Winding Through Workflow Touch Points and Bottlenecks
Pat McGrew M-edp
Consultant, Researcher, Speaker, Facilitator, Writer & Communication Technology Evangelist! Working in Print, CCM, Product & Sales Triage, & Consulting
If you are following the Workflow Quiz, here is a story about touchpoints and bottlenecks, and why you want to resolve them!
Touch points are the discrete processes required to move a job through the workflow. Color management is a touchpoint. Ripping a file is a touchpoint . Printing is a touchpoint. Having a CSR track down a customer file is a touch point. Troubleshooting a wrong profile is a touch point.
Over on the InfoBlog you can see the whole post, but for my friends on LinkedIn, let's take a look at the basics. You should be able to name every point in your workflow, name an owner, and be able to identify how often each one becomes a bottleneck. If you cannot do that, it's time to audit your process and and get to the point where you can accomplish this task. It is not simple or easy, but once you do it you have a powerful business tool in your hands: knowledge!
For every step where you have experienced a bottleneck in the past year, red flag it. Dig into what caused the bottleneck and how you resolved it. At the end of the exercise you should have a good idea of where you need to do some work.
It might be that software enhancements, or retraining on software you already have will untangle the bottleneck. If that isn't the case, it may be time to search for some additional workflow tools or add new processes that help you to guarantee a smooth flow of work through your production floor!