Business Core · Operational Systems · Module
Process design
Mapping how work actually moves through the organisation, as opposed to how it is supposed to. The gap between the two is where most operational problems live.
The idea
How it works
Every organisation has two processes: the documented one and the real one. Improvement work applied to the first produces nothing, because it is not the one being run.
The most reliable finding when mapping is that processing time is a small fraction of elapsed time. Most of the duration is waiting, and waiting is usually cheaper to remove than work is to speed up.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Map by following the work
Walk one item through the whole process. Interviews produce the documented version; following produces the real one.
- 02
Record waiting separately
Time spent in queues is invisible in a step-by-step description and is usually the majority of the total.
- 03
Find the workarounds
Where people deviate from the process is where the process is wrong. Treat them as data rather than as non-compliance.
- 04
Redesign from the real version
Improving the documented process changes a document. Improving the real one changes the outcome.
One level in
The components of process design
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Workarounds are the honest description of the process. Find them before redesigning anything.
The other modules in operational systems
Tooling
The systems and software the work runs on, and whether they fit the process or the process has bent to fit them.
LearnStandards and quality
What good output looks like, defined precisely enough that two people would agree. Without it, quality is a matter of who checked.
LearnContinuous improvement
A rhythm for changing the process based on what it produces, rather than only when something breaks. The rhythm matters more than the method.
Learn