Process mapping - how to create a process map step by step (with an example)

1. What is process mapping?

⚡ In one sentence

Process mapping means drawing, step by step, how a piece of work really runs in a company and who does it, in order to see where time and money are lost.

💡 In plain terms

Take a family of four with one bathroom. Everyone gets up at 6:30, they need to leave the house at 7:30, and for weeks this has not worked. Mum thinks the children are dawdling. Dad says the bathroom is to blame and a second one has to be built. Each of them has their own version, because each mainly sees their own morning.

Now let us write down on a sheet of paper what happens at home between 6:30 and 7:30: a separate row for each family member, with their activities and the times, including the minutes spent outside the bathroom door. Three things become visible at once.

• One person needs about 10 minutes in the bathroom, so it is occupied without a break from 6:30 to 7:10. The children, who according to Mum are dawdling, go in last and wait 20 and 30 minutes for their turn.
• The kitchen stays empty until 7:10. Then all four want to make sandwiches and eat breakfast at the same time.
• Between 7:15 and 7:25 the family searches for the PE kit, the keys and the school trip permission slip, which a parent still has to sign while already wearing a coat. None of these activities has to happen in the morning.

A second bathroom is not needed. It is enough for the family to get up one after another, 10 minutes apart, the first person at 6:30 and the last at 7:00, and whoever finishes in the bathroom goes straight to the kitchen. School bags, PE kit and the signed slip are prepared the evening before. The family leaves at 7:30, nobody waits at the door, and the children sleep 20 and 30 minutes longer.

In this story the bathroom is the bottleneck, the place that sets the pace of the whole morning. How to organize the rest of the work so that it loses no time there is described by the Theory of Constraints (TOC). Mapping comes one step earlier: it shows where the problem lies before anyone starts solving it.

In a company, the family members are the departments. The bathroom may be the person who approves every invoice or the machine every order has to pass through, and the permission slip may be a contract waiting for the CEO's signature. Each department knows its own stretch and looks for the cause of delays next door. The map puts the whole flow on one drawing and lets you check where the time actually goes.

We map a process as it really runs (as-is), not as the work instruction describes it or as we imagine it. Changes are designed only on the basis of that picture.

Business process mapping is used in sales, purchasing, production, logistics, finance and HR (Human Resources), wherever a case passes through several people or departments.

🔧 Deep dive

The first standardized notation was described by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth in the paper "Process Charts", presented to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 1921. Many variants have appeared since then, but each of them answers the same questions:

• What triggers the process (start event) and how does it end (result)?
• Which steps make up the process and in what order?
• Who performs each step (person, department, system)?
• Where are decisions made and what are the variants?
• How long does it take, meaning the working time and the waiting time between steps?

ISO 9001:2015 (clause 4.4) requires an organization to determine the processes of its quality management system, their sequence and their interaction. A process map is one way to document this.

2. Why map processes?

⚡ In one sentence

The map points to specific losses, such as waiting, entering the same data twice or bottlenecks, and gives everyone a shared picture on which to base a decision about change, instead of relying on gut feeling.

💡 In plain terms

The map reveals five kinds of loss:

• Waiting time - a document sits in a queue longer than it takes to process it.
• Double work - the same data typed by hand into two or three systems.
• Bottlenecks - a person or workstation that everything has to pass through (e.g. a CEO who signs every contract).
• Rework loops - returns, follow-up questions and corrections that officially do not exist.
• Steps without an owner - moments when nobody feels responsible for passing the case on.

The map makes cooperation between departments easier. When sales, the warehouse and accounting look at the same wall of sticky notes, it is easier to talk about causes than about culprits, because everyone can see that the delay arises at the handover between teams.

It also helps decide which steps to hand over to a system (automation, artificial intelligence) and which to remove first.

🔧 Deep dive

Lean measures the share of value-adding time in the total lead time. This indicator is called Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE), and we show how to calculate it in section 5. Only activities a customer would be willing to pay for count as value-adding: producing, packing, delivering. Waiting, moving, checking and correcting are waste (muda) or necessary work that means nothing to the customer.

In office work this share tends to be low: handling a case takes minutes, while its journey through the company takes days (example in section 5). In such a process, cutting waiting time achieves more than speeding up the work itself, and an organizational change costs less than a new system. We describe hidden rework and workarounds in more detail as the "hidden factory" in the article What is business process optimization?

