Process Flow Utilization: Understanding How a Business Operates

Envision you are working at a store you are familiar with. Now name the store you are thinking of and include the name of this store at the top of your assignment.

You need to map the process to be followed by the store employee when a customer is returning a product.

Utilize the correct symbols (given in the legend of above link) to capture processes, sub-processes, decisions, and termination of a process. Work on scratch paper at first, then transfer this onto Word or PowerPoint and turn in a clean copy of your final process flow for this assignment.

NOTE: your process flow will be completely different than the example above. Forcing your data into my diagram will not earn you points for this homework.

Before suggesting improvement or identifying an opportunity for making a business more successful, it is crucial to understand the current organization of the company. This is often accomplished by looking at the processes and procedures inside the business.

A very efficient method to understanding a process or procedure is to draw a picture that depicts the flow of the steps involved. There is a standard approach of depicting the process, which involves using a top-down organization starting at the top of the diagram and listing down the components in order of execution.

The symbols used are standardized. Each process is shown as a rectangle and is connected with an arrow to other sub-processes, depicted inside rectangles with rounded corners. Every time a decision needs to occur, we use a diamond to represent it.  Arrows link all these pieces in the order of the actual process being mapped. When a process or a part of it finishes, a terminator symbol in shape of a small oval is used.

Drawing a process flow diagram helps in understanding the complete steps for accomplishing various tasks in a business. It is this understanding that guides any changes that need to occur in order to make improvements to the business.

Refer to Process Flow as an example for the process flow diagram at a calling center.

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