Process mapping is about communicating your process to others so that you achieve your management objectives.  You can build stronger communication and understanding with process maps.

Seven Types of Process Maps

Process maps come in all shapes and sizes.  High-level process maps, low-level process maps and cross-functional swim lanes maps are three of the seven types of process maps.  Document maps are rich in data detail but can lack activity details.   Document maps show literal documents produced within a process.  At each process step, Document Maps show us what documents to produce, and which to receive.

The last of the Seven Types of Process Maps are activity maps or value stream maps and rendered process maps provide more details.  Rendered process maps help teams manage change.  A rendered process map is similar to a work flow diagram.  It uses many of the same symbols to communicate process flows.

What Can – or Can’t – a Process Map Do?

Process maps only communicate the process steps.  They are not active on their own.  If the process changes then you must update the process map to communicate the new changes.  Process mapping is about communicating your process to others, so you can achieve your goals.

You may hear people ask about the SOP for purchasing new equipment.  In this context an SOP is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).  In other words, what are the steps for purchasing new equipment?

Procedures are required by compliance standards such as ISO in quality, Sarbanes-Oxley for public company accounting, or the Joint Commission in healthcare.  We also use procedures to train new employees on a process in order to obtain more consistent results.  Procedures are used to document company knowledge to ensure important information is retained.  We also use procedures in process improvement to document the future state of a process after we improve it so that we may communicate the new steps to others.

Over time, procedures improve and evolve into “best practices”.  Sometimes these are called Good Manufacturing Practices or GMP for short.  A GMP is an SOP that has evolved into a best practice.  The medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry refers to a procedure as a GMP in their quality system.

Procedures are often associated with or supported by other documents like policies.  What’s the difference between a policy and a procedure?  The policy is the goal statement and the procedure is the description of how to achieve the goal.  So basically, every procedure should be associated with a policy.

Other procedure supporting documents may include:

• Process Maps
• Business Manuals
• Job Description
• Reports, Forms, and Checklists
• Business Objectives

If you are writing a company manual or employee handbook, you will define policies necessary to comply with various laws and regulations as well as your own company standards.  These employee manuals include policies and sometimes also include procedures too.

As you grow you will require more than an Employee Handbook.  Your Employee Manual will grow into a full business manual.   Keep growing and each individual department will write their own policies and procedures manual.  Larger company’s write online policies and procedures because it is easier to communicate them to all employees at once.

Bizmanualz produces a full range of easily editable Microsoft Word templates covering your most important business departments:

• Accounting Policies for controlling assets
• Financial Procedures for managing cash
• Computer & IT Procedures for maintaining networks
• Sales & Marketing Plans for growing revenues
• Human Resources Policies to minimize employee liabilities
• Security Planning and Disaster Recovery to prepare for emergencies
• ISO 9000 Quality Manuals for customer satisfaction
• Policies and Procedures Supplements for industries

So What is a Procedure?

A procedure is a way that you achieve consistent results. Procedures can be called a Standard Operating Procedure, an SOP, a GMP, a work instruction or a best practice.  Procedures are required for compliance.  Procedures are helpful for training.  And procedures help to retain important information.  If you are implementing policies and procedures in your organziation, then you should look into OnPolicy Procedure Management Software instead of using document management software.

Company rules are found in your Employee Handbook.  One example would be sexual harassment.  It is illegal in the United States to subject others to unwelcome sexual conduct in a work situation.  If you are going to write a company policy, you would start with the law or regulation issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  The EEOC provides definitions and additional information that will allow us to describe a company policy.

Every company should have a sexual harassment policy in their company manual that reads something like this:

The Company is committed to providing a workplace free from sexual harassment and as such prohibits the sexual harassment, or gender-based discrimination of any employee.

Notice this is a rule about relationships and ethics.  So now that we have written a rule, what do we do with it?  We are not done.  Before we release this policy we need to put some context behind it.  We could use some basic descriptive information:

Sexual Harassment Policy

• Title: What is the policy going to be called?
• Policy: What is the text of the policy?
• Purpose: Why do we need a policy for this?
• Scope: Who does this policy apply to?
• Responsibilities : Who is responsible for the policy?
• Definitions: Are all terms in the policy clear?
• References: Does this policy refer to other documents?

