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2
Production workflows. Customer- facing or supplier- facing workflows such as an
intranet- or extranet- based customer support database and stock management system
integrated with a supplier’s system.
Flow process charts
A simple flow chart is a good starting point for describing the sequence of activities of a
workflow. Despite their simplicity, flow charts are effective in that they are easy to under-
stand by non- technical staff and also they highlight bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Flow pro-
cess charts are used commonly when solving digital business problems, whether in the front
office or the back office. Each symbol in the chart refers to a particular operation within the
overall process. An explanation of the symbols used in flow process chart analysis is shown
in Figure 11.3. Box 11.1 and Figure 11.4 show one way of laying out flow process charts.
Another example of how flow process charts are applied in practice using a tabular arrange-
ment is presented in Activity 11.2. An example of how tabular flow process charts can be
applied to e-procurement analysis is given in Chapter 7 (p. 301).
Box 11.1
Use of flow process charts for design of workflow systems
In this example mortgage (loan) applications are received by post. It is then necessary
to identify new applications and supporting documentation for applications already
received. (This is a decision point indicated by a diamond- shaped decision box.)
New applications are keyed into the workflow system as a new case and the original
form is scanned in for reference (these are processes shown as circles on the chart).
Supporting material such as ID (driving licences) and letters from employers are also
scanned in. A team member will then assign or associate all scanned images of mate-
rial which has been scanned in to a particular case. Assigning new documents (assign-
ment tasks) is always the most important task, so these need to be automatically
placed by the software at the head of the workflow queue. Once assigned the docu-
ments will need to be actioned (action tasks) by the operator, so according to the type
of document and when it needs to be chased the workflow system will assign a priority
to the task and place it in the workflow queue. Team members will then have to action
tasks from the workflow queue which are prioritised according to date. Processing
an action task will usually involve phoning the customer for clarification or writing a
letter to request additional information. After this has been achieved the operator will
mark the item as complete and a new workflow task will be created if necessary: for
example, to follow up if a letter is not received within ten days.
This diagram is also useful for summarising system design since it can identify dif-
ferent modules of a system and the hardware and software necessary to support these
modules. In this case some of the modules are:
●
Scan document (scanner and scanning software)
●
Associate document to customer case (link to customer database)
●
Prioritise document (specialised workflow module)
●
Review document (link to customer database)
●
Contact customer (link to phone system and letter printer).
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Part 3 Implementation
Figure 11.3
Symbols used for flow process charts
Transportation
Delay
Processing
Decision
Inspection/
measurement
Inbound
goods
Movement of
physical goods
or information
such as a memo
transported
by post
Occurs when
processing is
delayed through
lack of resources
Activity or task
such as entering
data or emailing
customer
Process flow can
split according to
whether the
choice is Y or N
Goods or
information have
to be evaluated,
for example,
a quality check
Information or
goods coming
into a company
Figure 11.4
Flow process chart showing the main operations performed by users when working using
workflow software
Key in
application
Yes
No
No
No
Categorise
Mail
in
Awaiting
sorting
Ye
s
New
application?
Scan-in
documentation
Associate
to
case
Action
priority
task from
queue
Assign
priority
according
to date
Yes
Mark item
complete
Mark item
complete
Last task
for case?
Ye
s
Ye
s
No
Is info
available?
Phone to
request
more info
Write to
request
additional
info
Authorised?
Manager
checks
More
information
required?
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