3. The company process map - from overview to detail

⚡ In one sentence

A company process map is always built from the overview down to the detail: first the general flow of work from start to finish, then the split into people and departments and the decisions along the way, and finally each step with its time, cost and losses.

💡 In plain terms

Each level answers a different question:

• General flow - where the case comes from, which main stages it goes through, how it ends and who receives the result. This level sets the boundaries of the process. A SIPOC table helps here. Its name comes from the first letters of its five columns: Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customers.
• Who does what - the same flow split into people and departments. Each team gets its own lane, like a lane in a swimming pool, hence the name swimlane. Such a map shows where the case changes hands and where work gets stuck.
• Decisions and variants - what happens when data is missing, the customer changes the order or an amount exceeds a limit. These are recorded with BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation), an international diagram standard that is useful above all when the process is to be implemented in a system or automated.
• Detailed breakdown - each step with its working time, waiting time, volume, cost and losses. Only at this level can you see how much money the process consumes and how much can be gained.

The format is secondary. A map can be made of sticky notes on a wall, in Word, in Excel or in a diagramming tool (overview in the section on tools). What matters is that the whole flow ends up in one place and the people involved confirm that this is how it works in practice.

When a team starts with the details, the discussion gets stuck on individual clicks in the system before anyone sees where the main loss lies.

"At a logistics company we started with SIPOC. We wanted to see how the company worked and check whether what the head of the department pointed to was really the source of the trouble. And so it turned out: time was being lost on manual work between systems. After the first conversation we already had a better understanding of the process, a reference point and confirmation of where the problem lay.

At the next meeting we went one level down, to a swimlane map. We needed two things: who is involved in the process, so that we could fit the IT solution, and how much time each task takes today, so that we could calculate the ROI."

- Karol Jurewicz, process optimization, cm-opti

Based on this map we designed a connection between the Transport Management System (TMS) and automatic capture of scans and emails. Handling a single document went from minutes to seconds, and only cases outside the known pattern are processed by hand (case description).

Which figures to collect in order to calculate the return on investment (ROI) is described in step 6 of the instructions below.

🔧 Deep dive

In production and logistics, the detailed level corresponds to the value stream map (VSM, Value Stream Mapping), which shows not only the steps but also inventory, cycle times and changeover times (more in the section on mapping production processes).

The same principle works at the scale of the whole organization. An overview of all processes (management, core and support processes) is the highest level of generality, from which you work your way down. It is useful when sorting out responsibilities, for ISO 9001 certification or when preparing to implement an ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning) that connects sales, warehouse and finance, but losses and savings only become visible in the detailed breakdown.

4. How to create a process map step by step

⚡ In one sentence

Choose one process, define where it starts and ends, gather the people who perform it, follow it on site, draw the current state, measure the times, mark the problems and only at the end design the target version.

💡 In plain terms

With the following eight steps you can prepare a map with your team within a few days. You do not need special software: a wall, sticky notes and a marker are enough to begin with.

Step 1: Choose the process and define its boundaries.

Start with what hurts most: returns, delays or overtime. Name the process with a verb and a noun ("handle an order", "receive a delivery"). Write down what triggers it (e.g. "a complaint arrives") and how it ends (e.g. "the customer has received a decision and the credit note is booked"). Without clear boundaries the map grows endlessly.

Step 2: Gather the right people.

Invite one person from each department the process passes through, and make it someone who does the work every day rather than someone who only manages it. Appoint a process owner, the person responsible for the whole flow from start to finish. In the workshop the manager listens more than he or she speaks. It is worth handing the facilitation to someone outside the process, for example a person from another department or an external consultant. The facilitator does not defend any version, keeps an eye on the time and asks for specific cases from the last few days ("Show me how yesterday's complaint was handled"). A question without an example ends with a description from the work instruction.

Step 3: Start with the general flow.

Before you go into detail, write down where the case comes from, which 5-7 main stages it goes through, how it ends and who receives the result. Sticky notes on a wall or a list in Word are enough. If you prefer a ready-made template, use the SIPOC table described in section 3. This takes about 30 minutes and keeps you from getting lost in details.

Step 4: Observe the work where it happens.

Follow one real case, e.g. a specific complaint or order from last week, from start to finish. See where the document physically lies, in which system it is entered and to whom it is passed. In Lean this is called "gemba" (the place where value is created). Ask: "What do you do when something is missing?". The answers reveal unofficial workarounds.

