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Map a process

A process map shows the input, the steps and who does them, the handoffs where work changes hands, the waits between steps and the outcome; elapsed time is the work plus the waits.

Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.

1. What you will learn

You will map a process as its input, steps, handoffs, waits and outcome, put its steps in order, draw who hands the job to whom, and work out how long a job takes from start to finish.

2. What you already have

The first three courses were about money and customers. This one is about delivering: doing the work the customer was promised, the same way every time. It starts by drawing the work out of the owner's head and onto paper.

3. Words for this lesson

4. Steps, handoffs, waits and an outcome

Ask Dev how a repair works and he will say 'you bring it in, I fix it'. Watch a bike go through the shop and there are six steps: check in and tag, inspect and estimate, phone the customer for approval, repair, test-ride, hand back and take payment. There are handoffs, as the counter passes the bike to the mechanic and back, and there are waits: the bike sits in the rack before anybody touches it, and again waiting for the test ride.

A process map shows all four things, in order:

• the input it starts from and the outcome it exists to produce;
• each step, with who does it;
• each handoff, because that is where information gets lost, such as the dietary note that does not reach the cook or the tag that falls off;
• each wait, with how long it lasts.

Drawn this way, a process can be taught to someone new, checked when it goes wrong, and improved on purpose instead of by accident.

5. Most of the time is waiting

Add up that map. The working steps take 6 + 35 + 14 = 55 minutes. The waits take 120 + 25 = 145 minutes. The customer experiences 200 minutes, and almost three quarters of it is the bike sitting still.

This is the most useful thing a first process map shows, and it is true in almost every small business: a lunch order that takes 12 minutes to cook waits 20 for the driver; an apartment clean of two hours is wrapped in a drive and an inspection wait. Owners who want to be faster usually try to make the work quicker. The map shows that removing a wait, such as booking the test ride straight after the repair or loading the van the night before, often saves more time than any amount of hurrying, and costs less.

6. The method, step by step, and how to check it

Name the input and the outcome. One line each: 'a phone order' and 'the right lunch at the right office by 12:15'. The outcome tells you when the process is finished.

Follow one real job. Watch it, or walk through it with whoever does the work, from input to outcome. Write each step as a short verb phrase, with who does it.

Mark the handoffs. Every time the job moves between people, draw an arrow and note what has to travel with it: the tag, the dietary note, the approved price.

Time the waits. A clock or a phone timer is enough. Note when the job is sitting still and for how long.

Add it up. Working time, waiting time, elapsed time.

Check the map. Hand it to someone who does not know the work and ask them to talk you through a job using only the map. Every place they get stuck is a missing step or handoff. Then check the arithmetic: the working time plus the waiting time must equal the time from the job's arrival to its outcome on the clock.

7. Why each step is allowed

Following one real job, rather than describing the process from memory, is needed because memory leaves out the waits and the handoffs. The owner remembers doing the work, not watching the bike sit in the rack.

Adding working time and waiting time to get elapsed time is allowed because the stages follow one another: the job cannot be in two stages at once. If two things truly happen at the same time, such as packing while the oven runs, only the longer one counts toward elapsed time.

Marking handoffs separately from steps is allowed because a handoff is not work; it is a moment of risk. Nothing is added to the job, but something can be lost from it, which is why the map gives handoffs their own mark.

8. Where handoffs go wrong

Most mistakes in a small business happen at handoffs, not in the work itself. The cook makes the lunch perfectly but never saw the note about the nut allergy. The mechanic does a fine repair on the wrong bike because the tag fell off in the rack. The cleaner does a thorough clean of an apartment but misses the oven the tenant specifically asked about on the phone.

The map makes these places visible, and the fix is usually simple: decide what must travel with the job at each handoff, and make it physically travel with it. A ticket clipped to the bike, the dietary note printed on the order slip that goes with the food, the client's requests written on the job card the cleaner carries. Fewer handoffs also help: every one that can be removed is one less place to drop something.

9. Keep the map simple

A process map is a working tool, not a diagram to frame. One line per step, one per wait, a column for who does each and one for minutes is enough for most small businesses. A sheet of paper on the wall or a short table in a shared document can be updated in minutes when the process changes.

