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Process mapping is a tool widely used to enhance production. Therefore, it is possible to identify points for improvement within the production chain of a given service or product.
In this article, we will use practical stockholder database examples to understand more about process mapping and the advantages it offers for keeping you in control of your business. In addition, we will see how this tool can instruct and inspire us with the arrival of Industry 4.0.
What is a process?
The production process can be characterized as a sequence of ordered steps that together result in the provision of a service or the production of a product.
For example, in the song:
“Two burgers
Lettuce, cheese, special sauce,
onion, pickles
On a sesame seed bun
It's the Big Mac (Big Mac)”
As seen above, it is clear that the resources (ingredients), assembled in such a way, result in the BigMac. However, the process of building the hamburger does not only involve assembly, but rather a set of activities that together result in the finished snack.
Therefore, anyone who understands this process can replicate it and obtain a snack similar to that of McDonald's. However, the process of making the snack does not only involve assembly. In addition to this, there is the preparation. Therefore, it is necessary to understand all the stages of the process.
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McDonald's Case and its relationship with Process Mapping
Ray Kroc was one of the first men to identify the advantages obtained through process mapping. He soon mapped the production process of a snack and achieved something unprecedented: the standardization of its process.
Thus, it was thanks to such standardization that the term Fast-Food was conceived. In this sense, by identifying points in the production processes that involved a certain logic in being ordered, it became possible for the process to be transformed into an assembly line.
Some advantages can be identified with process mapping:
Better understand the processes: understand how the processes work, making them capable of analysis;
Improve processes: carry out incremental repairs to the process, immediately after identifying the bottleneck;
Document processes: document processes to facilitate everyone's understanding of the process, ensuring that everyone understands the purpose within each process;
Efficiency analysis: ensuring that a process is executed in the best possible way, using the least amount of resources possible, in the shortest possible time, spending less;
Transform processes: promote changes in processes, in order to ensure their maximum benefit, remodeling them.
See more about the McDonald's case: Click Here
Industry 4.0 and Process Mapping
Industry 4.0 is the concept that involves automating processes, using technologies to make everything a globalized environment. In this sense, it promotes the modernization of manufacturing, making it increasingly efficient.
In this way, through technological devices, it will be increasingly possible to measure micro-activities within a given process. In other words, to make it more effective using the minimum possible resources in the shortest possible time.
In this sense, it is increasingly necessary to have control over the processes that are involved in the development of the product or service in question. Thus, process mapping fits into this stage. Therefore, it is necessary to have total control over each stage of a process in order to obtain the best results.
Industry 4.0 in the food sector
People have less and less time and end up resorting to processed foods or even fast food. Therefore, this demand for speed means that restaurants and industries have to go out of their way to deliver a product faster and at the lowest possible cost.
Therefore, Industry 4.0, thanks to high data control and integration between processes, makes it increasingly viable to manufacture a product using the minimum amount of resources.
With this in mind, analyzing processes is almost necessary to make them more efficient.
