Technology & Engineering
Flow Process
A flow process is a series of steps or activities that are performed in a specific order to achieve a desired outcome. It is often used in manufacturing and production to ensure that products are made efficiently and consistently. Flow processes can be visualized using flowcharts or process maps to help identify areas for improvement and optimize the process.
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3 Key excerpts on "Flow Process"
eBook - PDF- Alan Chamberlain(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Elsevier Science(Publisher)
Thus, loss of customer value is generated, equalling waste in subsequent activities. On the other hand, there have been no conceptual means to recognize the internal waste in each activity and the need to eliminate it Thus, the conventional approach has not only failed to recognize waste, but rather it has actively increased it. 284 3. Flow Process ANALYSIS OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS 3.1. Flow Processes in a construction project There axe two main processes in a construction project, which directly generate value for the client: design process and construction process. The design process is - in a conversion sense - a stagewise refinement of specifications where vague needs and wishes are transformed into requirements, then via a varying number of steps, to detailed designs. Simultaneously, this is a process of problem detection and solving and iterative improvement of the design solution. In a flow sense, design process is the flow of information between different stages and participants. In a value sense, design can be understood as the capture and the conversion of the client requirements to a design solution providing the best performance. The construction process is composed of the material flows to the site, including fabrication in factory and processing and assembling on site. Partly overlapping with material flows, there are work processes (temporal and spatial flows) of construction teams and machinery on site. In a value sense, construction can be understood as the provision of the building as specified in the framework of time and cost targets. As a supporting process there is a construction management process, where the detailed design is transformed into a construction/fabrication plan and into day-to-day coordination and control of processes on site or in a factory. In practice, these processes have to be further divided into individual subprocesses and their supporting processes.
eBook - PDFSystem Management
Planning, Enterprise Identity, and Deployment, Second Edition
- Jeffrey O. Grady(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
54 System management: Planning, enterprise identity, and deployment 4.2 What exactly is flowing? We describe a process in terms of a series of function statements, illus-trated using blocks connected by directed line segments. In reality, we use a process diagram with the understanding that the process steps are in one-to-one correspondence with the functions, so as to be able to employ a single functional flow diagram for the whole life cycle involving devel-opment and employment. In a functional flow diagram, we commonly do not think of any material objects flowing from one function to another, except that time has passed and that we need to move on to accomplish some other function. In a process diagram, we deal with a real physical situation, where information, energy, or material flows from activity to activity. The blocks on our common process diagram should be viewed in this light. So, what is then flowing in our common process diagram? The common process diagram consists of blocks that represent pro-gram work that produces work products, and it is these work products that flow from one function (process) to another. In this book, we refer to the inter-task relationships between the flow diagram blocks in a split for-mat. These are connected by directed line segments to show the sequence of implementation and they are imagined to be connected by directed line segments to show the flow of work products from a source activity to a destination activity, where they are consumed or used in some way. The common process diagram employed in this book is actually a combina-tion of an EFFBD and an IDEF-0 diagram, but because such a diagram would be unusable due to the proliferation of lines, we use a subset of the complete diagrammatic treatment in the form of a simple functional flow diagram supplemented with a set of five matrices. Figure 4.2 illustrates the complete nature of the enterprise process model employed.
eBook - PDF- Jr., Alex N. Beavers(Authors)
- 2001(Publication Date)
- Auerbach Publications(Publisher)
It is highly probable that the definition of a business process will cross over the boundaries of several functional organizations within the enterprise. The approach for designing and implementing improvements must be focused on the process rather than the functional organizational structure. Process improvement requires consideration of all types of resources, including human, capital equipment, information, and consumed materials. Most methodologies for process design and improvement fall into two categories: continuous and discontinuous. The process design concept of continuous improvement is best applied to existing processes because it encourages a mentality and work ethic within the process team that causes any opportunities for improvement in specific activities to be acted upon as quickly as they are identified. Continuous improvement as a philosophy has been an important part of virtually every form of quality training ever offered. However, incremental improvements can eventually reach a point of dimin-ishing returns and usually are not appropriate for new process designs. One way to break through the barrier of diminishing incrementalism is to do something bold or dramatic. Changing the entire business process rather than The Role of Process in the e-Factory 57 just changing specific activities is just such a bold or dramatic approach. It is this “start with a clean sheet of paper and challenge everything you ever believed” paradigm shifting approach that is appropriate for truly transforma-tional process situations. Ultimately, it is the process that produces the results at the internal business process level, at the external business process level, and at the supply chain level. Good technology will amplify good processes and bad processes. If the process is not efficient, technology will make matters worse. If the process is efficient, the level of technology needed may be less than expected. The cost of technology is determined by process capability.
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