The 7 Flows

The 7 flows are not consistent across all contexts, but the point is to understand all important flows in a system. They are often mapped together as a spaghetti diagram.

1. Customers

Where does the customer have to go to solve their problem? What do they have to do throughout the process? Where do they wait?

For grocery shopping, customers flow far differently if they:

1. Enter a store and pick up their items
2. Pick up an entire order
3. Pick items online and receive deliveries at home

2. Providers

What do the problem solvers have to do before, during, and after the process?

Continuing with the 3 grocery examples, providers would:

1. Heavily cross with customers to restock shelves, while many others wait at checkout
2. Focus on movement within store
3. Cover all motion and transportation up to customer’s home

3. Final Work

What has to happen after the solution is completed?

Continuing with the 3 grocery examples, final work would:

1. Move with the customer
2. Be completed and validated by a provider, before storing to wait for the customer to validate and take home
3. Be validated and batched with other deliveries, travelling to several destinations before being dropped off at the customer’s home

4. Work In Process/Progress (WIP)

How does the partially completed work flow? Does it have to wait along the way, building up as inventory?

Continuing with the 3 grocery examples, WIP would:

1. Move with the customer
2. Move with the order picker
3. Would likely remain with the order picker, but they could remain still as items move to them

5. Raw Materials

What are the raw inputs required to solve the problem? How are they channeled into the point of use?

Continuing with the 3 grocery examples, materials would:

1. Be unboxed and stocked on shelves until grabbed by a customer
2. Be unboxed and stocked on shelves until grabbed by an order picker
3. Flow to the collection point

6. Information

Information is foundational to any system, how is it stored and shared to ensure problems are solved effectively.

Continuing with the 3 grocery examples, information would:

1. Remain with the customer until checkout
2. Be submitted by the customer, then used by providers to select and validate
3. Be submitted by the customer, then used by providers to select, validate, and drop off

7. Process Engineer

Who ensures the other processes flow continuously and without defects? How do they do it?

Continuing with the 3 grocery examples, Process Engineers would:

1. Focus on the company property
2. Focus on the company property
3. Manage both the fulfillment center and delivery zone