Week 1: Day 3

On Thursday, I finally received a clear definition of process mapping. My team members and I met with the Deputy Chief and her team for training on the subject. When we walked into the meeting, we were surprised to find the three ladies there with Post-Its and poster board. They then spent the next couple of hours explaining their process mapping methodology to us. Process maps are visual charts that detail how a certain task is performed within an organization. We immediately understood the importance of understanding how tasks are performed, but we could not understand the logic behind writing down each step on a Post-It note and placing it on poster board. The ladies then explained to us that they would interview the individuals responsible for performing each task, have them fill out the Post-Its, and place them on the board. SPAG would then debate the proper order of each step in a process in order to make it more efficient. After a successful debate, the documented & improved process was then digitized using Microsoft Visio before being sent back to the individual responsible for completing the task. The ladies told us that it would probably take between 2-4 days to successfully complete a map. My teammates and I were baffled at the subtle inefficiency inherent in their “process mapping process”. We were determined to find a way to complete it more quickly.