The standard tool for process design, whether in services or manufacturing, is the flow chart

How often have you thought about streamlining a process in your organization but not been sure where to start? Or perhaps you've struggled to understand a process when it's described to you in detail.

Flow charts are a useful tool in these situations, as they make a process easy to understand at a glance. Using just a few words and some simple symbols, they show clearly what happens at each stage and how this affects other decisions and actions.

In this article and video, we look at how to create and use flow charts, and explore how they can help you to solve problems in your processes.

Click here to view a transcript of this video.

What Is a Flow Chart?

Flow charts are easy-to-understand diagrams that show how the steps of a process fit together. American engineer Frank Gilbreth is widely believed to be the first person to document a process flow, having introduced the concept of a "Process Chart" to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1921.

Flow charts tend to consist of four main symbols, linked with arrows that show the direction of flow:

You can use many other symbols in a flow chart but remember that these diagrams are used for communication. If you use symbols that only a few people understand, you may fail to get your message across. So, be sure to keep things simple!

When to Use a Flow Chart

All manner of organizations use flow charts to:

• Define a process.
• Standardize a process.
• Communicate a process.
• Identify bottlenecks or waste in a process.
• Solve a problem.
• Improve a process.

For example, software developers can use them to work out how the automated and manual parts of a process join up. Inexperienced team members might follow a flow chart to help them to complete activities in the right order. A manufacturer could ensure that it keeps to its values by applying a quality-control flow chart that presents questions and decision points. And an HR department might combine a flow chart with an organogram to show people who to contact about issues and when.

Why Use Flow Charts?

This tool's simplicity makes communicating and documenting a process quick and clear, so that the process will more likely be understood and applied correctly and consistently. It can also help you to estimate the timescale of the process, as you're better able to gauge the time needed for each task along the way. And you'll more likely identify who you should involve and at what stage, such as senior management or a compliance authority.

But you can also benefit from the process of creating a flow chart itself, as you build it step by step. You'll be able to focus on the detail of each individual stage, without feeling overwhelmed by the rest of the process, and then "zoom out" again to see the wider picture.

If your process or project involves several people or teams, you might find it more useful to use a Swim Lane Diagram rather than a flow chart – this helps you to show process flows between people and teams.

How to Create a Flow Chart

Follow these four steps:

Step 1: Identify Tasks

Begin by listing all of the tasks in a process in chronological order. Ask questions such as, "What happens next in the process?" or, "Do you need to make a decision before the next step?" or, "What approvals are required before you move on to the next task?"

Put yourself in the shoes of the person using the process, possibly for the first time. Talk to team members who work with the process directly, and get their opinions on where improvements could be made. Better yet, take a hands-on approach and go through the procedure yourself, and think about the practicalities of each stage. Use Customer Experience Mapping if your flow chart focuses on customer service, so that you can gain a better understanding of the process.

Step 2: Organize and Document Tasks

Next, start your flow chart by drawing the elongated circle shape and labeling it "Start."

Then, work through your whole process, and show the actions and decisions in the order that they happen. Link them with arrows to illustrate the flow of the process.

Where you need to make a decision, draw arrows from the decision diamond to each possible solution, and then label each arrow with the decision made. Remember to show the end of the process by using an elongated circle labeled "Finish."

Step 3: Double-Check the Process

When you've completed your flow chart, go back to the start and try it out to make sure that you haven't overlooked anything. Work through each step, and ask yourself whether you've represented the sequence of actions and the decisions involved correctly. Are there more decisions to be made at certain stages?

Then show your flow chart to other people, especially those who work directly with the process. Ask them to test that it works and to tell you if there are any problems or omissions.

Step 4: Challenge the Flow Chart

Finally, you might want to improve the process rather than just record it. So, see whether any of the steps that you've described are unnecessary or overly complicated. Identify any major bottlenecks, and deal with them to improve performance.

Are there any missing steps, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, that you should add? And have you assigned tasks and decisions to the right people or automated them where it's most appropriate? Make any changes and then challenge the chart again.

As you challenge your flow chart, you might also be challenging your team members' tried and tested ways of working. So, take time to win support for your ideas and don't expect to change people's habits overnight.

You may find that SIPOC diagrams will give you the detailed information that you need to introduce change in a controlled and effective way.

Flow Chart Software

You'll likely start with drawing flow charts by hand, but it's often more convenient to use a diagramming app to save, amend and share your charts.

Such apps vary from the simple and free, such as draw.io, creately and Pencil Project, to the more complex and paid-for, such as gliffy™, Lucidchart, SmartDraw™, and Visio®.

