Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

  • Home
  • About
    • Contributors
  • Reliability.fm
    • Speaking Of Reliability
    • Rooted in Reliability: The Plant Performance Podcast
    • Quality during Design
    • Critical Talks
    • Dare to Know
    • Maintenance Disrupted
    • Metal Conversations
    • The Leadership Connection
    • Practical Reliability Podcast
    • Reliability Matters
    • Reliability it Matters
    • Maintenance Mavericks Podcast
    • Women in Maintenance
    • Accendo Reliability Webinar Series
    • Asset Reliability @ Work
  • Articles
    • CRE Preparation Notes
    • on Leadership & Career
      • Advanced Engineering Culture
      • Engineering Leadership
      • Managing in the 2000s
      • Product Development and Process Improvement
    • on Maintenance Reliability
      • Aasan Asset Management
      • CMMS and Reliability
      • Conscious Asset
      • EAM & CMMS
      • Everyday RCM
      • History of Maintenance Management
      • Life Cycle Asset Management
      • Maintenance and Reliability
      • Maintenance Management
      • Plant Maintenance
      • Process Plant Reliability Engineering
      • ReliabilityXperience
      • RCM Blitz®
      • Rob’s Reliability Project
      • The Intelligent Transformer Blog
    • on Product Reliability
      • Accelerated Reliability
      • Achieving the Benefits of Reliability
      • Apex Ridge
      • Metals Engineering and Product Reliability
      • Musings on Reliability and Maintenance Topics
      • Product Validation
      • Reliability Engineering Insights
      • Reliability in Emerging Technology
    • on Risk & Safety
      • CERM® Risk Insights
      • Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications
      • Operational Risk Process Safety
    • on Systems Thinking
      • Communicating with FINESSE
      • The RCA
    • on Tools & Techniques
      • Big Data & Analytics
      • Experimental Design for NPD
      • Innovative Thinking in Reliability and Durability
      • Inside and Beyond HALT
      • Inside FMEA
      • Integral Concepts
      • Learning from Failures
      • Progress in Field Reliability?
      • Reliability Engineering Using Python
      • Reliability Reflections
      • Testing 1 2 3
      • The Manufacturing Academy
  • eBooks
  • Resources
    • Accendo Authors
    • FMEA Resources
    • Feed Forward Publications
    • Openings
    • Books
    • Webinars
    • Journals
    • Higher Education
    • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • 14 Ways to Acquire Reliability Engineering Knowledge
    • Reliability Analysis Methods online course
    • Measurement System Assessment
    • SPC-Process Capability Course
    • Design of Experiments
    • Foundations of RCM online course
    • Quality during Design Journey
    • Reliability Engineering Statistics
    • Quality Engineering Statistics
    • An Introduction to Reliability Engineering
    • An Introduction to Quality Engineering
    • Process Capability Analysis course
    • Root Cause Analysis and the 8D Corrective Action Process course
    • Return on Investment online course
    • CRE Preparation Online Course
    • Quondam Courses
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Live Events
  • Calendar
    • Call for Papers Listing
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Calendar
  • Login
    • Member Home

by Dianna Deeney Leave a Comment

QDD 029 Types of Design Analyses possible with User Process Flowcharts

Types of Design Analyses possible with User Process Flowcharts

Flowcharting isn’t just useful for manufacturing processes. We can use them in lots of ways to help us with design of products and to identify quality characteristics. After all, products are used by people, and the way in which they use them is a process.

  • compare ideal vs. actual flowcharts
  • identify where there is disagreement about correct sequence or steps
  • identify common mistakes/problems at each step to mistake-proof the process and design
  • look for holds or delays, find the critical path

We also talk about specific flowchart analyses and how they can be used to analyze the user process for design.

  • Cost-of-Poor-Quality
  • Critical-to-Quality
  • Value-Added Analysis
  • Deployment Flowchart

 

View the Episode Transcript

We can use flowcharting to prioritize decisions. We can use lean principles (in the user process, also!). We can eliminate costs, focus on what’s most important to the customer, get to an ideal state of a user process, get alignment with who’s doing what during our process between our users, mistake-proof the user process, and identify the critical path.

Learn about this graphical tool and use it to make and prioritize design decisions for the user. We can take our detailed flowchart a step further and use it as an input into a UFMEA (usability failure mode and effects analysis).

Citations

If you are new to process flowcharting, get in touch with your local Quality Professional, or see this resource from ASQ: What is a Flowchart? Process Flow Diagrams & Maps | ASQ

Episode Transcript

The flowchart: it’s one of the seven basic quality tools, also known as the process flowchart or a process flow diagram. It’s used to define, study, and communicate a process. It’s a graphical tool. Designers need to know how to use it because of the user process. Let’s talk more about the various ways we can use flowcharting in design, after this brief introduction.

