Identify the process you’d like to start working on the process has failed or is majorly underperforming due to some sort of a bottleneck.
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Process mapping is more than a ‘who does what’ visual map for your organisation. It tells a story.
By outlining roles, responsibilities, standards and response directions in detail, this method allows you to visualise the entire business process in motion. Helping you to better understand how your business works, along with identifying strengths and weaknesses.
Business process mapping makes it very easy to track and identify faults by finding out where the process was disrupted and who was involved in the error.
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Process Mapping Prevents Mistakes
Processes are the cornerstone of any business. They range wildly in complexity, and it’s essential that every person involved understands them. However, business processes can get convoluted if you are not careful. Employees can miss two or three steps, causing a ripple effect across the entire operation.
Process mapping prevents such mistakes. A process map, which is also called a process chart, functional flowchart or business flow diagram is a management tool that helps with the organisation of workflow. It lays out the specifics of a process like the steps involved, inputs, outputs and who does what.
Creating a workflow diagram helps you understand how a business process works. The steps involved, tasks needed to be performed, and which person in the team is carrying out that each task in that business process.
A process map is more than just a diagram, though.
Why Map Business Processes:
Solve Problems and Increase Efficiency
This visual tool makes it much easier to solve the problem at the root and allows the process to run smoothly and improve efficiency.
Efficiency is the biggest sell for any business owner or manager wondering about process maps.
A process involves interrelated tasks designed to achieve certain goals. For the best results, you want workers to carry out these tasks in the most efficient way possible. A flowchart about the entire process allows you to understand it better. You can pinpoint the problem areas and create solutions. The fewer hurdles that employees have to overcome along the way, the more efficiently they operate.
Also, if the people involved in the process comprehend every aspect of it, then they won’t waste time during the implementation stage. The useful data received from a process map helps with problem-solving. Businesses have different types of mapping to choose from, and they should know what’s most suitable depending on the objectives.
Try and make the exercise of mapping one particularly problematic project within your business. Identify the roles of the employees and collaborators, the tasks and the routes. Follow the story. Can you spot the problem?
Business Process Mapping Checklist
This checklist gives the steps you should think about in Business Process Mapping
Business Process Mapping Checklist
Identify The Process
Key People
Who works with the process you are trying to improve? Their input will be key and they may have ideas on how to improve the processes already.
Information
Gather information on the process you want to improve and map.
Outline Process Baseline
How the process is currently operating
Analyse & Identify Improvements
The main point of the process is to learn something from it & use that knowledge to make improvements.
Monitoring
How is the improved process functioning? Continual monitoring, refinement and optimisation of the process.
Process Mapping is not a one-time thing that will fix all of your problems but part of a continual process of improvement.
Benefits of Process Mapping
A business process flowchart makes it easy for you to establish best practices and standard operating procedures. Every time you map a process, you reduce inefficiencies, identify inadequacies and provide solutions. After a while, you craft an ideal path to follow when approaching various tasks. Now you have the best practices for a certain department, and everyone knows about them.
Proper mapping should involve every person who has anything to do with the process. If you are to know the flaws in a process, you need input from the people handling it. Collaboration does a lot in improving processes. Members of a team get to be on the same page. Showing workers that their opinions matter works wonders for morale. When it comes to collaboration, physical presence is better than digital. It gives a sense of unity, which strengthens relationships among team members.
An enterprise can enhance its onboarding significantly with process maps. When you recruit new employees, you have to train them on different processes that correspond to their responsibilities. Training can consume considerable resources, especially time and money. However, process charts save you most of this work. New workers have a checklist blueprint of how to go about various tasks.
An in-depth understanding of processes lets employees see the big picture. As you diagram the process, employees picture the end result. They have an idea of what they are working towards. People have a shared vision, and they know which roles to play to achieve it.
Work in tandem with Business Process Management
Process maps are and should be part of business process management (BPM / BPMS). The advantages that a business derives from mapping help a company refine its processes. Businesses have a host of solutions available for process mapping. Incorporating these programs into BPM simplifies decision making.