Step 5: Draw the current-state map (as-is).

Divide the wall into horizontal lanes (swimlanes), one for each department or role. Each step is one sticky note with a verb ("checks stock", "retypes into ERP"). Mark decisions with a diamond. Arrows show handovers. Draw what is, even if it looks bad.

Step 6: Measure working time and waiting time.

For each step, write down how long the work itself takes and how long the case waits before that step. At the diagnosis stage the team's estimates are enough. If the map is to be used to calculate the ROI, you also need measurements and cost data:

• Volume - how many documents or orders pass through the step per month.
• Handling time per item - measured on a sample of a dozen or so cases or read from timestamps in the system.
• Exception rate - how many cases do not fit the standard path. This figure determines how much of the work a system can take over and how much stays with people.
• Cost of errors and rework - re-entries, corrections, complaints.
• Hourly labour cost of the people performing the step.

Also note how the systems exchange data today: via an API (Application Programming Interface), file export or manual retyping. This determines whether an integration is enough or whether document capture or an RPA robot (Robotic Process Automation), a script that repeats an employee's clicks, is needed.

Step 7: Mark the problems and their causes.

Mark in red the places where work waits, where data is retyped by hand, where rework loops occur and where decisions require "follow-up questions". For the biggest problems, ask "why?" five times to get to the cause instead of stopping at the symptom.

Step 8: Design the target state (to-be) and a plan of changes.

Only now draw how things should be. For each step ask: can it be eliminated, combined with another, rearranged or simplified? The difference between the as-is and the to-be map produces the list of changes. Each change gets an owner, a deadline and a measure of success.

🔧 Deep dive

The questions in step 8 follow the ECRS principle (Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, Simplify), used in industrial engineering and Lean. The order matters: first check whether a step is needed at all, and only at the end how to simplify or automate it.

Basic map symbols, shared by flowcharts and simplified BPMN:

A simple map drawn with the team in one day gives more than a polished BPMN diagram prepared by one person in a week, because it is built from the knowledge of the people who do the work. Formal notation becomes useful later, when the process is to be implemented in a system or automated.

5. Process map example: order handling in a B2B company

⚡ In one sentence

In the order handling example, the work itself takes 85 minutes, while the whole journey through the company takes about seven working days; the rest is waiting.

💡 In plain terms

Below is a simplified as-is map in swimlane format. The process runs through four lanes: customer, sales, warehouse and accounting. The example concerns a wholesaler that supplies other businesses (B2B, business-to-business); in make-to-order production and in services the stages are similar: accepting the order, checking whether it can be fulfilled, fulfilment and invoicing. The figures are illustrative.

Once a time is added to every step, the picture becomes clear:

Work on the order takes 85 minutes, the whole flow about 7 working days. For more than 97% of that time nothing happens to it. No single step takes long, and yet the customer receives a confirmation after about 6 hours and the invoice only after 7 working days.

What the to-be map could look like:

1. Invoices every day, not once a week. An organizational change, no new system required. Waiting before invoicing drops from several days to a few hours.
2. Stock levels visible to sales in the ERP. Instead of calling the warehouse, the salesperson checks availability right away. Granting permissions in the ERP or a simple stock report may be enough.
3. Orders reach the system without retyping. A customer form, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or automatic reading of emails (OCR and NLP, Optical Character Recognition and Natural Language Processing) with integration into the ERP.
4. The invoice is generated automatically once shipment is confirmed. The last step, once the previous ones run smoothly.

The first two changes require no investment and cut waiting by several days. Technology comes in only when it is clear which step it is to replace and what effect it is to deliver.

🔧 Deep dive

A map like this lets you calculate Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE). It shows for what part of a case's total time in the company someone is actually working on it. In the example the work takes 85 minutes and the whole flow 7 working days, i.e. about 3,360 minutes (7 × 8 hours). PCE is therefore about 2.5%, and that assumes every one of those 85 minutes adds value for the customer. Cutting the wait for the invoice from 5 days to 1 would raise PCE to about 6%, although nobody would be working any faster.

There is also a financial side, because the payment term starts on the invoice date. With sales of EUR 500,000 a month, each day of delay means on average almost EUR 16,700 reaching the bank account later. The map therefore also shows tied-up working capital.

6. Types of process maps: flowchart, swimlane, SIPOC, BPMN, VSM

⚡ In one sentence

The type of map depends on the purpose: SIPOC to define the scope, flowchart and swimlane for diagnosis, BPMN for implementation in a system, VSM for production and logistics.

