Operational Systems · Process design · Component
The current-state map
How work actually moves today, including the queues and the workarounds — as observed rather than as described.
The deliverable
What it is
Every organisation runs two processes: the documented one and the real one. Improvement applied to the first changes nothing, because it is not the one being executed.
The map has to be built by following work rather than by asking about it. Interviews reliably produce the documented version, because that is what people believe they do.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The steps
Each thing that happens to the work, in the order it actually happens.
3 attributes: Step · Performed by · Processing time
LearnThe handovers
Every point where work passes between people, teams or systems.
3 attributes: From and to · Wait time · What is lost
LearnThe workarounds
Where people deviate from the documented process, and why.
3 attributes: Workaround · Reason · Prevalence
Learn
Treat workarounds as data, not as non-compliance. They mark where the process is wrong, found by the people who already fixed it.
The other components in process design
The time analysis
Where the elapsed time actually goes — processing against waiting — which is where the improvement opportunity nearly always sits.
LearnThe future-state design
The redesigned process, built from the real one, with each change traced to what it is meant to fix.
Learn