Benefits of Process Mapping
The benefits of process mapping your organization can be vast and, if done properly, will deliver a substantial return on investment in time, money, and effort. The following summarizes the benefits of process mapping and explains why business process mapping can become one of your most valuable continuous improvement tools.
- Visibility of your end-to-end processes – Process mapping the end-to-end processes of an organization gives employees visibility of what they do, where it fits into the overall picture, and how it impacts not only other areas of the business but also ultimately the customer. Process mapping helps employees understand where they fit within the organization and how they work as a cross-functional team, which is a great first step towards breaking down siloed working.
- Support Operational Excellence – Give employees a chance to find the answers themselves rather than asking their colleague or line manager. Process maps set out clearly what they should be doing, and can link to more detailed information on how they should do it in the form of:
- Procedures
- guidance note/work instructions
- forms
- videos
- or anything that will help the employee to do their job
These are best shared through our Nessis Inc Partner’s Visual Standard Work (VWI) processes and/or Manufacturing Execution (MES) System VWI » Nessis Inc
- Show process and activity owners – Everyone in the organization performs a process, but who is ultimately responsible and accountable for specific activities? This can either be on the process map itself or stored within it defining the Roles Accountability Matrix (RAM).
- Show compliance – Process maps can be used to show compliance to regulatory standards such as ISO, AS, etc. and IT will also serve as a valuable resource for internal/external audits.
- You can even get really specific and use information/data stored against each process map to show where the organization is compliant to specific clauses or to evidence proper controls in place using the Nessis Inc. RSM Tool (Nessis Regulatory Standards Management– High end business regulatory management software. Standards control, quotations). RSM » Nessis Inc
- Identify and mitigate risk – Process maps can be used to identify and show where Risk has been identified within the business and what controls are in place or need to be in place to mitigate the risk.
- Sharing visibility and educating employees about risk areas and controls is invaluable, as knowledgeable employees can be proactive about mitigating risks.
- Support induction and training – Process maps are also a great resource for induction and training. What a perfect way to communicate best practice through an approved process map and supports new employees adding value to the process.
- Enable business process analysis – Process maps can be used to identify and collect data on critical steps / operations, which can then be used for process analysis, through the Nessis Inc. Form Builder Tool
- A View of the Business ability to Execute – Mapped processes provide everyone in your organization with a snapshot of how you do business today (your AS IS processes) and offers a mechanism to look at how you could do business tomorrow, more efficiently.
- Aids in Managing Change and Enables Continuous Improvement – Once you have mapped your AS IS process this can be used as the baseline to look at improved ways of doing things using Value Stream Mapping for cost, total effort and wait times can be assessed to propose change that add value to the business by reducing costs, reducing duplication and improve the overall service to the customer.
This is the tip of the iceberg on process mapping benefits. We look forward to hearing from you and please contact Paul Violante at PViolante@LYNXBMG.com