Once you have answered all of these questions you are ready to produce a complete policy document (see figure).  But what if you need to write a company policy as part of a business procedure (think an accounting policy and procedure manual)? Then you should focus it on the process results.

A Policy in a Procedure

A policy in a procedure acts as a mini-mission statement containing the customer of the policy, its purpose, and a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to communicate how users know the procedure is working.  An example of a policy for an Accounts Receivable Procedure:

Accounts Receivable Personnel are responsible for the timely preparation, distribution, and collection of invoices to optimize cash flow and customer payments while maintaining accurate records for proper internal control.

In the Accounts Receivable policy you see the customer is the Accounts Receivable personnel. The purpose is to optimize cash flow and customer payments while maintaining accurate records for proper internal control and the KPI is optimize, timely and accurate. The procedure needs to define what optimize, timely and accurate means.

I would try to keep it to a single paragraph.  A longer policy is more complex and is harder to follow.  Here we have three KPIs to follow.  You could just as easily shorten the policy:

Accounts Receivable personnel shall ensure that all outstanding customer invoices are paid in a timely manner.

A shorter policy is more focused on a single KPI and much easier to follow.  What do we do with the questions we need to answer for Title, Policy, Purpose, Scope and Responsibilities?  Answer them, but in this case we are writing a procedure policy so the answers are in the context of the procedure, not just the policy.  Otherwise it is pretty much the same as writing a policy rule.

That is How to Write A Business Policy

It is easier than you think.  But you don’t want to write hundreds of policies from scratch. It is very easy to start with Bizmanualz policy and procedure templates.  Just image the time you will save writing standard operating policies and procedures for your business.  Try out Bizmanualz Free Samples.

Social Systems

Questions in the information age have been surfacing, causing rifts in the social system of the organization. Changes in thought are occurring as part of the cultural transformation. Work groups are forming as workers move away from linear processing (assembly lines) and toward other models and dynamics, yet we are glued to the computer more. Social interaction as our parents and grandparents knew it is on the decline. Organizations will be forced to adopt changes in order to survive in the fast-paced information age.

The mechanistic view of the universe is a relic of the scientific age. It represents society as it was, 100 and more years ago. Now, the thoughts, perceptions, and values that form that vision of reality are changing. The information age has begun and with it, a paradigm shift is under way. This represents a time of great opportunity for entrepreneurs to develop the new views.

History shows us that, as business becomes more expensive to operate the old way, new technologies are incorporated. Our friend John Diebold pointed out that information technology is an instrument of human change that has three stages:

• First, computers do the same job in a different way;
• Second, the job changes; and
• Third, a change in society occurs.

The third change can be seen happening today when hackers break into computers causing alarm over computer security. These types of changes are evident in the news and will continue to highlight the role — and the value — of information in society.

A second shift can be seen in the formation of networks and partnerships at the expense of hierarchical and bureaucratic forms of management. Businesses and their supply chains are having to work in unison to maintain a competitive advantage. The assembly line is on the decline and the rise of the work group is the new reality.

The original workforce was a gang — a semi-autonomous group under a gang leader who took responsibility for a piece of work. The advent of machines reshaped the gang around the assembly line of the new machines. Information technology has given workers the tools to form back into groups similar to the original workforce. But, as technology advances and is made available to the individual, these work groups will begin to dwindle to a single person or none at all.

The effect of the work group shrinking to fewer people will be that individuals will become more autonomous at the expense of social interaction and corporate loyalty. Smaller work groups will have a greater amount of technology about them and thus be able to work remotely. This could mean at home, in a car, plane, or boat. As people work away from the office, they risk losing touch with the people back at the office.

They are unable to socialize as well with the others and, as a result, their loyalty to the organization may decline. In addition, promotions are often based on social interaction; without it, people are at risk of being passed over for promotion. But, with the increase in worker independence comes an increase in job mobility. People will contract out, or outsource, more services. The result is a continued rise in the entrepreneurial workforce, where the individual develops a self-identity outside of the traditional workplace.

