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Flowcharting Software

Here is a look at some flowchart, simulation, and workflow today that can help managers develop improved workflow processes.

Flowcharting Software

Create flowcharts, IDEF, NS Diagram and other business and technical diagrams rapidly with Edraw flowcharting software. Provide lots of free flowchart examples, templates, tutorial for download!

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Flowcharting software is an important tool for the improvement of processes. By providing a graphical representation, they help project teams to identify the different elements of a process and understand the interrelationships among the various steps. Flow charts may also be used to gather information and data about a process as an aid to decision making or performance evaluation. For example, the owner of a small advertising agency who hopes to reduce the time involved in creating a print ad might be able to use a flow chart of the process to identify and eliminate unnecessary steps. Though flow charts are relatively old design tools, they remain popular among computer programmers working on systems analysis and design. In recent years, many software programs have been developed to assist business people in creating flow charts.

Flowcharting software is capable of depicting much of an enterprise's operations--and being far more efficient and productive than the conventional back-of-the-envelope approach to drawing process flows. For this reason, flowcharting software is primarily used by enterprises, typically an industrial engineer or quality manager, starting an ERP implementation or BPR effort, or those documenting business processes for ISO or QS certification. Often, the software can also generate a "process narrative," a description of the processes in prose for those people who do better with words than with pictures.

There are several approaches to modeling business processes. The standard approach uses the Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) DEFinition methodology (IDEF), which is an activity modeling approach that decomposes activities in an hierarchical manner.

Enterprise simulation flowcharting tools

While flowcharts provide a static view of the enterprise, simulation provides the dynamic view. Simulation, says Owen, can help people prove that the process they're putting in place is better than the process they're replacing. Simulation helps identify bottlenecks and redundancies, shows where processes don't work, and points to where capital costs and resources are being applied. It also lets users reengineer their processes in silicon before the expense of instituting process changes in the organization itself. When activity-based costing analysis is included in the simulation, users have a tool with some metric that justifies reorganizing the business.

These simulation tools don't work in a vacuum. The basic data for Symix's Virtual Planning, for example, comes from the SyteLine ERP system. These data include workcenter descriptions, capacities, flow rates, cycle times, queue times, and start and end dates. As necessary, users can change the flow of business processes by interacting directly with the graphical representation of that flow. For instance, they can add new workcenters, drag a workcenter from one spot to another, redirect the flow of material, activate and deactivate machines, duplicate machines, resequence processes, and add more resources, whether machines or people. At the very least, the simulation will show the flow of material and information and users identify bottlenecks.

Granted, a piece of paper can show material, data, and work flows; a spreadsheet can crunch the numbers to show the ramifications of process changes. However, today's easy-to-use graphical business simulation packages are far more interactive, immediate, and often more capable of letting users perform sophisticated business process--and shop floor--analysis and tuning.

Business simulation software is typically used by an industrial engineer who's up to speed on the business process flows, speeds, resources (people and machines), and such within the enterprise. The software packages themselves can cost several thousand dollars, even six figures when adding up all the per-seat costs.