Hello and welcome to Quality During Design, the place to use quality thinking to create products, others love for less. My name is Dianna. I’m a senior level quality professional and engineer with over 20 years of experience in manufacturing and design. Listen in and then join the conversation at quality during design.com.

A flowchart is a graphic of the separate steps of a process in sequential order. It is a highly adaptable tool with several variations for how to analyze the process. Manufacturing process engineers are really familiar with this tool because they use it to help them identify, evaluate, and improve their manufacturing processes. But this flowchart is also a valuable tool for designers because as a designer we’re developing products for people to use. People are working or stepping through a typical process to use the product that we’re designing. We can use flowcharting to help evaluate that user process and pull-out important features, quality characteristics, and steps and information that the user needs in order to use our product to do the thing they want it to do.

There are common symbols used when we’re creating a flowchart: a rectangle is a process step, a diamond is a decision point, and an oval is the beginning and end of our flowchart. There are other common symbols that we can use in our flowchart. I’ll include a simple graphic of some common flowchart symbols on the podcast blog.

To create a flowchart, use a group activity experience. Plan work sessions with key people involved in the design. This could be your field ops, marketing people, design engineers, manufacturing…anyone that has a say-so in how the quality characteristics of a product are defined. You will also want to plan to gather feedback of other key people involved in your user process. Namely, your users! You can include supplier feedback and customer feedback by interviewing them before work sessions or getting feedback from them between work sessions. But make sure that you get their input, also.

If the first step is planning work sessions, the second step is deciding on the process boundaries and the level of detail. Where do you want to start evaluating process? Which step do you want to start evaluating your process from when your product leaves your shipping dock or when the customer receives it? Or, maybe when the customers opening the package? Where do you want your process analysis to end? Do you want it to end after the first use, after five years, or upon recycling and disposal?

The third basic step for flowcharting is to brainstorm in your work sessions with your key people and arrange activities in sequence. Draw arrows to show the flow; sort of keep it fluid as you’re brainstorming this process flow of your user. Finally, you want to draw the final flowchart. Here’s some advice: Don’t get hung up on trying to create your flowchart within a software package with your group during the brainstorming and creation stages. These software packages are very useful and can seem fast, but it bogs down the team in trying to make a pretty flowchart instead of really capturing the necessary and important details about your process.

Now, if we have a detailed flowchart which shows all the steps of our user process in sequence, we can start doing some fun analysis with it.

We can compare our ideal process versus the actual process. Maybe we want to compare the process between our alpha version and our beta version of our products. Maybe we’re designing the next generation of a product and we want to make it better for the user. Perhaps there’s a competitor that is well known for their device and we want to evaluate their device process and improve upon it with our own design.
With our detailed flowchart, we can also identify where there’s disagreement about the correct sequence or steps. This disagreement could be our misunderstanding of what the user needs to do, or the user expects to be able to do, or it could be a disagreement between different types of users. That would be really helpful information for us to know in advance of our design process.
With the flowchart we can identify common mistakes or problems at each step, so we can mistake proof the process. This gets into our prevention controls where we can design our product to prevent problems from happening in the first place.
With our flowchart we can analyze cycle time or look for holes or delays or find the critical path. Doing these things can help us create an efficient design and an efficient process for our user to be able to use our product. Finding the critical path could be important to us in understanding which quality characteristics we want to define and measure.
In addition to all of that, there are also four other techniques we can use, depending on what information we want to get out of our flowchart.