Skills Displacement

There is a dramatic social implication that has thus far only been alluded to. As technology changes the organization, automating more tasks, fewer people are required to get the job done. Not only has information technology increased productivity: it has eliminated jobs, as well. If work groups dwindle to one person or none at all, where will the rest of the group go?

There are two answers to this question — job retraining and redefinition. The lower skilled worker’s job is being eliminated by technology, so they will require training in a new job. High-tech professionals will find their field passing them by, so they’ll require retraining in their field. On the other hand, there may not be enough jobs for everyone as more and more robots and technology perform more of the work. This will require people to work less hours, share jobs, retire early, or (in some way) get by with less.

More time will need to be spent on education, not only to keep the workforce educated on the new technology, but also to keep more people busy. Lower skilled and unskilled workers will find their jobs being eliminated and so they will go back to school in order to learn newer skills. New theories and discoveries will continue at a rapid pace which will put pressure on people to keep up with the advances.

Graduate degrees will become the rule rather than the exception. Businesses will put people through school to keep the individual from becoming obsolete and to give them something to do. There will be fewer jobs and the jobs that exist will require more skills than before. Management will need to develop fewer, highly skilled, individuals with workplace training programs and then keep them. This again is a greater people orientation then before.

A redefinition of the workplace and the jobs people perform will be required. Today’s factories will go the way of yesterday’s agriculture. As farms were automated and more could be done with fewer people, many left for the city or idled their land. In the last 100-plus years, agrarian jobs fell from 41% of the labor force to under 1%, yet they seem to have been absorbed into the labor force.

Handy proposed one way in which automobile factory work might shift. If fewer cars were made and they were being made by robots then manufacturing jobs would decline. People would need to keep their cars longer and the maintenance activity, which is labor intensive, would increase. This could be picked up by small garages or self-employed mechanics. This would mean that society would need to move to a high quality maintenance concept rather then a lower quality disposable one.

What Handy illustrates is that the solution to the problem of job elimination is based upon the redefinition of business by society. Another concept popularized by many is one where everybody works less, which is already happening in Europe. Shorter work weeks, early retirement, longer vacations, and more time off for schooling. The implication here is that more people are staying employed, but at the expense of a smaller paycheck with more leisure time.

In an age where leisure time is becoming increasingly important, this notion has caught on at a number of businesses. The problem of child care could decrease if more time were spent at home. More time could be spent on personal, self-actualizing events. This also points to an increased interest in the “third age of life”, that part of life that is beyond growing up and working.

There are many possibilities that exist with the flexibility that is offered by the jobs of the future. The key question is how society will react to the changes that are occurring in the workplace and what people are willing to allow to take place. One thing is for sure and that is that the changes are inevitable.

There is a cartoon by Charles Adams (from a 1955 issue of “The New Yorker” magazine) that shows two caterpillars and above them, a butterfly emerging from its cocoon and opening its wings. One caterpillar says to the other, “You’ll never get me up in one of those things.” This social commentary still resonates in the 21st century: Change is inevitable.

Dynamics of Information Technology

The rapidly occurring changes force management to discard old, mechanistic views. The key to management in the future will be in understanding the dynamics of information technology, adopting a greater people orientation, and adapting appropriately to the changes. Survival in the future will be based on the effective use of both information and people as resources in order to keep the organization progressing, competitive, and alive.

* * * * * * *

So, is information technology changing your business? If so, how? What are the benefits and costs to your business?

Checking the procedure is a form of procedure verification.  You run a test before implementing the procedure to verify that the procedure works and meets all the design requirements.  But how do you know if the procedure will work outside of the design space ?  Will it work in the real world, with real users?  At this point, we are beyond procedure verification — we need to validate the procedure to ensure the process and procedure are working.

You are not done with your procedure until it has been validated.  After all, you wrote the procedure to close some gap in compliance, quality, or performance — how do you know your procedure is actually closing the gap?  Procedure validation consists of performing procedure training, process auditing, and completing a process procedure management review that will allow us to confirm that the gap is closed, the process is working, and the procedure works.

