flow process chart
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The flow process chart is a graphical and symbolic representation of the activities performed on the work piece during the operation in industrial engineering.


History

The first structured method for documenting process flow, e.g., in flow shop scheduling, the flow process chart, was introduced by Frank and
Lillian Gilbreth Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth (; May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was an American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator who was an early pioneer in applying psychology to time-and-motion studies. She was described in the 1940s as ...
to members of ASME in 1921 as the presentation "Process Charts, First Steps in Finding the One Best Way to Do Work". The Gilbreths' tools quickly found their way into
industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information an ...
curricula. In the early 1930s, an industrial engineer, Allan H. Mogensen, began training business people in the use of some of the tools of industrial engineering at his Work Simplification Conferences in Lake Placid,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
. A 1944 graduate of Mogensen's class, Art Spinanger, took the tools back to
Procter and Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
, where he developed their Deliberate Methods Change Program. Another 1944 graduate, Ben S. Graham, Director of Formcraft Engineering at Standard Register Corporation, adapted the flow process chart to information processing with his development of the multi-flow process chart to display multiple documents and their relationships.


Symbols

In 1947, ASME adopted the following symbol set derived from Gilbreth's original work as the ASME Standard for Process Charts.American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1947) ''ASME standard; operation and flow process charts''. New York, 1947.
online version
* Operation: to change the physical or chemical characteristics of the material. * Inspection: to check the quality or the quantity of the material. * Move: transporting the material from one place to another. * Delay: when material cannot go to the next activity. * Storage: when the material is kept in a safe location.


When to use it

* It is used when observing a
physical process Physical changes are changes affecting the form of a chemical substance, but not its chemical composition. Physical changes are used to separate mixtures into their component compounds, but can not usually be used to separate compounds into chem ...
, to record actions as they happen, and thus get an accurate description of the process. * It is used when analyzing the steps in a process, to help identify and eliminate
waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste pr ...
—thus, it is a tool for efficiency planning. * It is used when the process is mostly sequential, containing few decisions.


See also

* Business process mapping * Control flow diagram * Data flow diagram *
Flowchart A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. A flowchart can also be defined as a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm, a step-by-step approach to solving a task. The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of ...
* Functional flow block diagram *
Workflow A workflow consists of an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a sequence o ...


References


External links

{{commonscat, Flow process charts Industrial engineering Charts