magnus919_agent-skills/operational-design/references/process-design.md

Process Design

Frameworks for understanding, documenting, and improving business processes. Process design is the foundation of operational excellence — you cannot improve what you haven't mapped.

Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

A lean-management technique for analyzing the flow of materials and information required to deliver a product or service to a customer.

Standard VSM Elements

Symbol	Name	Meaning
□	Process box	A process step (department, system, person)
▼	Inventory	Work-in-progress between steps
→	Push arrow	Material moves without pull signal
☰	Information flow	Communication (manual or electronic)
⚡	Kaizen burst	Improvement opportunity identified
⏰	Timeline	Value-added vs non-value-added time

Building a Current-State VSM

1. Define the product/service. What's the specific product, order, or request you're mapping?
2. Walk the process. Physically follow the work from start to finish. Don't map from memory.
3. Map process steps. Each major step is a process box. Include wait states and handoffs.
4. Collect data for each step:
   • Cycle time (time to complete the step)
   • Changeover time (time to switch between types)
   • Uptime / reliability
   • First-pass yield (% of work done right first time)
   • Number of operators
5. Map information flow. How does each step know what to do? Email? System? Verbal?
6. Add the timeline. Calculate value-added time vs total lead time.

Value-Added vs Non-Value-Added

Category	Definition	Examples
Value-Added (VA)	Changes the product/service in a way the customer cares about and pays for	Manufacturing, code development, customer consultation
Business Non-Value-Added (BNVA)	Required by regulation or business policy but not valued by customer	Compliance checks, reporting, approvals
Non-Value-Added (NVA)	Pure waste. Customer would not pay for this.	Rework, waiting, handoffs, unnecessary steps

The Efficiency Metric

Process Cycle Efficiency = Total Value-Added Time / Total Lead Time

Efficiency	Classification
> 25%	Excellent. Lean process.
10-25%	Good. Room for improvement.
5-10%	Typical for most organizations. Significant waste.
< 5%	High waste environment. Major opportunity.

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BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation)

A standardized notation for process modeling. Use BPMN when you need formal, unambiguous process documentation.

Core Elements

Element	Notation	Meaning
Event	Circle	Something that happens (start, end, timer, message)
Activity	Rounded rectangle	Work performed (task, subprocess)
Gateway	Diamond	Decision point (XOR, AND, OR)
Sequence Flow	Solid arrow	Order of activities
Message Flow	Dashed arrow	Communication between participants
Pool	Large rectangle	A participant in the process
Lane	Nested section within a pool	Role or department within a participant

Gateway Types

Gateway	Logic	Visual	Use When
XOR (Exclusive)	Exactly one path	Standard diamond	Yes/No decisions, routing
AND (Parallel)	All paths execute	Diamond with +	Tasks can happen simultaneously
OR (Inclusive)	One or more paths	Diamond with O	Multiple conditions may be true

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Bottleneck Analysis

In any process, the slowest step determines the throughput of the entire system. Bottleneck analysis identifies that step.

Theory of Constraints (Goldratt)

1. Identify the constraint (the bottleneck). The step with the smallest capacity or longest cycle time.
2. Exploit the constraint. Maximize the bottleneck's throughput. Don't let it wait.
3. Subordinate everything else. Non-bottleneck steps should operate at the bottleneck's pace, not at their own maximum.
4. Elevate the constraint. If exploitation isn't enough, invest in increasing the bottleneck's capacity.
5. Repeat. Once the bottleneck is resolved, a new bottleneck appears. Start over.

Finding the Bottleneck

Method	How	Best For
Walk the process	Stand where the work is. Where is the pile of work-in-progress largest?	Quick assessment, small processes
Capacity analysis	Calculate maximum throughput of each step. Lowest = bottleneck.	Manufacturing, transactional
Cycle time analysis	Measure actual time per step. Longest = bottleneck.	Knowledge work, services
Queues	Where is the longest queue? The step before the queue is the bottleneck.	All processes

Bottleneck Anti-Patterns

• Optimizing non-bottlenecks. Improving a step that isn't the bottleneck increases capacity overall by 0%. It just creates more work-in-progress queued at the bottleneck.
• Keeping the bottleneck idle. Lunch breaks, meetings, training. If the bottleneck stops, the whole system loses throughput. Protect the bottleneck's time.
• Ignoring variability. A step may not look like the bottleneck on average, but if its variability is high, it causes intermittent bottlenecks.

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Workflow Optimization Patterns

The Seven Wastes (TIMWOOD)

Waste	Description	Example in Knowledge Work
Transportation	Unnecessary movement of work	Multiple handoffs between teams
Inventory	Excess work-in-progress	Too many open tickets
Motion	Unnecessary movement of people	Context switching, finding information
Waiting	Idle time between steps	Approval queues, review backlogs
Over-processing	Doing more than needed	Excessive documentation, over-engineering
Over-production	Doing work before it's needed	Building features without demand
Defects	Errors requiring rework	Bugs, miscommunication, incorrect data

Process Improvement Heuristics

Heuristic	When to Apply	Expected Impact
Eliminate handoffs	Process has 5+ handoffs	High — each handoff adds delay and error
Parallelize independent steps	Sequential steps that don't depend on each other	Medium-High — reduces lead time significantly
Move decisions earlier	Late-stage approvals cause rework	High — fail fast, not late
Automate verification	Manual checking is slow and inconsistent	Medium — improves consistency more than speed
Standardize exceptions	The same exception gets handled differently every time	High — reduces cognitive load and error
Batch size reduction	Large batches increase lead time and variability	Medium — smoother flow, faster feedback
Remove sign-off layers	3+ approvals for routine decisions	High — approvals are delays, not quality

Measuring Improvement

Metric	Pre-optimization	Post-optimization	Target
Lead time (end-to-end)
Value-added time
First-pass yield
Handoff count
Approval steps
Rework rate
Cost per transaction