Process Procedures Implementaton and Training

Procedure validation starts with process implementation and procedures training.  Procedure training will be your first feedback from the actual users.  Gather the procedure users together and brief everyone on the main procedure tasks, changes, and process objectives.  Use your process maps to visually explain the process.  Highlight individual responsibilities for key performance metrics.  Ask questions and obtain feedback.  Remember: your procedure goal is “a working process”.

If you have a lot of users from multiple work cells or geographic locations, you need to prototype the new procedure — test it in one area before implementing it across the whole business.  Your procedure validation should occur before a widespread implementation.  In a small organization with limited scope, this is often not practical.  In that case, process auditing is critical to ensure that the procedure works.

Process Procedures Audit

Once employees are trained, how do you know if the procedure works or is being used correctly?  To find out, you need to audit the procedure at some point after procedure training. Process auditing is an internal audit of the process and procedure.  At some interval after training, you need to follow-up on your new procedure and see how it’s being used.  Is the procedure followed?  Is the procedure effective?  Is the process working?  Is the procedure working?  Is the procedure integrated into the process?  Simple questions, but they all must be asked.

If the process or procedure is critical to quality, compliance, or performance, you should perform a process procedure audit sooner and more frequently (perhaps 7, 30, and 90 days apart).  You are still in procedure validation and you need feedback to determine if your procedure is working.  Once validation is complete, you may be able to back off the process audit (e.g., cut back from monthly to annually): it all depends on how well the process is working and how critical it is to your firm’s success.

Process Procedures Review and Change Management

Once audited, how will you know if the procedure is performing as expected?  To find out you will need to analyze the audit data and process performance and hold a process procedures management review.  If you started your process procedure journey with a project charter, you have your original quality, compliance, and performance objectives.

Compare your audit data with the project charter to determine if your procedures work, if the process is working as expected, if you’re ready to close out procedure validation, or you need to make changes to improve your process procedures effectiveness.  Change Management can be tricky here.  Process optimization comes later, after you close out the original design, the process is going for a while, and you’re ready to improve once again.  For now, focus on important procedure changes to achieve the original objectives, in order to prevent scope creep.

Conclusion

We started the process procedure journey with a procedure implementation plan.  Your process procedures project continued with a process map, documenting your process procedure design.  If a procedure was required, you had to write a procedure.

The process procedures journey ended with procedure validation, where you ensured the process was working and the written procedure worked.  Once validation is complete, you’re ready to start your next process procedures journey.

Your business process procedures journey is driven by your business needs: need to survive, need for effective process change management, need for process consistency, need for process compliance, and need for process control.  Your entire business model is in jeopardy if you fail to:

• Adapt to change;
• Build repeatable business processes;
• Adhere to process standards and guidelines;
• Observe regulations; and
• Manage your business processes — and process change — effectively.

You can achieve effective business process change management, process consistency, process compliance, and process control by focusing on your business process procedures journey (Figure 1), a six-step process comprised of the business process management topics we talk about on the Bizmanualz.com website.

Business Process Procedures Flowchart

Figure 1 – Business Process Procedures Journey Flowchart

Notice how we talk about processes and procedures together.  Your business model is a system of processes.  Business processes need to be identified, communicated, and reviewed for there to be an effective change management process, with effective opportunities for business growth in place.

In Figure 1, the procedure writing steps are colored in red, to signify their optional status.  Not all processes require procedure writing; there’s a lot of overhead tied to every business procedure you write so that the more business procedures you write, the more procedures you have to edit, implement, train people on, audit, and review.  Only company procedures required by standards, regulations, or company strategy must be developed.

Michael Gerber’s book, the E-Myth, explains how important it is for entrepreneurs to think about working “on” their business instead of “in” their business.  Working too closely inside of your business processes is sometimes referred to as “business myopia” — being too close to your processes can keep you from advancing on the business process procedures journey.

Once you start working on your business — not in it — you can identify key business processes, practice communicating critical business process metrics and information, and review those business process metrics against the changing marketplace.  Now you are in control of your business process improvement.

This month we’ll be showing you how to advance — how to implement — each of the six steps of the Business Process Procedures Journey:

1. Process Procedures Project Management
2. Process Mapping and Process Design
3. Required Procedures (optional steps)
   • Policies and Procedures Template Design
   • Policies and Procedures Writing
4. Process Procedures Implementation and Training
5. Process Procedures Audit
6. Process Procedures Review and Change Management

In our next article, we’ll explain how you can use the individual steps to focus your organization on adapting your core business processes to business process change, build repeatable business processes, adhere to process standards or regulations, and manage your business processes more effectively.