Flow charts can quickly become long and complicated, so that you can't represent them on a single piece of paper. This is where you can use "connectors" (shown as numbered circles) to link the flow when moving from one page to another. The user can follow the matching numbers to trace the flow of the process.

Example

The image below shows part of a flow chart for how the receptionists in an example company should route incoming phone calls to the correct department:

Flow charts are simple diagrams that map out a process, so that you can easily communicate it to other people. You can also use them to define and analyze a process, build a step-by-step picture of it, and then standardize or improve it.

To draw a flow chart, identify the tasks and decisions that you make during a process, and write them down in order.

Then, arrange these steps in the flow chart format, using the appropriate symbols.

Finally, check and challenge your flow chart to make sure that it accurately represents the process, and that it shows the most efficient way of doing the job.

Japan is known worldwide for its quality products and services. One of the many reasons for this is its excellent quality management. How did it become so? Japan has Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa to thank for that. 

Postwar Japan underwent a major quality revolution. Companies were focused on training their employees in statistical quality control. But soon they realized that the complexity of the subject itself could intimidate most of the workers; so they wanted more basic tools. 

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a member of the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), took it to his hands to make quality control easier for everyone – even those with little knowledge of statistics – to understand. He introduced the 7 basic tools of quality. They were soon adopted by most companies and became the foundation of Japan’s astonishing industrial resurgence after World War 2. 

This post will describe the 7 basic quality tools, how to use them and give you access to templates that you can use right away. 

Quality Tools: What Are They? 

The 7 basic tools of quality, sometimes also referred to as 7 QC tools – represent a fixed set of graphical tools used for troubleshooting issues that are related to quality.

They are called basic quality tools because they can be easily learned by anyone even without any formal training in statistics. Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa played the leading role in the development and advocacy of using the 7 quality tools in organizations for problem-solving and process improvement.  

The 7 basic quality tools include; 

Quality tools are used to collect data, analyze data, identify root causes, and measure results in problem-solving and process improvement. The use of these tools helps people involved easily generate new ideas, solve problems, and do proper planning.  

The 7 quality tools were first emphasized by Kaoru Ishikawa a professor of engineering at the University of Tokyo, who is also known as the father of “Quality Circles” for the role he played in launching Japan’s quality movement in the 1960s.  

7 Basic Quality Tools Explained with Templates 

The 7 quality tools can be applied across any industry.  They help teams and individuals analyze and interpret the data they gather and derive maximum information from it. 

Flowchart

Flowcharts are perhaps the most popular out of the 7 quality tools. This tool is used to visualize the sequence of steps in a process, event, workflow, system, etc. In addition to showing the process as a whole, a flowchart also highlights the relationship between steps and the process boundaries (start and end). 

Flowcharts use a standard set of symbols, and it’s important to standardize the use of these symbols so anyone can understand and use them easily. Here’s a roundup of all the key flowchart symbols. 

Uses:

• To build a common understanding of a process
• To analyze processes and discover areas of issues, inefficiencies, blockers, etc.
• To standardize processes by leading everyone to follow the same steps

How to use a flowchart   

1. Gather a team of employees involved in carrying out the process for analyzing it
2. List down the steps involved in the process from its start to end
3. If you are using an online tool like Creately, you can first write down the process steps and rearrange them later on the canvas as you identify the flow. 
4. Identify the sequence of steps; when representing the flow with your flowchart, show it from left to write or from top to bottom
5. Connect the shapes with arrows to indicate the flow. 

To learn more about flowcharts, refer to our Ultimate Flowchart Tutorial.

Histogram 

A histogram is a type of bar chart that visualizes the distribution of numerical data. It groups numbers into ranges and the height of the bar indicates how many fall into each range. 

It’s a powerful quality planning and control tool that helps you understand preventive and corrective actions. 

Uses

• To easily interpret a large amount of data and identify patterns
• To make predictions of process performance 
• To identify the different causes of a quality problem

How to make a histogram

1. Collect data for analysis.  Record occurrences of specific ranges using a tally chart
2. Analyze the data at hand and split the data into intervals or bins
3. Count how many values fall into each bin
4. On the graph, indicate the frequency of occurrences for each bin with the area (height) of the bar. 

Here’s a useful article to learn more about using a histogram for quality improvement in more detail. 

Cause and Effect Diagram

This tool is devised by Kaoru Ishikawa himself and is also known as the fishbone diagram (for it’s shaped like the skeleton of a fish) and Ishikawa diagram.

