step1processdefinition-schneiderman（9页）.docVIP

The 7-Steps of Process Management? by Arthur M. Schneiderman In 1992, while serving on the Conference Board’s Quality Council II, I became aware of the need for a model that would integrate the many process related initiatives that were competing with one another in the contemporary management arena. I presented my first attempt at one of our meetings that year. It met with a very favorable response from my colleagues, who were the Chief Quality Officers of several Fortune 500 companies. Over the succeeding years, I continued to refine and simplify the model. By 1996, I developed the following graphic, which has since served as the basis for my model for process management: Step 1: Process Definition Whenever two or more people try to discuss a process, they need to first develop a common language for that discussion.? Fortunately, we have such a language in the form of flowcharts and their associated standard operating procedures (SOPs).? Once an organization chooses its own particular dialect for this language of the process it is prepared to explicitly define the current state of how the process is executed. Who does this process definition best?? Experience shows that useful documentation can only be generated by the people who actually execute the process.? It?is through their particular use of language that the procedures take on real meaning.? For example, I visited one west coast manufacturing facility where the vast majority of line workers were Vietnamese immigrants who did not speak English; but, guess what language was used in the SOPs!? By contrast, Ive visited several Japanese facilities where the process documentation was hand written by the operators and placed in loose-leaf binders.? I didnt understand a single word, but I could tell by the dog-eared, well-worn pages, as well as the marginal notes that these were living, useful documents.? Documentation written in the language of the operator becomes an invaluable training tool for new ope