Collecting Management System Data: Phase Two – Documentation Phase

It is time to determine which processes are core to your business and which ones are subordinate or support processes.  To move past the Reactive Phase you must start to document your processes, start to write procedures, and think about more effective training.  Some teamwork is required because you need to agree on what your processes are:

• Where do they start and end?
• Who is the process owner?
• Who is really the customer or supplier?
• What is important or critical in terms of process success?

To understand your processes, you can start with a process map, build value stream maps, or write policies, procedures and work instructions that help create understanding about the process.  Of course, one concern is that creating a system of documented process could become an overblown bureaucracy, but the goal should be to keep it basic, and build on it as you go along.  It is easier to add critical pieces when identified to a basic process map than it is to simplify an overwrought process document or procedure.

As a starting point, we only need enough documentation to get the job done.  The intent of the documentation phase is to create operational definitions for your processes.  Well-defined processes have clearly identified suppliers, inputs, outputs, and customers (SIPOC). 

Policies, Procedures and Forms

Procedures define who does what, when, and where.  Work instructions explain how a particular task within the process is performed.  Forms are created, controlled, and distributed and should be re-enforced with training so that workers know how and when to use them.  Completed forms create the records that capture key process data – important information needed for improvement.

This is the beginning of a quality management system.  The intent of the Documentation Phase is to collect data (records) from your processes that you will employ in the next phases and lead to real improvement.  To move out of the Documentation Phase you will need to chart, trend and analyze your data.  Typical tools used to get out of this phase include Pareto charts, histograms, run charts, and SPC (Statistical Process Control), all critical pieces for phase three.

Separating the Common from the Special: Phase Three – Stability Phase

Now is the time that we need to start to think about continuous improvement with control charts in order to move through the Stability Phase.  Stability is how we want our quality management system to be characterized. Stabile processes allow us to drive real improvement. 

That’s because there are only two real actions you can take in process improvement.  The first is to make unstable processes stable (our goal for phases two and three), and the other is to make a stable process better (our goal for phases four and five), which is also referred to as improving process capability and results in shrinking the control limits of our stable processes. 

Data Analysis

In both cases we need data recorded (these are our ISO records) describing such things as process defects, process metrics (we also call these effectiveness criteria or key performance indicators) and of course process targets (could also be called our quality objectives derived from customer requirements).  As you can see the Stability Phase is all about data analysis, which is used to derive knowledge and wisdom from information.  Using this information we should be able to identify common cause and special causes of process variation.

Common causes result from the process design.  If we see common causes of failure then we need to redesign the process in question.  Special cause results from something identifiably or special occurring.  We need to isolate the identifiable cause and eliminate it using root cause analysis.  Using control charts we can ascertain whether either common causes or special causes of process variation are present and then take the appropriate actions.

To get out of the Stability Phase and move into the Corrective Action Phase we need to start using cause-effect, scatter, and fishbone diagrams as part of our root-cause analysis.  In lean we may use takt time to balance production lines or Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE, which could also be called manufacturing effectiveness).  In Theory of Constraints we look for the one constraint to flow.  Many quality tools are at our disposal.  The trick is in learning which one to use and in deciding which business process you should improve first.

You may recognize your organization as stuck in phase one or two, the two most common process maturity levels in many organizations.  Some organizations are able to advance farther up in management system maturity to the stability phase.  Moving up the process maturity chain can mean big organizational improvements.  As you gain process maturity, processes become more effective, and eventually more efficient as you focus on what customer’s value, thereby eliminating waste. 

Next week we will look at phase four – Corrective Action Phase and Phase five – Preventive Action Phase, and see why they are more difficult to reach.  Have you seen which phase your company is in yet?

