See how work moves across your company today, from the first order to delivery.
By Chris McCarthy, Founder & Chief AI Officer, OB.1
Before you spend on AI, it helps to see how work moves through your company today. A process map gives your leadership team one shared picture. It shows each step, who owns it and the rule they follow. Then you can rank what to fix first.
If you run operations, you carry most of this picture in your head already. The map puts it on one page so everyone else can see it too.
How to map business processes across your company
Start with one path through the company. Order to delivery is a good default, because it touches almost every team.
Follow a single customer order from the moment it arrives. Watch where it goes next. Note each team it passes through: sales, engineering, purchasing, scheduling, production, shipping and billing.
Keep the whole map on one page. If it spills onto five, you've gone too deep for a first pass. You can add detail later, where it matters.
Workflow mapping from the leader's seat has one goal: see the handoffs, the owners and the places where work waits.
Five steps to map how work moves
Pick one path through the company
Choose a path your leadership team cares about. Order to delivery works for many companies. Quoting is another strong pick, and I wrote about it in how your company builds a quote.
Walk it with the people who do the work
Sit with the people who run each step. Ask them to walk you through a recent real order, start to finish. Let them lead, and ask what happens when something goes wrong.
They know the work in detail, and they know which steps run smoothly. They are your best source for an accurate map.
Write each step, its owner and the rule they follow
Give each step one line. Write who does it, what they decide and how they decide it. Use their own words for the rule.
If two people share a step, write both names. Where a step has no name, write 'no owner' and keep going. You'll come back to those first.
Mark the handoffs and the waits
Every time work moves from one team to another, mark it. Note where an order sits waiting for an answer. Note where someone types the same data into a second system.
These marks are where many fixes hide. They're also where the map becomes useful to your controller, because waits and rework show up in cost.
Rank what to fix first
Look across the marks and rank them. Put the steps that slow the most work at the top. Note which fixes are small and which need more thought.
Start with the fix that frees the most time for the least spend.
If you'd like help walking the path with your team, a Blueprint Session is a good place to start.
How to document business processes your team will use
A map only helps if people use it. Keep the write-up plain enough that a new hire could follow it.
- One line per step.
- The owner's name or role on every step.
- The rule in the owner's own words.
- Where the numbers come from: the ERP, a spreadsheet, an email thread or someone's notes.
Write it with the people who do the work. When they see their own words on the page, they're more likely to trust it and keep it current.
Your most experienced people already know how much of this runs.
A simple shared document is enough to start. Store it where your leadership team already works.
Why map your processes before AI
AI and automation follow the steps and rules they are given. If those rules aren't written down, a tool has nothing steady to follow.
A map shows you which fixes need AI and which don't. We'll tell you when AI is the wrong fix.
Decide how AI will be used before anyone picks a tool. I wrote more on that in how to decide how AI will be used.
For a controller, this also gives you a bounded first step. You're spending time on a map before you spend money on software. The map then shows where any spend should go.
What you'll know when you're done
You'll know how work moves through your company and what to fix first.
Your leadership team will share one picture of the work. Your next decision, AI or otherwise, starts from that picture. If you're still deciding where to begin, read where a manufacturing company should start with AI.
How OB.1 helps
We start by looking at how your company runs today.
The first step is an Operational Blueprint. It gives you a diagnosis of your platforms, process, and people, and a plan your team can act on.
We build AI plans for Northeast Ohio manufacturing companies, starting with how yours runs today.
Already working with a program or advisor you trust? Keep working with them. The map is useful next to any program you already use.
No rush on any of this. Whenever you're ready, let's talk.
Questions leaders ask about process mapping
How do you map business processes?
Pick one path through the company, such as order to delivery. Walk it with the people who do the work. Write each step, its owner and its rule, then rank what to fix first.
What's the best way to document business processes?
Keep it plain. Use one line per step, name the owner and write the rule in their words. Note where the data lives. Write it with the people who do the work.
How do you write a business process flow?
Draw one box per step, in the order the work moves. Put the owner on each box and the rule beside it. Mark each handoff and each place where work waits.
What is workflow mapping?
Workflow mapping is drawing how work moves from one step and one team to the next. For a leader, the goal is one page that shows owners, handoffs and waits.
Why map your processes before AI?
AI tools follow the steps and rules you give them. A map shows which steps are clear, which need an owner and which are good work for AI.