• It slows down the work to follow the procedures.
• Employees can not easily find the right procedure.
• Procedures are not up-to-date.
Should employees follow procedures while doing the work? If we aim to achive the highest quality, the answer is YES. They can make mistakes even they carry out the same procedures many times a day. The more complicated the procedures get, the more likely it is to skip some steps. Even for basic procedures, there is a risk to skip an important step.
If procedures are not actually used in carrying out the tasks, it will take a lot of effort to keep them current and they will likely be out of date in time. Having such procedures should even be inquired in that case.
Procedures have generally conditional steps. If conditonal steps are not used in a procedure, there must be multiple procedures containing the same set of steps. Executing straight document will be much easier but managing multiple documents instead of one conditional will take more time and effort.
We have the following options to generate procedures:
1- Step-by step documents containing no conditions
• Pictures/Links can be added to steps
• Easier to follow the procedures
• Disadvantage : Multiple documents for each combination of conditions
2- Step-by step documents containing conditions and steps for relevant conditions
• Pictures/Links can be added to steps
• Single document for all conditions
• Disadvantage : Difficult to follow the procedures
3- Flowcharts
• Best document type if procedures have conditional steps
• Disadvantage : Takes more time to generate and maintain
• Disadvantage : No pictures and details in steps
• Disadvantage : Additional text document may be needed for details
LiveFlow solution to preparing procedures
Flowchart drawing and interactive execution in cloud combines the advantages of three methods of preparing procedures while removing all the disadvantages.
• Draw and modify flowcharts very easily
1- Steps can be detailed as much as needed, rich text can be used
2- Picture, video, flash animation, audio and http links can be added to the steps
3- Steps can be even a website in an iframe
• Execute and walk through the flowcharts interactively by replying decision steps
• Search the flowcharts
• Assign a flowchart to an employee or a group for execution and schedule
• Get notified when scheduled flowchart is executed or not executed in time
• Replay the flowchart executions
• Export flowcharts to classical text based procedures automatically
• Get detailed reports on which flowcharts are executed and which steps are passed through
Live
Flow