People LOVE to Talk About Policies & Procedures

The topic does generate high interest in our Well-Defined Processes course when we cover the role of policies and procedures relating to processes. What should procedures look like? How long should they be and how much detail should be included? How can we get people to use/follow them? Besides in the Well-Defined Processes class, you can find these topics covered in the Bizmanulz article archive. Even clear writing on this subject, however, isn’t the same as a lively discussion where different experiences, observations, and viewpoints are exchanged.

While external training is still important, the coming of Web 2.0 is making it possible to take part in discussions and exchanges with people from different regions representing all types of organizations – all from your office. Forums that are geared toward various business topics are common on the internet, even policies and procedures.

Most of these forums take a question and answer format. The typical interaction is a posted question and one or a few respondents. Sometimes, however, someone asks a question that will illicit a discussion. People post, then return to read responses, and then they post a reply – sometimes several times. These are always the most interesting threads. And since they are business sites, posts are usually professional and use appropriate decorum. Getting back to policy and procedure forums, let’s do a quick review of some useful sites you might want to check out.

The ISO Quality Forums – http://www.qualityforums.com/

This forum sponsored by the International Standards Organization is geared toward a quality management system complying with standards like ISO 9001 and ISO 14000, with different forums for the various standards. While the topic area is more than just policies and procedures, they are a popular subject, at least in the ISO 9001 area. While activity is not robust, most posts do receive at least one response, even if they are not always timely. Interestingly, however, this site also displays the number of times a posting thread is viewed, and most have views that range in the thousands. So while posting activity might be slow at times, it is a popular site for exploring what others have to say. The policy and procedure questions generally seem to have the most views. It is a very useful site if your organization is complying with an ISO standard.

ASQ Discussion Boards – http://www.asq.org/discussionBoards/index.jspa

There is a category on the American Society for Quality Discussion Boards called Ask A Quality Professional that is very active. The topic of the forum is more about general quality than policies and procedures, but documentation is a common topic.

There are several posts a week here, and each post generates a substantial thread of responses – some fairly immediate and others coming over the course of a few weeks. This can be a very useful place is you have quality responsibilities outside of just policies and procedures. For example, you might like to visit the link below; an interesting thread discussing the requirements for maintaining external documents.
(http://www.asq.org/discussionBoards/thread.jspa?forumID=18&threadID=6187&messageID=114939#114939)

TECHWR-L – http://www.techwr-l.com/taxonomy/term/127

TECHWR-L (known as TechWhirl) is community of technical writers and it addresses a wide variety of technical communication issues. The policies and procedures category (where the above link will take you) is a subset of the writing and editing section. Unlike discussion boards that make up most of this list, TECHWR-L is more like a blog or archive site (much like our own Bizmanualz archive/blog) where posters share a story or a perspective in the form of an article, and others comment on it. Here is place to learn about real world experiences shared by writers facing wide ranging and difficult documentation challenges.

STC Policy & Procedures Group – http://mailman.stc.org/mailman/listinfo/stc_ppsig

The Society of Technical Communication has a listserv section devoted to policies and procedures where members can post or reply to questions. Guests (nonmembers) can view questions and responses, but not post. While this forum is not highly active, posters do tend to receive timely responses to their questions, and this is where you can find some real nuts and bolts type of information on procedure writing. While the site does cover useful topics, one problem is that the STC listserv area is not very user friendly, with an older Web 1.0 style interface. It may take some extra clicking and navigating to find and view particular threads.

Elsmar Cove – http://elsmar.com/Forums/forumdisplay.php?f=16

Elsmar Cove is a very popular forum for business topics, including the section called ” Documentation Systems, Procedures, Forms and Templates” (where the above link will take you). Questions are posted almost daily, and while they receive one or two quick replies, most receive more than ten in a short span of time.

Some threads of high interest stay active for years with an on-going discussion. The number of views a thread receives is noted on this site as well, and some long-lived threads are viewed more than 30 thousand times. For example, one thread where users post places on the internet to find free templates, forms, and samples is still receiving posts after 3-1/2 years and has almost 50,000 views.

LinkedIn Groups – http://www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory

This has become one of the most popular methods for exchanging information among businesses. There are hundreds of thousands of broad-based and niche groups in the LinkedIn community; the Bizmanualz Policies and Procedures Group is one of them. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities!

