Modeling A Process Part II

Think of this like a doctor’s office or restaurant. You have everyone come through the door and up to a certain point they all follow the same process but afterwards they go in different paths. It’s important to note all the value streams (the possible combinations of flow for specific outcomes that the customer wants) that can happen and then make them work together. For instance in a restaurant some possible outcomes might be satisfying meal, fun happy hour, great atmosphere and food to impress a client, etc. Each one of these outcomes is really the value your restaurant offers the customer and each outcome may have a different value stream.

Think of a manufacturing facility where you have multiple ways of taking an order and you have clients like large businesses, individuals, and the government. They all have different processes on both inbound and outbound and may even have different processes int he middle. Again you have to define your value streams so you can begin to see what the customer values and how you can maximize the results not your metrics.

So how do you tackle making the processes better. Once you define your value streams then you simple start working on eliminating waste, increasing flow, remove overburdening, and make sure you have a culture of continuous improvement. Most businesses are aligned by silos and not by value streams. Just changing that will shift your thinking on how you service the customers.

Imagine if a doctor got paid on the result of the care instead of the test he/she ran. How would we change the way we practice medicine? How would hospitals and doctor’s offices change their practices?