🔊If you can’t describe what you do as a process, you don’t know what you are doing🔊
This is a powerhouse of a quote by W. Edwards Deming. The best way to understand a process is through process mapping. Deming and Juran were revolutionary in the manufacturing world in the early 20th century. In fact, they were instrumental in rebuilding Japan after WWII!
When I started out on my own, all I knew was a process. So, when I started helping companies, the 1st activity I would do was a process mapping session. At the time I didn’t realise how powerful it was.
🚀Great learnings
From my perspective it was a great learning activity, mapping the process step by step. When we completed the 1st draft, we would then go back over and conduct an issue analysis at every step. But even more importantly, is what happened from their perspective. It’s the 1st time they realised they are part of a chain, an end to end process! What they do has a consequence for good or bad downstream. This is transformational for them and without any involvement from me, they start working together to make it better.
See people want to do a good job, however, we have become so busy in our own bubble in work.
So much so we forget we are part of a supply chain. That’s why I love conducting process mapping sessions.
🚀Cross Functional Excellence
And this is not just about process mapping in a department, but, it applies across departments and also across suppliers and customers.
It’s not good enough to be functionally excellent, we need to be cross-functionally excellent!
And when you don’t understand the end to end process, this can’t be achieved.
Process mapping is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal in business! The businesses that have mapped all their core processes are the ones that can then
🎯 Know what works
🎯 What doesn’t
💥 And more importantly, a platform to continually improve upon
That is the goal for business!
To continually improve, and that begins with understanding your processes!
If you have any questions, please get in touch.