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/

Starting out as a social site for university students, Facebook has spread like a brush fire among all age groups. While extremely popular with individuals, it has yet to achieve its potential as a forum for information exchange among the business community. Still, a number of companies — like Bizmanualz — are using Facebook to try to keep in touch with their customers. Do you rely on Facebook for company information?

What Do You Think?

My favorites are the TECHWR-L and the Elsmar Cove sites. You might select a different one as your favorite. We would like to hear your feedback on our list of policy and procedure communities. Which site do you find more useful, more informative, and/or more user friendly? What are you looking for in an on-line community focused on policies and procedures? Are there some useful on-line communities we missed?

Your comments could make the Bizmanualz archive/blog more interactive and discussion oriented. Our mission is to help your business, including effective use of policies and procedures, and we’d love to hear your suggestions and comments on how to improve the Bizmanualz policy and procedure site. You can enter a comment below — or for those of you who receive this article via email, email me directly using the link found at the top of the email.

Happy chatting!

We frequently stress the important role that learning has in an organization that wants to continually improve. Building a learning environment means organizational members are more willing to see things in different ways, to think differently, and to try new things. In a learning environment, innovation can exist along side with proven best practices to help a businesses thrive.

While all types and kinds of learning can contribute to the success and effectiveness of an organization, here at Bizmanualz, we focus on learning areas that can directly contribute to operational success, including:

• Understanding, improving, documenting, and aligning processes
• Implementing management improvement tools such as Lean, ISO 9000, and Six Sigma
• Auditor training, statistical process control
• Using innovation in design & development and in sales & marketing

Our Commitment to Learning

Recently, to improve our business learning program, and to meet the increasing demand for business training, when an area became available next to our current office space, Bizmanualz acquired it. The space is currently going through extensive renovation to turn it into a state-of-the-art multi-media learning center by October.

While the locations we employed in the past to conduct training were certainly adequate, Chris Anderson, Bizmanualz Managing Director, felt that we needed to model a stronger commitment to business learning, and to make our training programs more enjoyable, convenient, comfortable, and, most importantly, conducive to learning.

Having our own learning center also means that we can schedule classes as frequently as needed without having to worry about scheduling outside conference rooms and the minimum number of students needed to make rental fees cost effective.

A State of the Art Learning Center

The new learning center will ensure a rich and stimulating environment for learning. In fact, it was specially designed to heighten the learners’ experience through the use of the latest technology, innovative methods, and interactive exercises. It will feature a surround sound stereo system, DVD, video, computer, high-definition projector, a 10 foot screen, a 10 foot and a 12 foot whiteboard, flip charts, built- in beverage refrigerator, coffee service, and movable furniture.

The expanded learning center also provides convenient access to additional areas for breakout sessions and group exercises, a very common feature of our training courses. So, while intimacy and personal instruction will always be a key feature of our learning workshops, now we can more easily comfortably accommodate more students and still use small groups and exercises to examine real world situations. We have found that more direct interaction with peers and with instructors enhances the learning experience. So not only is high tech a feature of the new learning center, but better hands-on learning as well.

Contact Us for Your Business Learning Needs

If you or your company has business training needs, we hope you will consider Bizmanualz. Taught by knowledgeable and passionate instructors, our training programs are unique and, frequently, are not otherwise readily available in the Midwest. We are conveniently located in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, Missouri, 15 minutes from Lambert International airport near the intersection of two interstate highways and the MetroLink light rail system.

See our training webpages for more information, or call 1-800-466-9953 and ask for Jan. We hope to see you soon.

SPC is a great tool to not only monitor the current and recent behavior of a process, but is also a great tool to support Continuous Improvement activities. Our previous article was about control chart, which is, in simple terms, graphically plotted SPC information. The most typical among control charts is the process average and range Control Chart, commonly called the X-bar and R chart. This type of data is measured or variable data, as opposed to attribute type of data. Please note that there are other types of Control Charts for attribute data.

