Process Management
Like "data," "process" is universally used and almost as universally misunderstood. We have all asked, "What's the process for...?" We are satisfied if we get an answer that sounds like a recipe.
- complete Form A and Form B
- get Form A signed by your manager
- send both forms to so and so
- someone will be in touch
In some organizations, processes are an oral tradition. Your answer will sound like, "Talk to Susie."
Process is best thought of not as what we do but HOW we do what we do. For example, "fix Thanksgiving dinner" may sound like a process if you happen to be experienced in preparing a multi-course dinner for a dozen people. For most of us, though, it is far better to picture a set of shopping lists and recipes, each of which is a process.
Processes are
at the heart of most
businesses--those
actions that we repeat over and over again every day. In the diagram at
left "Medical
Laboratory" is somewhat like "fix Thanksgiving dinner" in that it
represents a set of linked processes. It would be better to
label
the process "accession specimen" but most would not know what that
means.
This type of diagram is know as a SIPOC and is used to understand the context of a process. Process management is analogous to Data Management in that its purpose is to create definitions, relationships, processes and governance for Process. Without a formalized management and governance effort, processes will degrade over time.
It seems obvious that the way to ensure an expected level of quality in our product is to produce it the same way each and every time. That repeatable sequence of linked actions is Process. Drs. Shewhart, Deming and Juran invented and refined quality control and improvement methods based on consistently executed process. Dr. Deming's red bead experiment demonstrates clearly that it is process that is the limiting factor for quality.
Accountability without Process is known as approval.
Seeking approval cannot result in consistent, predictable and, above all, improvable quality of output.