There is a cost-of-poor-quality flowchart, and we can use this to identify the problems, root causes, and prioritize fixing those causes based on cost. To do that, we create our detailed flowchart like we have, but we ensure that the flowchart shows how problems are handled if when using our product the user needs to make a decision or has a particular problem that they sometimes encounter, that could be a decision point where we need to capture in our flowchart: how they handle that problem or what decisions they make when faced with that problem. Then we can identify those process steps that add to the cost of quality in our user process scenario. This could be something like the product failing, or the customer needing to call the company for instructions for how to solve this particular problem, or for maintenance issues. Then we can identify those process steps that, if they’re done properly, it eliminates those costs of quality. The cost-of-poor-quality flowchart analysis can help us identify those prevention controls.
Another specific analysis we could do with flowcharts is the critical-to-quality analysis, where we identify quality characteristics that are important to the customer, and we also use it to find problems. So again, we start with our detailed flowchart which shows the steps critical to achieving quality. We study the output side of our flowchart of our process. We list our customer’s needs. Is it that it needs to be on time? That it is easy to use? That it produces a correct output? We ensure we answer the who, what, when, where, and how of the output of our process. Then we study the input side of our process in a similar way. What are the inputs that are needed for this process? And, again, we want to answer the who, what, when, where, and how? Then, we can identify the critical to quality steps, where we identify where the quality of the output is affected, either hurt or helped. At what point during our process does the input determine what happens next in process? And, what are those critical-to-quality steps that we can measure if the inputs and outputs are meeting needs? With these identified, we can study them to further identify other problems for prevention or detection controls.
Another type of flowchart analysis is value-added analysiswhere we identify the individual steps that add value for the customer. Is it necessary to produce output? Does it contribute to the customer satisfaction? If so, then we color those steps green. Then we identify those steps that provide organizational value. If it contributes to the organizational needs, then we’re going to color it yellow and study to reduce or eliminate it. Perhaps part of the user process that we’re evaluating is the user providing warranty information back to us. That could be an organizational need that we would want to reduce or eliminate or make easier for the customer. Then, in our detailed flowchart, we also identify the non value-added steps, we color those red, and we want to study to reduce or eliminate those steps altogether.
The last type of flowchart analysis I’ll cover today is a deployment flowchart. This type of flowchart uses swim lanes to identify relationships, communicate responsibilities, and study how parallel steps affect time. If you have a medical device that needs both a physician and a nurse to interact with it during the procedure, you could use a deployment flowchart to identify which steps the nurse is taking and which steps the doctor is taking.
I think Flowcharting is a lot of fun, but it’s also one of my tools that I keep in my back pocket, and I use it quite often. I can use it to prioritize decisions. We can use lean principles (in the user process, also!) We can eliminate costs, focus on what’s most important to the customer, get to an ideal state of a user process, get alignment with who’s doing what during our process between our users, mistake-proof the user process, and identify the critical path. And we can take our detailed flowchart a step further and input it into a usability FMEA where we are evaluating potential failures, their effects, and their causes and what we’re doing to control them.

What’s today’s insight to action? Check out flowcharting as one of the design tools you can use to gather inputs into your design process. Use it to communicate with customers and users about how they’re going to use your product. This information is vital to the success of our designs.

Please visit this podcast blog and others at quality during design.com. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to keep in touch. If you like this podcast or have a suggestion for an upcoming episode, let me know. You can find me at quality during design.com on LinkedIn or you could leave me a voicemail at 484-341-0238. This has been a production of Denney Enterprises. Thanks for listening!

Filed Under: Quality during Design, The Reliability FM network

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Quality during Design podcast logo

Tips for using quality tools and methods to help you design products others love, for less.


by Dianna Deeney
Quality during Design,
Hosted on Buzzsprout.com
Subscribe and enjoy every episode
Google
Apple
Spotify

Recent Episodes

QDD 101 Quality Tools are Legos of Development (and Their 7 Uses)

QDD 100 Lessons Learned from Coffee Pod Stories

QDD 099 Crucial Conversations in Engineering, with Shere Tuckey (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

QDD 098 Challenges Getting Team Input in Concept Development

QDD 097 Brainstorming within Design Sprints

QDD 096 After the ‘Storm: Compare and Prioritize Ideas

QDD 095 After the ‘Storm: Pareto Voting and Screening Methods

QDD 094 After the ‘Storm: Group and Explore Ideas

QDD 093 Product Design with Brainstorming, with Emily Haidemenos (A Chat with Cross Functional Experts)

QDD 092 Ways to Gather Ideas with a Team

QDD 091 The Spirits of Technical Writing Past, Present, and Future

QDD 090 The Gifts Others Bring

QDD 089 Next Steps after Surprising Test Results

QDD 088 Choose Reliability Goals for Modules

QDD 087 Start a System Architecture Diagram Early

QDD 086 Why Yield Quality in the Front-End of Product Development

QDD 085 Book Cast

QDD 084 Engineering in the Color Economy

QDD 083 Getting to Great Designs

QDD 082 Get Clarity on Goals with a Continuum

QDD 081 Variable Relationships: Correlation and Causation

QDD 080 Use Meetings to Add Productivity

QDD 079 Ways to Partner with Test Engineers

QDD 078 What do We do with FMEA Early in Design Concept?

QDD 077 A Severity Scale based on Quality Dimensions

QDD 076 Use Force Field Analysis to Understand Nuances

QDD 075 Getting Use Information without a Prototype

QDD 074 Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Supplements Test

QDD 073 2 Lessons about Remote Work for Design Engineers

QDD 072 Always Plot the Data

QDD 071 Supplier Control Plans and Design Specs

QDD 070 Use FMEA to Design for In-Process Testing

QDD 069 Use FMEA to Choose Critical Design Features

QDD 068 Get Unstuck: Expand and Contract Our Problem

QDD 067 Get Unstuck: Reframe our Problem

QDD 066 5 Options to Manage Risks during Product Engineering

QDD 065 Prioritizing Technical Requirements with a House of Quality

QDD 064 Gemba for Product Design Engineering

QDD 063 Product Design from a Data Professional Viewpoint, with Gabor Szabo (A Chat with Cross Functional Experts)

QDD 062 How Does Reliability Engineering Affect (Not Just Assess) Design?