Average and Range Control Charts

To plot the process average (X-bar) and range (R) Control Chart, samples of product are obtained, usually at specified intervals, and measured. The sample size should be predetermined and then maintained. Typical sample sizes are subgroups of 3, 4, 5, or 6 pieces, with 5 being the optimal. As the process is running, the samples, of either in-process or finished product, depending on what you are interested in controlling, are randomly obtained and then measured for the required characteristics. These measures are entered into the company SPC data collection system. This activity is repeated at the specified sample interval, say hourly, for as long as the process is running.

There are many types of software programs available for recording data and creating Control Charts, or for those eccentrics out there, one can calculate their own data points, process averages, ranges, and so forth. However, most of us will use software, which will calculate our subgroup average, subgroup range, process average, process range, control limits, standard deviation and process capability. “Wow! The software can provide a lot of information, but how is it used,” you may ask?

Control Charting Software

As the subgroup measures are entered into the system, a whole lot of calculations are performed and plotted or listed on the Control Chart. The chart and data is not very useful until a sufficient number of data points (subgroups) have been entered into the system and plotted. 25 subgroups will start to give one a good “picture” of their process, but as time passes and hundreds, and then thousands of subgroup data points have been entered and calculated, the “picture” of the process becomes even more accurate and clearer. One of the nice things about SPC software programs is that one can isolate any period of time, such as a specific shift, and display that time period’s specific Control Chart and other data.

Once a sufficient amount of data has been entered and a good picture is obtained, several pieces of very useful information are available. First of all there is a graphic “picture”. Even an SPC novice or untrained operator will be able to tell from the “picture” if there has been an event with an assignable cause or possible trends. The more experienced and trained operator, manager, or engineer will be able to exam the process spread, as identified by the Control Limits and the standard deviation or sigma, to determine if the process is “in control.” Then Control Chart graph can be observed for any subgroup trends to see if there is a high possibility of going “out of control.”

Continuous Improvements

The Continual Improvement team will look at these Control Limits and process variation to see if there may be opportunities for reducing this routine or common cause variation. As for myself I like to first glance at the picture, and then focus on the Process Capability Index or Cpk, which is a numerical index displayed to the side of the Control Chart Cpk for the process is calculated each time data from a process is entered into the system.

If I were to call my friend Mike and ask him how his production line #3 is doing today and his answer were; “Steve we’re currently running a Cpk of .63.” My response would be; “Mike, you’ve obviously got some work to do;I’ll give you a call next week!” However, if Mike’s answer was; “Steve, line #3 is running at a Cpk of 1.4,” my response would be; “Great! Let’s meet for lunch today and you’re buying!”

One thing to know is that there is a lot of misunderstanding of Cpk. Simply put, it is a measure of the processes capability of meeting the product specification that is being measured. Another way to look at it is, are the processes calculated control limits inside or with in the specification limits?

Regardless of your level of SPC understanding or your understanding of process variation, SPC and Control Charts will provide you with valuable information on your processes. If you are not sure if you’d be interested in better understanding your process variation and using SPC consider these statistical charts on the right.

Statistical Process Control Training

If you do not have a thorough understanding of what is depicted in each figure, and you want to understand and control your process variation, then you should consider taking a Statistical Process Control (SPC) class. As fate would have it, Bizmanualz is offering just that – a two-day Statistical Process Control Training class.

In this class you will receive a quick basic review of Quality Control, followed by the development of a mini factory. In this factory you will produce product in real-life scenarios, complete with problems and management interference. Through the measurement of your product and the accumulation of data, the concept of product and process variation will be explored and understood. Then the data from the mini factory product will be used to understand the various SPC terms and a Control Chart will be developed. The capability of the mini factory process to meet specification, Cpk, will be calculated.

Finally, to fully understand SPC and variation, problems are worked through in class to calculate the Control Limits, standard deviation, Cp, and Cpk. Upon completion, the student will have a basic understanding of process variation and process control. Additionally, the student will understand when to and not to take action on a process, as well as to identify opportunities for improvement. This class is suited for the process operator, engineers, and managers. As a prerequisite, prospective students should understand how to convert fractions to decimals, how to use a ruler to measure at least to eighths, and how to use basic calculator functions.

Learn more about developing policies, procedures and processes, or about improving your organization by attending the next How to Create Well Defined Procedures and Processes or Statistical Process Control classes. TO address other training needs, please visit the Bizmanualz Training Website.