They are used for identifying the various factors (causes) leading to an issue (effect). It ultimately helps discover the root cause of the problem allowing you to find the correct solution effectively.

Uses

• Problem-solving; finding root causes of a problem
• Uncovering the relationships between different causes leading to a problem
• During group brainstorming sessions to gather different perspectives on the matter 

How to use the cause and effect diagram 

1. Identify the problem area that needs to be analyzed and write it down at the head of the diagram 
2. Identify the main causes of the problem. These are the labels for the main branches of the fishbone diagram. These main categories can include methods, material, machinery, people, policies, procedures, etc. 
3. Identify plausible sub-causes of the main causes and attach them as sub-branches to the main branches. 
4. Referring to the diagram you have created, do a deeper investigation of the major and minor causes 
5. Once you have identified the root cause, create an action plan outlining your strategy to overcome the problem

Scatter Diagram 

The scatter diagram (scatter charts, scatter plots, scattergrams, scatter graphs) is a chart that helps you identify how two variables are related. 

The scatter diagram shows the values of the two variables plotted along the two axes of the graph. The pattern of the resulting points will reveal the correlation.  

Uses

• To validate the relationship between causes and effects
• To understand the causes of poor performance 
• To understand the influence of the independent variable over the dependent variable

How to make a scatter diagram

1. Start with collecting data needed for validation. Understand the cause and effect relationship between the two variables. 
2. Identify dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable plotted along the vertical axis is called the measures parameter. The independent variable plotted along the horizontal axis is called the control parameter. 
3. Draw the graph based on the collected data. Add horizontal axis and vertical axis name and draw the trend line. 
4. Based on the trend line, analyze the diagram to understand the correlation which can be categorized as Strong, Moderate and No Relation.  

Check Sheets

Check sheets provide a systematic way to collect, record and present quantitative and qualitative data about quality problems. A check sheet used to collect quantitative data is known as a tally sheet. 

It is one of the most popular QC tools and it makes data gathering much simpler. 

Uses

• To check the shape of the probability distribution of a process
• To quantify defects by type, by location or by cause
• To keep track of the completion of steps in a multistep procedure (as a checklist)

How to make a checksheet

1. Identify the needed information. 

• Why do you need to collect the data? 
• What type of information should you collect? 
• Where should you collect the data from?  
• Who should collect the data?
• When should you collect the data? 
• How should you measure the data? 
• How much data is essential? 

2. Construct your sheet based on the title, source information and content information (refer to the example below)

3. Test the sheets. Make sure that all the rows and columns in it are required and relevant and that the sheet is easy to refer to and use. Test it with other collectors and make adjustments based on feedback. 

Control Chart 

The control chart is a type of run chart used to observe and study process variation resulting from a common or special cause over a period of time.

The chart helps measure the variations and visualize it to show whether the change is within an acceptable limit or not. It helps track metrics such as defects, cost per unit, production time, inventory on hand, etc. 

Control charts are generally used in manufacturing, process improvement methodologies like Six Sigma and stock trading algorithms. 

Uses

• To determine whether a process is stable
• To monitor processes and learn how to improve poor performance
• To recognize abnormal changes in a process

How to create a control chart

1. Collect the data and divide it into subgroups based on 

Here’s how to create a control chart from step 1.

Pareto Chart 

The Pareto chart is a combination of a bar graph and a line graph. It helps identify the facts needed to set priorities. 

The Pareto chart organizes and presents information in such a way that makes it easier to understand the relative importance of various problems or causes of problems. It comes in the shape of a vertical bar chart and displays the defects in order (from the highest to the lowest) while the line graph shows the cumulative percentage of the defect. 

Uses

• To identify the relative importance of the causes of a problem
• To help teams identify the causes that will have the highest impact when solved
• To easily calculate the impact of a defect on the production

How to create a Pareto chart 

1. Select the problem for investigation. Also, select a method and time for collecting information. If necessary create a check sheet for recording information. 
2. Once you have collected the data, go through them and sort them out to calculate the cumulative percentage. 
3. Draw the graph, bars, cumulative percentage line and add labels (refer to the example below). 
4. Analyze the chart to identify the vital few problems from the trivial many by using the 80/20 rule. Plan further actions to eliminate the identified defects by finding their root causes. 

What’s Your Favorite Out of the 7 Basic Quality Tools?  

You can use these 7 basic quality tools individually or together to effectively investigate processes and identify areas for improvement. According to Ishikawa, it’s important that all employees learn how to use these tools to ensure the achievement of excellent performance throughout the organization. 

Got anything to add to our guide? Let us know in the comments section below.