Author: Jeffrey N. Lowenthal
Many references on Six Sigma stress the importance of defining processes. All too often, practitioners on a Six Sigma project rely on flowcharts for this crucial step. Unfortunately, flowcharts only show decision points, and the steps taken to reach those decisions are overlooked, including vital departmental interactions and communication patterns. This is the focus of Defining and Analyzing a Business Process, which helps to fill the gaps found on flowcharts and provides a more complete bug-picture view of the processes. This pocket guide details a methodology on how to analyze your existing processes. The book uses two distinct approaches: first a Business Interaction Model and second an Integrated Flow Diagram. Once the analysis phase is complete, the pocket guide presents a method on how to innovate your process to optimize its operation. The book moves away from the theory and jumps headlong into a systematic approach to change. As a pocket guide, it can easily be used as a reference or as a teaching aid, and is ideal for anyone who uses processes at any level.
