Facilitating Cross-Functional Process Groups (Part 2 of 2)
Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.
Part 2 of 2. Read Part 1, Facilitating Cross-Functional Process Groups.
Last week we looked at the first three steps I recommend you follow when facilitating cross-functional workgroups on your Process Improvement projects. To review, these steps were:
- Step 1 – Select a visual media that supports the group's ability to rapidly collaborate and visualize CHANGE (processes and improvements).
- Step 2 – Review the project’s objectives in quantitative terms and post for all to see
- Step 3 – Develop a value-gap analysis with the group.
This week we will review steps 4 through 6. If you did not read last week’s installment, I suggest you go back and give it a quick review.
With that said, let's continue to explore some and tools and techniques that might help you model existing workflows and conceptualize improvements.
Step 4 – Develop a simple model of the existing VADS
The first pass at modeling an existing VADS is to map out the changes that happen to the object of the process as it moves between functional workgroups. An easy way to do this is to use ovals to designate workgroups and lines to show what information is moving between them. Use arrows to indicate the direction the object is being moved. For example, a sales order might go from the customer to the Order Desk and have a status of &#…
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