Process Mapping Primer

by Nico Scopelliti

You can take a course. You can get a certification that awards you a colored belt. You can even get a degree at Georgia Tech. Or you can study the following three images. Imagine recreating them with applications in various facets of your own life. Do just that, and you'll advance your logistics education by leaps and bounds.

Now let's look at a set of nested, flowing procedures in a related activity:

Finally, let's introduce some additional tools:

There are practitioners among us who go their entire careers without drawing a single map like those above. Have you?

Start simple, even simpler than "Making Breakfast" or "Feed the Dog." Maybe "Driving to Work." Or hell, "Taking a Nap." Do it a few times, and you'll start to see the maps of all the processes and procedures you engage in on a daily basis by rote and without a thought.

It's time to start thinking about them … and then drawing them. They are the key that will unlock untold power in your supply chain!

[Image credits: "Feed the Dog":
http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/overheard/files/2012/07/process.gif
"Making Breakfast": Wikipedia
"Defined Process Map": https://www.leansigmacorporation.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/defined-process-map.jpg]

• When a Line Is Not a Line
• When Is a Solution Not a Solution? When You’re Batching, Of Course.
• GEARING UP FOR REVERSE LOGISTICS
• CARRIER DOCK APPOINTMENTS REQUIRED!
• Location Numbering in Warehouses
• Process Mapping Primer
• Warehouse Stock Location Systems
• Warehouse Operations: More Than Just Shipping
• Developing SKU Locations in the 1990s. Oh, How Far We’ve Come
• Warehouse Operations: The Heart of the Customer Experience
• A Box Is Not Just a Box: Ten Tips for Creating the Right Packaging
• One, Two, Three It’s Inventory…..Physical Count Time.
• Getting More Out of MODEX and ProMat