Easy to Create a Process Flow Chart

Title: Easy to Create a Process Flow Chart Category: ROOT Clicks: 0 Listing added: Dec 14, 2010 PageRank: 0/10

A flow chart is a useful way of organizing your thoughts and examining a complex situation. A process flow chart is used to determine what the bottlenecks are in a process as well as any significant vulnerable points of failure. It is a graphic description of your business's way of producing a product or service. It can be a simple or complex exercise to make a process flow chart depending upon what your company does and how much data you have to gather.
Difficulty: Moderate
Instructions
Things You'll Need:

* Pen
* Paper
* Stop watch

Sit back and observe the work that you want to make a process flow chart for. It is impossible to measure and observe accurately if you are part of the process yourself. If it is a factory then go up to the catwalks above the shop floor; if it is in an office then find a windowed room to the side.

Time each motion that is taken with the stop watch. Measure how much time each decision point, action and transportation takes. This will help you determine what parts of the of the process need improvement.

Make a chronological list of the actions and decision points. You will need to make multiple lists if your process has branching decision points: one list for how to produce red widgets, one list for how to produce blue widgets, so on and so forth.

Draw rectangles for each activity and diamonds for the decision points. Connect these polygons with lines, connecting them in chronological order. Draw arrows along the lines to denote the direction of the process. Circle the last point to indicate the finished product or service is produced there.

Compare your process flow chart to that of the real process. Make corrections as necessary.