Design a Flowchart Uop

Design a Flowchart for a Process

Tonya Colvin

University of Phoenix

Operations Management / OPS 571

Dr. Lynn Duffner

May 3, 2010

Introduction

Each day individuals partake in routines to accomplish various tasks throughout the day. The accomplished task depends upon the occupation of the individual. For example, a working professional may accomplish tasks associated with the company’s strategic objective and goals for the period. The task may include completing a productivity report or analyzing salary expense. In contrast, a non-working professional, such as a stay at home parent, accomplishments may relate to running and maintaining the home. Their duties may include paying bills, doing the laundry, getting the kids off to school. Regardless of the task, each person follows a process to achieve completion. Overtime, analysis occurs to find ways to improve the process. A good tool for analyzing a process is flowcharting. A flowchart is “a diagram showing the basic elements of a process – typically tasks, flows, and storage areas” (Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano 2005, pg. 157). Using a series of rectangles, arrows, squares, triangles, the diagram provides a visual presentation of the operations performed and the sequence in which they are performed.

Utilizing a flowchart is not limited to professional environments. The diagram is applicable to analyze and potentially improve any process. For example, currently, the process time for making my daughter’s school lunch is seventy-two minutes, see Table 1. The time lessens when all ingredients are on hand, which is usually not the case. After quantifying the process time, the steps were diagrammed into a flowchart, see Flowchart 1, which helps me begin the brainstorming process of ways to reduce the processing time, or whether the process can be improved.

During the brainstorming stage, one area of consideration is factors that may affect the process design. According to Chase,...