50 The PCB Magazine • May 2014
step in many process improvement projects is
to flowchart the process as it currently exists,
which may not have any resemblance to com-
pany standard operating procedures (SOP). The
realization that their SOPs do not reflect how
the operation is really running is generally an
"Ah-Ha!" moment for the company. Flowchart-
ing also determines the parameters for process
improvement since a process cannot be im-
proved before it is understood. Although turn-
ing a process into a picture may sound very sim-
ple, it is an incredibly powerful tool to see what
is really happening in a process. After a flow-
charting session, the people actually doing the
job are always amazed at the difference between
how they perceive the process and what is re-
ally going on. A common result is a spaghetti
diagram that highlights excessive travel, mo-
tion and redundancy. A picture truly is worth a
thousand words.
As a working guideline, a flowchart should
be used to: 1) understand how a whole process
BEST PRACTICES 101, PART 1 continues
steve williams is the president
of steve williams consulting
llc (www.stevewilliamscon-
sulting.com) and the former
strategic sourcing manager
for Plexus corp. He is the au-
thor of the books, Quality 101
Handbook and survival Is not mandatory:
10 things every ceo should Know about
lean. to read past columns, or to contact
williams, click here.
IPC India Planning May APEX EXPO
by Real time with...IPC aPeX eXPo 2014
IPc's VP of International
relations, david Bergman,
a. Vijayendra, managing
director, IPc India, and Guest
editor dick crowe discuss IPc
involvement in India and the
upcoming show in may.
realtimewith.com
CliCk
To View
VIDeo InteRVIew
works; 2) identify the critical points, bottlenecks,
or problem areas in a process; 3) see how the dif-
ferent steps in the process are related; and/or 4)
identify the ideal flow of a process.
Next month, Best Practices 101, Part 2 will
dive deeper into process analysis by explor-
ing the value-stream mapping tool. See you in
June!
PCB