💡 In plain terms

The order of the levels, from general flow to detail, is described in section 3. VSM is used where material flows.

🔧 Deep dive

BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is a standard maintained by the Object Management Group. Version 2.0 was published in 2011, and two years later it was adopted as the ISO/IEC 19510 standard. A major advantage of BPMN is that a model can be executed directly by workflow engines such as Camunda, which shortens the way from model to automation.

VSM (Value Stream Mapping) originates from the Toyota Production System. It was popularized by Mike Rother and John Shook in the book "Learning to See" (Lean Enterprise Institute, 1998). Unlike the other notations, VSM covers the flow of material and the flow of information in parallel, i.e. how a workstation knows what to do and when.

7. Mapping production processes

⚡ In one sentence

A production process is mapped with VSM: backwards from shipment to the customer, through each operation, to the raw material store, recording for each operation its cycle time, changeover time and the inventory waiting in front of it.

💡 In plain terms

Two streams flow through production in parallel: material (from raw material to finished product) and information (how each workstation knows what to make and when). The map shows both, because the cause of delays may lie in the information flow, e.g. in a schedule that is changed by hand.

For each operation, the following is recorded in a so-called data box:

• cycle time (C/T) - how many seconds pass between two items leaving the operation,
• changeover time (C/O) - how long it takes to switch to a different product,
• availability - what percentage of the time the machine actually runs,
• number of operators and shifts,
• scrap and rework - what share of products needs reprocessing or ends up as scrap.

Between operations, inventory triangles are drawn with the number of items waiting. Dividing inventory by daily demand shows how many days a product waits between operations, compared with the few minutes the processing itself takes.

On the shop-floor map, look for four things: a schedule built by hand in a spreadsheet and changed by phone, long changeovers that force large batches, a workstation with a growing pile of inventory in front of it, and quality control only at the end of the line, where defects are already expensive to fix. Where manual inspection slows the flow of products, a vision system (computer vision) helps. We describe OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and the SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) and TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) methods in the article Production optimization.

🔧 Deep dive

Two figures worth calculating on every VSM map:

• Takt time = available working time / customer demand. With two shifts of 7.5 hours (54,000 seconds) and demand of 900 items a day, takt time is 60 seconds. An operation with a cycle time of 75 seconds is a bottleneck, because it cannot keep up with the customer.
• Lead time caused by inventory = inventory / daily demand. If 1,800 items sit in front of assembly and the customer takes 900 a day, each product waits there 2 days on average. This is a practical application of Little's law.

The creators of VSM recommend drawing the first map by hand, in pencil, walking through the shop floor from shipping towards raw materials. Moving "upstream" forces you to look at the process from the customer's perspective rather than from that of individual workstations.

8. Mapping logistics processes

⚡ In one sentence

In logistics, two things are mapped in parallel: the path of the goods through the warehouse (receiving, storage, picking, packing, shipping) and the flow of documents, on paper or electronic, without which the goods cannot move on.

💡 In plain terms

Both flows are drawn on one map because they depend on each other. A delivery that nobody announced in advance (advance shipping notice) waits at the gate, and a packed order cannot leave until the warehouse has booked the goods issue and the consignment note has been created. A map of the movement of goods alone will not show such stoppages. Document names and how they circulate differ from company to company, so the map records the ones the team actually uses.

Warehouse processes can be divided into five blocks. For each of them, ask about the document, the system and the waiting time:

1. Receiving - delivery notification, unloading, quantity and quality check, booking the goods into stock, assigning a storage location.
2. Storage - putaway, replenishing the picking zone, stocktaking.
3. Picking - pick list, route through the warehouse, confirmation in the system.
4. Packing - checking the contents, labels, shipping documents.
5. Shipping - booking the goods issue, consignment note (CMR for international transport), ordering transport, loading, notifying the customer.

On this map, look for manual transfer of data from one system to another, discrepancies between the records and what is actually on the shelf, urgent orders "by phone" that disrupt planned picking, and warehouse workers' routes that cross unnecessarily.

Examples from our projects: TMS integration with automatic document capture, comparing shelves with ERP stock levels and demand forecasting and distribution optimization.

🔧 Deep dive

In intralogistics, a spaghetti diagram is useful: on a warehouse floor plan, a line traces the actual route of a worker while picking several orders. Tangled lines show how much movement adds no value and are the starting point for relocating goods, e.g. according to an ABC analysis (the most frequently picked items closest to the shipping area).