Resist drawing every exception. Map the usual path first: the bike that needs a standard repair, the lunch order with no special requests. Note the common exceptions underneath in a line each, such as 'if parts must be ordered, add a wait of one to three days'. A map that tries to show every possible path becomes too complicated for anyone to use, and then nobody does.

10. What a map is for

A process map earns its place in three ways. It lets someone new learn the work without the owner standing beside them all day. It shows where things go wrong, because each complaint can be traced to a step, a handoff or a wait. And it shows where time goes, so improvements can be chosen on evidence rather than on what feels slow.

The next lessons build on the map. The standard-work lesson writes down how each step is done so it comes out the same every time. The quality lessons check the outcome against a standard. The capacity lessons use the step times to work out how many jobs fit in a day. All of them start from the same picture: the work, drawn out of the owner's head.

11. Mapping with the people who do the work

The best map is drawn with the people who do the work, not for them. The cook knows the order sits on the pass while she finishes another; the driver knows which offices keep him waiting at reception. Ask each person to walk through their part, in their own words, and write it down as they say it.

This has two benefits. The map is more accurate, because it includes the small steps and waits the owner never sees. And the people who helped draw it are more likely to follow it and to suggest improvements, because it describes their work as they know it. When the map is finished, read it back to them and ask one question: is this how it really happens? Their corrections are the most useful part of the exercise. Put the date on the map, and redraw it whenever the work changes, so the picture on the wall is always the real one.

12. In the world: a Milwaukee print shop finds its lost day

A small print shop in Milwaukee promised business cards in three working days and often took five. The owner assumed the press was too slow and priced a second one. Before buying it, she followed ten orders through the shop with a clipboard.

The map was surprising. The actual printing and cutting took about 40 minutes an order. But each order waited a day in the email inbox before anyone checked the file, another day for the customer to approve a proof, and often a day in the finished tray because nobody told the customer it was ready. Of roughly five days elapsed, less than an hour was work.

She made three changes, none of which cost much. Files were checked the hour they arrived. Proofs went out with a one-click approval link and a phone reminder that afternoon. Finished orders triggered a text to the customer at once. Orders began going out in two days, the second press was never bought, and the money went into a part-time counter assistant instead.

13. In the world: value stream mapping

Large manufacturers use a version of this lesson's map called a value stream map, which separates the time a product is being worked on from the time it waits. Studies in many industries find the working time is often a small fraction of the total, which is why removing waits is a common first improvement in businesses of every size.

14. Where this goes wrong

The owner knows the process, so it doesn't need drawing. Until someone else has to do it, or it goes wrong.

Only the work matters. The waits are usually most of the time.

A handoff is just passing something along. It is the place information is most often lost.

A process is a list of tasks. It is tasks in order, with who does each and what it produces.

To be faster, work faster. Removing a wait often saves more.

15. Monica's Saturday setup

1. Name the input and outcome.

   $\text{van of stock} \to \text{stall ready by eight}$

   The map's purpose.

2. Note the first wait.

   $\text{gates open for vans: 20 minutes}$

   Nothing happens to the stall.

3. List the steps.

   $\text{unload; tables; lay out; price}$

   All done by Monica.

4. Time the steps.

   $15 + 10 + 25 + 10 = 60$

   Working minutes.

5. Add the elapsed time.

   $60 + 20 = 80$

   Arrive by twenty to seven.

16. Neighborhood Kitchen maps a catering order

1. Name the input and outcome.

   $\text{a phone order} \to \text{lunch at the office by 12:15}$

   Start and finish first.

2. List the handoffs.

   $\text{owner} \to \text{cook} \to \text{packer} \to \text{driver}$

   Three inside the kitchen.

3. Note what must travel.

   $\text{the dietary note, on the order slip}$

   At every handoff.

4. Time the steps.

   $12 + 5 + 15 = 32$

   Cook, pack, drive.

5. Time the wait.

   $20 \text{ minutes packed, waiting for the driver}$

   The food sits still.

6. Remove the wait.

   $\text{pack just before the driver returns}$

   Twenty minutes saved, nobody hurried.

