January 11, 2010
The Importance of Process Mapping for Performance Initiatives
Process Mapping should be the foundation for any initiative to increase the performance of your company. Whether you are trying to achieve cost reductions, increased quality, higher employee satisfaction, increased efficiency, decreased wastes, or improvements in any other company performance metric, you should start your initiative with process mapping. To show the importance of process mapping let’s start with an example we can all relate to, writing a paper.
If you were asked to write a report drawing conclusions about the value of a particular niche in a subject that you weren’t familiar with you wouldn’t start your research with a laser focus on the niche. If you did you would inevitably wind up writing a sub par paper. You wouldn’t have an understanding of the greater context of the subject and your paper would be lacking the depth of understanding that a well written report requires. Sure you may learn everything there is to know about that niche, but how could you draw an accurate conclusion about its value without first understanding how it fits into the overall subject. Most of us, if asked to write this kind of report, would begin by looking at the overall subject and seeing how it fits into everything else around it, then exploring the interactions between the different parts of the subject, then exploring our particular niche. This way, when we draw a conclusion about the value of the niche we have been exploring, we know that the conclusion takes into account how this niche interacts with the broader picture.
Trying to take on an initiative to improve the performance of you company without first going through a process mapping exercise is like trying to write the paper by taking a laser focus on the niche. Before you can try to improve the performance of any one particular area of your company, you first have to understand how each area of your company operates internally and how the different areas interact with one another. This is why process mapping is invaluable for company performance improvement projects. With a good process map you will understand the ins and outs of each part of your company and how the work that makes your company run gets done. With this understanding you can then focus on improving particular metrics with an understanding of everything that affects that metric and is affected by it.
Targeting a performance metric and taking steps to improve it without having the context of a good process map will inevitably have negative consequences for your business. While you may be able to achieve increased performance in that area you won’t see or understand the organizational cost of those achievements. The goal of improving a performance metric is always to make the company as a whole better, and to do this you have to start from an understanding of how the company as a whole operates, which is precisely what a good process map gives you. Staring with good process mapping gives you the foundation you need to insure that your efforts to improve the performance of you company are achieved and sustained.
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