It is also worth adding indicators: time from unloading to availability in the system (dock-to-stock), order lead time, picking accuracy, order lines picked per hour and the share of deliveries that arrive complete and on time (OTIF, On Time In Full). Without them it is hard to prove later that a change has worked.

9. Process mapping tools

⚡ In one sentence

For a workshop a wall and sticky notes are enough, for documentation an online whiteboard or a diagramming tool, and for reconstructing the real flow from system data - process mining.

💡 In plain terms

• Sticky notes and brown paper - good for workshops, because participants move the steps themselves and do not wait for "the person with the software" to draw a correction.
• Online whiteboards (e.g. Miro, Mural) - when the team works remotely or at several locations.
• Diagramming tools (e.g. Microsoft Visio, draw.io, Lucidchart) - for clean, versioned documentation of the map.
• BPMN modelers (e.g. Camunda Modeler, Bizagi Modeler) - when the map is to go into a workflow system or serve as the basis for automation.
• Process mining (e.g. Celonis, SAP Signavio, Microsoft Power Automate Process Mining) - when the process runs through an ERP or CRM system (Customer Relationship Management) and you want to see all its real variants.

Choose the tool last. Software will draw the diagram, but you will find out why an invoice sits on a desk for three days by talking to the team.

🔧 Deep dive

Process mining reconstructs a process map from an event log, in which each entry has three elements: a case ID (e.g. the order number), the name of the activity and a timestamp. An algorithm assembles all the variants of the flow from them. A process that has one variant in the workshop may have dozens in the system data.

The limitation: process mining only sees what leaves a trace in a system. Phone calls, emails, spreadsheets and sticky notes on the monitor remain invisible, and delays arise there too, e.g. when a decision is made by phone and never recorded. That is why this method complements conversations with people but does not replace them. The same goes for AI: a language model can help transcribe interviews and prepare a first draft of the map, but the result has to be checked with the team.

10. Process mapping mistakes

⚡ In one sentence

A map loses its value when it shows the process as it should be, when it is made without the people who do the work, or when it lacks figures on losses.

💡 In plain terms

• An ideal map instead of the real one. A work instruction transferred to a diagram will reveal nothing.
• Mapping without the people who do the work. A manager knows the process from reports, an employee from daily practice. Both are needed.
• Too broad a scope. Trying to map the whole company at once wears the team out before the first results appear.
• Details first. Writing down every click in the system before the team has seen the general flow and the split into departments hides the overall picture.
• No measurement. A map without working time and waiting time shows the order of the steps, but not where the money goes.
• Looking for culprits. If the workshop turns into holding employees to account, at the next meeting you will only hear the work-instruction version.
• A map in the drawer. Without a process owner and a list of changes with deadlines, mapping remains an exercise.
• Automation before tidying up. Automating a mess gives you a faster mess.

🔧 Deep dive

A process map is a living document. Date it, keep the as-is and to-be versions side by side, and come back to it with every major change: a new system, a reorganization, winning a key customer. With many participants, a RACI matrix is a good addition: for each step it defines who does the work (Responsible), who is answerable for the result (Accountable), who is consulted (Consulted) and who is kept informed (Informed).

11. What comes after process mapping? From map to optimization and automation

⚡ In one sentence

After mapping, choose a few problems with the greatest impact and the least effort, remove unnecessary steps, simplify the rest, set a standard and measure the effect, and only then automate what remains.

💡 In plain terms

1. Priorities. Place the problems from the map on an impact/effort matrix. Start with those that bring a big effect at low cost.
2. Quick organizational changes. A fixed time for approvals, daily invoicing, access to information without phone calls. Such changes require no investment.
3. Standard. The new flow written down briefly: who does what and within what time. The team works from checklists instead of memory.
4. Automation. Repetitive, rule-based steps with digital data and high volume are handed over to a system (process automation, integration, document capture).
5. Measurement. The indicators from the map (lead time, error rate, volume) go into a regular report or a chart dashboard (BI dashboard, Business Intelligence), so that the process does not slip back into old habits.

The process map also shows which steps are not suitable for simple automation because they require human judgement: classifying unusual documents, answering unstructured enquiries, deciding with incomplete data. This is where artificial intelligence helps, in a specific, mapped step of the process.

