Flow Chart Assignment

Purpose

To breakdown an activity that you do on a regular basis and see the waste. By taking a task and breaking it down into specific steps or motions you begin to see where you can improve the process and reduce the amount of time needed to get the job done.

Task

• Pick a job you do often, such as making coffee, doing the laundry, going to the grocery store, getting the kids ready for school.
• Keep it simple because you will find there are more steps involved than what it appears at a quick glance. I have had students map making coffee or doing the laundry. Some laundry flowcharts were over 20 steps! The job must have at least 15 different steps or processes.
• Break this job down into smaller activities. Some will involve waiting, such as waiting for the washer to complete its cycle. Or there may be inspection such as looking for stains. Then if you find a stain you may pre-treat the stain. Possibly there is extra motion, in that the laundry soap is not close by. Really dig into what you do every step of the way.
• Construct a process flowchart (20 pts).
• Classify each step as either operation, transportation, inspection, delay or storage, refer to Figure 6.5. Use the excel file template provided in the Chapter 6 Materials module. (6 pts for correct classification)
• If you can’t identify which category applies for a step, then most likely you have combined two steps into one. Break the step down further.
• Identify bottlenecks, potential failure points, and opportunities for improvement. (2 points)
• Assign either or both distance or time as a means to determine areas for improvement. You can make an educated guess (2 points)

Your flowchart will be submitted in an excel file with columns for task, operation, transport, inspect, delay, storage, distance and/or time. Watch this video describing what is expected.