What is Process Flow?   Process flow is the continuous movement of items through an entire production system without interference. When process flow is being restricted items will begin to back up at certain operations, this is called a “constraint” or “bottleneck”.  To many constraints will cause the production system to begin to slow down, and it will increase lead times. This means it will take longer to deliver the finished products to customers. How can a business improve Process Flow? There are several ways that a business can improve process flow: 1. Identify the constraints in a production process 2. Determine the root cause of the constraints 3. Find solutions to eliminate the root cause of the constraints 4. Test the solutions to determine if they work What changes will be required to improve Process Flow? Once the root causes of the constraints are identified the solution could require some changes in the production process. It might require a total re-design of the equipment, methods and layout of the work area. Employees would need to be re-trained to understand the improvements. It would also require a process to be monitored on a regular basis to track and trend its performance over time. Process Flow Identify and eliminate constraints to improve flow. © Radical Transformation 2010 www.radical-transformation.com Lean Mfg. Coach (541) 210-5116 Lean Manufacturing Training  Lean Healthcare Training Lean Office Training © 2011 Radical Transformation LLC All Rights Reserved Lean Principles Strategy Deployment Value Stream Mapping Workplace Organization Process Flow Quick Changeover Pull System Balanced Workload Standard Work Kaizen Lean Supply Chain