An example of how process tangles evolve

How tangles evolve

As organisations grow, the processes and ways of working that have been effective in the past are formalised and documented as new people join and have to be trained. Sometimes, this process documentation will have been created in an office, away from the people doing the work.  This may happen when a company has decided to become ISO9001 registered, and producing documentation becomes more important than managing processes.  This documentation may not  be based on understanding what really happens and why, with the consequence that the documented process differ from reality (I've worked in companies where the documented processes and procedures for ISO9001 compliance are worked to during an audit, but are put 'back in the drawer' in the interests of working to better, but unofficial ways of working).

Even when good process documentation has been produced, that's not enough.  Change is a constant influence on process.  The need to change a process, increase it's capacity or capability or create a new process may come as a response to recognised opportunities to enter new markets or use new technology.  Change may be required to accommodate external forces i.e. those contained within PESTLE (Political, Economic, Socio Cultural, Technological, Legal, Environmental).

Process documentation MUST  be maintained and accountable at board level.  Just because a quality manager has got the company through another ISO9001 audit does not mean that all your processes are under control.

How things went wrong at Acme Innovations (imaginary company)

Acme Innovations produce Gizmos to order.  They are a small company which has seen rapid increase in sales since starting to use social media.

As it was:

Everyone knows everyone else and they collaboratively  agree how they are going to work.  Each step from left to right adds value.  They make a standard product that everyone knows how to make.  Processes may be informal but these are effective because they have been developed by the people using them and their knowledge,  understanding and internal networks (e.g. Fred knows Mike who knows Kevin) can ‘fill the gaps’ in poorly defined processes.

As it became:

The company gets bigger. New people join.  Informal ways of working become formalised, But these newly formalised processes may be inaccurate, outdated or just plain wrong!  That can happen when an external consultant produces the documentation and fails to ask the right questions and test their understanding with the people doing the job (i.e. 'go to the Gemba')

What happened at Acme

Customers want more Gizmos and they want ones that are different.  And they want them now.

A new salesman is taken on.  He doesn't know how Acme operates and fails to accurately capture and communicate customer requirements. That wasn't part of his induction.

Confusion results. The workers respond by guess work, errors and rework. The additional costs of making different Gizmos may be overlooked. The price to charge the customer is based on a best guess.  If that's too high and different from what Oliver told them, the customer feels that he is being cheated.  If it's too low, Acme have to bear the loss.  As they don't have any metrics that report process costs (time, materials, equipment/plant hire/depreciation etc), they don't have any effective control of their costs of sale  These may come as a nasty surprise!

 Customer requirements are poorly controlled or inconsistently met as ad hoc processes sometimes work, sometimes don't, depending on who is using them.  

The processes (that used to work before they had to do more things, faster)  end up as a mass of 'sticking plaster fixes' that cover up the official process. What really happens becomes lost.  Fixing the process tangle becomes time consuming and difficult as no one really knows how things work.

Customers receive unsuitable products: poor quality, late, wrongly configured or too expensive. Unhappy customers desert Acme for  competitors. Sales are lost, reputation is damaged and the company goes from success to failure.

Conclusion

Process management is essential to survival and growth.

Process management is not just something needed to retain the ISO9001 certification requried as a condition for trade in some industries.   Used properly,  ISO9001 can be a very good tool for process management. Here's  a brief explanation  of how to use it.