Hi Frank,

In the process you described that the manager checks the material. If it is wrong, the worker needs to go back.  So what I would do to document this is: put the decision making box in the management line. The decision question would be "Material okay?" Then one way is YES the other is NO.  If it is NO, go back to Material is picked or you start an additional process that will handle the error handling. It depends on how complex your process is and how big the picture you want to make.

Hope this helps.

Björn

Frank,

Things are getting clearer but we still have a bit more work.  The activity “Wrong Material…” Needs to be broken down into at least two separate activities.  One is “Wrong Material is Returned to Inventory”.  Notice I used the term inventory not stock. It’s important to use the same wording when talking about the same things.  You mentioned inventory earlier so let’s use that terminology now.  The second activity is “Picking the Correct Material”, but I don’t want you to place this activity on the diagram.  Why?  Because it’s already there.  Your sequence flow (the arrow) that comes out of the “Wrong Material…” activity should attach to the Inclusive OR (diamond) at the beginning of your flow.  You are really just repeating the same steps.  Following these steps  the manager will repeat his/her review of the material.  That’s the advantage of sequence flow looping.

Next, a minor comment on look and feel.  You appear to be using some kind of annotation symbol to describe the two path coming out of your Exclusive OR.  Most tools have some other method of showing this.  Annotations are often reserved to give additional clarifying details about a particular activity.  Though I have to admit I have not used this particular tool so I can’t be sure of it’s capabilities.  I hope to be able to download it and soon and give it a try.

Now a final question.  The worker stamps the ticket after getting it from the office.  What is it stamped with (you mentioned initials of different people) and when/why are these initials applied.  This could give valuable insight into your process an maybe even some improvement opportunities.

FYI...The new version of Forums allows you to attach a document.  You may want to give this a try.  Unfortuantely, I don't see the image that you link to while at work because our websense block the site wher you have it posted.

Chris

Frank,

I think we have a pretty good process flow here.  Now let's analyze the process.

What areas might be improved upon?  I think this is a pretty streamlined process, but there are almost always some improvements that can be made.  Let's take a look at the picking of material from inventory or the receiving shelves.  You mentioned that sometimes the workers don't follow the process exactly as they should.  What variations might they make in the process? Are there additional details around how ta worker can pick material to become more efficient?

These are just a few questions you mgiht ask yourself. I'd like to give you a chance to think about and post some others that we can discuss.

Chris