How do you incorporate feedback and improvement cycles into your process flow diagram?

2 Identify your process steps and actors

Next, you need to identify the main steps and actors involved in your process. A step is an action or a decision that transforms an input into an output. An actor is a person, a team, a department, or a system that performs a step or provides an input or an output. You can use symbols, shapes, colors, and labels to represent the steps and actors in your PFD. For example, you can use rectangles for steps, circles for inputs and outputs, diamonds for decisions, and arrows for flows. You can also use swimlanes to group the steps and actors by their roles or responsibilities.

3 Validate your process flow with data and feedback

Once you have a draft of your PFD, you need to validate it with data and feedback from your stakeholders and customers. Data can help you verify the accuracy, completeness, and relevance of your process steps, inputs, outputs, and resources. For example, you can use data to measure the cycle time, throughput, quality, cost, and customer satisfaction of your process. Feedback can help you identify the pain points, gaps, risks, and opportunities for improvement in your process. For example, you can use feedback to assess the value, usability, and reliability of your process outputs for your customers. You can collect data and feedback from various sources, such as surveys, interviews, observations, reports, and analytics.

5 Implement and monitor your process improvement actions

Finally, you need to implement and monitor your process improvement actions based on your analysis. You can use a project management approach to plan, execute, and control your improvement actions. You can use a SMART framework to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals for your improvement actions. You can use a PDCA cycle to plan, do, check, and act on your improvement actions. You can use a RACI matrix to assign roles and responsibilities for your improvement actions. You can use a dashboard to track and report the progress and results of your improvement actions.

6 Update your process flow diagram accordingly

As you implement and monitor your process improvement actions, you need to update your PFD accordingly. You need to reflect the changes in your process steps, inputs, outputs, and resources in your PFD. You also need to review and revise your process scope and goals in your PFD. You need to communicate and document your updated PFD with your stakeholders and customers. You need to repeat this cycle of feedback and improvement regularly to ensure that your PFD remains relevant, accurate, and effective.