· It gives the visibility of the end to end process, it provides information of the business and ultimately the customer and how do they get impacted from the process.
· It also gives us the reason for the change, if we want to remove some steps, or want to change the process method, we could show it in the map and give the insight the reasons for doing so, hence it would work as a proof of change.
· It gives the insight of the whole process and who is responsible for that activity that also can easily be traced. Since in process map, we can find out who was responsible for those actions and we should work on it accordingly.
We can also use the process maps for induction and training purposes also, for new joiners they could get the info of the process by the process map.
· The process maps in any organization are used as a blueprint, later no one looks into the map since they already know the process, however, we always try to update the process map as this is easy to understand and keep easy to use.
· Over the period of time, we get updates, or changes in the process according to those changes we need to maintain the process maps also for new joiners and to keep the record of the process with the different versions so that we can see all the changes made during those time.
In a continual improvement, we can use it to see the improvement area, also for compliance and ISO audit purpose Process map can be used.
The process map is very useful while doing the FMEA, to see all steps and then check their failure mode and the effect analysis.
How does it benefit your project?
As mentioned above, process maps give the insight of the whole process, we can see the process as a whole and we can find the improvement areas and loopholes of the process, based on that we can run the project.
By FMEA we find the risk in the process steps failure, based on that we decide how we can improve the process and avoid or prevent the risks.
In the successful business, all types of process maps are useful, everything depends upon the situation and their usage.
At some places, we only need to see the VSM, whereas in some places we need the detailed information of the process where we can use swim lane/ high-level process maps, as mentioned above, for continuous improvement we must see our process, that can be seen from amongst the mentioned any process and make improvement accordingly.
Hence in every business, we need process maps to know the entire procedure and to follow and run the process accordingly. Every process map has its benefits and constraints, hence as per their use in the business and situation, we must use the best process maps. We can make the process maps in the Visio; however, we can also make in a simple MS word format.