Stage 1 · See · 02 · 25 min
Discover how the process really runs
The diagram says how the process should run. This module finds out how it does.
You picked “Engineer and fulfil custom order” in module 1. Before changing anything, you need the as-is: what really happens to an order, how long each step takes, and what the people doing the work know that no document says.
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1. Walk one order
What you do here: decide how to find out what really happens to a custom order.
You want to understand engineering review, the step everyone mentions. The head of Engineering offers you the procedure document and a meeting room.
How do you spend the morning?
Walking one order is the fastest way to see the gap between the documented process and the real one. Treat what you see as observations, not verdicts: nobody on the walk is to blame.
"Ask “what happens next?” and “what do you do when…?”, never “why do you do it like that?”. The first two get you the process. The third gets you a defence."
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2. Set the boundaries
What you do here: sort the walk’s findings into a SIPOC, so everyone agrees where the process starts and ends.
A SIPOC lists the Suppliers, the Inputs they provide, the high-level Process steps, its Outputs and the Customers who receive them. It fits on one page and stops scope arguments before they start.
Where does each item belong?
Steel and bearing suppliers
6 more to place
Suppliers
Inputs
Process
Outputs
Customers
The SIPOC also fixes the start and end of every measurement that follows: from the customer’s enquiry to the invoice.
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3. Check what people say against the data
What you do here: test a claim from your interviews with order data.
The head of Engineering told you: “We turn every order around in under two days.” You pull ten recent custom orders from the ERP: the days each waited before review started, and the days the review took.
Ten custom orders from last quarter. Small variants change a bore, keyway or flange; redesigns change the part.
| Order | Type | Days waiting before review | Days in review |
|---|---|---|---|
| NS-4131 | Small variant | 4 | 0.2 |
| NS-4132 | Redesign | 4 | 3.5 |
| NS-4133 | Small variant | 3 | 0.2 |
| NS-4134 | Small variant | 5 | 0.2 |
| NS-4135 | Redesign | 3 | 3 |
| NS-4136 | Small variant | 4 | 0.2 |
| NS-4137 | Redesign | 5 | 3.5 |
| NS-4138 | Small variant | 5 | 0.2 |
| NS-4139 | Redesign | 3 | 3.6 |
| NS-4140 | Small variant | 4 | 0.2 |
How many days does a review take, on average?
People are rarely wrong about their own work. They just cannot see the time the order spends between their work and the next team’s.
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4. Write down what the best expert checks
What you do here: turn an expert’s know-how into a written checklist.
Anna, a senior engineer, is the only one whose custom orders almost never fail final inspection. You ask her to talk you through one of her reviews. Not everything she says is a check someone else could follow.
Which of Anna's statements become written checks?
I check the tolerance stack-up against the customer's mating part
6 more to place
Into the checklist
Someone else could do it the same way
Not a check
Background, habit or talent
Four written checks, each with a clear pass or fail. Until today they existed only in Anna’s head; when she is on holiday, the rework rate goes up.
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5. Put times on the process
What you do here: lay a typical custom order’s times over the process and find where the time goes.
The ERP and the walk give you, for each step, the days someone worked on the order and the days it waited before the step started. Here is a typical custom order without rework, quote to invoice.
Lead time
28 days
Work
10.5 days
Waiting
?
Prepare quote
1 d work
Confirm order
0.5 d work
Engineering review
1.5 d work
Schedule production
0.5 d work
Order materials
0.5 d work
Manufacture
5 d work
Final inspection
0.5 d work
Pack and ship
0.5 d work
Invoice customer
0.5 d work
Boxes show the work on each step.
The order took 28 days. The work on its steps adds up to 10.5. Where did the other 17.5 go?
This is your as-is model with times: the BPMN from module 1 plus the two numbers every step needs. It answers what the diagram alone could not: where the time goes.
Reflect
Check your understanding
Three questions on the module.
What is the main point of walking one order?
Take away
What to keep
- Walk one real order and ask to be shown, not told.
- Fix the boundaries with a SIPOC before you measure anything.
- Test claims against data. People know their work, not the queue in front of it.
- Write down what the best expert checks. It becomes everyone’s standard.
- Every step needs two numbers: work time and wait time.
After this module you can
- Run a process walk that shows the real process, not the documented one
- Set process boundaries with a SIPOC
- Test claims from interviews against order data
- Turn an expert's know-how into a written checklist
- Build an as-is model with work and wait time per step