🔧 Deep dive

Four to eight weeks after the changes have been implemented, it is worth mapping the process again and comparing three figures: lead time, PCE and the share of cases that need rework. On this basis you can calculate the return on the optimization and decide on the next step. We write more about key performance indicators (KPI), ROI and methods such as Lean or Six Sigma in the article What is business process optimization?

At cm-opti, a project starts with drawing the process together with the client's team, using orders and cases from the last few weeks as examples. Only on this basis do we point out what to reorganize, what to automate and where AI will deliver a measurable effect.

- The cm-opti perspective

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What is process mapping?

It is drawing, step by step, how a piece of work runs in a company: who does it, which decisions are made, which documents and systems are used and where delays occur. The aim is to see the real flow and the places where time is lost.

How do you create a process map step by step?

In eight steps: choosing the process and its boundaries, gathering the team, writing down the general flow, following a real case on site, mapping the current state in departmental lanes, measuring working time and waiting time, marking the problems and designing the target version with a list of changes.

Where should a company process map start?

With the general flow: where the case comes from, which main stages it goes through and how it ends. It can be written on sticky notes, in Word or in a SIPOC table. Then it is split into people and departments (swimlane map), decisions and variants are added (BPMN), and finally each step is broken down with its working time, waiting time, costs and losses.

What types of process maps are there?

The options are: flowchart, swimlane map split by department, SIPOC to define the scope, BPMN as a formal notation for implementation in systems, and VSM (value stream map) in production and logistics.

How do you map production and logistics processes?

Production processes are mapped with VSM, working from shipping back towards raw materials and recording cycle and changeover times, availability and inventory between operations. In logistics the map covers two streams in parallel: goods (receiving, storage, picking, packing, shipping) and the flow of documents, from the delivery notification to the consignment note, and the warehouse worker's route can be shown on a spaghetti diagram.

Which process mapping tools should you choose?

For workshops, sticky notes and a wall work best. For documentation you can use online whiteboards (Miro, Mural) or diagramming tools (Visio, draw.io, Lucidchart), for automation BPMN modelers (Camunda, Bizagi), and to analyse the real flow from ERP data, process mining tools. The tool is chosen at the end, not at the beginning.

How long does process mapping take and who should take part?

Mapping a single process takes a workshop of about 2-4 hours plus 1-3 days to collect data and prepare the map. Participants are the people who do the work every day (one from each department), the process owner and the workshop facilitator.

What comes after mapping a process?

First, a few changes with high impact and low cost are selected, mainly organizational ones. Then a new standard is set and the effect is measured, and only at the end are repetitive steps automated. After 4-8 weeks it is worth mapping the process again and comparing the lead time.

First step

Choose one process that generates complaints, delays or overtime. Invite one person from each department involved to the first meeting and together draw the general flow: where the case comes from, which stages it goes through and how it ends. This is enough to check whether the problem lies where the team leader thinks it does. At the second meeting, break the same flow down into people and departments, with working time and waiting time for each step. Such a map produces the first list of changes and the ROI calculation.

Would you like to map a key process in your company with us? Let's talk - the first conversation is free of charge.

Related articles in the cm-opti Knowledge base

• What is business process optimization?
• Production optimization - methods, examples and automation
• What is business process automation?
• What is systems integration?
• What are OCR and NLP, and how does AI read documents?
• What is data analysis and BI?
• What is computer vision?
• Case: reporting automation - from 2.5 days to 2 hours
• Case: TMS integration and automatic document capture

Concepts explained in this article → Glossary

Process mapping, process map, company process map, as-is, to-be, swimlane, SIPOC, BPMN, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), flowchart, gemba, ECRS, 5 Whys, lead time, cycle time, changeover time, takt time, Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE), spaghetti diagram, ABC analysis, OTIF, process mining, process owner, RACI

Sources and references

• Frank B. Gilbreth, Lillian M. Gilbreth, "Process Charts", paper presented to ASME, 1921 - Wikipedia: Flowchart (history)
• Object Management Group, Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) 2.0, 2011 - omg.org
• ISO/IEC 19510:2013, Object Management Group Business Process Model and Notation - iso.org
• ISO 9001:2015, Quality management systems - Requirements, clause 4.4 - iso.org
• Mike Rother, John Shook, "Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate Muda", Lean Enterprise Institute, 1998
• SIPOC - Wikipedia: SIPOC
• Process mining - Wikipedia: Process mining