simultaneously. You cannot do everything at once, so stay with a limited number.

3. Designate the process owners, define their responsibilities, and charge each with the authority to execute a corrected map. Tie this to the owner’s performance review.

The next level of activities is to conduct the Business Process Mapping. The following sequence for conducting a process mapping session has proved very effective over time and with a number of successful mapping teams:

1. Present a mini-overview of how the business process works. The participants need to know the mechanics of the process.

2. Complete the first map selected by each team. This is a flow of the “as is” activities.

3. Develop the “costs” of the map by putting a dollar figure on each action and adding the figures.

4. Develop a “wish list” of what you want each new map to do for your business.

5. Complete the second map of the process “as it could be.”

6. Develop the “costs” of the map using the same criteria as you did for the first map.

7. Compare the costs of maps one and two.

8. Discuss what value each new version of the maps brings to the organization. This is where the “heat loss” or organizational inefficiency is really amplified.

9. Make decisions about how to implement the new map into the system. Make sure it is tied to individual accountability.

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