OperationsAn operations lead at a 30–300 person company

When I need to fix a process, I want to know how it actually runs, so I do not redesign something reality left behind long ago.

Khi tôi cần sửa một quy trình, tôi muốn biết nó đang chạy thật thế nào, để không thiết kế lại một thứ mà thực tế đã khác từ lâu.

Job context

Who
An operator who does not do the work daily
When
Before each improvement and after each incident
Trigger
Discovering the documented process bears no relation to the work
Situation
Every process is quietly amended by the people running it
Constraints
Cannot stand and watch each person all day

5 Pains

  • The documented process differs from the real one

    High

    The people doing it have amended it many times to make it work.

    Root cause: Documents are written once while work keeps changing

  • Asked, people describe the ideal process

    High

    They tell you how it should be done, not how they do it.

    Root cause: Describing a shortcut sounds like admitting a violation

  • Does not know where the time actually goes

    High

    Intuition about bottlenecks is usually wrong, and nobody measures.

    Root cause: Waiting time between steps belongs to no step

  • Everyone does it differently

    Medium

    There is no canonical version to improve.

    Root cause: Processes propagate by showing rather than by document

  • After improving, everyone reverts

    High

    The old way existed for a reason the new design did not know.

    Root cause: The redesigner is not the person living with the design

5 Desired Outcomes

  • See the process as it actually runs

    Functional

  • People describe honestly how they work

    Social

  • Know where the time really goes

    Functional

  • Have one canonical version to improve from

    Functional

  • Improvements survive after moving on

    Emotional

5 Existing Solutions

A solution is not the same thing as a product — a customer can hire a behaviour or a workaround too.

  • Map the process in a meeting room

    Behaviour

    Produces the ideal process as held by whoever is in the room.

  • Shadow someone for a day

    Behaviour

    The only way to see the real process, and it does not scale.

  • Read system logs

    Product

    Sees steps that pass through systems and is blind to those that do not.

  • Ask a new joiner what confused them most

    Workaround

    Operators use new joiners as instruments for measuring the process.

  • Rewrite the process document

    Product

    Creates a canonical version that starts drifting the following week.

2 Opportunity Gaps

  • The person who knows the real process is the one taking shortcuts, and describing a shortcut sounds like self-incrimination.

    Why existing solutions fail: Every process-mapping method starts by asking the doer, and none separates the question from the possibility of being judged.

    Potential opportunity: Treating shortcuts as a source of improvement rather than a violation, with credit to whoever names one.

  • Waiting time between steps belongs to no step, so it appears in no measurement, though it is usually the largest part.

    Why existing solutions fail: Systems measure handling time because that is when someone acts; waiting has no actor and therefore no record.

    Potential opportunity: Measuring end-to-end elapsed time for one unit of work instead of summing step times.