17. Northside Repairs maps a repair

1. Name the input and outcome.

   $\text{a broken bike} \to \text{ridden home working}$

   The purpose.

2. Follow one bike and list the steps.

   $\text{tag; estimate; approve; repair; test; hand back}$

   Six steps.

3. Mark the handoffs.

   $\text{counter} \to \text{mechanic} \to \text{counter}$

   Two, with the tag traveling.

4. Add the working time.

   $6 + 35 + 14 = 55$

   Minutes of work.

5. Add the waits.

   $120 + 25 = 145$

   Minutes sitting still.

6. Find the elapsed time.

   $55 + 145 = 200$

   Nearly three quarters waiting.

7. Choose where to improve.

   $\text{test ride straight after the repair}$

   A wait removed.

18. Your turn: Bright Home Cleaning's move-out job

1. Name the input and outcome.

   $\text{a vacated apartment} \to \text{passes inspection}$

   The purpose of the job.

2. List the steps and waits.

   $\text{load; drive (wait); clean; client check (wait); walk-through}$

   Three steps, two waits.

3. Your turn: work this step out. Its working is at the end of the packet.

   Find the elapsed time: 15, 40, 150, 20, 15 minutes.

19. Guided practice

Put the steps of a bike repair at Northside Repairs in the order they happen.

Number the steps in order (write the number in the box):

• Check the bike in and tag it
• Inspect it and write an estimate
• Phone the customer for approval
• Do the repair
• Test-ride the bike
• Hand it back and take payment

20. Guided practice

Complete the worked solution: a Neighborhood Kitchen catering order is cooked in $11$ minutes, waits $24$ minutes for the driver, is driven for $21$ minutes, and waits $9$ minutes at reception before someone collects it. Find the working time, the waiting time and the elapsed time, in minutes.

1. Find the working time.

   $(\text{cooking}) + (\text{driving}) =$ _a

   The stages where something is done to the order.

2. Find the waiting time.

   $(\text{wait for driver}) + (\text{wait at reception}) =$ _b

   The stages where nothing is done to it.

3. Find the elapsed time.

   $(\text{working}) + (\text{waiting}) =$ _t

   What the customer experiences.

4. Say where to look for time.

   $\text{the waits first}$

   Removing a wait needs nobody to hurry.

21. Guided practice

Maya describes how a café order moves through her studio. Mark every sentence that is a handoff.

This task has no paper form; do it on a device.

22. Practice

At Neighborhood Kitchen a catering order is taken by the owner, passed to the cook, then to the packer, then to the driver, who delivers it to the customer. Draw each handoff with 'passes to'.

This task has no paper form; do it on a device.

23. Practice

A bike at Northside Repairs is checked in in $7$ minutes, then waits $88$ minutes for the mechanic, is repaired in $23$ minutes, waits $39$ minutes to be test-ridden, and is test-ridden in $10$ minutes. How many minutes pass from arrival to ready? Fill in each figure on the sheet.

24. Practice

An auto glass shop in Phoenix maps a windshield job: inspect the car ($1$ hour), wait for the glass to arrive ($23$ hours), fit the glass ($4$ hours), wait for the adhesive to cure ($1$ hours), and calibrate the camera ($1$ hour). The shop starts ordering the glass when the job is booked, so it is there when the car arrives. How many hours does the job now take from arrival to ready?

Answer:

25. Somewhere new

A dry cleaner is mapping how a suit is cleaned. Match each item to what it is on the map.

26. Lesson test

Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.

27. Test question

A Bright Home Cleaning job: loading the van takes $14$ minutes, the drive is $48$ minutes of waiting for the client's slot and traffic, the clean takes $124$ minutes, waiting for the client to inspect takes $15$ minutes, and the walk-through takes $11$ minutes. Fill in the working time, the waiting time and the elapsed time, in minutes.

28. What you can do now

You can draw a process so that someone else could follow it and see where the time goes. Tell someone why removing a wait can beat working faster. Next: writing a step down so it comes out the same every time.

Working for the steps left to you

18. Your turn: Bright Home Cleaning's move-out job, step 3