QDD 061 How to use FMEA for Complaint Investigation

QDD 060 3 Tips for Planning Design Reviews

QDD 059 Product Design from a Marketing Viewpoint, with Laura Krick (A Chat with Cross Functional Experts)

QDD 058 UFMEA vs. DFMEA

QDD 057 Design Input & Specs vs. Test & Measure Capability

QDD 056 ALT vs. HALT

QDD 055 Quality as a Strategic Asset vs. Quality as a Control

QDD 054 Design Specs vs. Process Control, Capability, and SPC

QDD 053 Internal Customers vs. External Customers

QDD 052 Discrete Data vs. Continuous Data

QDD 051 Prevention Controls vs. Detection Controls

QDD 050 Try this Method to Help with Complex Decisions (DMRCS)

QDD 049 Overlapping Ideas: Quality, Reliability, and Safety

QDD 048 Using SIPOC to Get Started

QDD 047 Risk Barriers as Swiss Cheese?

QDD 046 Environmental Stress Testing for Robust Designs

QDD 045 Choosing a Confidence Level for Test using FMEA

QDD 044 Getting Started with FMEA – It All Begins with a Plan

QDD 043 How can 8D help Solve my Recurring Problem?

QDD 042 Mistake-Proofing – The Poka-Yoke of Usability

QDD 041 Getting Comfortable with using Reliability Results

QDD 040 How to Self-Advocate for More Customer Face Time (and why it’s important)

QDD 039 Choosing Quality Tools (Mind Map vs. Flowchart vs. Spaghetti Diagram)

QDD 038 The DFE Part of DFX (Design For Environment and eXcellence)

QDD 037 Results-Driven Decisions, Faster: Accelerated Stress Testing as a Reliability Life Test

QDD 036 When to use DOE (Design of Experiments)?

QDD 035 Design for User Tasks using an Urgent/Important Matrix

QDD 034 Statistical vs. Practical Significance

QDD 033 How Many Do We Need To Test?

QDD 032 Life Cycle Costing for Product Design Choices

QDD 031 5 Aspects of Good Reliability Goals and Requirements

QDD 030 Using Failure Rate Functions to Drive Early Design Decisions

QDD 029 Types of Design Analyses possible with User Process Flowcharts

QDD 028 Design Tolerances Based on Economics (Using the Taguchi Loss Function)

QDD 027 How Many Controls do we Need to Reduce Risk?

QDD 026 Solving Symptoms Instead of Causes?

QDD 025 Do you have SMART ACORN objectives?

QDD 024 Why Look to Standards

QDD 023 Getting the Voice of the Customer

QDD 022 The Way We Test Matters

QDD 021 Designing Specs for QA

QDD 020 Every Failure is a Gift

QDD 019 Understanding the Purposes behind Kaizen

QDD 018 Fishbone Diagram: A Supertool to Understand Problems, Potential Solutions, and Goals

QDD 017 What is ‘Production Equivalent’ and Why Does it Matter?

QDD 016 About Visual Quality Standards

QDD 015 Using the Pareto Principle and Avoiding Common Pitfalls

QDD 014 The Who’s Who of your Quality Team

QDD 013 When it’s Not Normal: How to Choose from a Library of Distributions

QDD 012 What are TQM, QFD, Six Sigma, and Lean?

QDD 011 The Designer’s Important Influence on Monitoring After Launch

QDD 010 How to Handle Competing Failure Modes

QDD 009 About Using Slide Decks for Technical Design Reviews

QDD 008 Remaking Risk-Based Decisions: Allowing Ourselves to Change our Minds.

QDD 007 Need to innovate? Stop brainstorming and try a systematic approach.

QDD 006 HALT! Watch out for that weakest link

QDD 005 The Designer’s Risk Analysis affects Business, Projects, and Suppliers

QDD 004 A big failure and too many causes? Try this analysis.

QDD 003 Why Your Design Inputs Need to Include Quality & Reliability

QDD 002 My product works. Why don’t they want it?

QDD 001 How to Choose the Right Improvement Model

© 2023 FMS Reliability · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Cookies Policy

This site uses cookies to give you a better experience, analyze site traffic, and gain insight to products or offers that may interest you. By continuing, you consent to the use of cookies. Learn how we use cookies, how they work, and how to set your browser preferences by reading our Cookies Policy.