Process mapping: as-is and to-be

Drawing processes clearly with swimlanes, finding waste and controls, and designing the to-be flow on standard Odoo.

In this lesson

Notation: swimlanes, tasks, decisions, documents
Finding waste and missing controls
To-be maps and traceability

Key points

Swimlanes per role; start, tasks, decisions, documents, end
Map as-is honestly, including spreadsheets and workarounds
Mark value, control or waste; find missing controls
To-be on standard Odoo; trace requirements, tests and training to it

Real-world example

An Ibadan distributor's as-is order flow had 14 steps and three re-typings between WhatsApp, Excel and Sage. The to-be on Odoo had 6: portal or salesperson quotation, confirmation, pick, ship, auto-invoice, payment reconciliation. The managing director signed the to-be map before seeing any configuration.

Questions and answers

Name three kinds of waste visible in maps.

Waiting, re-typing data, unnecessary approvals (also searching, rework).

What should a to-be map be linked to?

Requirements, test scripts and training materials.

Read the full lesson, worked example and quiz