In my last post, we were talking about gathering data related to the "How long does it take between process steps?"  question. 

In many cases, we're in effect asking, "How long does it (the information, the product, the document) sit there?"  In the case of product, it's also important to ask, "How much of it is typically sitting there?"  Together, these questions can lead us to information that will show where our most serious delays and bottlenecks are.

You'll probably be surprised at how little information there is in your company relevant to these questions.  Companies that can quote efficiency rates of people and equipment down to the fourth decimal point as of a few minutes ago have no idea how long it really takes to get product out the door.  This is because, according to cost accounting procedures, the company is accruing costs when value is being added to a product but not when it's sitting still.  So we know a great deal about the costs of actual production time but not the costs of waiting time.  The fact that the data is hard to find is all the more reason why you need to look.

By the way, I mentioned in previous post that you also need to ask about the shortest, longest, and typical times for each of the process steps didn't I?  Good.  Companies tend to have a better handle on this sort of info, so I haven't spent much time on it but it's obviously important to have.  Another datum that is important to have is what I call "leakage".  Other names for leakage are scrap, loss of yield, rework, and rejects.  Leakage represents the loss of valuable material and work. If I put 100 pounds of material into a process step and get 98 pounds out because of scrap, that's leakage.  There's also the value of the machine and operator time on that pounds of material that has "leaked".  Capture leakage at each process step. 

Another thing about "leakage": it represents everything that doesn't come out of a step exactly the way it's supposed to.  When I was working with the steel mill, I learned that steel that doesn't meet the intended customer's specs can be sold as secondary or non-prime steel to another customer.  So they don't think of that steel as scrap (my usual term for leakage). 

So, time and leakage at each step, time between each step.  Draw your map and get all this info.  That will take you a few weeks of meetings.