Drag & drop to create attractive process models

The process symbols use DesignAnalyst's SmartObject™ technology

Easily create your process models by selecting from a pallet of standard flow charting shapes and applying a range of styles to each shape. Or, you may use your own icons and images to create a highly customized look.

While you can use simple shapes and images to create your process model, DesignAnalyst features powerful SmartObject™  technology in which your shapes and images actually become reusable "objects" stored in your Knowledgebase. These SmartObjects  can have data, Attributes and KnowledgeObjects™ attached to them.

SmartObject  technology turns a static drawing into a live model that can be used to capture data for analysis as well as be used in a workflow environment to guide people through the execution of the process.

Use DesignAnalyst's powerful Attributes facility

Both pre-defined and custom Attributes are available

DesignAnalyst  is delivered with a collection of pre-defined, commonly used "categorization" Attributes such as Decisions, Common % Values and Waste Categories. Categorization Attributes allow you to manage important characteristics about your processes.

Assigning Categorization Attributes to specific Activities in your process models allows you to quickly locate Activities that have certain characteristics.

In addition to the pre-defined Attributes, you can create custom Categorization Attributes. For example, you can support a Risk Management initiative by creating a list of Categorization Attributes that describe risk factors such as "Chemical Spill", "Slip & Fall", and "Exposed Electrical Line". Once assigned to the appropriate Activities you can then quickly locate those activities that need to be investigated when focusing on ways to eliminate, say, the risk of a Chemical Spill in a manufacturing line.

In this example we are assiging to an Activity one of the pre-defined Waste Categories to support a Lean project.

See Learn More About Custom Data Attributes to learn about custom data Attributes.

Use Attributes to accelerate your Lean analysis

Assign Lean Waste Category Attributes to the Activities in your process model

Categorization Attributes can be used in particular to assist in projects focused on Lean issues.

For example, you can assign Attributes from the list of pre-defined Waste Categories to document the Activities where waste is found as part of your process modeling efforts. (See the prior snapshot.) Then, when you are ready to perform a Lean exercise to reduce or eliminate, say, "Extra Processing" DesignAnalyst can instantly identify the Activities that need to be targeted.

Even more Lean analysis: Ranked Critical Path Analysis™

Rank all Process paths from worst to best based on your selected metrics

When performing a Process Improvement initiative it is important to focus your Performance Improvement team's efforts where you can have the greatest impact. Processes often contain multiple paths from the start to the end and it is not clear on which path you should focus your efforts. That's where Ranked Critical Path Analysis adds significant value to your Process Improvement initiative .

To demonstrate Ranked Critical Path Analysis we change to something a bit more complex: processing of a Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center.

In this example let's say we are interested in reducing the the total difference between Cycle Time and Process Time required to repair a turbopump on a Space Shuttle Main Engine.

Cycle Time, of course, is the amount of "clock time" it takes to complete an Activity and Process Time is the actual "work time". The difference  can be thought of then as "wasted time". 

There are numerous paths that the repair effort might take while repairing a pump and you need to focus your team's efforts on those paths of the Process where you can have the greatest impact on improvement.

The Ranked Critical Path facility in DesignAnalyst makes it easy for you to know exactly where to focus your team's efforts. Select the desired Attribute, in this case "Cycle Time - Process Time" (yes, Cycle and Process Times are pre-defined data Attributes), and start the analysis.

DesignAnalyst analyzes your process model, determines all possible paths through the process and ranks them from worst to best based on your selected criteria of "Cycle Time - Process Time".

DesignAnalyst then visually highlights each path through the Process allowing you to instantly identify the Activities that need to be targeted for your improvement efforts.